Africa or Afrika?

[Old Tyrannia]

Scotland : na h-Alba

That means of Scotland. The Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland is Alba; attaching the h- is done when the word proceeding it (in this case na) ends in a vowel and the word starts with a vowel (Alba), and adding the h does not change the word. While na means of. So, for example, Rioghachd na h-Alba (kingdom of Scotland), notice the A in Alba is capitalised and not h-, since the h- is not considered a part of the word itself.


Anyway, no... There is no reason to change the spelling of Africa

Are you a Gaelic speaker?

[The Land Fomerly Known as Ligerplace]

That means of Scotland. The Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland is Alba; attaching the h- is done when the word proceeding it (in this case na) ends in a vowel and the word starts with a vowel (Alba), and adding the h does not change the word. While na means of. So, for example, Rioghachd na h-Alba (kingdom of Scotland), notice the A in Alba is capitalised and not h-, since the h- is not considered a part of the word itself.


Anyway, no... There is no reason to change the spelling of Africa

Are you a Gaelic speaker?

*Gaelik, you rakist bastard.

[H-Alba]

That means of Scotland. The Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland is Alba; attaching the h- is done when the word proceeding it (in this case na) ends in a vowel and the word starts with a vowel (Alba), and adding the h does not change the word. While na means of. So, for example, Rioghachd na h-Alba (kingdom of Scotland), notice the A in Alba is capitalised and not h-, since the h- is not considered a part of the word itself.


Anyway, no... There is no reason to change the spelling of Africa

Are you a Gaelic speaker?

Yes; i'm native to Scottish Gaelic and i'm a Linguist (professionally) dealing with Celtic Languages (particularly, Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic/the Goidelic languages. I do, however, speak Welsh as well).

[Ashmoria]

Little back story before we get into this:

Over the course of about 3-3 1/2 weeks, another player on my regions RMB has fought/debated over the spelling of Africa, or as they choose to spell it, Afrika (When speaking English). They believe that spelling it with a C is racist, due to the fact that invaders from Europe took over Africa and forced English and other European languages on the African people, and in order to avoid racism and completely free Africa from white-supremacy and European control, it should be spelt with a K instead of a C, because C's aren't normal within native African languages.

Now, there are some problems with this, one of them being that the Germans, Dutch, and Belgians all held land in Afrika at one point or another, and in their respective languages (Along with half of Belgium), spell it Afrika. Another problem here is that things are spelt differently in other languages, English only one of the many, many possible spellings of Africa, that's how languages work. So no, I don't think Africa's spelling needs to be changed in English.

But what do you think NSG? Should we let Africa be free and spell it Afrika? Or continue with the white-supremacist ways and spell it with a C? (Also, sorry if the poll's a bit off, still figuring out how to use my new tablet better :\ )

did the people of Africa call it AFRICA? I don't know but I'm thinking not. if not then the spelling of the invader's name is irrelevant to racism.

[Old Tyrannia]

Are you a Gaelic speaker?

Yes; i'm native to Scottish Gaelic and i'm a Linguist (professionally) dealing with Celtic Languages (particularly, Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic/the Goidelic languages. I do, however, speak Welsh as well).

That's awesome. I'd love to learn Scottish Gaelic; I love the aesthetics of the language, as well as being generally interested in all aspects of my Scottish heritage. But I am told that Celtic languages are quite difficult to learn.

[The Land Fomerly Known as Ligerplace]

Little back story before we get into this:

Over the course of about 3-3 1/2 weeks, another player on my regions RMB has fought/debated over the spelling of Africa, or as they choose to spell it, Afrika (When speaking English). They believe that spelling it with a C is racist, due to the fact that invaders from Europe took over Africa and forced English and other European languages on the African people, and in order to avoid racism and completely free Africa from white-supremacy and European control, it should be spelt with a K instead of a C, because C's aren't normal within native African languages.

Now, there are some problems with this, one of them being that the Germans, Dutch, and Belgians all held land in Afrika at one point or another, and in their respective languages (Along with half of Belgium), spell it Afrika. Another problem here is that things are spelt differently in other languages, English only one of the many, many possible spellings of Africa, that's how languages work. So no, I don't think Africa's spelling needs to be changed in English.

But what do you think NSG? Should we let Africa be free and spell it Afrika? Or continue with the white-supremacist ways and spell it with a C? (Also, sorry if the poll's a bit off, still figuring out how to use my new tablet better :\ )

did the people of Africa call it AFRICA? I don't know but I'm thinking not. if not then the spelling of the invader's name is irrelevant to racism.

Not

[Ashmoria]

did the people of Africa call it AFRICA? I don't know but I'm thinking not. if not then the spelling of the invader's name is irrelevant to racism.

Not

that's not a helpful response.

[The Land Fomerly Known as Ligerplace]

Not

that's not a helpful response.

You were thinking right, Africa is not a native name to the land. afawak.

[Ashmoria]

that's not a helpful response.

You were thinking right, Africa is not a native name to the land. afawak.

oh ok thanks.

