I Needed To Ask Why We Do This…

Our world doesn’t make sense. I already know this. The English language is horrid as far as consistency goes.

This morning, my son asked me, “Daddy, why do we pronounce it ‘kernel’ if it’s spelled ‘colonel’?”

I’m aware of the etymology of the word and have read a few literary debates about it. But, ultimately, it didn’t satisfy 10 year old logic. We talked about how British pronounce ‘lieutenant’ as ‘leftenant’ and couldn’t come up with a reason.

While language is language, there are also many inconsistencies in our social systems of race and reference (how we refer to each other). I won’t deal with the topic of race directly today. But, I have some questions about reference.

For example, when we refer to:

1. Asians, why are we really only talking about Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Thai, and Vietnamese? Russia is a part of Asia. So are India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Syria and the entire Arabian peninsula.
2. Americans, why are really only talking about the continental United States? For many US citizens, it’s a stretch to refer to people from Hawaii as Americans. Umm, they’re Hawaiians. Just like my uncle is an Alabaman…except no one ever refers to him that way. Hmmm. What about Brazilians, Argentinians, Venezuelans? They are Americans too, correct? Oh, my fault. They are…