<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 07 February 2007 - Volume 07<br><br>=========================================================================<br><br>From: <span id="_user_Mathias.Roesel@t-online.de" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">
"Mathias Rösel" <<a href="mailto:Mathias.Roesel@t-online.de">Mathias.Roesel@t-online.de</a>></span><br>Subject: LL-L 'Language varieties' 2007.02.07 (05) [E]<br><br><div id="mb_1">
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<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="q">
<div><span>From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>Subject:
Language varieties<br></span></div></span><span class="q"><pre style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> FYI, the term kanak-sprak was<br>coined by Feridun Zainoglu who is an author of<br><br>Turkish provenance in Germany.
</pre>
<div>That's interesting. I was referring to the <span style="font-style: italic;">origin</span> and the <span style="font-style: italic;">original</span> meaning of the words when I
added the background information:
<br></div><pre style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> The naming clearly reveals racism<br>and/or xenophobia. Kanak, Kanaker* etc.<br>(perhaps not directly<br>related to "Canuck" 'Canadian', but it may have
<br><br>influenced it) are approximately equivalent to "wog" in<br>non-American<br>English.<br><br>> * from Hawaiian kanaka 'human<br>being', 'man', 'mankind', typically<br>'indigenous person(s)', developed
<br>from Polynesian tangata lit. "that/those<br><br>that have been (here) before," originally used to refer to<br>Polynesians<br>transported as laborers to Queensland ("Kanakaland"),<br>Australia -- possibly
<br>introduced into German via sailors'<br>jargon</pre>
<div>
I assume you'd agree that it would not be advisable for an ethnic German
to call someone <span style="font-style: italic;">Kanaker</span> in
Germany, at least not to his face, that
the word is loaded and derisive. </div></span></blockquote>
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial Unicode MS">It would be derisive,
yes.</font></div>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;">
<div>The fact that Zaino lu uses it himself does not change this, at
least not
at this juncture.</div></blockquote>
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial Unicode MS">Yes, it does. Using it
as a
means of literature, Zainoglu made this term acceptable. You can say,
they speak
kanak-sprak, that way denoting the way they speak and at the same time
ascribing
their way of speaking a place in its linguistical environment. There are
German
tv programmes where characters speak kanak-sprak.</font></div><span class="q">
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;">
<div>This is a well-known situation called "owning": despised
populations
deliberately take on previously derogatory names for them, thus
"defusing"
them and at the same time creating in-your-face attention with the
names'
shock value. </div></blockquote></span>
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial Unicode MS">That may be so with
Schwule and
so on. But kanak-sprak is not a derogatory name in standard high German
because
it isn't standard high German. In standard high German, this term is
quoted as a
foreign word. The name was coined by mocking speakers of kanak-sprak by
a
speaker of kanak-sprak. It's an act of emancipation, if you
will.</font><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial Unicode MS" size="3"><br>--
<br>Mathias </font></div></div>
</div><br>----------<br><br><span class="q"><span>From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>Subject:
Language varieties<br><br>Thanks for further explaining it, Mathias.<br><br>It seems to me that we are basically talking about the same thing.<br><br>Certainly, being relatively new, <span style="font-style: italic;">Kanak-Sprak
</span> would be used as a loan in German at this juncture. However, its connection with <span style="font-style: italic;">Kanak(er)</span> and the negative connotation this evokes ought to be clear to anyone with half a brain, anyone not born yesterday. It's only that saying the language name is considered socially acceptable (unlike the word
<span style="font-style: italic;">Kanak(er)</span> from which it is derived). What you call "emancipation" is what I implied when I talked about the "owning" process.<br><br>Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br>
</span></span><br>