Latinos overwhelming dislike the label Latinx: update: Latino Democrats want to ban fake word

You don't think one of the 59 million Latin Americans in this country were likely to think of that?

Many Latinos are bilingual and speak both English and Spanish with a high level of fluency.

 

The wiki actually references the X coming from Chicano sometimes being spelled Xichano which would make the X actually Mexican in origin here. It's pronounced with an sh sound from its Meshica people and the Nahuatl language. Nowadays in many words the X makes a J/H sound as in Mejico and Tejas. At some point the queer community started using the X at the end of Xichanx then finally Latinx. It still doesn't make phonetic sense using nahuatl, Spanish or English rules tho. The whole thing is clumsy.

 

Lol I don't think anyone finds themselves an expert on this including myself but thanks. I do know however that despite being mostly pretty liberal, I've received a lot of push back for calling this movement goofy. Not here, but on another board. If it's widely adopted then whatever, I know language is fluid but it seems like it's being ham fistedly pushed into existence and if you think it's funny you're an *******.

 

By who? I've very rarely seen anyone use in the term anywhere.

 

Which is why I find it odd when I see it used in journalism and corporate advertising.

 

Is it pronounced 'latinx' or 'latinx'?

 

latinequis

Like the beer dos equis

 

I've heard that too that it is awkward and again points to an origin that is taken from American English culture. Why most Latino and Latinas in the US are bilingual the use of "Latinx" likely would be very confusing to those who don't use American English or understand the cultural use of "x" in that way.

Remember Latin America and people from it isn't just the US but encompasses most of the Western Hemisphere and even if the term was developed by bilingual speakers in the US it would be an imposition to apply to people who are still considered "Latino" and "Latina" but not of this culture.

The main issue to me though is that the majority of even US Latinos and Latinas don't prefer the term so it shouldn't be used as the default term for that group.

 

I've never claimed that this term was developed by "white" people but it certainly was developed by someone who at the minimum was bilingual and not only understood English but American English culture as "x". The reasoning behind it is clearly to get beyond a gender a designation of Spanish language so that people aren't referred to by gender.

While yes Latin American is chauvinistic and in the US we have been wrestling with getting beyond non-binary gender, the use of gender in Romance languages though of themselves aren't chauvinistic.

For example "Bowl" in Spanish is masculine "el cuenco" while "cup" is feminine "la taza". That doesn't mean that there is chauvinism between bowls and cups. We can argue that bowls and cups shouldn't have a gender but doing away with gender designations for nouns would likely be the end of Romance languages.

Obviously humans aren't bowls or cups and gender is a big issue right now which is why I will defer to what that group wants to be called. If most prefer "Latinx" then that should be the default term. Most appear to not prefer that term.

 

Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid.

Good god man.

 

lateenesh, like you're french, 'cause it sounds fancier

 

la teenks?

 

LatinX is the Latin American version of Womyn. Here's probably what happened. Some Latina academic feminist probably came up with this and proposed it and it caught on with a small group and has been spread by very liberal Latin American liberals in academia and has hit a few mainstream sources. Progressive have quickly embraced it and magnified it as progressives do with these things.

Regardless, who came up with it should be immaterial. People can call themselves what they want. Afterall, you may accept being called Chinese for instance, but it was Marco Polo who came up with the word - therefore would you reject that label (if you were Chinese).

 

I'm going with le tinks.

 

Tinmanx.