On Mon, 25 Feb 2002, Marco Cimarosti wrote:
> John Hudson wrote:
> > At 06:33 2/25/2002, Marco Cimarosti wrote:
> >
> > >Alain LaBonté wrote:
> > > > [...] Who knows? What is the word for "gipsy" in Romanian? [...]
> > >
> > >"Rom", in fact: I just asked this to a Rumanian colleague.
> >
> > I presumed this was the reason for the code change 'request' from the
> > Romanian government. Bigotry against and persecution of the Rom is a
> > long-standing Romanian tradition: one of the few constants of
> > the country's political scene.
>
> I hope that you are wrong, although your suspect does not lack plausibility.
>
> But the present case could perhaps have a more positive explanation: many
> Romanians are indeed Rom (Gipsy) so, maybe, everybody felt it was
> inappropriate to call all Romanian nationals with the name belonging one
> single ethnical group.
>
> It would be as calling any USA citizens were called "Californians": although
> there is nothing particularly good or bad in being a Californian, it is not
> generally deemed appropriate to call Texans "Californians". (Or, anyway, I'm
> told that it's not advisable to should "You're all Californians" while
> entering a truck driver's diner in the middle of Texas).
>
> _ Marco
>
>
Monday, February 25, 2002
The name "Yankee" has different connotations in in parts of the U.S. and
outside the U.S.
Regards,
Jim Agenbroad ( jage@LOC.gov )
"It is not true that people stop pursuing their dreams because they
grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing their dreams." Adapted
from a letter by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
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