How to Say "California" in Chinese

加利福尼亞州 / 加利福尼亚州

Jiālìfúníyǎ zhōu

In Chinese, California is expressed as 加利福尼亞州 / 加利福尼亚州 (Jiālìfúníyǎ zhōu). Wiktionary also lists 加州 (Jiāzhōu).

Meaning: US state (name)

Ways to say it

“california” in Chinese
Chinese	Romanization (Wiktionary)
加利福尼亞州 / 加利福尼亚州	Jiālìfúníyǎ zhōu
加州	Jiāzhōu

The terms refer to the US state of California.

In the full form, the character 州 (zhōu) is added after the phonetic transliteration to specify that California is a state.

加利福尼亞州 / 加利福尼亚州 is the full name, while 加州 is a shortened version.

To specify a region of the state, you add a directional prefix before the shortened name, such as in 南加州 (Southern California).

Jiālìfúníyǎ zhōu

The character 福 (fú) inside 加利福尼亞州 is the same character used for 'good fortune' or 'happiness' in traditional Chinese New Year decorations.
The character 亞 (yà) at the end of the full name is the same character used in the Chinese word for 'Asia' (亞洲), though here it only serves a phonetic purpose.
Because Chinese names are often phonetic, the choice of characters for 加利福尼亚 is purely for sound and has no inherent meaning related to the actual geography of the state.

遷移到南加州後，紅冠鸚鵡已成為這裡的永久棲息者，並被列入加州鳥類記錄委員會的本國鳥類清單中。
As transplants to Southern California, the red-crowned parrots have become such permanent fixtures that they are on the California Bird Records Committee’s list of birds in the state.
This sentence shows how to use the shortened form 加州 to refer to the state.
Tatoeba #13539421 by LeviHighway, translation #7767273 by Hybrid
日本是由四個大島和三千多個小島組成的，面積和加州差不多。
Japan consists of four major islands and over 3,000 small islands, and is about equal to California in area.
This sentence uses the shortened form 加州 to compare the area of Japan to California.
Tatoeba #494479 by nickyeow, translation #281472 by papabear

Sources

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