Antedating of "Hispanic"

[Joel S. Berson]

If the OED excludes Brazilians from "Hispanic", will it also have to
redefine "Hispania"?  (Oops -- the latter is not in the OED!  But is
in my Webster's New World.)

Joel

At 3/27/2011 07:53 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
>Pulled the trigger a bit too quickly and will, no doubt, do it again.
>I doubt there is consensus, but Wiki article on Guyana lists Suriname,
>Guyana, French Guiana and Brazil as for "non-Hispanic nations" in
>South America. Of course, aside from Cuba, PR and Dominican Republic,
>the rest of the Caribbean islands are French, English and
>Dutch-speaking, so do not enter into this issue. But I have certainly
>heard Brazilians occasionally identified as "Hispanic".
>
>Library of Congress "Portals to the World" used to list Suriname in
>its Hispanic directory, but that's been rearranged some time ago (not
>sure how old the records are from which I got this information).
>Hispanic Scholarship Fund and a number of corporate policies recognize
>Brazilians as Hispanic. Contrast that with HSF statement:
>
>http://goo.gl/qKujh
> > Students from the following countries are not eligible- Belize,
> Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana.
>
>But some listings go in the opposite direction:
>
>http://goo.gl/D1DKw
> > For U.S. government statistics, all Americans who trace their
> ancestry to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Spain, the Spanish-speaking
> countries of Central or South America, the Dominican Republic or
> other Spanish cultures, regardless of race; excludes people from
> Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, Belize and Portugal because
> Spanish is not the first language in those countries.
>
>
>Again, I am not entirely sure how accurate this statement is--it may
>well depend which "U.S. government statistics" one is investigating.
>Note that Spain is not listed at all, even though Portugal somehow
>makes it into the "Central and South America" (although as
>non-Hispanic). One thing that is consistent about government
>statistics is that "hispanic" is a super-ethnic category, so, at least
>originally, probably was language-based.
>
>In any case, most sources that make a clear distinction appear to be
>of questionable veracity when it comes to both "Hispanic" and
>"Latino/a". For example:
>
>http://goo.gl/wa7bQ
> > The word Hispanic is a word used to describe people from or
> descending from Spanish-speaking countries. This includes people
> from Spain and 19 countries in Latin America (including the U.S.
> Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) that were once a part of the Spanish
> Empire. *This also includes Equatorial Guinea, a small country on
> the west coast of Africa,* for a total of 21 different countries.
> >
> > The term Latino, in the broadest sense, refers to people using
> languages derived from Latin, including Spanish, French, Italian,
> Portuguese and Romanian. In a more narrow sense, Latino refers to
> people from or descending from Latin America. Latin America is
> broadly defined as the entire western hemisphere south of the
> United States, but more specifically, refers to those countries of
> the Americas that developed from the colonies of Spain, Portugal
> and France. This includes: Mexico, the Caribbean, and all countries
> in Central and South America, with the exception of Belize, Guyana,
> and Suriname (*these countries were colonized by the English* and
> are typically treated differently by scholars).
>
>[emphasis added]
>
>Equatorial Guinea? Really? Spanish is one of two official languages of
>EG, but the same is true of Western Sahara (one of three languages
>there). Both have a connection with Spain, but I can't say that I've
>ever heard immigrants from either one identified as "Hispanic".
>Suriname was initially colonized by a mix of Dutch and English
>traders, but it's generally associated with the Netherlands and the
>associated language is Dutch, not English.
>
>In any case, there does not seem to be a consensus on where "Hispanic"
>people come from except for the core 20 Central and South American
>countries, including 3 island nations from the Caribbean, but clearly
>excluding Guyana and Belize. Brazil, Suriname, Dutch- and
>French-speaking Caribbean islands, as well as Cape Verde--and,
>apparently, Equatorial Guinea ;-) --occasionally show up on the list.
>
>VS-)
>
>On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 7:18 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >...In particular, I'm
> > wondering how Brazilians are classified both formally and informally
> > on federal forms and by US English speakers.
>...
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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