[Lexicog] -ish suffixes

[Kenneth C. Hill]

Note that British, while in present day usage is a nationality rather than
a language, historically does have reference to a language, the Celtic
language(s) of pre-Germanic England. (The language name survives across
the water as "Breton".) Much the same can be said of Irish except that the
Irish language is still spoken by some of the people of Irish nationality.

An interesting parallel, though not with the suffix -ish, is found with
"Mexican". The earliest (and in some ways the best) serious dictionary of
an indigenous American language was Fray Alonso de Molina's 1571
"Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana" ("Vocabulary in [the]
Castilian and Mexican language[s]") and "Vocabulario en lengua mexicana y
castellana". Later the term "Mexican" became so associated with the state
that replaced "New Spain" that linguists changed the name of the language
to "Nahuatl", even though the word "nahuatl" remains virtually unknown to
the speakers of "mexicano". In indigenous Mexico, at least as represented
by individuals I've run into during field work, "mexicano", as a language
name, continues to refer specifically to Nahuatl, never to any other
indigenous language. In fact, I've had Nahuatl speakers tell me proudly
that they're the only "real" Mexicans, unlike the Spanish speakers who
have expropriated the name.

--Ken Hill

> On 27/03/2005 21:54, John Roberts wrote:
>
> >... British and Scottish
> >describe nationalities but not languages while Flemish and Kurdish
> >describe languages but not nationalities. ...
> >
>


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