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<div>Arabic-L: Mon 21 Jan 2002</div>
<div>Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson
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<div>1) Subject: ethnic slurs</div>
<div>2) Subject: ethnic slurs</div>
<div>3) Subject: ethnic slurs</div>
<div>4) Subject: ethnic slurs</div>
<div><br>
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<div>1)</div>
<div>Date: 21 Jan 2002</div>
<div>From: zouhair maalej <zmaalej@gnet.tn><br>
Subject: ethnic slurs</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Dear colleagues:<br>
<br>
There exist a few ethnic slurs in Tunisian Arabic used to refer to
Tunisians<br>
(no offense is meant to anybody):<br>
<br>
(i) bulRari (Bulgarian): there was a time when Tunisia used to
receive<br>
Bulgarians in the national sector (especially as doctors,
engineers,<br>
teachers, etc.) as part of international co-operation. They used to
be<br>
categorised as second best to the French. Now, some people from poor
regions<br>
in Tunisia moving to other regions seeking for jobs are referred to
as<br>
bulRariyyiin (Bulgarians), because skill-wise they are deemed less<br>
proficient and skilful than the natives of the region. This is a
regionalist<br>
expression to denigrate another region.<br>
<br>
(ii) If someone is referred to as "yhudi" (jewish), they are
evil, having no<br>
mercy in the heart.<br>
<br>
(iii) If someone is referred to as "liibi" (Libyan), they
are tasteless and<br>
dumb. For more on this, see:<br>
Muhawi, Ibrahim (1996). “Language Ethnicity and National Identity in
the<br>
Tunisian Ethnic Joke.” In: Yasir Suleiman (ed.), _Language and
Identity in<br>
the Middle East and North Africa_. Surrey: Curzon Press, 39-59.<br>
<br>
(iv) If someone is referred to as "suri" (French and not
Syrian), they are<br>
deemed snobbish or stylish.<br>
<br>
(v) If something is referred to as "shinwa" (Chinese), it is
not<br>
understandable (equivalent to "someone is Greek" in
English).<br>
<br>
There are two surviving referring expressions (but rare now), which I
don't<br>
consider ethnic slurs, to refer to foreigners, because they are hardly
ever<br>
in use and have lost most of their derogation: "rumi" (from
Rome or Roman)<br>
and "gawri" (perhaps having to do with foreigners that had
brought war with<br>
them). "Gawriyya" often denotes a non-Muslim foreigner,
especially in<br>
talking about marriage).<br>
</div>
<div><br></div>
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<div>2)</div>
<div>Date: 21 Jan 2002</div>
<div>From: Humphrey Davies <hdavies@aucegypt.edu><br>
Subject: ethnic slurs</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1">Dear List Members,</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1"> The singular
of</font> Egyptian Arabic<i> nawar "</i>gypsies" is recorded
in Hinds/Badawi's A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic as<i> nuuri</i>
rather than<i> nawari</i>, and the definitions given are "gypsy"
and "swindler". The pronunciation is confirmed by the
proverb quoted under the same entry:<i>alf nuuri wala damanhuuri</i>,
which the dictionary translates as "a thousand con men are
preferable to a single Damanhouri (a comment on the alleged Damanhour
propensity for cunnng and swindling)" - so<i> voila,</i> another
ethnic slur.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1">Slurs on<i> hunuud</i>
"Indians" go back at least to the late 17th century, when
Yusuf Al-Shirbini, in Hazz al-Quhuuf fi-Sharh Qasid Abi Shaduuf,
describes the children of country people as<i> mithl awlaad al-hunuud
aw awlaad al-quruud;</i> he also compares the sounds made by women
during intercourse as resembling<i> barbarat al-hunuud</i> "the
(incomprehensible, barbarian) gabbling of Indians", which perhaps
counts as two ethnic slurs in one (or three, if one includes the
unconscionably speciesist reference to apes); and one could go
on. </font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1">The<i> manawfa</i> (people of
Minufiyya) are usually castigated specifically for their miserliness
and venality.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1">As also are Copts, of whom the
particulary offensive comment is sometimes made by Muslim Egyptians
that they are<i> 'aDma zarqa</i> (literally "blue bone":
Hinds-Badawi "a pejorative epithet for Copts"), the term
sometimes being accompanied by a dumbshow of biting on one's
forefinger (implying I think that Copts "bite" (financially)
to the bone). The term<i> kuftus</i> (pl.<i> kafatsa</i>) is
also used of Copts and is I think purely pejorative, though
etymologically-speaking identical with the neutral<i> qibTi,
qubTi.</i></font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1">Humphrey Davies<br>
c/o School of Humanities (223)<br>
American University in Cairo<br>
Cairo, Egypt</font></div>
<div><br></div>
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<div>3)</div>
<div>Date: 21 Jan 2002</div>
<div>From: mughazy <mughazy@students.uiuc.edu><br>
Subject: ethnic slurs</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>My understanding of ethnic slurs is that they are derogatory
expressions that<br>
fulfill certain sociolinguistic functions, and they emerge as the
result of<br>
extensive cultural contact between two communities. If the power
differential<br>
between two communities is great, such words emerge to refer to the
weaker<br>
one, usually a minority, so as to assert their inferiority. That could
be seen<br>
clearly in many Arabic speaking countries where lower and middle
class<br>
Egyptians and others migrated in search for a better economy. For
example, in<br>
some Gulf areas the term “maSri” ‘Egyptian’ is used as a
derogatory term<br>
particularly when calling people ‘ya maSri’ instead of using their
names, or<br>
to refer to a teacher as ‘el-maSri’ rather than ‘the teacher’.
