Xenophobic slang

[Vertigo]

So, I'm wondering if each language/society has xenophobic slang or "nick names" for people from different countries (along the lines of "limey" and "yank"), and what this says about peoples' perceptions of other nations and their historical relations.

I'd especially be interested to know if there are any for people from the UK .

[Levike]

Black person = negresă ( a black coloured cookie )
Russian = rusnac ( "rus" with a pejorative ending )
Hungarian = bozgor ( person without a home )
French = măncători de broaște ( frog eaters )

[Saim]

In Australia English people are poms, New Zealanders are sheepshaggers (which as I understand in the UK this is a stereotype reserved for the Welsh) and as you've already noted Americans are yanks.

In Serbia Ablanians are known despectively as šiptari. Funnily enough, that actually comes from the Albanian word for themselves, while foreign albanac is the "neutral" form. Bosniacs are known as balije and sometimes the word for Croatian fascists ustaša is generalised to refer to all Croats. Among Croats and Bosniaks, on the other hand, a Serb could be a četnik ("Serb fascist", analogous to ustaša) or a vlah (referring to Latin Balkan peoples, implying that Serbs are not "real" Slavs but Romanians who "stole" the Croatian language). The only other Slavic insult for foreigners I know is the Silesian "gorol", which refers to ethnic Poles.

In Catalonia, Spanish-speaking migrants are known as xarnegos. The Valencian equivalent is xurro (which historically referred to an area of Valencia where Spanish and Aragonese were historically spoken and not Catalan, but became generalised to all "Castilian-Spaniards" so to speak - I read this comes from a Castilian breed of sheep). In Mallorca foraster serves the same function, which literally means "foreigner"; ells xerren en foraster - they speak foreigner (=Spanish). In the Basque Country maketo means "Spaniard", whereas in Asturias non-Asturian people are known despectively as foriatos, except for Leonese people who are cazurros.

In Spain, Catalans are known as polacos (comparing them to the Poles who fought for independence against Germany and Russia), pancas (pan-Catalans, implying they want to annex Valencia and the Balearics to Catalonia) or catalufos. As for Galicians, the very word "gallego" (Galician) can be used to insult a non-Galician, implying they're stupid (the stereotype of Galicians is that they're stupid villagers). As well, French people are gabachos (originally used by Occitans to refer to another group of Occitans, then Catalans to refer to Occitans, then generalised in use - all peoples in Spain use it to refer to French people in general). Portuguese people, on the other hand, don't even seem to have earned a slur, which I think reflects the artificial distance maintained between the two countries.

French = măncători de broaște ( frog eaters )

In English this stereotype is so common that they're often called frogs directly.

[Marah]

In Spain, Catalans are known as polacos (comparing them to the Poles who fought for independence against Germany and Russia), pancas (pan-Catalans, implying they want to annex Valencia and the Balearics to Catalonia) or catalufos. As for Galicians, the very word "gallego" (Galician) can be used to insult a non-Galician, implying they're stupid (the stereotype of Galicians is that they're stupid villagers). As well, French people are gabachos (originally used by Occitans to refer to another group of Occitans, then Catalans to refer to Occitans, then generalised in use - all peoples in Spain use it to refer to French people in general). Portuguese people, on the other hand, don't even seem to have earned a slur, which I think reflects the artificial distance maintained between the two countries.

And "machu picchu" for Latino Americans...

[Saim]

And "machu picchu" for Latino Americans...

Also sudaca and panchito.

[linguoboy]

Wikipedia has extensive lists of these terms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regional_nicknames
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_slurs

[Vertigo]

The terms listed are mostly from the Anglo-sphere though, which is why I asked.

[linguoboy]

The terms listed are mostly from the Anglo-sphere though, which is why I asked.

I remember finding a page which had a more international selection, but I'm not sure what's become of it.

[Lada]

I'd especially be interested to know if there are any for people from the UK .

