Squaw Daffiness (sociolinguistics)

[Sean M. Burke]

At 09:52 AM 2003-09-18, Scott DeLancey wrote:
>of their origin or etymology.  There's nothing racist about "Jew" or
>"Negro" (even if that one is kind of out of fashion), but to use a
>special, distinct word for the women of a group is automatically racist,
>because it's treating that group like animals instead of people.

So "waitress" is a vulgar vulgar word.
Automatically.
QED.

The trail of semantics here is growing colder and blander, as it winds thru
onomastics, etymology, and now, automatically, thru animal husbandry.

I think that a good compromise is if all the placenames involving "squaw"
were to have that word replaced with "Earthling".  It would impart a nice
"take me to your leader!" feel to a mental environment currently blighted
with dour huff.

An alternative would be to actually promote Native languages by replacing
the word for "squaw" with an actual current word for "vagina" in a local
Native language.  This simplification of local onomastic semantics would be
the best thing to happen to us all since we all went metric!
Of course, there is the messy issue of which spelling system to use for the
relevent languages.  I say whichever has the most accents.  Mapmakers in
North America have had things too easy for far too long.  Let them learn
how to make an a-umlaut-acute-ogonek for a change!  It'd drum up biz for us
language tech consultants too.

Or, failing all else, one could simply replace "squaw" in placenames with
the English word "vagina".  After all, if there can be the /Vagina
Monogues/ on Broadway, maybe it's time for a North America dotted with a
Vagina Peak here, a Vagina Falls there, and so on.  And let us not forget
the ages-old tradition of Vagina Dances in the Southwest.

--
Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/