That is similar<br>
to the use of the word ‘filibeeneyya’ ‘Philippines’ instead of
the word ‘maid’<br>
especially in Kuwait.<br>
<br>
At other times, one community might have cultural characteristics that
are<br>
seen as lowly in another community. For example, Egyptians are known
for their<br>
ethnic diversity and inter-ethnic marriages. That is why Lawrence
Durrelle<br>
called Alexandria a ‘real melting pot’ in his quartet. Since not
knowing one’s<br>
genealogy and hence the limited use of family names is seen as lowly
in a<br>
tribal community like Jordan, the word ‘Egyptian’ has the literal
meaning of<br>
‘bastard’ for them. Another type of cultural differences is eating
habits.<br>
Since people in Libya find it lowly for humans to eat fava beans, they
call<br>
Egyptians ‘el-fawwaala/el-fawaleen’ (the fava beans eaters).<br>
<br>
These expressions need to be studied in their historical context
because they<br>
change a lot. For example, in the famous Egyptian wedding song:
‘Salli Salli,<br>
3anaabi Salli w-elli ma-ye-Salli abo-h armanli’ (praise the Prophet,
and<br>
whoever does not, his father is Armenian), the slur for Armenians
changed<br>
(because of the end of cultural contact with Armenians) to
‘aramalli’ which<br>
has no meaning at all, and finally it became ‘daramalli’ which is
a man’s name<br>
associated with the elitist socio-economic classes. Also, the word
‘agha’<br>
(pimp) was actually an honorable Turkish title, and the word
‘khawal’ (fagot)<br>
was also a Turkish title for the head of the treasury. These were
slurs that<br>
lost their ethnic attribute and maintained their use as an insult. I
apologize<br>
for using such terms, and hope nobody is offended.<br>
<br>
As for Waheed’s comment about the use of ‘hinid’ (Indian), I
have to disagree<br>
because as far as I know it is used to refer to Asian Indians as
depicted in<br>
Indian movies. The motivation for that claim is that there are
other<br>
expressions such as ‘da film hindi’ to mean (that is ridiculous).
The<br>
confusion could be due to expressions such as ‘inta shayefni HaTeT
reesha?’<br>
(do you see me wearing a feather?), where the feather thing refers to
the way<br>
Maharajas and rich Indians wear a feather in their turbans in these
movies.<br>
Let me mention one last thing, Egyptians do not use these terms to
insult<br>
Asian Indians but to denote the attribute perceived in these
melodramatic<br>
movies.<br>
<br>
Mustafa A. Mughazy<br>
Graduate student<br>
Depatment of Linguistics<br>
University of Illinois<br>
Urbana Champaign</div>
<div><br></div>
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<div>4)</div>
<div>Date: 21 Jan 2002</div>
<div>From: Albrecht Hofheinz <Albrecht_Hofheinz@web.de><br>
Subject: ethnic slurs</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>-<x-tab>
</x-tab>‘hindi’ (Indian) and the plural is ‘hunuud’ or
‘hanadwa’.<br>
This word is used to mean ‘dumb’, ‘melodramatic’ or ‘oaf’.
That is<br>
because of the Indian movies that were extremely popular in Egypt
in<br>
the seventies and eighties.</blockquote>
<div><br>
Cf. the Sudanese expression, "ana hindii wallaa 3indii
gambuur<br>
[qanbuur]?", to mean, 'do you think I'm dumb?' (gambuur is a
certain<br>
hairstyle used for young children in the Eastern and Western
Sudan,<br>
whereby the head is bald shaven except for the crane). And no,<br>
Sudanese clearly think of Hindi movies, not American ones, when
using</div>
<div>this expression.<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>It is possible, too, that zinjii/zanjii
is being used as a slur, "pure"<br>
racial, of course. In Syria and Lebanon "9abd" is still used
for a Negro.</blockquote>
<div><br>
Dto in the Northern Sudan - but only if no foreigner's around
;-><br>
</div>
<div>Albrecht Hofheinz</div>
<div><br>
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<div>End of Arabic-L: 21 Jan 2002</div>
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