[Ads-l] Antedating of the Radical Spelling "Amerika" / "Amerikkka"

Sat Oct 11 00:48:36 UTC 2025

Way back in the 1970-ish era when I first became aware of this spelling, I assumed that it did have something to do with the Kafka title.

Fred Shapiro

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2025 10:47 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of the Radical Spelling "Amerika" / "Amerikkka"

Given its semi-academic origins, I've always suspected that the spelling
was influenced by the title of Kafka's unfinished novel, published in
1927.  To quote Wikipedia: "In the story, the Statue of Liberty is holding
a sword, and some scholars have interpreted this as a 'might makes right'
 philosophy Kafka may have believed the United States holds."

JL

On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 9:43 AM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> The earliest occurrence I can find for the satirical spelling "Amerika" is
> in the Berkeley Barb, June 21-27 1968, page 11 (JSTOR).
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> ADSGarson O'Toole <00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 8, 2025 10:29 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Antedating of the Radical Spelling "Amerika" / "Amerikkka"
>
> Here is an instance of "Amerika" (with a single k) in the desired
> sense, I think. This antedates the November-December 1969 citation in
> the OED.
>
> Date: July 18, 1969
> Newspaper: The Militant
> Newspaper Location: New York, New York
> Article: Black steel workers organize
> Author: Derrick Morrison
> Quote Page 3, Column 4
> Database: ProQuest
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Upon receiving this information, the police chief, Donald Pomerleau,
> met with the militants and told them that they would be arrested and
> charged with inciting to riot if they used a bull-horn to publicize
> the dog attack.
> So goes justice in Amerika.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 8, 2025 at 5:31 PM Shapiro, Fred
> <00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > In the 1960s and early 1970s, American leftist radicals often spelled
> "America" as "Amerika" or "Amerikkka."  "Amerika" was a reference to the
> German spelling, "Amerikkka" was a reference to the Ku Klux Klan.. It is
> difficult to search disambiguously for the English-language "Amerika" in
> online databases.
> >
> > The OED's citations for "Amerika" begin with Tom Hayden in
> November-December 1969.  The earliest cite for the spelling "Amerikkka" is
> dated 1970.  The OED's definition is "American society viewed as racist,
> fascist, or oppressive, esp. by African Americans."
> >
> > A search in JSTOR yields an 1969 occurrence of "Amerikkka" in the
> Berkeley Barb, in an article about Black Panther leader Bobby Seale:
> >
> > 1969 Berkeley Barb 7-13 Mar. 6/2  Seale's statement to the press
> contained a lot of heavy ideological rap.  He claimed that the larger issue
> in the strike at Cal is the University's role of "developing the technical
> tools to sustain and defend AmeriKKKa, the haven of oppressive capitalism
> and imperialist exploitation throughout the world."
> >
> > A search in Newspapers.com pulls up a strange early usage.  The
> World-News newspaper (Roanoke, Va.) ran a small item in its 21 Nov. 1923
> issue (page 6, column 8).  In its entirety it consisted of the following:
> >
> > REVISING SPELLING.
> > AmeriKKKa.
> > Konstitution.
> > Okkklahoma.
> > KKKansas.
> > KKKanada.
> >
> > It is not clear whether the newspaper item is mocking the Klan or
> supporting it.  Elsewhere in the issue the paper does not seem to be
> anti-Klan.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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