Comments on: President-elect Obama’s Message To The World

By: Phil Manila

Phil Manila — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:48:31 +0000

Deja Vu?

Looking at the headlines and pictures on Obama’s landslide victory, the world seems to be saying “We’re All Americans” again. Heard that in 2002 after 9/11 when GW was the top American.

By: cvj

cvj — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:50:41 +0000

Thanks Jon. I guess his name has the same etymology as Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

By: Jon Limjap

Jon Limjap — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:19:59 +0000

cvj,

LOL, no, the name Barack has Swahili, Arabic, and Hebrew origins:

I’d venture a guess and say that Obama’s name comes from “baaraka” (بارك), a III. form verb which most often crops up in the phrase “baarak(a) Allaah fiik” (بارك الله فيك) meaning “may God bless you” or even “thank you”. My Swahili dictionary lists “barak(a)” as a noun meaning “blessing, prosperity, abundance”.
The Arabic for “blessed” is “mubaarak” (مبارك), as in the surname of the Egyptian president.
So to recap: Barak Obama’s first name is both Swahili (as it is a part of Swahili lexicon) and Arabic (since it is Arabic by origin)

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004187.html

By: Ding Gagelonia

Ding Gagelonia — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:15:52 +0000

PDI has revised their banner pic noiw… with the us pres-elect tagged as Superb Obama… nagbabawi ng insulto

By: cvj

cvj — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:35:12 +0000

Jon (@10:45am), is Barack Japanese for Black?

By: Jeg

Jeg — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:52:52 +0000

Saw it, Jon. Yuck! It’s on the internet so the whole world can theoretically see that PDI sucks.

By: Jon Limjap

Jon Limjap — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:57:48 +0000

Jeg,

Inquirer.net has the headline upfront now.

In terms of taste, my qualms with the title is in terms of grammar. It sounds wrong.

Sobrang pinilit.

By: Jeg

Jeg — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:45:46 +0000

Blackshama was commenting on a matter of taste, Jon. PDI is a broadsheet that bills itself as the newspaper of record and it is bad taste for it to have a tabloid headline.

For the record, I havent seen the headline myself.

By: Jon Limjap

Jon Limjap — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:45:26 +0000

I’m positing the above in contrast to the word nigger, which in turn comes from “negro”. While “negro” can refer to Spanish word that refers to the color black, its roots come from the Greek word nekros, meaning “dead body” or corpse, and uses also include “pozo negro” (literally, black well) which in Spanish refers to septic tanks.

Black on the other hand is a color, and that’s it, it’s a color, originating for the Old English word for “ink”.

By: Jon Limjap

Jon Limjap — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:39:27 +0000

Why is the use of “black” such a big deal, when African Americans *do* refer to themselves as blacks?