[Ads-l] missionary

Herb Stahlke hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM
Sat Aug 18 14:01:22 UTC 2018


Yesterday on MTP Daily, Katy Tur was talking about Eric Prince's proposal
that the war in Afghanistan be privatized and referred to the military
contractors as "missionaries,"  The last time I heard that slip was in July
1967 at the beginning of the Nigerian Civil War (Biafran War).  I was a
field linguist in a bible translation program near where one of the first
battles was fought and was in jail in Makurdi as a suspected mercenary.  An
army lorry driver came into the police station one evening yelling about
"American missionaries" fighting for Biafra.  I remember joking with
classmates at UCLA, including Larry, that they pronounced missionary and
mercenary the same way, and I was one.

Herb

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



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