Taffy
Taffy [ ˈtæfɪ ] or Taff for short is a nickname for a Welshman, used jokingly or disparagingly . The equivalent name for an Irishman is paddy , that for a Scots jock .
History and Uses
The nickname goes back to the first name David or its Welsh form Dafydd and refers in particular to Saint David of Menevia , the patron saint of Wales . In terms of folk etymology , a connection is often made with the River Taff , one of the longest rivers in the country. The Oxford English Dictionary lists an English slang dictionary from 1699 as the first reference for “Taffy”. Eric Partridge points out, however, that William Harrison in his Description of England (1577) noted that Welsh people were often called “David” .
“Taffy” is often used with a mere joke, but can also be seen as derogatory and insulting, i.e. as ethnophaulism . Is known the term today by one in 1780 first documented nursery rhyme ( nursery rhyme ):
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As in many other English representations, the name combines here with the common prejudices against Welsh people: for centuries they have been ostracized as lazy, stupid, immoral, cunning and backward, the English word welsh already means (analogous to German " welsch ") originally as much as “strange”, “incomprehensible” or “barbaric”, and today they are still a welcome target for derogatory jokes. The basic inventory of anti-Welsh invective includes not only the term "taffy", in particular allusions to leek , the Welsh "national vegetable ."
“Taffy” forms a quartet of terms with “Jock,” “Paddy” and “ Tommy ” (actually generally a British soldier, but often limited to English for lack of an “own” nickname) that is closely related to experience in the collective memory of the British the First world War is linked to soldiers and regiments from all four parts of in the United Kingdom again found together in the trenches of Flanders and France. It was symbolic of the unity of the British nation, but at the same time it was an assertion of the regional and ethnic characteristics of its constituent peoples. Ireland became independent in 1922, so that this connotation hardly resonates with “Paddy” today, but at least “Jock,” and “Taffy” and “Tommy” are complementary terms that still represent a form of Britishness . They fulfill a similar double function in Brendan Behan's autobiographical novel Borstal Boy (1958), now a classic in Irish literature. Behan describes his three years imprisonment in an English juvenile prison (1939–1942). As an Irishman (especially as an IRA member), as expected, he is always called “Paddy”, but hardly ever with insulting intent, but sometimes downright tenderly; For his part, he dutifully names his fellow inmates as “Tommy”, “Jock”, “ Geordie ,” “ Cockney ”, etc. The prison is therefore the image and symbol of the United Kingdom, that is, its alleged hereditary enemy. In the course of time he does not overcome all his prejudices against the British in personal dealings, but at least his nationalistic hatred, without having to deny his Irish identity. The possibility of a brotherly livelihood of the peoples becomes evident in an episode when a compassionate English guard has water fetched into his cell:
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Today these terms are valued very differently. In a survey published in 2010 on the acceptance of ethnophaulisms in Europe, “Taffy” took a top position with 5.15 out of 10 points, so it is hardly considered to be offensive. "Tommy" (4.60) and "Jock" (4.38) are in the upper midfield. “Paddy”, on the other hand, only achieved a value of 2.88 and is therefore almost as offensive as “ Kraut ” or “Sauerkraut” as an insult to Germans (2.80). In American English, "Taffy" is less common because the Welsh immigrants in the United States were perceived differently than about the Irish almost as strange or even separate ethnic group, since they seldom settled closed, and in most cases quickly and smoothly in the American Majority society rose.
Another British nickname for Welsh people is Welsher (4.85), the grossest insult turned out to be the name Waler (actually "pit boy, ore knocker, coal sorter"), which refers to the historical importance of coal and slate mining, in the study mentioned with a value of 3.69 in Wales .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Irving Allen Lewis: Personal Names that Became Ethnic Epithets . In: Names: A Journal of Onomastics 31: 4, 1983, pp. 307-317.
- ↑ Taffy, n. 2 , in: Oxford English Dictionary (online edition), < http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/197006?rskey=sO4vQp&result=2 > (restricted access, seen on May 19, 2013).
- ↑ Eric Partridge: Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1973. p. 942, sv Taffy .
- ^ Geoffrey Hughes: An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-speaking World . ME Sharpe, Armonk NY 2006. pp. 491-492.
- ↑ The British are considered masters of the clichés at European Radio Network Euranet.eu
- ↑ Christie Vavies: Ethnic Jokes and Social Change: The Case of the Welsh . In: Immigrants & Minorities 4: 1, 1985. pp. 46-64.
- ↑ Doug Kennedy: Is it a slur to call someone a Jock? , in: BBC News (online edition), June 14, 2009: 'The origins of Jock go back hundreds of years […], but it was the 20th Century and World War I which cemented it into the British psyche, along with Tommy and Taff. '
- ^ Mark Perryman, Imagined Nation: England after Britain . Lawrence & Wishart, London 2008. pp. 86-87.
- ↑ Patrick Colm Hogan: Brendan Behan on the Politics of Identity: Nation, Culture, Class, and Human Empathy in Borstal Boy . In: Colby Library Quarterly 35: 3, 1999. pp. 154-72, esp. Pp. 163ff.
- ^ A b Diana R. Rice, Dominic Abrams et al .: What Did You Just Call Me? European and American Ratings of the Valence of Ethnophaulisms . In: Journal of Language and Social Psychology 29: 1, 2010. pp. 117-131.
- ↑ Ronald L. Lewis: Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields . University of North Carolina Press, 2008. pp. 93 and 191.