Jew/Jewish

[Barbara Need]

>David Bergdahl wrote:
>>I swear I've heard "Is he a landsman?" but whoever said it has been dead a
>>long time--ancient in the 1950s.
>
>
>It's certainly what my parents (born in 1919 and 1924) would say. But I've
>also heard it from people who are currently in their 30s, albeit with a
>kind of self-reflexive irony.
>
>

That's interesting, because I am familiar with the term "landsman", but it
does not mean to me that the person referred to is Jewish. My parents were
in Sofia, Bulgaria visiting the American ambassador and his wife (she was a
college friend of my mother's). While they were there, there went to some
embassy function and were introduced to the Ambassador from China, Now my
father was born in Tsingdao (oh dear, I'm not sure how to spell that! The
one with the beer!)--his father was in the US Navy--and mention was made of
this to the Chinese ambassador. My mother described his reaction as
"Landsman!" (Apparently what he said was "You're Chinese!") I thought the
word was German (or, given my mother's linguistic background, Norwegian).

Barbara Need
UChicago--Linguistics

(I should mention, just in case, my ancestry is pretty Anglo.)