"Amerika"

[Wilson Gray]

I don't know -  in the literal sense; I'm not trying to say politely
that you're wrong - about  Kafka being the ultimate origin, but I
agree, otherwise.

-Wilson

On 5/20/07, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      "Amerika"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In today's N.Y. Times "On Language" column, William Safire derives the
> satirical spelling _Amerika_ from the K in Ku Klux Klan.  While that
> derivation is obviously true of the spelling _Amerikkka_, I always thought
> that _Amerika_ derived from the German spelling and probably was
> specifically inspired by a Kafka book title.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
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