Re: NEWS: MicroSoft's Spanish language problems

Quoting Barbara Barrett <barbarabarrett@...>:

> > Thomas Typed;
> > Generally agreed, but to be fair, the term "American Indian"
> > is often considered less patronizing by many of the peoples
> > it describes than "Native American" is. (Of course, this does
> > not legitimize these other synonyms.)
>
> Barbara Babbles;
> Would "native American" also be used to describe the indigionous peoples
> of Central and South America?  I'd have thought that with such PC terms
> as "Afro-American" etc that "american" implied nationality.
I'm not sure that there's any consistent term in American
English for the autochthonous peoples of the Americas who
live south of the Rio Grande.  I would think they'd be called
by the term that the speaker normally uses for the indigenous
peoples north of the border.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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