Page 10 - NVRA eVoice Dec 2018_2
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10 December 2018 • NVRA eVoice
“Native American” isn't the same as
“native American”
HERE’S WHY?
hese days, social media is extra treatment of a capital letter.
glut with excited folks who
are sending off their cheek That’s because simply being born in
Tswabs to find out just the good old US of A doesn’t make
what’s hiding in their DNA. Will someone a Native American (capital
they find out they had an ancestor N). Those two words are both
on the Mayflower? Or, maybe capitalized because they’re what
there was a Native American who grammar experts refer to as proper
played a role in their genes along nouns, or “nouns that are used to
the way. denote a particular person, place,
or thing.” Native Americans,
That would make them Native likewise, are a specific category of
American too, right? Well, the Americans who were born in the
definition of Native American is United States (although some also
a lot more complicated than the extend the word’s usage to
genetics chart you get from your standard DNA testing incorporate all of North and South America), and they
center. make up at least two percent of the population. They’re
not just native to this area in the sense of having been
Let’s start with the capitalization issue. born on American soil, but they’re specifically from a group
of people who have established American Indian or Alaska
Native American with a capital N Native ancestry. Note the words should always be used
together. It’s considered disparaging and offensive to refer
Here at Dictionary.com, our lexicographers have
distinguished between native Americans and Native to a group of people who are Native American simply as
Americans. The first version, with the lowercase n, applies natives.
to anyone who was born here in the United States. After
all, when used as an adjective, native is defined as “being Another good example of common nouns vs. proper nouns
the place or environment in which a person was born or a is New York City. When it’s written with a capital C, it’s
thing came into being.” If you were born in the United specifically referring to the area that encompasses the five
States of America, you are native to the country. boroughs. When it’s written with a lowercase c, it can refer
to any large metropolis located anywhere in the state.
Lowercase native American is a common noun, which refers
to people, places, and things in general; it doesn’t get the Source: Dictionary.com
.
“For last year’s words belong
to last year’s language.
And next year’s words await
another voice.”
~ T.S. Eliot
Four Quartets
