Help! Hyphenated Americans problem

bswanson · **Joined:** Mon Apr 12, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 61

Quick! I'm on deadline! What's the group's consensus on the proper hyphenation of the of this month's flavor-of-the-month, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The group's "official" site lists no hyphens whatsoever, but they do occasionally slip and put a slash between Asian/Pacific.
What about other "hyphenated Americans" such as Irish-American, German-American, etc.? (Or have we abandoned hyphenated Americans so they are now No-Longer-Hyphenated Americans?)

Mort · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2004 2:27 pm

Just put "Asiatic" and see what happens.

SusanV · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2004 2:55 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Bill Swanson:
Quick! I'm on deadline! What's the group's consensus on the proper hyphenation of the of this month's flavor-of-the-month, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The group's "official" site lists no hyphens whatsoever, but they do occasionally slip and put a slash between Asian/Pacific.
What about other "hyphenated Americans" such as Irish-American, German-American, etc.? (Or have we abandoned hyphenated Americans so they are now No-Longer-Hyphenated Americans?)<hr></blockquote>Yikes. What a mouthful. I hope I never have to deal with that one, but I think if I did I'd use the slash as well, and no hyphen in front of American. At Snews, we hyphenate xxxx-American combinations except for Latin American. I can't think of an instance where we've ever used Pacific American, but I wouldn't hyphenate it either. The distinction is that neither of these is a nationality.[ May 04, 2004: Message edited by: SusanV ]

JPSheehan · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2004 3:14 pm

We prefer (and I think this is different from AP) no hyphens with Adjective Americans. It would seem that in this case, the organizers mean to include both Asian Americans and Pacific Americans. But what is a "Pacific American"? Can the Beach Boys join? They probably mean Pacific Islanders. Let's see how the options play out:
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month
Asian/Pacific-American Heritage Month
Asian-Pacific American Heritage MonthThe multiple hyphens look kinda conspicuous, but at least they reveal the title as someone else's poorly conceived mish-mash.[ May 04, 2004: Message edited by: JPSheehan ]

bswanson · **Joined:** Mon Apr 12, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 61

Quote: "At Snews, we hyphenate xxxx-American combinations except for Latin American. I can't think of an instance where we've ever used Pacific American, but I wouldn't hyphenate it either. The distinction is that neither of these is a nationality."That's pretty good. Can we adopt the rule this way: if the first part is a country name or adjective thereof (Czech-American, Bolivian-American, Irish-American, Chinese-American, whatever) use the hyphen. But if it's a regional or other descriptor, e.g. Latin American, African American, Asian American, etc., don't use a hyphen. I suppose that would also allow us to distinguish between a Spanish-American (born in Spain and only in Spain, and with a hyphen) from a Hispanic American without a hyphen.
I can live with that. Thanks

bswanson · **Joined:** Mon Apr 12, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 61

Well, you all may regrett this, but here's the two paragraphs and here's what I did with them:"The month of May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, a celebration of Asian and Pacific Islanders and their contributions to the United States. The theme for the 2004 Asian/Pacific American Heritage celebration is "Freedom for All, A Nation We Call Our Own."
...
Asian/Pacific Americans include many ethnic groups with diverse backgrounds, histories, languages and cultures. The significance of this month can only be understood by recognizing the progression and convergence of the many diverse groups that make up the Asian/Pacific American community, which includes Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Korean-Americans, Vietnamese-Americans, Asian Indian Americans, Filipino-Americans, Cambodian-Americans, Hmong Americans, Laotian-Americans, Hawaiian Americans, Pakistani, Guamian and Samoan-Americans and Thai-Americans, to name a few. The month of May is set aside to celebrate the collective accomplishments of these communities."Jeez, I hope it's five o'clock somewhere.

JPSheehan · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2004 3:39 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>The significance of this month can only be understood by recognizing the progression and convergence of the many diverse groups that make up the Asian/Pacific American community<hr></blockquote>... and the prodigious difficulty in hyphenating them all.

EMorse · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2004 3:43 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Bill Swanson:
...
the Asian/Pacific American community, which includes Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Korean-Americans, Vietnamese-Americans, Asian Indian Americans, Filipino-Americans, Cambodian-Americans, Hmong Americans, Laotian-Americans, Hawaiian Americans, Pakistani, Guamian and Samoan-Americans and Thai-Americans, to name a few. The month of May is set aside to celebrate the collective accomplishments of these communities."<hr></blockquote>** Wow, that's a mouthful. This probably arrives too late to be of help, but two things: First, distinguishing between nationalities and regional descriptions, in this case, looks inconsistent; readers might not grasp the subtlety and assume the writer couldn't be bothered to hyphenate everything. Second, Hawaiians and Guamanians (not Guamians) are American citizens, so no hyphenation needed there.
As far as I know, my paper's style is no hyphens with any Adjective Americans, although it always seemed to me any such construction should be hyphenated as an adjective (African-American studies) but not as a noun (he is an African American).

contrarysounding · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2004 4:19 pm

You might check with the Asian American Journalists Association, too. Here's a link to an online style guide published by AAJA:http://aaja.org/images/aaja_pdfs/2000aaja_handbook.pdf

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2004 8:25 pm

The way I'd instinctively approach this isBlah blah blah blah by people of Korean, Irish, Maori, Samoan, Fijian descent.

SusanV · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2004 8:43 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Bill Swanson:
Quote: "At Snews, we hyphenate xxxx-American combinations except for Latin American. I can't think of an instance where we've ever used Pacific American, but I wouldn't hyphenate it either. The distinction is that neither of these is a nationality."That's pretty good. Can we adopt the rule this way: if the first part is a country name or adjective thereof (Czech-American, Bolivian-American, Irish-American, Chinese-American, whatever) use the hyphen. But if it's a regional or other descriptor, e.g. Latin American, African American, Asian American, etc., don't use a hyphen. I suppose that would also allow us to distinguish between a Spanish-American (born in Spain and only in Spain, and with a hyphen) from a Hispanic American without a hyphen.
I can live with that. Thanks<hr></blockquote>You can adopt whatever rule you like. (grin)Actually, we do hyphenate Asian-American and African-American. I believe we use Hispanic as a standalone, but I'd have to check the archives to confirm that, which I can't do from home. I think that had I been confronted with that long list, I would have recast it to say something along the lines of "...community, which includes Americans of Japanese, Chinese, (rest of list here, excluding Hawaiian, Guamanian and ending with Thai) descent along with Hawaiians, Guamanians and Samoans" (aren't they also American citizens?).[ May 04, 2004: Message edited by: SusanV ]

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2004 9:05 pm

Western Samoa is a sovereign nation. American Samoa has some weird unsatisfactory arrangement. South Pacific needs a Monroe Doctrine.

SusanV · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2004 10:30 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Paul Wiggins:
Western Samoa is a sovereign nation. American Samoa has some weird unsatisfactory arrangement. South Pacific needs a Monroe Doctrine.<hr></blockquote>Oy. No wonder I'm confused.

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