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From: jsq@im4u.UUCP (John Quarterman)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Re: One for our side
Message-ID: <624@im4u.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 9-Nov-85 10:44:11 EST
Article-I.D.: im4u.624
Posted: Sat Nov  9 10:44:11 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 10-Nov-85 16:25:56 EST
References: <973@decwrl.UUCP> <12580@rochester.UUCP>
Reply-To: jsq@im4u.UUCP (John Quarterman)
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 34
Keywords: yanqui
Xref: linus net.politics:11243 net.nlang:3403

In article <858@terak.UUCP> suze@terak.UUCP (Suzanne Barnett) writes:
>I doubt you'll find many (American) southerners who will accept
>this name. The word "yankee" is usually used as part of the
>contraction "damnyankee" and refers to northerners, strictly. It has
>extremely negative connotations to the southern portion of the
>population of the US.

What this word means changes as you move northward.  South of the U.S.
(and in most of the rest of the world) people take it to mean an
inhabitant of the U.S., especially as in "Yankee go home!"  In the
southern U.S., it is often used in the more formal :-) form mentioned
above of "damyankee", which is more or less equivalent to "carpetbagger".
In both places, the most pejorative uses are reserved for those yankees
who have come from where they live to impose themselves on others.
People from south of the border who want to refer to people from the
states while in Dixie are likely to use "gringo" or even "norteamericano"
or "American" as much safer words, lest they inadvertently use "yankee"
to refer to a southerner.  (While south of the border, they can
probably get away with it, as long as they say "yanqui".  :-)

In the midwest and around New York State, Yankee means someone from
New England, especially from Boston, and seems to have connotations of
quaint and old-fashioned.  In Boston, it refers to a particular variety
of old stock and old money, and is more or less equivalent to "Boston
Brahmin".  (You know, those people who claim to be descended from the
passengers of the Mayflower, the boat which was aiming for Jamestown
but missed Virginia by half a thousand miles.)

Note how the scope of the word not only narrows as you move northward,
but also the connotations change from unfavorable to favorable at about
the break between the above two paragraphs.
-- 
John Quarterman,   UUCP:  {ihnp4,seismo,harvard,gatech}!ut-sally!im4u!jsq
ARPA Internet and CSNET:  jsq@im4u.UTEXAS.EDU, formerly jsq@im4u.ARPA