Columbia

**Columbia** is a popular intentional and unintentional misspelling of the South American nation of Colombia. Its prevalence in Gobcord originates from the former owner Greem Jestay's country of origin and serial misspellings of the country's name as "Columbia."

## History & etymology

The name "Columbia" and "Colombia" both originate from Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus (born Cristoforo Colombo). The Anglo spelling was used primarily in the United States up until the 20th century as a poetic alias of the nation, most often represented in the form of Lady Columbia, a personification of the US. Presently, the name "Columbia" is most popularly associated (besides the misnomered nation) in the English-speaking world with the Canadian province of British Columbia, the city of Columbia in South Carolina, USA, and the sportswear company Columbia.

"Colombia" almost exclusively refers to the nation of Colombia, however "Columbia" is a frequent accidental misspelling of the country's name by English speakers because of its identical pronunciation in English. This, famously, pisses off Colombians.

Unintentional misspelling of Colombia is, at its best, an innocent but annoying mistake made by anglophones; at its worst, it may be indicative of White Anglo ignorance and linguistic imperialism, particularly the presumption -- whether active or tacit -- that Anglo culture, particularly language in this case, takes preeminence over that of Latin American culture and language (how Colombia is spelt "Columbia" because it seems "correct" in English). This kind of misspelling also occurred with Puerto Rico (with its name changed to "Porto Rico" when colonized by the United States in 1898).

Further examples of implicit linguistic imperialism from the United States over Latin America include -- drastically more controversial -- the usage of the word "America" to describe the United States of America as opposed to the broader description of the American supercontinent used by Latin Americans. Many Latin Americans take issue with the US usage as it implicitly presumes the namesake of two entire continents of people to one nation, and further testifies to the historic arrogance and unparticularity of US culture.

Many would argue the use of the word "Latinx" by White Americans to describe non-binary Latinos or to describe Latinos in gender-neutral terms despite evidence the term is unfavored by Latinos for its Anglocentric etymology (the word can't be pronounced in Spanish) or otherness it imposes on Latinos is another example of implicit cultural exceptionalism and linguistic imperialism. It is important to note, however, that resistance to Anglo neologism can be partly attributed to a cultural resistance to gender neutral language in general from within the Latin American community.

## Intentional misspelling

In Gobcord, the misspelling of Colombia as "Columbia" began as a way to annoy Greem. This resulted in the word "Columbia" and its variants being censored from the server for nearly two weeks before being uncensored over concerns that its censorship would only inspire more mischief (and also that the bit got old). The event prompting the censor of "Columbia" was when the intentional misspelling happened most (when the bit wasn't old), however it remains an occasional running gag in the server.

While this wasn't a forthright concern in Gobcord, the intentional misspelling of Colombia for instigative ends can reasonably be lamented as demonstration of implicit bias, and would be generally important for Gobcord members to be aware of, no matter if the context is lighthearted fun. Antagonism toward misspelling Colombia in Gobcord has mostly been for banter, but is due in part of this real cultural context.

1. ↑ https://www.colombia.co/en/colombia-country/discover-the-difference-between-colombia-the-country-and-columbia/
2. ↑ https://thecitypaperbogota.com/opinion/columbia-vs-colombia/1576
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto\_Rico#:~:text=The%20island%27s%20name%20was%20changed%20to%20Porto%20Rico%20by%20the%20United%20States%20after%20the%20Treaty%20of%20Paris%20of%201898.%5B31%5D
4. ↑ https://www.quora.com/America-is-a-continent-not-a-country-What-is-the-real-gentility-of-the-inhabitants-of-the-USA
5. ↑ https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in-four-u-s-hispanics-have-heard-of-latinx-but-just-3-use-it/#:~:text=in%20June%202014.6-,Should%20Latinx%20be%20adopted%20as%20a%20pan%2Dethnic%20term%20for%20U.S.%20Hispanics%3F,-Among%20those%20aware
6. ↑ https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/many-latinos-say-latinx-offends-or-bothers-them-here-s-ncna1285916
7. ↑ https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=28967#:~:text=This%20is%20a%20blatant%20form%20of%20linguistic%20imperialism%20%E2%80%94%20the%20forcing%20of%20U.S.%20ideals%20upon%20a%20language%20in%20a%20way%20that%20does%20not%20grammatically%20or%20orally%20correspond%20with%20it.
8. ↑ https://www.npr.org/2019/12/08/786135746/a-new-effort-in-argentina-seeks-to-make-spanish-nouns-gender-neutral#:~:text=And%2C%20you%20know%2C%20the%20Spanish%20language%20is%20also%20extremely%20tied%20to%20this%20academy%20called%20the%20Royal%20Spanish%20Academy%20in%20Spain.%20And%20they%20have%20said%2C%20blatantly%2C%20that%20they%20do%20not%20accept%20this