"ese" suffix insulting/racist?

[Gerald Cohen]

Born and raised in New York.  And I say only "Chineece," "Japaneece".
Never even thought twice about this until the ads-l discussion.

Gerald Cohen




>At 4:47 PM -0700 4/8/03, Peter A. McGraw wrote:
>--On Tuesday, April 8, 2003 4:25 PM -0700 Anne Gilbert
><avgilbert at PRODIGY.NET> wrote:
>
>>Peter:
>>
>>>On the contrary, I hear "Chineece" and "Japaneece" a lot!  It always
>>>strikes me as an affectation of some sort--spelling pronunciation,
>>>maybe?? I don't remember hearing "Portugueece."  And I'm sure I've never
>>>heard "journaleece" or "bureaucrateece."
>>
>>Where and in what context have you heard "Chineece" and "Japaneece"?  I'm
>>curious, because the only person I ever heard talking this way(and it was
>>*very* consistent)was my father.  And I suspect he "picked it up" from
>>somewhere and "adopted" it for reasons of his own.
>>Anne G
>
>Y'know, I'm not sure where all I've heard it.  I've had it vaguely
>associated in my mind with New York speech, but in recent years I've heard
>it often enough (though still infrequently enough that I notice) here in
>the Northwest as well, and from people who otherwise didn't sound like New
>Yorkers.  I haven't had the opportunity to find out if those I've heard
>here came from elsewhere, and if so, where.  I'm not sure how I connected
>it with New York--it's not one of the features that comes immediately to
>mind when I "play back" New York speech to myself.  Maybe some New Yorkers
>will confirm or deny that it's common there.
>
>Peter Mc.