today's CNN miscellany

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Apr 22, 2012, at 6:04 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 22, 2012 at 5:56 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
>> "baby/babies"
> 
> Like unto, one "heathen Chinee"/several "heathen Chinese."
> 
> Since, in BE, -ese is normally [is] and not [iz] and I would say
> "Chinese heathen"/"Chinese heathens," in any case, it was dekkids
> before I realized that that antique slur had a logical origin and was
> not simply something randomly made up to be annoying, like "Democrat
> Party."

I associate "Chinee" as coming from Cantonese (by the people or in imitation of them), which doesn't allow s/z in the coda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese_phonology#Vowels_and_terminals).

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA
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