[Ads-l] "slave"

Wed Aug 31 20:34:46 UTC 2016

So it turns out that the reason English rather than Scots is the quasi-official language of the U.S. is to preserve the rhymes in the S.S.B.?

LH

> On Aug 31, 2016, at 4:16 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> And check this out for the hell of it:
> 
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__sco.wikipedia.org_wiki_The-5FStar-5FSpangled-5FBanner&d=CwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=jwUP-Bh8P5Uo16UcFRK3v4zxksGQ2vH5UUtChhxGRog&s=HD3jNlU_XAdkdWROPxzKGHiz0T_bQ_VDuk1iqKJ1Ez8&e= 
> 
> JL
> 
> On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 3:48 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>>> On Aug 31, 2016, at 3:32 PM, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Many if not most enslaved blacks, as well as free blacks, did consider
>> themselves Americans.    They wanted to stay, and to succeed, in in the
>> United States.  Witness the failure of the ante-bellum "colonization
>> movement", aimed at solving racial problems by inducing blacks to remove
>> back to Africa, and thus making America all-white.  Few blacks supported it.
>>> 
>>> The earliest (current) quotation in the OED for "African-American" is
>> from what I take to be the writing of a black, near the end of the
>> Revolution.  The author is proud to call himself an African-American, and
>> praises the Revolution:
>>> 
>>> 1782   ‘An African American’ Serm. on Capture Ld. Cornwallis p. iii,
>> That the ruler of the universe may crown with success the cause of
>> freedom, and speedily relieve your bleeding country, is the hearty wish of
>> an African American.
>>> 
>> 
>> Thanks, Joel.  I should have checked.
>> 
>>> (Thee problem with an analogy with "Chinese" is that it is a "racial"
>> characterization as well as ethnic or political.)
>>> 
>>> 
>> Well, maybe so, but if I were shanghaied (or brusseled) by a colleague of
>> F.K.'s kidnapper and transported overseas to Belgium and were bound and
>> forced to work in a chocolate factory, I wouldn't consider myself Belgian
>> either.
>> 
>> LH
>>> 
>>>     From: Flourish Klink <flourish.klink at GMAIL.COM>
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 11:54 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "slave"
>>> 
>>> Separate from the historical perspective, I would be shocked if the
>>> enslaved people in question considered themselves Americans. (If someone
>>> kidnapped me, transported me overseas to China and set me to work in a
>>> factory, I certainly wouldn't consider myself Chinese!)
>>> 
>>> F
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 11:02 AM Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Sali,
>>>> 
>>>> Do you consider 1814, when "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written, as
>>>> being during the colonial period of the US?  A very Anglo-philic stance,
>>>> just what the British were still believing then?  :-)  I would say there
>>>> were "enslaved African-Americans" in 1814.
>>>> 
>>>> Joel
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>      From: Salikoko S. Mufwene <s-mufwene at UCHICAGO.EDU>
>>>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>>  Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 9:51 AM
>>>>  Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "slave"
>>>> 
>>>> Just a minor correction, JL. From a historical perspective, there were
>>>> enslaved Africans, not enslaved African Americans during the colonial
>>>> history of the US or of the 13 English colonies. During that time the
>>>> class of Americans was very restricted, even some Europeans did not
>>>> count as Americans.
>>>> 
>>>> Sali.
>>>> 
>>>> On 8/31/2016 7:06 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>>> Former tennis star James Blake has explained to CNN that "The
>>>> Star-Spangled
>>>>> Banner" is "a song that advocates the killing of slaves."
>>>>> 
>>>>> The "hireling and slave" in the song, of course, are not enslaved
>>>>> African-Americans but redcoats, Hessian mercenaries, and cringing
>> Tories.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Proof? Read the lyrics.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Of course, as D----d T---p has demonstrated, words don't mean much
>>>> anymore.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> JL
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> **********************************************************
>>>> Salikoko S. Mufwene                    s-mufwene at uchicago.edu
>>>> The Frank J. McLoraine Distinguished Service Professor of Linguistics
>> and
>>>> the College
>>>> Professor, Committee on Evolutionary Biology
>>>> Professor, Committee on the Conceptual & Historical Studies of Science
>>>> University of Chicago                  773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924
>>>> Department of Linguistics
>>>> 1115 East 58th Street
>>>> Chicago, IL 60637, USA
>>>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__mufwene.
>> uchicago.edu_&d=CwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=
>> wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=
>> QImof9AvHENDdXT6lr2Sp29Bh22cZIHsiWUyu5X8cLs&s=UEK5ScKDJDoA0y_MCf3-
>> wspezv7o5c4tGYhboT58k-8&e=
>>>> **********************************************************
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__urldefense.proofpoint&d=CwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=jwUP-Bh8P5Uo16UcFRK3v4zxksGQ2vH5UUtChhxGRog&s=NdkZ-cc3wgLLl80jTMQHu5tPwCkXY1q57pUtXKQKWiI&e= .
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>> ywKp02dGHg9Bv82DCPTwJzJhccFbOju6motzcEM0d1U&e=
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__urldefense.proofpoint&d=CwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=jwUP-Bh8P5Uo16UcFRK3v4zxksGQ2vH5UUtChhxGRog&s=NdkZ-cc3wgLLl80jTMQHu5tPwCkXY1q57pUtXKQKWiI&e= .
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>> QImof9AvHENDdXT6lr2Sp29Bh22cZIHsiWUyu5X8cLs&s=
>> ywKp02dGHg9Bv82DCPTwJzJhccFbOju6motzcEM0d1U&e=
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__urldefense.proofpoint&d=CwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=jwUP-Bh8P5Uo16UcFRK3v4zxksGQ2vH5UUtChhxGRog&s=NdkZ-cc3wgLLl80jTMQHu5tPwCkXY1q57pUtXKQKWiI&e= .
>> com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=CwIFaQ&
>> c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=
>> QImof9AvHENDdXT6lr2Sp29Bh22cZIHsiWUyu5X8cLs&s=
>> ywKp02dGHg9Bv82DCPTwJzJhccFbOju6motzcEM0d1U&e=
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__urldefense.proofpoint&d=CwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=jwUP-Bh8P5Uo16UcFRK3v4zxksGQ2vH5UUtChhxGRog&s=NdkZ-cc3wgLLl80jTMQHu5tPwCkXY1q57pUtXKQKWiI&e= .
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>> c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=
>> QImof9AvHENDdXT6lr2Sp29Bh22cZIHsiWUyu5X8cLs&s=
>> ywKp02dGHg9Bv82DCPTwJzJhccFbOju6motzcEM0d1U&e=
>> 
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>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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