Fwd: A question

[Sonja L. Lanehart]

I thought I'd pass this on in case anyone on the ADS list had a response.

>X-Authentication-Warning: galileo.cc.rochester.edu: majord set
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>User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2106
>Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 11:18:36 -0400
>Subject: A question
>From: Bambi Schieffelin <bs4 at nyu.edu>
>To: <linganth at ats.rochester.edu>
>Sender: owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu
>Status:
>
>One of my students heard the following, and was wondering if any of it was
>true - any ideas or is this a language myth?
>
>Gook, a racial slur for Koreans comes from the Korean word for "America".
>Supposedly, when the troops landed in Korean during the Korean war, they
>heard local people saying "mee-gook" (America/USA) and assumed they were
>speaking English.
>
>
>Thanks - Bambi


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Sonja L. Lanehart
Department of English                 706-542-2260 (office)
University of Georgia                 706-542-1261 (messages)
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Athens, GA 30602-6205                 lanehart at arches.uga.edu
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