Hi y'all - loooong time no post, and I've missed you all muchly.

I've just spent some time travelling in the Pacific (I was closer to MaxQ and Bingley than to all you mainland US posters, which was a first for me) and had a question come to mind.

Many places seem to have a word for people not from that place - examples include gringo in Mexico, gaijin in Japan, and haole in Hawaii and, by extension, Pacific islands elsewhere (I heard it used on both Guam and Saipan). Haole even has modifiers applied to it - hapa haole meaning someone is half-islander and half-off-islander.

Are there other words that people use around the world to denote them folks from elsewhere? I can't think of any in the mainland US, perhaps because we're such a mutt nation, but maybe there are regional terms I haven't heard.

Related to my first question, what is the tone of any of these words for foreigner? "Gringo" does not usually have very positive connotations in Mexico, but it's not necessarily insulting either. I do a lot of work in Mexico and as I've gotten to know people there well, they'll use the term in a bantering sort of way (at least I think that's how they're using it...).

I don't know about gaijin's tone, but I know it's very widely used, so I suspect it's not overly offensive. Anyway, I'm interested in what these words are and whether they're used to simply state that someone ain't from around here, or to suggest that that someone is a foreign barbarian.

Oh - thought of another one, or at least a similar one - goyim. Any more, my long-lost AWAD friends?