LL-L: "Ethnonyms" LOWLANDS-L, 24.OCT.1999 (02) [E]

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From: Pat Reynolds [pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L: "Ethnonyms" LOWLANDS-L, 21.OCT.1999 (06) [E]

>From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
>Subject: Specialized terms
>
>John Feather wrote under "Specialized terms":
>> "Didicoy" (with various spellings) is a Romani word used by the Romani to
>> describe other "gypsies".
>
>I have never come across it before.  Is it specific to Anglo-Romany?

Possibly.  It is the title of a children's book by Rumer Godden (The
Diddakoi_) which tells the story of an orphaned half-Gipsy child.  The
name in this book refers specifically to someone who is 'not all' gypsy.
The OED gives other spellings (headline word DIDICOI, and says it is
Romany.  The 1966 quotation is especially referred to:
"'didicoys' - the Irish tinkers and other nomads around London who far
outnumber the true Romanies.

I remember reading a paper some years ago which showed that "true
Romanies" was a construct used to justify ill-treatment of nomadic and
semi-nomadic people (i.e. 'we wouldn't treat "real gypsies" this way,
but those people aren't "true Romanies", so it's OK to persecute them').

> ...

>I find there to be a similar situation among the peoples that are now usually
>lumped together as
>"Native Americans" (or "First Nations" or "Aborigines" in Canada).  We are so
>careful to use
>non-offensive names like that, and then you get some prominent Aborigines
>themselves grinning and explaining (like the famous "Native" poet Sherman
>Alexy in a recent TV interview) that "Native
>American" is a White invention, and that many Aborigines call themselves
>"Indian" or "Injun" and
>think that is as good or bad as anything else.  Personally, I use "Native
>American" to be on the safe side, also because I include in it also "Eskimos"
>and Aleutians.  (Some people now also include
>Hawaiians.)

There is a parallel among homosexuals, who refer to their community as
'queer', and people with disabilities who refer to their community as
'crips' (i.e. cripples).  This is part of a positive reclamation of
language.  There is a complex politics going on here: as an 'outsider',
I feel it is far more PC (i.e. Polite and Considerate) not to use an old
abusive term, even if it is currently being used by the community.

Best wishes to all,

--
Pat Reynolds
pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk
   "It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time"
   (T. Pratchett)

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