anglo

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Tuesday, May 21, 2002 11:44 am -0400 "Johnson, Ellen"
<ejohnson at BERRY.EDU> wrote:

>>
> Another pet peeve: I hate the term "Anglo" particularly when applied
> to me. I'm Jewish, White, or European American, but I'm no more
> "Anglo" than a Nuyoriquen who learned Spanish as a second language,
> as I did.
> <
>
> it seems to me that the term 'Anglo' has acquired a meaning parallel to
> 'Hispanic'.   That is, Anglo refers to a native speaker of English in the
> same way people use Hispanic to refer to someone who is a native speaker
> of Spanish.  both regardless of national origin.  do y'all concur?

But people don't use 'Hispanic' to refer to native speakers of
Spanish--they use it to refer to Spanish-surnamed people (or their
children). It's taken as a pseudo-racial term, rather than a strictly
linguistic one.  As the first bit in this message suggests, many people who
are called 'Hispanic' in the U.S. speak English as their native language.

Lynne


Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
Acting Director, MA in Applied Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320