"People of color"

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:20 PM -0400 5/31/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>At 5/31/2009 08:53 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>>
>>One more language-related observation on Wilson's post:
>>
>>On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 7:37 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>  All non-anti-Semitic - or is that "Semetic"? - blacks are, in general,
>>
>>(Anti-)semitic, with an "i". Mnemonically, think of "Semite".
>
>I thought Wilson's comments were anti-semiotic.
>
>Joel

Back in the 1960s  Roman Jakobson liked to say
that both American descriptivist linguistics and
transformational grammar were anti-semantic.

LH

>
>>The idea
>>behind the name was that the "races" of mankind were descended from
>>Noah's sons (Genesis 9:18-27). ... Time out to check OED.... OMG:
>>
>>  -----
>>     A person belonging to the race of mankind which includes most of
>>the peoples mentioned in Gen. x. as descended from Shem son of Noah,
>>as the Hebrews, Arabs, Assyrians, and Aramæans. Also, a person
>>speaking a Semitic language as his native tongue.
>>  -----
>>
>>No disclaimer, no "supposed". Isn't it past time to rewrite this and
>>throw that racial presupposition out onto the dustbin of history?!
>>
>>m a m
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org