En relación a [PEN-L:2462] Re: Re: ozzie language,
el 28 Sep 00, a las 14:04, Jim Devine dijo:
>
> > > another NPR story remarked unlike the Ozzies and the Kiwis, the
> > > "Yanks" don't really have a cute nickname for themselves. What
> > > should it be?
> >
> >I like Yanks because otherwise it would be hard to tell who won
> >the war of the slavedrivers' insurrection.
>
> I forget: who won? it seems like most of the leading politicians
> (Clinton, Gore, Bush) these days are from the South.
>
> I sort of like the Mexican word, gringos. It's better than the
> alternatives "Norteamericanos" (which includes Canadians) and
> "Estadounidenses" (which is unpronounceable).
>
> Also on NPR last night, the newsreader mispronounced and stumbled upon
> the name of Milosevic's electoral rival and ended up breaking out in
> laughter during the next headline he read.
>
> yo soy gringo
Sorry to disappoint you, Jim. But "gringo" may also mean "British"
(at least this was the usage in the River Plate area during the 19th.
Century), and, more outrageous yet true, "European immigrant" in
general, as in Argentina since the great migratory wave. "Gringo" is
most specifically used for farmers of Italian origin, and a whole
section of the Pampa region, stretching over some 200 thousand sq.
kilometers, is known as the "Pampa Gringa". You can also have people
of German or Ukrainian origin called "gringo" in the province of
Misiones, and there is a very nice song on the settler women of the
Chaco province called "Gringa chaqueña", which made reference to the
Italians of Piamontese origin who first settled at the Colony of San
Fernando (today, the city of Resistencia).
You will have to go on searching a nickname. Gringo is not exclusive
for people of the USA. "Estadounidenses", BTW, does not seem so
unpronounceable in Argentina. It sounds rather bookish, but very
precise.
Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
