"Football" vs. "Soccer"

This is a topic that, as both a football (soccer) fan and someone who's interested in languages and linguistics, and thus etymology, is near and dear to my heart.  So let me just say, before I go further,

Both words are correct.

Yes, you heard me.  I hope it was loud and clear.  Both the words "football" and "soccer" are equally correct.  And it irks me to no end when the word "soccer" is brought up to be "wrong" or "stupid", and how apparently only Americans (and don't even get me started on the word "Americans", for that is another rant for another time) use it, which makes them, *gasp* stupid.

Now, I'm not one of those "'MURRCA" Americans, because that is stupid, because hell, I didn't have a choice to be born here, I just was.  That's the way it is, that's the way it goes, and I have complaints, I have compliments, but so does anyone.  I'm not going to relinquish my citizenship because I don't like the direction this country is going in, nor am I going to tell everyone to leave.  My ancestors came to this country for a reason, and I can respect that.  I'm here now, I have an American passport that I actually think looks really cool, I really like our national anthem and the story behind it, and you know what?  I'm American and I like it.

All that being said, I think the whole "soccer versus football" as a "United States versus the World" argument is idiotic.  Why?  For one thing, the etymology of the word "soccer".  See, most people seem to think that "football" is the correct term because it's played with the feet.  I'm not here to debate that.  I'm also not here to discuss or complain about how American football is called football even though it's more "handegg" than "football" in terms of method and tool used to play.  I watch American football (GO PACK GO), and I enjoy it.

Here's the thing.  Both words "soccer" and "football" are correct, as the actual term for the sport is called "Association football".  You know, a sport played with a ball using feet that is made up of associations.  And here's the kicker, that's where the word soccer comes from.  I know!  Crazy, right?  Mind-blowing.  I'm going to quote Wikipedia here, because I can:

The word soccer is an abbreviation of association) and first appeared in universities in the 1880s (sometimes using the variant spelling "socker").

For nearly a hundred years after it was coined, soccer was an uncontroversial alternative to football, often in colloquial and juvenile contexts, but also in formal speech and writing.[6] In the late twentieth century some speakers of British English began to deprecate soccer for reasons that remain unclear; it is possible they mistook it for an Americanism

The word "soccer" was used in Britain until the late 20th century, and then stopped becaues they thought that Americans invented the word!  And in case Wikipedia isn't good enough (I feel ya):

soccer (n.) 

1899, socca, later socker (1891), soccer (1895), originally university slang (with jocular formation -er (3)), from a shortened form of Assoc., abbreviation of association in Football Association (as opposed to Rugby football); compare rugger. An unusual method of formation, but those who did it perhaps shied away from making a name out of the first three letters of Assoc.

That's from the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anyway.  There you go.  Prefer to say "football" over "soccer"?  Say it!  Prefer to say "soccer" over "football" because you don't want people to get it confused with American football?  Okay!  Just don't go around telling everyone that the way they're saying it is wrong.

Now let's just all agree to get along!

Three Languages or One?

An article was just brought to my attention today via Facebook.  In it, the writer (subtly) complains about a proposal by major Spanish conservative party PP (Partido Popular, or Popular Party) that schools in Catalunya will, under their direction should they be elected in the coming months, switch to a trilingual system in which Catalan, Spanish and English will be in the curriculum until the bachillerato, the optional two years after the mandatory eight years of schooling and before university in the Spanish public school system.

What gets me is that people are complaining about this.  Now, I understand that linguistic freedom is a huge issue in Catalunya right now.  Catalan as a language has been under fire by the Spanish government since 1716 (with a brief revival during the Renaixença period of the late 19th century and early 20th century) and even since the Caudillo's death in 1975 Catalan still does not have the respect it once had.  Whereas other multilingual countries such as Canada and Belgium allow people living in certain areas to speak whichever language they will and not speak others, Spain makes sure that Spanish is still the dominant language throughout the state.  Many Catalans believe their language is still being oppressed because of this.  I don't take issue with this.

It’s a Great Time to be a Culé

*Note*  If you support Real Madrid, you may not want to read this.  Just saying.  Figured I should warn you in advance.

So just in case you’re not at all up to keeping up to date in the football (Association Football that is, aka “soccer”), these last three weeks have had as a protagonist the “classic” match-ups between Real Madrid and Barcelona, the biggest clubs in Spain, and probably one of the biggest sports rivalry on the planet.  Considering how big football is on every continent (with a slight exception of the countries of the USA and Canada), I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the biggest.  But moving on, these last three weeks, ending yesterday, featured not one but four of these match-ups.  One of the league match, held at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, the second for the Copa del Rey final at the Mestalla in Valencia, and the final two for the Champions League semifinals in the respective stadiums of the two sides: first in Madrid at the Bernabéu, second in Barcelona at the Camp Nou.

 

A “Spanish” “National” Team?

I find it hilarious when people (clueless and naïve people mostly) claim to be offended whenever someone, anyone, makes a suggestion that “Catalonia is not Spain”.  Whether it’s someone simply speaking Catalan, like Andrés Iniesta is doing now on Facebook (the Spaniards who are upset about this make me laugh more than anything else; he can use as much English as he wants, but  he use Catalan which is a similar language to Spanish and therefore not that hard to decipher if you’re reading it on the internet), with the case I mentioned back in my “Visca Catalunya Lliure!” post in February with the coach who walked answer a question in a press conference because he refused to answer a question he was asked in Catalan in Spanish, or, more recently, with the comments that Gerard Piqué, a player for FC Barcelona, allegedly made after the clàssic two Saturdays ago at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid claiming that on Wednesday (last Wednesday) Barcelona was going to win “your King’s cup!”

I’ll concede that, if the statements were true (Piqué denied them over Twitter, and it was Madrid paper Marca which printed them, and they’re not known for being discerning when it comes to the content of their paper, but Piqué could have easily just made the post to save his own arse), they were certainly not made tactfully.  But at the same time, why are people offended?  Is it because of how he said it…or is it because of what he said (allegedly)?  Are people offended at the fact that he addressed the crowd at the Bernabéu telling them that Barcelona was going to win a title which they didn’t even believe in (Barcelona, as Catalunya as a whole, was on the side of the República during the Spanish Civil War and thus did not believe in instating any kind of monarchy), or is it because he was being an ass about it?  Maybe it was both?

"Visca Catalunya Lliure!"

On the way to Ikea yesterday afternoon with my parents, I was listening to an episode of La Competència, my favorite radio program ever which airs on RAC1 in Catalunya (it is in Catalan), which I get through podcasts.  It was from last Tuesday,  and featured a discussion on an article written by Catalan journalist Quim Monzó for La Vanguardia, a Barcelona-based newspaper which publishes in Spanish (it's going to start publishing in Catalan in May).  It's an article about the coach for the Girona football team, Raül Agné, who walked out on a post-match press conference he was giving because he was told to answer a question in Spanish instead of Catalan, when the question had been asked in Catalan (something done all the time by journalists and coaches in press conference; if the coach speaks the language a question is asked in, he responds in that language).