Re: CHAT: silly names, prepositions

>From: andrew <hobbit@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: Re: CHAT: silly names, prepositions
>Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 11:36:10 +1200
>
>Am 03/22 00:20  Adam Walker yscrifef:
> > Me too!  There is one and ONLY one acceptable self-designation for
>citizens
> > of the United States of AMERICA, and that is American.  You may call us
> > whatever you wish when speaking of us in French or German or Swahili or
> > Russian or Spanish, but when speaking to us in English PLEASE have the
> > courtesy to call us by our self-designation!!!  Call me an
>estadoeunidienso
> > (or whatever) in Spanish if you so desire (We call no one by their
> > self-designations either.), but when speaking English call me an
>American.
> > How incredibly arrogant to try to force another people to change their
>name
> > for themselves!!!
> >
>Do they really?  Kudos for the person who can tell me the international
>name for the country that is known in its indigenous language as Viti.
>
I never said we do.  I said we DON'T.  That's why I said call us whatever
pleases you in your language (or in your dialect of English among
yourselves) but when speaking to us in English don't try to change our
self-designation.  I can just imagine Christophe's reaction if I were to
speak to him in French (which I do not speak) and refuse to call him by his
own national self-designation.  Or if I told him it was really quite
terribly arrogant of him to insist on calling his language "French" as that
discriminated angains the Quebecois, the Cajuns, the millions of Africans
and Pacific Islanders who also speak that language.  Therefore I think you
should refer to your language as *insert rediculous term*.

However, I do believe Viti is Fiji and I know all sorts of other strange and
curious things like Magyarorsag, Shqiperia, Suomi, and the traditional
greetings in Ao Naga and Shona.  And if I were speaking to a national of any
of those nations in his or her language I would use his or her
self-designation and NOT the English term or a translation there of.

Adam

>I can assure you that I do call the citizens of USA Americans.  After
>200 years it's waste of time trying to change the language.  Wasn't it
>Benjamin Franklin who popularised the term with the statement "We are
>all Americans", meaning the residents of what was then British colonies.
>This may prove to have been short-sighted, but, maybe, not yet.
>
>Two things concern me.
>
>One of the privileges about being an American is that you get a bigger
>stick than I do.  Even if you don't use it on me, it is always going to
>be there.  There is a hint of coercion here.
>
>There is also a hint of conformity.  Do Americans get an alternative if
>they want to opt out of being identified as a member of the American
>cultural superstratum?  I know that in New Zealand there are people who
>identify themselves as New Zealander as their ethnicity.  They want to
>see themselves as normative and those others who want to re-address the
>issues of post-colonial justice as disruptive.  So there may be problems
>as identifying yourself as just one thing and then expecting everyone
>else to do the same, even among your own nation-group.
>
>Well that was interesting although I expect I'm way off topic for this
>list.
>
>- andrew.
>--
>Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@earthlight.co.nz
>
>Lent: Living in Borrowed Time
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