N-word - def. not covered

[Jonathan Lighter]

Recall too that "Blackamoor" could refer to esp. dark Moors. IIRC.

JL

On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 6:30 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: N-word - def. not covered
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 12/1/2011 04:51 PM, Salikoko Mufwene wrote:
>>The racial category of 'Black' is defined differently from one polity to
>>another. Your first shock may start when you visit a place such as
>>Jamaica, where the category of 'Black' denotes a narrower category,
>>excluding those people claimed by the category 'Brown'. I am not sure
>>any more whether the Somali count as Nilotic or Semitic, but certainly
>>not as as North Africans. However, it is not unusual for people from the
>>Horn of Africa not to consider themselves "Black," though they are
>>automatically classified as such in North America.
>
> I think that the term "Moor" once included peoples of the Horn of
> Africa, present-day Ethiopians, Somalis, etc., and perhaps also
> Egyptians.  (My recollection from Curran's book.)  That might support
> their considering themselves as North Africans, rather than
> sub-Saharan Africans (blacks, Negroes).
>
>>Same shock for
>>Mulattoes, who don't count as "Black" in parts of Africa
>
> And also South America?
>
>>but find
>>themselves grouped with "Blacks" in North America.
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org