"Russia" = e2 guo2 = 俄国?

Question

the Mandarin word for "China" is Zhong1 guo2,

this is because "zhong" is "center" in Mandarin, and China was seen as the Central country

* *

But in the case of Russia, the Mandarin word is "e2 guo2"...

"e" or "俄" means "suddenly"

QUESTON:

What is the logical relationship between "e" or "俄 and Russia the country?? (I used Zhong2 guo2 above as an example of the logical relationship in how a country is named in Mandarin).

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

it's more about etymology than logic... in most cases the names of foreign countries are transcribed phonetically like 美国 = mei3-guo2 = A-ME-rica... 法国 = fa3-guo2 =FrAnce, 德国 = de2-guo2 = DEutschland

(by the way it's not very logical to compare the way people call their motherland and the name they call any other countries, for instance you don't call it "Zhongguo" in English, do you?)

Answer 2

"e" can mean "very soon" or "suddenly".  My guess is that they intend it to mean "suddenly a country"!! Soviet falls and "suddenly" there is Russia!!

Answer 3

in fact there are no special meanings in mandarin..they were translated by prononciations

俄国 is informal, 俄罗斯e2 luo2 si1 is formal

USA is mei3 guo2 ,mei3 is beautiful, France is fa3 guo2, fa3 is lawful..

we just use positive characters fit the prononciation to name a country  

Answer 4

About your example:

In word "Zhong Guo", Zhong is short for "Zhong Hua", not just simply means center. And Zhong Hua represents China.