[Ads-l] Injia

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Gunga Din," the locus classicus, was written about a dozen years after the
_Punch_ satire.

"Injun," of course, is even more obsolete than "Inja." (Even in my
childhood we said, "Indian giver" alongside "Honest Injun!" [translations
on request]). Come to think of it, British writers never spelled the Asian
version as "Injun," or did they?

But they must have said it a lot.

JL

JL

On Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 8:29 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> In Kipling's famous "Gunga Din," note the spelling:
>
> Now in Injia's sunny clime,
> Where I used to spend my time
> A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen . . . .
>
>  Clearly, "Injia" is disyllabic.
>
> (I had to memorize "Gunga Din" in high school, c. 1960.  Times have
> chanaged!)
>
> Charlie
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of W
> Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2016 4:15:03 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Injia
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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> Subject:      Re: Injia
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>
> <injun> (as in <Injun Joe>, Tom Sawyer's antagonist). Blame it on that
> dead, white, male, European bigot from Italy, working for Spanish
> imperialists, who couldn't even manage to get his plague ships near Inja.
>
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