Mazirian:
I’ve heard that theory too - but I always thought Tacitus was… well, you know how the ‘explorer tales’ of that era worked. Not necessarily reliable. I can’t imagine anyone saying the Sámi lacked horses (Sámi without reindeer is unthinkable) and I think the Sámi migrating shelters and waystations were comparable to corresponding structures of other Northern Europeans.
As a child, I assumed that, if he was accurately describing any people at all, it was the eskimos. (I was young, I didn’t know eskimos weren’t in nortnern Europe) However, in the 80’s/90’s I learned about the Maritime Archaic, people with roughly eskimo-level kayak/coracle technology, who are now believed to have repeatedly paddled/sailed from Europe and (temporarily) settled in the eastern coast of Canada in roughly 4000 BCE to possibly the ‘christian era’
Swiddles:
We do call ourselves America! Quick, what’s the adjective form of ‘United States’? You won’t see USAn anywhere but on the Internet.
The objection to “America” came from Latin/Central American countries (and often Canada). It was a kind of international ‘political correctness’ that was very hot in the 70’s (and possibly 60’s, but I was just a tadpole). I recall the Organization of American States (OAS - a group of non-US American nations) pushed that agenda, and there was a lot of rhetoric at the time the Pan-American Highway (from Argentina to Alaska) was being built.
Strangely their preferred title for the USA: “United States” was far more ambiguous and toe-treading. What about the “United States of Brazil” and several others – all of whom, like ‘America’ were referred to by the last word in their name. They had deliberately copied our US of A, back when we were a revolutionary inspiration. Meanwhile, there is no other country with “America” in its name.
The “US, not America” movement was just a bit of revisionist face-slapping for our condescension in the Monroe Doctrine. For all our sins, they couldn’t slap us too hard in the era between the October missle crisis and the Sandinistas.
Johnny LA: ARRGGGHH!
For a moment, I thought I was going to have to commit hara kiri! But as I was laying out the rice paper, I realized what demon had possessed me to say such a thing.
The Japanese language consists of syllables: sa si se so su
etc rather than ‘single letters’. The only letter taht doesn’t contain a vowel sound is ‘n’ which is used at the end of certain syllables (-jin, den’wa, onna, etc.)
However, as you run through each ‘family of letters’ (ta ti te to tu) you find the occasional mutant. for example, it’s
‘ha hi he ho FU’ (not HU) Don’t ask me, I didn’t write the language.
The letter ‘ji’ occurs in the family ‘za JI ze zo zu’, so I quickly said there was no JA (there’s za, instead) However I forgot that there are palatized members of the families, too. (mya, kyo, ryu) and in the ‘za’ family, the letter that you’d expect to be ‘zya’ is pronounced “ja”
Mooshiwake gozaimasen!! This humble worm places his life in your hand for dispatch.
jk)