So, what about the tone languages? Y’all going to try pronouncing the names of places with the correct tones?
When Japan was first discovered by the English, it was done with Chinese navigators on board. The Chinese call the country Xiapon which sounds like “Japan” in English. Hence the name. The true name of the country is Nihon, or Nippon. Both are correct. One is merely a different dialect from the kansai dialect.
Oddly, the name the undead have for themselves is “RrrrrRrrrrrGrhhhhh”. They have no idea where we’re getting “Zombie” from.
Cute story, but wrong. Japan was known to the English (and other Europeans) centuries before any of them ever sailed to it.
However,
Spain (Espana) = .es
Burma (Myanmar) = .mm
Chad (Tchad) = .td
Morocco (Maghrib?) = .ma
and, interestingly enough,
Switzerland (Confoederatio Helvetica) = .ch, which comes from Latin, which I do not believe is a national or official language of the country.
South Africa (Zuid Afrika) = .za , from Dutch, which is not an official language of the country.
They are not different dialects. The two pronunciations are used by speakers of kansai dialect and kantou dialect. The use varies with context.
When the “ZA” abbreviation was first assigned to South Africa in 1936 - as an international vehicle registration code, not a TLD of course - Dutch was still an official language. (And Afrikaans spelling was not completely formalised, so that even in Afrikaans it might have been spelled with a Z.)
More likely from Afrikaans, which derives from Dutch, and is an official language of the country (one of eleven). I am not exactly sure when these national domains were assigned, but probably it was when Afrikaans speakers were still the ruling elite (it is still the most widely spoken language amongst South African whites).
Afrikaans spells it “Suid-Afrika”. (It is possible, though, that in 1936 when the code was first used Afrikaans spelling was not completely standardised.)
A couple of points:
Cote d’Ivoire (preferably with circumflex over the first o) is the official name of the country in {their official language? / one of their official languages?}, French, which is the standard lingua franca and official government-use language between their ethnic groups. They’ve requested it be used rather than English, German, etc. translations of its meaning. Kind of like we don’t translate Republica de Argentina to “Silvery Republic.” 
(Note that it’s “Ivoire”, not Ivorie", as misued in one of the linked threads. The adjective form in English (and I believe French) is “cotedivoirian”.)
Yes, Latin is not an official or national language there, but it was a language in common knowledge until very recently. And the Latin designation, chosen specifically for its neutrality, is the official name, which avoids giving preference to any of the three official-language forms: Schwyz, Suisse, or Svissera.
In French, it’s simply “ivoirien”. Would “ivoirian” be correct in English?
Actually “Schweiz” in German and “Svizzera” in Italian. The word “Schweiz” does derive from “Schwyz”, which is a city and (founding) canton in Switzerland.
Yes. Ivoirian (I usually pronounce eye-vwor*-ee-in.)
- Pronounced like the word war with a v in front of it.
It’s not one of the four languages, but it is an bias-free choice so they don’t have to choose between Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera, or Svizra (nobody expects the Romansh!). The only Swiss citizens who might be expected to speak Latin are the Swiss Guards, living in the Vatican and all.
Add to the list of countries with official foreign names in English is “the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste,” better known as East Timor.
And, in case you wonder, “sa” is the code for Saudi Arabia.
I know that this is like 8 years old, but where does this come from? There is definitely an ‘h’ sound in Japanese, and there is a difference in pronunciation between Nihon and Nippon.
And actually, the list from Jayrot could also be from French (Japan, Rusia, Thailand, China if I’m not mistaken). Given how recently French was the prevailing trade language, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Anyway, I imagine it was a matter of what each country wanted to have as their symbol and whether it was already “taken”, and those cited begin by not using the Latin alphabet (us “our country’s name begins with an E, damnit, not an S” being the exception).
In French? It’d be Japon, Russie, Thaïlande and Chine. (But yes, all those abbreviations work in French as well.)
Prathet Thai
Chung-Kuo or Zhongguo
I am no Japanese expert, but the “h” syllable line goes: “ha hi fu he ho” in modern Romanization systems like Hepburn. The “fu” is a sound that is between English “fu” and “hu,” sort of an aspirated(?) “f” sound. I have never heard that the same occurs in ha, hi, he, and ho, so my puzzlement matches yours, although maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in.