Date:  Tue, 12 Mar 1996 12:01:54 -0800

From:  SETH SKLAREY <crissiet[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IX.NETCOM.COM>

Subject: Re: british english question



 Growing up in England, in geography we refered to Asian's when we refered

to people generaly and generically from any part of the Asian continent,as

also in European, Australian or even British, on the other hand Indians were

from India, Scots from Scotland, Pakistanies from Pakistan, Sri Lankan were

from Sri Lanka and of course (because of the movies as apposed to Geography

books) Red Indians were American Indians. All of this gets very smudgy when

you get into dialects and derogetary attitudes in Britain, then anything

go'es as they say. But we were taught names, places and people from our

Geography book. I clearly remember the brown skinned lady in a sari (both

very exotic as we had never seen anyone brown, let alone in a sari pre TV at

that time)and the caption underneath said "Tea is grown in Cylon, and is

picked by hand .Tea also grows in India, Pakistan and other countries in

Asia but not in Asia Minor ".etc...etc.. Crissie Trigger





>(incidentally, how do we parse "american dialect society"--is it an

>american society devoted to dialects or a society devoted to american

>dialects?)

>

>i need to know whether "asian" in british english has a sense that

>means "south asian/indian." now, i know that "asian" is used to

>refer to people of indian/pakistani/sri lankan descent in britain, but

>the fact that it is used to refer to these people does not mean that

>it has a sense that means "indian"--just like if i refer to my

>siblings and they all happen to be male, it doesn't mean that

>"siblings" has a sense that is synonymous with "brothers".

>

>so, the best kind of evidence that i could get for an 'indian' sense

>would be if it were contrasted with other words for people

>from asia--something like "asians and chinese live there" or "the law

>discriminates against asians and chinese."

>

>i've checked three british dictionaries and not found this sense, but

>then the south african dictionaries don't have the sense either, even

>though south african english definitely does have the "south asian

>only" sense.

>

>does anyone know or have any references for me to chase down?

>

>thanks as ever,

>lynne

>

>---------------------------------------------------------------------

>M. Lynne Murphy              104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za

>Department of Linguistics            phone: 27(11)716-2340

>University of the Witwatersrand          fax: 27(11)716-8030

>Johannesburg 2050

>SOUTH AFRICA

>

>