Talk:Ateji

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>> Ateji (当て字) meaning 'given characters' are kanji used to write Japanese words.

This is misleading. It sounds more like a definition for Kun-doku.

Ateji is when kanji are used purely phonetically without regard to meaning. The words can be Japanese in origin, or (as the article shows) foreign imports.

It's called "kun-yomi" and not "kun-doku".

[edit] USA

Interesting bit of info, but I don't know that is belongs in the article:

• The old spelling for "America" (amerika) was written in ateji as "亜米利加". Thus the name for the United States became beikoku (米国), or "rice country", due to the use of the second character in amerika.

brain 06:30, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

It's also wrong, as far as I know. The use of 米国 (mei-guo comes from Chinese, where 米 is pronounced somewhat like the second syllable in "uh-MEH-rih-cuh". Likewise, 英 in 英国 (ying-guo, England) is like "EENG-land", etc. They did this because way back when, they needed convenient country names instead of bizarre, alien-sounding syllabic constructions. -MissingNOOO 04:13, 6 October 2007 (UTC)