Several years ago I invested some time and energy digging up more ways to write "Australia" in Japanese than I ever expected would exist:
- オーストラリア is the usual spelling these days
- 濠太剌利 is a rare old ateji I believe
- 濠洲 was a shorter ateji before the spelling reform
- 豪州 is the previous after the spelling reform
- 濠 and 豪 are the pre- and post- spelling reform variants used in compounds
But just now I came across one I hadn't seen before:
豪斯多拉利
Is this latest one also valid? How does it fit in with the others? Older, younger? Derived from Chinese or invented in Japan? Obsolete, archaic, or still in use?
And is it ateji or some other phenomenon?
豪
is the current (post spelling reform) character used in compounds like "Japan-Australia relations". Thanks for the new link. I wonder if all the variants also occurred in Chinese. In fact usually only澳大利亞
/澳大利亚
is seen (and澳洲
).