Sure, we have this: мелкобрит(анец) - melkobrit(anets) - pettybrit
and the country is Мелкобритания - Petty Britain

Russian slang is very xenophobic, just the main words:

Europe, europeans - Gayrope, gayropeans - Гейропа, гейропеец
Asian - narrow-eyed - узкоглазые
People with darker skin than most Russians have - black-assed - черножопые
USA - Pindostan/Pindosia, American (nationality) - pindos - Пиндосия, Пиндостан, пиндос

[TeneReef]

In Argentine Spanish:
paragua = Paraguayan
transandino= Chilean
gallego = Spanish

In Brazilian Portuguese:
japa = Japanese or of Japanese origin
pretos = black people, ''negros''
[offensive when a non-black person use it on blacks, but used affectionately among AfroBrazilians).
gringo =(any) foreigner
[not considered xenophobic at all by Brazilians, but objected to by many foreigners]

In Croatian:
Švábe= Germans (lit. ''People from Swabia'')
Dȉgići = Italians (because Italians of Istria and Trieste say DIGO instead of DICO).
Ȁmeri = Americans

In Indian English:
chinky = any person with slit-eyes, be they Indian (from Ladah or Northeastern India), or foreign (Nepalese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean etc).
Madrassi = any person from S. India (used by Northerners)
Bihari = any person from N. India (used by Southerners)
Porkistani = Pakistani (extremely offensive)

[vijayjohn]

In Malayalam, I'm pretty sure the terms സായിപ്പ് [ˈsaːjpɯ] and മദാമ [məˈd̪aːma] are somewhat derogatory terms for 'white man' and 'white woman', respectively. സായിപ്പ് [ˈsaːjpɯ] comes the well-known (Hindi/Urdu) word sahib, which can also mean specifically 'white man' (and I think can also be fairly derogatory). I guess മദാമ [məˈd̪aːma] is from Portuguese. (I didn't even know that was a word in Portuguese until I looked it up just now).

For Portuguese people specifically, there is a slur പറങ്കി [pəˈrə̃ŋgi] (which apparently comes ultimately from the same source as "Frank"). IIRC, the term for 'venereal disease' in Malayalam is പറങ്കിപ്പനി [pəˈrə̃ŋgipə̃ni], literally 'Portuguese fever'.

In certain other languages, there's also Ajam, Acemi, etc., and in Malay and Indonesian, Cina 'China' is sometimes considered derogatory, and the formal word for 'China' is Tionghua.

In Indian English:
chinky = any person with slit-eyes, be they Indian (from Ladah or Northeastern India), or foreign (Nepalese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean etc).
Madrassi = any person from S. India (used by Northerners)
Bihari = any person from N. India (used by Southerners)
Porkistani = Pakistani (extremely offensive)

Never heard any of these except "Madrasi."

[TeneReef]

In Malayalam, I'm pretty sure the terms സായിപ്പ് [ˈsaːjpɯ] and മദാമ [məˈd̪aːma] are somewhat derogatory terms for 'white man' and 'white woman', respectively. സായിപ്പ് [ˈsaːjpɯ] comes the well-known (Hindi/Urdu) word sahib, which can also mean specifically 'white man' (and I think can also be fairly derogatory). I guess മദാമ [məˈd̪aːma] is from Portuguese. (I didn't even know that was a word in Portuguese until I looked it up just now).

For Portuguese people specifically, there is a slur പറങ്കി [pəˈrə̃ŋgi] (which apparently comes ultimately from the same source as "Frank"). IIRC, the term for 'venereal disease' in Malayalam is പറങ്കിപ്പനി [pəˈrə̃ŋgipə̃ni], literally 'Portuguese fever'.

In certain other languages, there's also Ajam, Acemi, etc., and in Malay and Indonesian, Cina 'China' is sometimes considered derogatory, and the formal word for 'China' is Tionghua.

In Indian English:
chinky = any person with slit-eyes, be they Indian (from Ladah or Northeastern India), or foreign (Nepalese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean etc).
Madrassi = any person from S. India (used by Northerners)
Bihari = any person from N. India (used by Southerners)
Porkistani = Pakistani (extremely offensive)

Never heard any of these except "Madrasi."

