Asian, Not Oriental, Politically Correct Lessons of 2006

'Black' coffee may brew trouble, Press Trust of India,

New Delhi, January 7: Order a "black" coffee or talk about "metrosexuals", and you could be accused of being politically incorrect - says a group which describes itself as the "global language police".

On the Global Language Monitor's list – which documents, analyses and tracks trends in language the world over - the top politically incorrect words for the outgoing year are "Oriental", which it says should be replaced by "Asian", and "Macaca", the use of which is believed to have led Senator George Allen's defeat in US polls after he used it to refer to an Indian American aide of his opponent.

In India, our very own Shah Rukh Khans, who likes to be seen in mauves and pinks and are endowed with a dash of feminine sensibilities, will be heralding the menaissance movement.

Even religious phrases have not been spared by the politically-conscious. So there's a demand to rephrase the old prayer 'Our Father in Heaven' to "Our Mother and Father Who Are in Heaven" - that's the Bible in a more just language, as the monitor points out.

Next on the language police's list is "HERstory" for "HIStory".
"Though there are nearly 900,000 Google citations for 'HERstory' they are all based on a mistaken assumption. When Herodotus wrote the first history, the word simply meant 'inquiry'," writes Paul J J Payack, the president of the group. Yet going by the tremendous demand for "HERstory" - the word has made it to the list. Continue reading