Afrikan

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Tue Mar 5 23:39:57 UTC 2013


The Afrocentric spelling of "Afrika(n)" was popularized by Haki R.
Madhubuti (formerly Don L. Lee), who used it as early as 1979 in _From
Plan to Planet_. Some discussion here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=hfh4psuMeRYC&pg=PA161
http://books.google.com/books?id=2AsNjx0FmwoC&pg=PA13


On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 5:54 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
> The naming was deliberate. I've already inquired about that, but no one
> seems to be able to tell me why. On the other hand, "Amerika" has come
> acquire some rather negative connotations. Then, there's Kalifornia...
>
> On 3/5/2013 5:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> Th CNN crawl mentions an "Afrikan Heritage House" at Oberlin College.
>>
>> What's this "Afrikan" business? I can remember when radicals were using
>> "Amerika" and even "Amerikkka." But they were being critikal. So what gives?

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