End of ADS-L Digest - 11 Mar 1996 to 12 Mar 1996

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There are 33 messages totalling 960 lines in this issue.



Topics of the day:



 1. Asian (2)

 2. Thursday week (12)

 3. English Dialect Information Exchange

 4. Asian and "PC" (2)

 5. Simon's ADS 2nd call for abstracts

 6. Clabber milk (5)

 7. _American Speech_ Index

 8. Clabber milk -Reply (5)

 9. Thursday week - this/next Thursday

 10. Lakota word 'unhcegila'

 11. Clabber milk -Reply -Reply

 12. Grits (was Re: Clabber milk)



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Date:  Wed, 13 Mar 1996 01:11:15 -0500

From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA>

Subject: Re: Asian



> On Tue, 12 Mar 1996, Ron Rabin wrote:

>

> > Has the meaning of Asian changed recently in American English?

> > When Oriental became no longer PC, Asian was substituted.  Does Asian

> > now mean what Oriental used to mean whatever Asian used to mean before

> > this substitution?> > Ideas?

>

well, i don't know if this is an actual _change_ in meaning, but

often in u.s. "asian" means "east asian." so, if you're an indian

person filling out a census or affirmative acation form, there can be

some confusion about whether you're an "asian/pacific islander" or

"caucasian". of course, you're both, except on the reading of

"caucasian" (not to be found in most dictionaries, but to be found

all over in actual use) that really means "white of European descent."



hence, people say things like "he has asian eyes"--meaning he has an

epicanthic (sp?) fold--which, of course, you don't have if you're

from the south asian subcontinent.



lynne



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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