Is Dumbo a Discriminatory Word?

Abstract

This paper focuses on little-known but important differences between the Japanese word “a-sha (唖者[mute])”and its English equivalent“dumb.” In Japan“a-sha”is not considered a discriminatory term, but very few people use it now, mainly because“ro-a-sha (聾唖者[deaf-mute])”was almost replaced by“ro-sha (聾者[deaf])”soon after World War II under the influence of the American deaf education. On the contrary, in America the word “dumb” is regarded as derogatory when used to mean“speechless,” but apparently many Americans do not hesitate to use it in another sense:“stupid.” This must seem a little strange to Japanese people. To examine more thoroughly why this happens in America, I shed some light on the usage of the word “dumb” itself as well as its derivatives and synonyms including “Dumbo,” “dummy,” “dumbbell”and “dumbwaiter.”