Re: ,Language' in language name?

From: "David Starner" <starner@...>
> On Wed, Nov 28, 2001 at 08:21:56AM -0500, Muke Tever wrote:
> > But as a productive *noun*forming suffix I think -ese pretty clearly does
mean
> > "language" or "manner of speech".   Say "X-ese is a ____"...
>
> It's also a term for ethnicity, though - Japanese, Chinese, Genoese,
> Siamese.
I said that--but that's as an adjective, though, not a noun.

I've seen written things like "A Japanese is..." but that's not idiomatic at all
for me--I'd have to say "A Japanese person is...".   Even when it is used that
way, it's still just an adjective used absolutely, as it doesn't take plural
marking ("Seven Japanese are.." not "Seven Japaneses are"--although it used to
be, once), though you might conceivably say things like "all these little
Japaneses" when talking about dialects or whatever.

(Well, I should say I might still use -ese forms nominally in a collective
construction like "The Japanese don't..." but I think I would still consider
that an adjective.)


    *Muke!