Are you having trouble connecting the speakers up to Indian TV?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5LuoX_sy3U

[vijayjohn]

Are you having trouble connecting the speakers up to Indian TV?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5LuoX_sy3U

I don't have Indian TV, and in fact, I barely even watch American TV. I've met plenty of Indians in my life but never one who really gave a दाम about northeastern India or Ladakh or even Nepal, let alone bothered using a slur against people from those areas. I think I've only ever heard most Indians use "Chinese" to refer to what you call "any person with slit-eyes." I've certainly seen my share of Indians with virulent anti-Pakistani hate, I've even seen Hindu extremists calling Muslims "kafirs" (talk about irony!), but I don't remember ever encountering "Porkistani." And I've never heard "Bihari" being used that way, although I've heard "Jansanghi" being used to refer to anyone from North India who is supposedly a religious extremist, regardless of whether they're Hindu or Muslim.

[Saim]

Porkistani = Pakistani (extremely offensive)

I've heard this usage among Baloch seperatists. As much as I sympathise with them, it does get a bit hard not to laugh whenever they use it. Of course, to be fair the level of Pakistani unionists is not much higher: "You Are Not Balochi, Actually You are the real Agents of India And Iran" is a real message from a real person.

[md0]

Threads like this remind me of that "Random unpopular opinion thread" we had at some point, ie for some people this will be their excuse to be jerks.

Anyway, in Cyprus, even the names of some nationalities have become offending.
Turk (Τούρκος) and Pakistani (Πακιστανός, ie any south Asian man even if they are not from Pakistan*), for example, are offensive on their own right.

*Same way Filipina (Φιλιππινέζα) stands for every south east/east Asian woman, even if they come from Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam or China.
Now, Φιλιππινέζα is probably perceived as a milder slur. People use it to describe themselves, instead of insulting others (unlike mainland Greeks, Cypriots do not do self-deprecation. It's a legit difference in pragmatics between SMG and CyG).
As in, someone asks you to do something, and you don't want to do it, which you express by saying "Εν τζιαι είμαι η Φιλιππινέζα σου", I am not your Filipina, meaning "I am not your slave".

I think racial attitudes in Cyprus are easy to guess with just that example

[mōdgethanc]

USA - Pindostan/Pindosia, American (nationality) - pindos - Пиндосия, Пиндостан, пиндос

Any idea what this means/why exactly it's so offensive?

[Ludwig Whitby]

Saim and TeneReef have mostly covered Serbo-Croatian. I am just going to add less insulting variations to ethnic slurs.

As Saim said Serbs use Ustaša to refer to Croats and Croats use Četnik to refer to Serbs. Both are undoubtably slurs. What's interesting though is that both have the diminutive forms as well, which are less offensive.

For Ustaša it is Uja and for Četnik either Četa or Čeda.

For Šiptar (Albanian), one can also say Šipac and Ptarši.

Romas have of course a lot of slurs, such as the very common, but still rather derogatory Cigan (Gypsy) and the variations: Ganci, Gunci and the much less offensive Ciga.

Other nationalities have nicknames which aren't offensive (except for maybe the Italians)
Italians - Žabari (žaba means frog) or Makarondžije (comes from Maccaroni)
Russians - Ruje
Germans - Švabe (Swabians)
Americans - Ameri
Slovenians - Janezi (Janez is a common Slovene name)
Bulgarians - Tuta Bugari (comes from an old comedy series where the main character's father survived a murder attempt by a Tuta the Bulgarian either on a friday or a tuesday.)

And Muslims have a nickname too: Mudže. It is mildly offensive, I guess.

[vijayjohn]

Threads like this remind me of that "Random unpopular opinion thread" we had at some point, ie for some people this will be their excuse to be jerks.

When I first saw this, I thought, "You mean the 'your controversial opinions' thread from last year? How would this end up like that? I mean, this is a place to list slurs, not actually use them lol." Then I started imagining myself ranting about how little North Indians know about South India (hence "Madrasi") and I thought, "Oh, OK. Now I see what you mean."

[linguoboy]

Romas have of course a lot of slurs, such as the very common, but still rather derogatory Cigan (Gypsy) and the variations: Ganci, Gunci and the much less offensive Ciga.

Wait, so Serbian has its own version of backslang/verlan as well?

[vijayjohn]

Yep.