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Newfie has the same good/bad connotations as Canuck. It's OK for Newfoundlanders to call each other Newfies, but for a mainlander to do so is usually taken as an insult. When you're a CFA (Come-From-Away: not a Newfie but you live here, like me), I'm not sure what the stance is. I would only use "Newfie" in a loving way, but I'm not sure all Newfoundlanders would see it that way, since my name, my face, and my accent immediately identify me as a CFA. Therefore, I don't use the term unless I am alone with other CFAs. Mainlanders could get the wrong idea, and Newfoundlanders might be offended. Anyway, I've read many a spirited discussion of whether or not people are offended by Newfie, and a consensus is rarely reached. My advice is: to be safe, don't use it.

A note to Sparteye: the dogs are usually referred to as Newfs. I don't know why! [puzzled]


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Good heavens, what a lot I learn from this board! It never occurred to me to think that a person from NSW would be called a NS Welshman. Is that what you-all call the females, too? And you call folks south of YOUR border Mexicans?? How funny! Also I have never heard of Jappie (or Yappie)--I have the feeling I ought to know where it came from, but I don't. Kaffir kind of rings a bell. I'll try to remember not to use it, although it's pretty unlikely that I'm going to run into anyone from SA. And sandgroper? Cane toad? Very strange...

I suppose I ought to add hillbillies (singular hillbilly), the derogatory name for folk who lived in the Appalachian Mountains. There is still too much ignorance and poverty there, but the typical stereotype has gone. It's a hard place to live. Rural, but very limited arable land: either narrow strips along the valley ("hollers"--hollows)
floors, or terrace out a plot along the mountainside. Very hard work. It's not an easy place to get around in, either; snows or floods, etc., can close down the one bridge or roadway into/out of an area; if that happens, kids have no alternate route to get to school. A real shame, that. I remember what Catherine Marshall wrote in her book about her time there, "Christy", which I believe is essentially a true story: that a resident told her that in some places, the land was so steep you could stand up and bite the ground.


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belMarduk,

I have heard KANAKA used regularly in Germany by foreigners and Germans to refer to foreigners from Southern European and Arabic countries too - Especially those from 'Gastarbeiter' families who often came from very poor parts of Turkey (for example) and speak very poor German and Turkish, and whose families are generally poorly educated are dubbed 'Kanaka'. I never knew that Kanaka was a Hawaiian word or that it means human being though.

Isn't it funny how the intent behind the use of these informal terms, and the person saying them can make such a difference. In one case a word represents ethnic or group pride, and in the next breathe its derogatory. I was at a party about a year ago talking to this bloke, and he said something which seemed to indicate he was gay - so I said:
'Well, that's becuase you're a fag, right?' in a merry and jocular innocence. The bloke felt attacked and questioned 'in what way' I meant that usage - and then proceeded to explain the type of persecution he had suffered as a result of his homosexuality. I regretted even mentioning his sexual persuasion - the information about which he had so readily offered, considering my drunken inarticulateness. In future, I will be more careful and hopefully less plastered than on that occasion.


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Its Kaffir
Its EXTREMELY offensive.
Always.
To everybody in South Africa - black or white.
All - please take heed and don't use it - it's worse than the n- word for African Americans.
-stales

Maybeso stales, but which one did you not spell out?





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Milum

I thought that the spelt out word was sufficiently well explained to give my post balance. There was no need to introduce the other word in its entirety.

I'm sorry if you feel I could have done it better...

stales


#58613 02/26/02 02:39 PM
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there is a place in NE england ( i can never remember wether its Darlington or Hartlepool) wher sometime in the late 1700's a french ship was wrecked off the coast , one survivor was washed up on the shore, a monkey in full French uniform. It was obviously the captains pet or something. the locals however having never seen a foreigner decided the monkey was a frenchman and hung it !!!! to this day other residents of the north east refer to Hartlepool people ( for i think it was they) as "monkey hangers". the locals do not seem too upset by this, the mascot for the local football team is called "H'angus the Monkey" !!!

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Well, the French get called Frogs, and apparently (or so we were taught at school) they retaliate by calling us 'les roast beefs' (spelling forgotten - sorry!).

For me a Scouser would be a Liverpudlian and then there's Geordies from Newcastle. I had a narrow escape though - I was born just inside Cambridgeshire. Had it been on the Lincolnshire side I would have been a Lincolnshire Yellowbelly - something to do with indigenous frogs!


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Bean

Are newfs the dog of choice in Newfoundland?

You may be interested to know that Malamutes (sp?) are very popular here in Perth. I feel sorry for the poor buggers in summer - what with their incredibly efficient triple coat and all. They simply pant the summer away.

I saw a Jaws-esque movie a few years ago about a giant squid terrorising people in Labrador. (Believe it or not, it was filmed in and around Sydney!!!) Besides this irony, I thought it was hilarious because all the "locals" roared around in pickups - replete with Labrador dogs in the back. Having owned numerous labs, my impression was that they are axcellent hearth rug warmers, doubling as a detection system for a perpetually empty stomach. "Tough guy" working dogs - NOT! So, just how accurate was the film in its depiction of labs?

stales


#58616 02/27/02 01:01 AM
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it's worse than the n- word for African Americans.

A recently-published book is devoted entirely to tracing that single n-word -- which is the book's title. The author is a graduate of Princeton College and Yale Law School, a former Rhodes Scholar and currently on faculty at harvard Law School -- and is black. I've not had a chance to read the book thoroughly, but it appears both fascinating and profoundly disturbing.

The idea of the book first emerged when author Randall Kennedy searched the Lexis/Nexis database and found the slur in 4,219 reported court decisions. ("Honky" was second, with 286.) [Note: in general, the court is using that word in quoting nasty remarks, by a party, that led to the lawsuit.]

Review at http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?isbn=0375421726

#58617 02/27/02 01:07 AM
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