Google translate gives me: Duōmǐníjiā gònghéguó.
But I wondered if the chinese use a smaller word or lop-off the Republic at the end?
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First of all, let's confirm the translation. If you look for "Dominican Republic" on Wikipedia, and then choose the chinese page, the result is:
多米尼加共和国
Duō mǐ ní jiā gòng hé guó
So, yes, it's the right translation. If you don't like Wikipedia as the only source, this is confirmed by the YouDao and CEDICT dictionaries.
I tried searching for "多米尼加" only (in both of those named above) and the result is simply "Dominica". Note that "Dominican Republic" and "Dominica" refer to two different countries, so since I think the same ambiguity is present in Chinese, you should keep the whole expression in order to be understood unambiguously.
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@Jon Sorry but either you're wrong or the dictionaries are wrong. This is confirmed by the YouDao dictionary. I would post a screenshot, but I'm not sure about possible copyright issues. – Alenanno Mar 14 '12 at 22:23
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I certainly could be wrong, but I don't think I am. All of the Chinese-language sources I link to in my answer use 多米尼加 to refer exclusively to the Dominican Republic. Conversely, all the websites I found referring to Dominica use 多米尼克. These are also linked in my answer below. I don't know what YouDao is, but CEDICT is a collaborative effort and is not always reliable. (We've had a question on this site before about errors in its entries.) – J.. Mar 15 '12 at 1:32
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Of course, as I said in my answer, 多米尼加联邦 was an old name for Dominica, so it may be the case that older documents use the shorter name 多米尼加 to refer to that country. But today, the usage of 多米尼克 for Dominica seems standardized. (See my answer for more details.) – J.. Mar 15 '12 at 1:33
多米尼加 is an acceptable short form of 多米尼加共和国.
Though the Wikipedia page lists 多米尼加共和国 as the primary name for the Dominican Republic, the sidebar says, "通称：多米尼加", i.e., "Commonly called 多米尼加." The Baidu page on 多米尼加 is about the Dominican Republic, and Google results for 多米尼加 return pages about the Dominican Republic. A quick search reveals that 多米尼加 is also common in news reports about the country. (E.g., see here.)
(Dominica, the other country Alenanno mentioned, is transliterated as 多米尼克, as Wikipedia attests. It is true that it used to be called 多米尼加联邦, but 多米尼克 is now preferred.*)
*EDIT: This claim is from the Wikipedia entry I linked to above. The Chinese original is as follows:
多米尼克旧译多米尼加联邦，造成两个问题。一，“Commonwealth”是多义字，“联邦”并非唯一意思，不宜作为译名；二，“多米尼加联邦”与另一个以西班牙语为官方语言的加勒比海岛国多米尼加共和国易生混淆。为此，中华人民共和国外交部在1994年1月14日宣布把之改名为“多米尼克国”，简称“多米尼克”。现时，中华人民共和国外交部和中华民国外交部都称之为“多米尼克”。
As the last sentence says, the usage of 多米尼克 is now completely standard in both China and Taiwan.
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"Now preferred": can you provide some references? I brought two dictionaries that confirm my version. – Alenanno Mar 14 '12 at 22:24
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Duōmǐníjiā gònghéguó.
多米尼加共和国。
多Duō 米mǐ 尼ní 加jiā 共和国gònghéguó
It's correct.
