Canadian History
Where did the name Canada come from?
Where did the name Canada come from?
In 1535, two young Indians referred to their 'village' or 'settlement' as 'kanata'. The French explorer Jacques Cartier then used this name 'Canada' to refer to not only their village (now present day Quebec City) but also a much larger area. As fur trading grew so did the region of 'Canada'. It was not until 1791 that the name was used officially by the Province of Quebec. At the time of Confederation on July 1st, 1867 when the country separated from Britain it assumed the name of Canada.
This is a TV commercial from Canada that depicts the naming of 'Canada'.
Hmm, the name of Canada came from “kanata” which is an Indian (native Canadian?) word originally. Thank you for an interesting history of your country. By the way, there is a Japanese word which is the same as sound or spelling of Indian “kanata”. It’s kanata (かなた in hiragana or 彼方 in kanji). Kanata in Japanese means “far far away from one place”. Canada is a country which is far far away from Japan, isn’t it? So I felt a strange connection with Canada and Japan.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, what a great comment Masa! Obviously I am going to post similar history lessons within the weeks to come because it was really great to see that you were so interested in this one :) I was very surprised to read about kanata in Japanese! Very interesting as Canada IS far away haha :D
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to give the Australian poll question a try!