大和

Etymology 1

⟨yamato₂⟩: *[jamatə] → /jamato/

From older 邪馬台 (yamatai). From Old Japanese 大和 (yamato₂), from Proto-Japonic *yamatə. Originally a geographical region in Nara, came to refer to all of Nara, and eventually to the country as a whole: Japan.

Chinese texts often used the word 倭 (“dwarf, midget”) to refer to the people of the Japanese archipelago, possibly because they were actually smaller, or more likely as an insult. This character came to be used in early Japanese texts, such as the Man'yōshū poetry compilation, with a kun'yomi or native-Japanese reading of Yamato to refer to Japan in general.

This 倭 character also has an on'yomi or borrowed Chinese reading of wa. During the reign of Empress Genmei (707–715), the 倭 character with an original Chinese meaning of “midget, dwarf” was replaced with the 和 character that is also read wa, but instead has the more favorable meaning of “harmony”, in spellings of the native Japanese term Yamato. The 大 character meaning “great” was then prefixed to this.^[1] The resulting kanji compound 大和 can also be read with a kun'yomi of Ōyamato^[2][3] (see below).

Etymology 2

From Old Japanese. Found in the Man'yōshū, completed some time after 759 CE.^[6]

Compound of 大 (ō, “great, big”) +‎ 大和 (Yamato, “the ancient Yamato kingdom; Japan”). The kanji spelling is an example of ateji (当て字).

Etymology 3

Appears to be a borrowing from Middle Chinese 大和 (MC dajH|daH hwa|hwaH).

References

Etymology

From Proto-Ryukyuan *yamato, from Proto-Japonic *yamatə. Cognate with Japanese 大和(やまと) (Yamato).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jamatuː/

Proper noun

大和(やまと゚ぅー) (Yamatū) 

1. Japan

Etymology

From Proto-Ryukyuan *yamato, from Proto-Japonic *yamatə. Cognate with Japanese 大和(やまと) (Yamato).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jamatu/

Proper noun

大和(やまとぅ) (Yamatu) 

1. Japan

Etymology 1

From Proto-Ryukyuan *yamato, from Proto-Japonic *yamatə. Cognate with mainland Japanese 大和 (Yamato).

Etymology 2

References

• “やまとぅ【大和・倭】” in JLect - Japonic Languages and Dialects Database Dictionary, 2019.
• Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyūjo (国立国語研究所) (1963) 沖縄語辞典 (Okinawa-go Jiten) [Dictionary of the Okinawan Language] (in Japanese), Tokyo (東京): Okurashō Insatsu Kyoku (財務省印刷局)
• “ヤマト（やまと）” in Okinawan Dialect Dictionary - Ajima.

Etymology

From Proto-Ryukyuan *yamato, from Proto-Japonic *yamatə. Cognate with Japanese 大和(やまと) (Yamato).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jamatu/

Proper noun

大和(やまとぅ) (Yamatu) 

1. Japan

Etymology

From Proto-Ryukyuan *yamato, from Proto-Japonic *yamatə. Cognate with Japanese 大和(やまと) (Yamato).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /damatu/

Proper noun

大和(だまとぅ) (Damatu) 

1. Japan

References

• “だまとぅ【大和・倭】” in JLect - Japonic Languages and Dialects Database Dictionary, 2019.