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From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.nlang
Subject: Re: One for our side
Message-ID: <1414@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Nov-85 13:31:42 EST
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.1414
Posted: Wed Nov  6 13:31:42 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Nov-85 06:14:15 EST
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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Xref: watmath net.politics:11833 net.nlang:3693

> >[Me]
> >there is no word in the English language for inhabitant of the United States
> >other than American.  I can understand how Latin Americans and Canadians
> >might not like this, but it is a fact.  I'll be damned if I'm going to
> >call myself a Unitedstatesian (ugh!).  It is unfortunate that the same
> >word, American, has more than one meaning, but it takes someone like jeff m.
> >to convert this into a sign of US hegemony over the West.  Spare us.
-------
> [Tony Wuersch]
> It's natural for people who are on top to defend ambiguities in language
> that favor them by saying "there is no word other than" the ambiguity.
-------
I don't see how the ambiguity favors the U. S.  If anything it hurts us
by creating anti-U.S. resentment for no good reason.
-------
> It's also natural for people who aren't on top to criticize ambiguities in
> language which they perceive as threatening.
-------
Correct.
-------
> That there's "no other word than American" in English (I dunno, just use
> more than one word, maybe) for an inhabitant of the US means that
> there's very little rhetorical defense against people who use "American"
> as a buzz word for national destiny, etc.. Again, no surprise that
> the language is built so that anti-nationalistic sentiments can't
> be expressed in simple language.
-----
Come on.  Anti-nationalistic sentiments can be expressed in much the
same language as pro-nationalistic ones.  How about "America Sucks."
Is that simple enough for you?
-----
> Languages in most countries are
> social constructions codified by national official agencies.
-----
Maybe so, but not in the U. S.  You seem to think that the U. S. Govt.
created American English.  Not so.  It doesn't even codify it.  You
are perfectly free to publicize an alternative to "American".  If it catches
on, it will make Webster's, and Ronald Reagan and his minions couldn't
stop it even if they wanted to.
-- 
Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL  ihnp4!ihlpg!tan