"Amerika"

[Tom Dalzell]

I thhink that Lighter & Wilson are right and that Safire is wrong:

The New York bombers identified themselves afterwards as "revoluntary
force 9" in a message to "Amerika" (a current fad in radical literature
is to spell it with a German "k" to denote facism).  -San Francisco
Examiner and Chronicle, Datebook, page 18 (5 April 1970).

They put us on trial; we denoucned "Amerika" with its teutonic look, or
"Amerikkka."  Todd Gitline: The Sixties, page 288 (1987).

Tom Dalzell

Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>Memory tells me that in 1970 (the time of the Cambodian operations and Kent State), my classmates associated the "k"  with Germany and Nazis, not with Kafka.
>
>  JL
>
>Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:
>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Dave Wilton
>Subject: Re: "Amerika"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I would agree. I think that "Amerika" is more inspired by the German
>spelling and is an evocation of fascism--and I don't think the 1927 Kafka
>novel is especially relevant. (I haven't read it, but my understanding is
>that it is not about totalitarianism, rather about a European youth's
>travels in the US.)
>
>But I also think you're taking Safire out of context. He is specifically
>referring to the spelling in a Hip Hop context. In the midst of several
>paragraphs about African American language, Safire writes:
>
>"Back in the day, the substitution of k for c in the word America - writing
>it as Amerika or Amerikkka - was a coded evocation of the Ku Klux Klan.
>Hip-hop style today deliberately defies spelling rules, especially ingrained
>irregularities."
>
>In this narrower context, he may be correct in thinking that the Klan is the
>more proximate inspiration.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Wilson Gray
>Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2007 7:34 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: "Amerika"
>
>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 wrote:
>
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>>
>-----------------------
>
>
>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: Fred Shapiro
>>Subject: "Amerika"
>>
>>
>>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---
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>
>>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
>>
>>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Fred R. Shapiro Editor
>>Associate Librarian for Collections and YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
>>Access and Lecturer in Legal Research Yale University Press
>>Yale Law School ISBN 0300107986
>>e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu http://quotationdictionary.com
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
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>-Sam'l Clemens
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