CHAT: IDLE CHAT: foreigners from the shires: (was: Words)

At 10:25 am -0400 7/9/00, John Cowan wrote:
>Raymond Brown wrote:
>
>> When I was young "foreigner" was used much more democratically - it simply
>> meant 'someone not born & bred in our village' irrespective or ethicity,
>> skin color, religion, language, economic status etc etc ;)
>
>Such, indeed, is the term "gaijin": there are Japanese and there are gaijin,
>period.
But Japan is rather larger then a rural villager, methinks.  :)


Tho I must confess I exaggerated a bit.   In actual fact ['f^rIn@r] (yes,
rural Sussex is 'rhotic') meant someone born & bred outside of our county
[sic], i.e. Sussex.  Indeed, traditionally, the world was divided simply
into two parts: Sussex and the 'Shires' (pronounced [Si:rz]).  A
'foreigner' was, thus, anyone from the Shires, whether the shire concerned
was close at hand, e.g. Hampshire, or rather further afield like France,
Egypt, China, Japan or the US - all shires  ;)

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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