[Ads-l] Now in your hands, the the key to the "singularity"...

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jun 2, 2016, at 8:00 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
> 
> But then, "Asian" is also a European construct--and pretty lumpish!
> 
> --Charlie
> 

I don't think lumpishness is the issue; "Europe" is pretty lumpy too, and named for young lady who had an affair with a bull, mutatis mutandis, and apparently we're on board (as it were) with that.  And America (or, if you prefer, the Americas) is lumpy and named for some Italian guy but nobody much complains.  I think it's the relational/perspectival issue in "Oriental" that rankles the ranklees.

At least one account of "Asia" is that the Greeks (e.g. Herodotus) picked it up from 'Akkadian _asu_ "to go out, to rise," in reference to the sun, thus "the land of the sunrise"', so very much like "Orient", but then again if this is right at least its origin is Asian, albeit Southwest Asian.  

LH
> 
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Now in your hands, the the key to the "singularity"...
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The buzz in college was that "Oriental" is Occident-centric, i.e.,
> racist.  Why? Because East Asian cultures differ considerably and
> cannot be lumped together.
> 
> Also, "the Orient" is an exotic Euro-American construct.
> 
> JL
> 
> .
> 
> JL
> 
> On Thu, Jun 2, 2016 at 3:10 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
>> Hmmm. What's this all about?  I've been a long-time member of this list
>> and don't remember any racist messages being sent.  Racist terms may
>> occasionally appear as part of a discussion on language, but I don't remember
>> them every appearing with a racist intent (e.g., anti-black, anti-Oriental).
>> 
>> Gerald Cohen
>> 
>> ________________________________________
>> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Xia Hwang [0000053c1ce4c7f7-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]
>> Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2016 1:26 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Now in your hands, the the key to the "singularity"...
>> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Xia Hwang <xhwang1 at AOL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Now in your hands, the the key to the "singularity"...
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> why choose to be racist when you can choose to be a decent human being?
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Jun 2, 2016, at 7:01 AM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM> wrote:
>>> =20
>>>> On Wed, Jun 01, 2016 at 11:57:35PM -0700, Xia Hwang wrote:
>>>> hi jesse,=20
>>>> how about booting ppl for offensive, racist ass posts?
>>> =20
>>> I have done this on a very few occasions, but only in cases that were real=
>> ly extreme and had no conceivable relation to language discussion.
>>> =20
>>> If anyone has an issue with something posted, please let me know backchann=
>> el.
>>> =20
>>> Jesse Sheidlower
>>> ADS-L
>>> =20
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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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