American

[Jonathan Lighter]

American Indian or East Indian?

No, no, not the "East Indies." India.

Wikipedia informs me, however, that the official, Constitutional name of
"India"  is Bharat.  Yet the Constitution  of India is written in English
and says "India" in the very first line, according to Wikipedia.

So go figure, if you know what I'm saying.

JL

On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 2:17 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: American
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 9:29 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > An American historically is a "Native American"
>
> Nevertheless, some dekkids ago, I was quite surprised and even
> disappointed to discover that the Journal of _American_ Linguistics
> had to do with *"Indian"* languages and not with the varieties of
> English spoken in the United States.
>
> --
> -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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