Why is New York called 紐約?

Question

New York (state and city) is called 紐約 (Niǔ​yuē).

Of course that sounds very much like the English "New York", but how come it's written with 紐 and 約?

When I look up the characters I get:

紐 knot; button; handle, knob; tie

約 treaty, agreement, covenant

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Does the meaning of the characters have anything to do with them being used in this word, or is it simply that they sound similar to the English -- if so, why where these particular characters chosen to begin with and not some other characters that sound the same?

Answer 1

紐約 in Cantonese is nau2 joek3 (j- in jyutping is pronounced like y-). That's the closest Cantonese immigrants could come to New York, I suppose...

There aren't many syllabes in Cantonese that could match York:

• jaak [ja:k]
• jik
• joek [jøk]
• juk [jok] --> that last one could have been a better match.

Answer 2

Sometimes, the pronunciation was based on Cantonese instead of modern Mandarin. (E.g. "Taxi" is translated as "的士" in Cantonese but it's also acceptable in Mandarin that sounds very differently) Ref:Taxi in Wikipeidia. I'm thinking it might also apply to 紐約 original sound

Answer 3

There are three universal rules for name translation in Mandarin:

信 ：precision

达 : meaningful

雅 : elegant

For places historical naming is used. But if there is no precedent name, phonetic name is used, which then has to be chosen so it is made up of elegant characters.

The closest phonetic sound for New is 妞， York sound 哟. Both does not follow the elegant rules. Then the next selection will be 牛， 纽， 纽.

Because New York is a commercial hub, the term 枢纽 come into mind. And using 约 is quite obvious， as in 条约。

Thus，纽约 are meaningful and elegant.

Answer 4

Perhaps this is in reference to the purchase of Manhattan from the Native Americans by the Dutch for $24 worth of beads.

Answer 5

The fact that 紐 is used for "New" in so many place name and the fact that it is the Chinese equivalent of the Greek letter Nu suggests that there is a de facto system; of course we can't rule out the involvement of a committee at some point.