[geeks] Languages [was Re: New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore]

der Mouse mouse at Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA
Sat Apr 14 00:02:30 CDT 2007


> the finns and lapps are suomi and saami, to themselves.

"Sami", I think - just one a - based on (admittedly four-plus-year-old)
memory from when I was in Tromsx.  (I was working for Universitetet i
Tromsx, and much of the signage at the University - such as department
names outside buildings - was dual-language Norwegian (usually bokmel)
and S(a)ami.)

> 'eskimo' is a name conferred by their neighbors and means 'eaters of
> raw meat', no doubt why they prefer to be called inuit now.

Part of it, perhaps, but there's also the more general question of why
use someone else's name for you rather than your own.  (Somewhat akin
to the way the Turks finally got fed up with the Constantinople name
for Istanbul and, IIUC, simply started bouncing (snail)mail addressed
there with "no such city".)

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