Any Japanese Speakers?

[Stu]

Are there any Japanese speakers on here? If so, I have a question:

The Japanese written form of Tokyo is 東京. So why is Kyoto written 京都 rather than 京東?

Any ideas?

[denimini]

I will give it a go. I am not a speaker of Japanese but am trying to learn to read and write Kanji.
Unlike Hiragana and Katakana, Kanji (漢字) is not a phonetic system and each character can have a different meaning and sound depending on the combination where it is used.
In both cases 京 means capital and is pronounced (roughly kyo).
東 means east and sounds similar to as it is used in Tokyo (roughly toe) but used by itself or other situations it is pronounced very differently.
都 means metropolis and in this combination for Kyoto is a more abrieviated sound (roughly toh) and used by itself or in other combinations it can sound like (too) or (miyako).
Kanji is a Chinese derived system with a long and complex history which I find a bit overwhelming.
Your example 京東 means Jingdong, the name of a large Chinese supply company.

I hope I am not trying to teach you to suck eggs

[Stu]

Thanks for that explanation. I had assumed the syllable To in Tokyo was the same as in Kyoto. That makes sense, now.

Learning Kanji sounds like a nightmare!

[denimini]

Learning Kanji sounds like a nightmare!

Certainly a challenge.

[pelmut]

I've got a pair of old ones you can have, they are rated at 8 ohms, 10 watts each.

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|        ... I'll get my coat....    :-)

[Seb]

I took classes in Japanese 15 years ago for half a year and recently picked it up on duolingo again and I was wondering the same thing so thank you denimini for the explanation.