people of color & Chicano

[Dennis R. Preston]

An interesting point. Of course real people (i.e., nonlinguists) will
pay attention to things which might not cross the minds of the
"dispassionate," and the improbability of "spic" deriving from
"hispanic" will have no force. We will all recall, however, the
degree to which "etymological justification" for "niggardly" played a
role in the eventual social and political "defusing" of that gaffe -
which the etymologically inclined felt was no gaffe at all and used
this argument with some success in media discussions, playing,
unfortunately, on folk definitions of what a word "really" means.

I believe monosyllabicity has already been brought up in connection
with this discussion, although that does not play a role in
"hispanic," "Chicano/a," "Latina/o," and the like, but note that it
is right on for the offensiveness of "spic."

dInIs (who suffered no monosyllables as a child [he was a "Hunkey"]
but grew up to be a "hick")





>A Latina friend of mine, when I asked why she found "hispanic"
>offensive, explained to me that it reminded her of a certain slur-
>word beginning with "s."  I probably mentioned that the actual
>etymology wasn't what she imagined, but I'm not sure it mattered
>to her.  She said that "hispanic" stikes her as more negatively
>charged than "Latino" and more likely to be used by a speaker
>unsympathetic to her community.  I believe she also cited the fact
>that "hispanic" suggests a European Spanish heritage, which she
>sees (obviously) as something very distinct from her own.  She still
>feels somewhat stung by the memory of her Anglo high school
>teacher "correcting" her non-Castilian pronunciation!
>
>Joanne Despres
>Merriam-Webster, Inc.

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736