Afrikan

[Benjamin Barrett]

The Wikipedia entry for Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa) has a Kiswahili link that goes to Afrika.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA 

On Mar 5, 2013, at 3:02 PM, Geoffrey Steven Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:

> In one discussion of this topic yesterday on a website that tends to be skeptical of what they perceive as 'political correctness' someone said it was indeed a reference to Africanism, and was how you spell the name in Swahili. Which is probably true (I don't have a Swahili dictionary handy)
> FWIW
> 
> Geoff
> 
> Geoffrey S. Nathan
> Faculty Liaison, C&IT
> and Professor, Linguistics Program
> http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
> +1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> 
>> From: "Victor Steinbok" <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Sent: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 5:54:17 PM
>> Subject: Re: Afrikan
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Re: Afrikan
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>> The naming was deliberate. I've already inquired about that, but no
>> one
>> seems to be able to tell me why. On the other hand, "Amerika" has
>> come
>> acquire some rather negative connotations. Then, there's
>> Kalifornia...
> 
>> VS-)
> 
>> On 3/5/2013 5:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>> Th CNN crawl mentions an "Afrikan Heritage House" at Oberlin
>>> College.
>>> 
>>> What's this "Afrikan" business? I can remember when radicals were
>>> using
>>> "Amerika" and even "Amerikkka." But they were being critikal. So
>>> what gives?
>>> 
>>> JL

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