Re: NEWS: MicroSoft's Spanish language problems

Andreas wrote:

>Barbara wrote:
>>  > 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.
>
>Funny: I've always assumed that "American" refered to the continents in the
>phrase "native American", and therefore included not only the Red Indians
>(is that term PC nowadays?) but also the Aleutians and (non-Siberian)
>Eskimos.
For me, "native American" first conjurs up images of members of the
Iroquois nation, the Sioux, etc. In recent years that has expanded to
include also native peoples who live in the Great White North. I
don't, however, as yet visualize people south of the border, so
people of Mayan or Aztec heritage would not be immediately included,
though technically speaking, there is no logical reason they
wouldn't/shouldn't be covered by the term, but who promised logic
with these kind of labels. "American Indian" sounds passé to me;
"Amerindian" too forced. And alas, I know no one from said
demographic to clue me in as to what grates and what swings.

Kou