"People of color"

[Wilson Gray]

On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 8:53 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote,
quoting Wilson Gray:

> Semitic - or is that "Semetic"

This is a phraseology that I use to indicate that I consider the word
or the phrase that appears after _or is that_ to be, IMO, an asininity
that should never apprear in the language of anyone pretending to
speak or to write formal English.

Even though I first heard the pronunciation, "Sem[E]tic," in place of
the pronunciation, "Sem[I]tic," used by random Jewish classmates in
Hebrew 101 at UC Davis in the late '60's, and "Sem[E]tic" is the
pronunciation favored by such worthies as Jon Stewart, I consider it
to be an abomination. My use of "Sem[E/I]tic" in the line quoted had
nothing whatsoever to to do with the putative existence, or not, of a
supposed "Sem[i]tic"/"Sem[E]tic" language family.

My intention was only to drip sneering sarcasm on the
startlingly-common use of _Sem[E]tic_ by people who know how to read.
I've listened long and hard for, e.g. "em[I]tic," "(sym)path[I]tic,"
or even "Sal Hep[I]tica," in hopes of finding a counterbalance, but,
so far, I've had no luck.

I'm really hurt to realize that there are people who have no trouble
assuming that, when I write "or is that" or "or should that be," it's
truly a sign of doubt on my part, due to my having an inadequate
command of English spelling or syntax. Y'all oughta be 'shame' a y'all
se'f! "Vos fir a shande!", as a native-speaker of Yiddish once
exclaimed, upon hearing me mispronounce Yiddish _alef" as [o] instead
of as [O].

Wal, sometime', I do be jes' a-bullconnin' y'all. And I appreciate the
fact that - or should that be, "I appreciate"? - people are merely
trying to be helpful, with no malice aforethought.

--
-Wilson
–––
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.
–Mark Twain

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