Afghanistan Repatriation Memorial

[Dan Goncharoff]

The British disagree that repatriation can only be used with the living.

Repatriation is also the word used in the US to refer to the return of
Native American remains to traditional burial grounds, as in the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990.



DanG


On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 8:37 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Afghanistan Repatriation Memorial
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "To repatriate remains" doesn't grate much on me, but a plain
> "repatriation" memorial does. And if any *people* are "repatriated," they
> should still be living.
>
> Obviously a lost cause, however, the minute the new usage appeared.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 6:10 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Afghanistan Repatriation Memorial
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > S<puellaest>: <<<Afghanistan Repatriation Memorial  honouring Canadian
> > soldiers that died in Afghanistan.  this use of "repatriation" is
> somewhat
> > odd.>>>
> > WB<puellanonest>: The collocation <Afghanistan Repatriation Memorial>
> > collides interpretation-wise with something like <Armenian Holocaust
> > Memorial>: i.e. A.R.M. sounds like "A memorial to the survivors (who have
> > since died) of a forced repatriation back to Afghanistan and a certain
> > death".  So I also think this a new twist to the A.H.M. syntagm.
> >  DG: <<<I am trying to figure out what is so odd about using the word
> > "repatriation"
> > to refer to bringing back the bodies of soldiers who died on foreign
> soil.
> > What word would you use?
> > WB: For me, only the living can be repatriated. (Now that I checked, I
> see
> > remains of war dead are being _repatriated_ on the internet, although
> > _brought home_ is common and what I would say.)
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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