“China”一词的由来

学者们对“中国”一词在英语中译为China有着不同的看法，他们从社会学的角度来就这一问题提出自己的观点，却因缺乏足够的历史文献而难以令人信服。本文从构词法和音韵学的角度出发，对此作了进一步的探讨，佐证其中的一种观点：China是“秦”一词音译的结果，而且China一词有“中国”之意在前，而后才有了“瓷器”之意。

Origins of the Term "China"

Scholars have different opinions on how can the word “中国” be named “China” in English. They have tried to explore the puzzle from the sociological perspective but without adequate literature to make their own argument convinced by other scholars. This paper ,from the perspective of word formation and phonology,tries to make further discussion on the problem and argues that the English word “China” is the evolutive result of transliteration of Chinese word “Qin”, name of an ancient Chinese dynasty. Besides,the word “China” originally referred to the name of the country and then referred to the porcelain made in the country and then all porcelain made in anywhere.