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Terms for ’foreigner’ - good and bad | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6915 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 30 28 August 2012 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had to think before writing about the terminology used at work (=library), not official by any standard but probably common (and PC) enough:
"främmande språk" - foreign languages (that's what I call the section myself, and I'm the head of that one) "utlandsturist" - a tourist from another country (if that needs to be specified - maybe they just want internet access for an hour, in which case we can give the account an expiration date) "utländska tidningar" - newspapers/magazines in any other language than Swedish Earlier we used to say "böcker på invandrarspråk" for books "in other languages than the 'school languages'" (i.e. English, German, French and Spanish), but that meant "immigrant languages" ("immigrant" might not always have the most positive connotations). Atama_warui says that "Ausländer" is pretty neutral (just as "utlänning" should be) - it just states that the person comes from another country, and as long as one finds that information important to know about, it's also the word to use. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4645 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 10 of 30 29 August 2012 at 9:33am | IP Logged | ||
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In French, the neutral term is "étranger". There is also the word "métèque", which is pejorative and refers to immigrants, usually from Southern Europe. You also have the colloquial "beur" to denote someone from Northern Africa.
(Interestingly, métèque comes from the Greek metoikos, which meant someone who did not come from the city, but lived there. They would not have any political rights and paid a special tax. However, they did participate in the cultural life of the city and would be called to defend it if attacked. According to historians, part of Athens growth and wealth was due to the contribution of the "metoikos".) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4834 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 11 of 30 29 August 2012 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was told (and I hope I remember it correctly) that North Walians use the term "huntw"
(pronounced "hoon-two" for a UK English speaker) about South Walians, and I think it means "foreigner", but would be used in a slightly pejorative sense. (I've guessed the spelling, so feel free to correct me any Welsh speakers). Then there is "Sassenach", used by the Scots of the English, meaning much the same, although it really seems to mean "Saxon", according to Wikipedia, and Welsh and Irish seem to have similar words: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxons Edited by montmorency on 29 August 2012 at 8:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tsopivo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4477 days ago 258 posts - 411 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Esperanto | Message 12 of 30 30 August 2012 at 12:23am | IP Logged | ||
I found that to be quite a curious statement as European countries are countries with over 2000 years of cultures and people from different countries being mixed and have such an interwined history. Even if you look at the last 200 years, European countries such as France have certainly been characterized by waves of immigration which, until recently was encouraged. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4853 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 13 of 30 30 August 2012 at 4:15am | IP Logged | ||
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In Japan, grammatically speaking, the word "gaijin" (外人 - outside person) is not exactly polite. The correct term is "gaikokujin" (外国人 - outside country person, i.e. foreigner). When one is referred to as a "gaijin", it's like they are not part of the group, like an outcast to society. News programs never use "gaijin" to describe foreigners; they always say "gaikokujin". And I never hear "gaijin" in a formal setting. But a lot of average people use the word, although in fairness the word is probably so ingrained that people do not even know that it can be offensive.
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| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4674 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 14 of 30 30 August 2012 at 5:58am | IP Logged | ||
Argentinians call Paraguayans ''paraguas'' ;) The Spanish are called ''gallegos'' be they Galician, Catalan, Bask, Andalusian, they're all gaSHegos ;) Brazilians call all nonSouthAmerican foreigners GRINGOS, even Italians and Spaniards are GRINGOS ;) Edited by Medulin on 30 August 2012 at 6:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| RG Diglot Newbie Brazil Joined 4884 days ago 7 posts - 12 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, EnglishC1 Studies: Mandarin, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 15 of 30 30 August 2012 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | ||
True. In Brazil, every foreigner is somehow a GRINGO. But we can use it in a derogative sense or just as a substitute of the word "foreigner", as the later may sound too formal while chatting among friends. For Asians, in general, we use the words "JAPA" (accent in the first syllable, used for male and female) or "CHINA"(accent in the first syllable, used for male and female), even if someone is Chinese we may say "JAPA", as we are not much aware of the differences just by looking and to tell the truth, Brazilian people in general don't care very much. When using this words sometimes we just mean that the person has almond-shaped eyes. Another interesting thing is the word "TURCO (TURCA, the female counterpart)". The meaning of this word is "Turkish" (someone from Turkey), but we can use it to describe someone that is stingy/penny-pincher. Even if someone has arab-features-like (or at least, what Brazilian think they look like) but is not stingy we call them TURCO. And the last and most ridiculous: if Brazilian people hear someone speaking Arabic, there is a chance that this person will be called TURCO. Many people here think that the only national language in Turkey is Arabic. But this might have a historical reason, as a huge amount of Syrians and Lebanese immigrated to Brazil in the mid-19th century, and when they arrived here there were called "TURCOS". Edited by RG on 30 August 2012 at 8:45pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5566 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 16 of 30 31 August 2012 at 3:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Montmorency's post reminds me that "welsh" is from an old Germanic word for foreigner. Also used by the Germanic Swiss regarding their French speaking compatriots (but not sure if in common usage or whether it's in any way offensive) Edited by schoenewaelder on 31 August 2012 at 3:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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