[Eol Sha]

Little back story before we get into this:

Over the course of about 3-3 1/2 weeks, another player on my regions RMB has fought/debated over the spelling of Africa, or as they choose to spell it, Afrika (When speaking English). They believe that spelling it with a C is racist, due to the fact that invaders from Europe took over Africa and forced English and other European languages on the African people, and in order to avoid racism and completely free Africa from white-supremacy and European control, it should be spelt with a K instead of a C, because C's aren't normal within native African languages.

Now, there are some problems with this, one of them being that the Germans, Dutch, and Belgians all held land in Afrika at one point or another, and in their respective languages (Along with half of Belgium), spell it Afrika. Another problem here is that things are spelt differently in other languages, English only one of the many, many possible spellings of Africa, that's how languages work. So no, I don't think Africa's spelling needs to be changed in English.

But what do you think NSG? Should we let Africa be free and spell it Afrika? Or continue with the white-supremacist ways and spell it with a C? (Also, sorry if the poll's a bit off, still figuring out how to use my new tablet better :\ )

did the people of Africa call it AFRICA? I don't know but I'm thinking not. if not then the spelling of the invader's name is irrelevant to racism.

Given Africa's history, diversity, and massive size, I don't think any Africans gave the entire continent a name.

[Ashmoria]

did the people of Africa call it AFRICA? I don't know but I'm thinking not. if not then the spelling of the invader's name is irrelevant to racism.

Given Africa's history, diversity, and massive size, I don't think any Africans gave the entire continent a name.

that's what I was thinking. that makes the spelling of it irrelevant. that cant be where the racism lies (if there is any racism in the name of a continent) more important is the changing of European names to African names--as in Zimbabwe instead of Rhodesia. ....not that I know anything about the origins of the word Zimbabwe but whatever.

[The Hobbesian Metaphysician]

Good lord. Even spelling must be politically correct now.

Funny considering there isn't really evidence for political correctness. Kind of how there is no evidence for the anti vaccine crowd.

[Skeckoa]

Aren't you sure you don't mean "Afrikan-Amerikan from North Karolinen"?

I think it has to do with the KKK in American folklore, but "Afrikan-Amerikan" seems racist to me.

[Merala]

Its like calling Congo "Zaire" all over again.

[Skeckoa]

Except the name "Africa" itself was given to the whole continent by Europeans (it originally referred to a Roman province in the north of the continent). Even if you spell it with a K, you're still referring to the continent by a name of European origin, which seems to contradict the reasoning behind the spelling change.

Africa is a continent with numerous diverse cultures and languages. It's unlikely that there can be another name for the continent which would be agreed upon by the majority of Africans and/or represents African people as a whole. Until such a name is presented which is popular among Africans, the word 'Africa' seems fine to me.

I don't think name origins are inherently racist. There are a lot of countries, regions, and cities that we have names for in English that are due to historical oddities.

The Koreans for example don't call themselves Korean, the Chinese also don't call themselves anything close to "China". That's fine. But in this case, even many African languages call the continent Africa. What in the world is the problem than with Afriqa?

[Eol Sha]

Except the name "Africa" itself was given to the whole continent by Europeans (it originally referred to a Roman province in the north of the continent). Even if you spell it with a K, you're still referring to the continent by a name of European origin, which seems to contradict the reasoning behind the spelling change.

Africa is a continent with numerous diverse cultures and languages. It's unlikely that there can be another name for the continent which would be agreed upon by the majority of Africans and/or represents African people as a whole. Until such a name is presented which is popular among Africans, the word 'Africa' seems fine to me.

I don't think name origins are inherently racist. There are a lot of countries, regions, and cities that we have names for in English that are due to historical oddities.

The Koreans for example don't call themselves Korean, the Chinese also don't call themselves anything close to "China". That's fine. But in this case, even many African languages call the continent Africa. What in the world is the problem than with Afriqa?

There's no "q" in Africa.

[UCE Watchdog of the Puppets]

However your language represents the voiceless velar stop before the local equivalent of the final-position open unrounded vowel.

Are you a Gaelic speaker?

*Gaelik, you rakist bastard.

Now we're just getting silly here. Don't replace the voiceless alveolar sibilant with a voiceless velar stop! It's spelled racist, you philistines with no love of proper, rules-oriented orthography.

[New confederate ramenia]

that's not a helpful response.

You were thinking right, Africa is not a native name to the land. afawak.

Some etymologists, like Lipinski, hypothesize that Africa is derived from some Berber names.

[The Two Jerseys]

Its like calling Congo "Zaire" all over again.

Refresh my memory, is that Congo-Leopoldville or Conga-Brazzaville?

[MERIZoC]

Afriqua.

[Gristol-Serkonos]

Good lord. Even spelling must be politically correct now.

[Talvezout]

I would imagine that spelling it as Afrika would be more racist, if only for the Afrika Corps.

(Yes, I am very much aware that that's how Africa is spelled in several languages.)

[Ashmoria]

Its like calling Congo "Zaire" all over again.

well no it isn't

changing the name of a country is nothing like insisting on a new spelling of an old name.

[Negresia and Gruenia]

because C's aren't normal within native African languages.

Are letters normal with native African languages?

[Free Tristania]

Good lord. Even spelling must be politically correct now.

Political correctness: the hallmark of a bored Left without any real convictions. Look at how they have been treating the working class they were supposed to represent.