Date: Mon, 31 Oct 1994 13:59:27 CST

From: salikoko mufwene mufw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU

Subject: Re: offending idioms



In Message Mon, 31 Oct 1994 00:03:34 CST,

"Donald M. Lance" ENGDL%MIZZOU1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uicvm.uic.edu writes:



One of the nagging little questions that has occurred to me from time to time

is to wonder about 'Negro' coming from Spanish and 'n---' from the French

form 'neger'. A good research project for someone; I'm frying other fish for

a while.

Incidentally, the term "creole" came into English, in apparently 1604,

from Spanish, more or less at the same time the term was being borrowed by

French (1598). In both cases the term was used in translations of Jose Acostas'

HISTORIA NATURAL Y MORAL DES LAS INDIAS (1590), in which the term "criollo"

or "crollo" (?) is used for Spaniards born in the West Indies. The Spaniards

seem to have played an important role in the development/spread of some

colonial terms, another example of which is "mulatto", used also from the

late 16th century. (What I report here does not take into account the less

clear matter of whether the term originated in Spanish or Portuguese. The

historical evidence just shows the term spread from Spanish.)

Sali.

Salikoko S. Mufwene

University of Chicago

Dept. of Linguistics

1010 East 59th Street

Chicago, IL 60637

s-mufwene[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uchicago.edu

312-702-8531; fax: 312-702-9861