Satiric misspelling
The orthodox spellings of common words are often altered to make a political point, particularly in informal writing on the Internet, but also in some serious political writing that opposes the status quo. For example, letters used to represent the hard "k" sound can be replaced with the letters "KKK," the initials of Ku Klux Klan; or the letter "s" can be replaced with a dollar sign ($).
"K" replacing "C"
It was common among 1960s and early 1970s U.S. leftists to write Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States. [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports. It may additionally have been an allusion to the title of Franz Kafka's 1927 novel Amerika.
In the 1987 TV miniseries Amerika, it denoted a Soviet-conquered America.
A similar usage in Spanish is to write okupa rather than "ocupa" (meaning a building or area occupied by squatters [6], which is particularly remarkable because the letter "k" is not found in native Spanish words. This is particularly associated with Spanish anarchist movements.
"KKK" replacing "C" or "K"
The most common usage of the letters "kkk" in alternative political spelling is the spelling of "America" as Amerikkka. A reference to the Ku Klux Klan, this is often done to indicate the belief that the United States of America or American society is fundamentally racist, oppressive and corrupt. The earliest known usage of "Amerikkka" recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is in 1970, in a journal called Black World. Presumably, this was an extrapolation from the then already widespread "Amerika".
The spelling "Amerikkka" came into greater use after the 1990 release of the gangsta rap album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted by Ice Cube.
The San Francisco Bay View regularly spells America as "Amerikkka". [7], [8], [9]
The letters "KKK" have been inserted into many other words, to indicate similar perceived racism, oppression or corruption. Common alternative spellings include:
- Afrikkka & Afrikkkan : due to intertribal genocide [10]
- Amerikkka (United States): see above for OED citation.
- Demokkkrat (United States Democratic Party) [11]
- KKKanada (Canada): due to racism against native peoples [www.ainfos.ca/01/jun/ainfos00535.html]
- Kkkapitalism (Capitalism) [12]
- Kkklinton (Bill Clinton) [13]
- Kkkristianity, Kkkhristianity (Christianity) [14]
- Republikkkan (United States Republican Party) [15]
- South Afrikkka & South Afrikkkan : due to Apartheid
- Yankkkee (Yankee) [16]
"$" replacing "S"; "€" replacing "E"
The dollar sign can be inserted in the place of the letter S to indicate plutocracy, greed, corruption, or the perceived immoral or unethical accumulation of money. For example:
- Bu$h (George W. Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush, or any member of the Bush family) [17][18], [19]
- E$$o (Esso): used by the UK-based Stop E$$o campaign encouraging people to boycott Esso in protest against Esso's opposition to the Kyoto Protocol
- I$rael (Israel) [20]
- Micro$oft, M$ (Microsoft) [21]
- Ru$$ia (Russia) : used in reference to rampant corruption [www.zaimka.ru/today/olekh6.shtml]
- $ocialist (Socialist) : problem of corruption in socialist politics [www.hotpolitics.com/sportstax2.htm]
- Uncle $am (Uncle Sam) [22]
- United $tates, United $tate$, U$, U$A (United States) [23]
- Wa$hington (Washington) [24]
A recent related usage is replacing E with the euro sign €, as in €$$O, €urope [25] and €C for the European Commision (EC) (which is used by those critical of alleged bribery and corruption in the EC).
"@" replacing "A" and/or "O"
Since at least 1980, Anarchists have used the "at sign" ("@") as a readily handy character to represent the circled letter A. This has been extended to substituting it for the letter "A" as in the Crass fanzine "Toxic Gr@fity" [26]
This may have influenced the usage in Spanish and other Romance languages of this symbol as a politically correct substitute for so-called sexist language. For example, the Spanish words "amigo" and "amiga" would be replaced with amig@. The character is intended to resemble a mix of the letters "o" and "a". Grammatically, this "mix" is not needed because, in Spanish, the masculine grammatical gender is inclusive (it can refer to both males and females), but the feminine gender is exclusive (only for females). There is no English-like neuter gender in Spanish.
"*" replacing "O" and "A" or "I" and "E"
In italian left-wing, pseudocommunist, pseudoanarchist and noglobal/newglobal web writings (chats, forums, mailing-lists, pages, etc.) it's common tu see "*" replacing the final vowels "o" and "a" or "i" and "e" (respectively masculine and feminine singular and masculine and feminine plural). Even though one could think this form lack of number, it's actually deduced from the context, so "*" (generally) replace only a pair of vowel: "amic*" instead of "amico/a" ("friend") XOR instead of "amici/amiche" ("friends"); yes, in the last case "*" is instead of the pair ("i", "he"), that is not a pair of vowels.
The perception that membership in the United Nations is counter to US interests is denoted by the terms Un-ited Nations or EU-nited Nations (similarity to EU - European Union). Similarly, the perception that the United Nations is ineffectual (castrated) is denoted by the term EUN-ited Nations (similarity to Eunich).
A more 'complex' substitution may involve articles: "solidali con * compagn*" --- if it's singular, it's instead of "solidali con il/la compagno/a" ("solidly behind the camrade"); if it's plurarl, it's instead of "solidali con i/le compagni/e" ("solidly behind the camrades"). More concisely the first "*" stand for ("il", "la") XOR ("gli", "le"), the second one stand for ("o", "a") XOR ("i", "e").
Hidden puns
Occasionally a word written in its orthodox spelling is altered with internal capital letters, hyphens, italics, or other devices so as to highlight a fortuitous pun.
After the controversial US presidential election of 2000, the alleged improprieties of the election prompted the use of such titles as pResident and (p)resident [27] [28] for George W. Bush. The same effects were also used for Bill Clinton during and after Clinton's impeachment hearings. These devices were intended to suggest that the president was merely the resident of the White House rather than the legitimate president of the US.
Similarly, the controversial (US law, the Patriot Act (or PATRIOT Act), is sometimes called the patRiot Act, (pat)Riot Act, PAT Riot Act or PAT RIOT Act [29] by its opponents.
Feminist theologian Mary Daly has used a virgule to make a point about patriarchy: gyn/ecology, stag/nation, the/rapist. [30]
In French, where con is an insulting word comparable to 'damned fool', the word conservateur 'conservative' has been written con-servateur [31], con… servateur [32], or con(servateur) [33].
See also
External links
- On de spelling and use of various words by Mangwiro A. Sadiki-Yisrael