English as the Center and Its Privileges
Daniel José Older recently uploaded an appropriate video titled Why We Don’t Italicize Spanish: This incited reactions from several people, including Bryan Thao Worra: [View the story “Bryan Thao Worra Reacts to Why We Don’t Italicize Spanish” on Storify] Previously, I once asked an editor why we italicize Filipino words. “Charles, there’s a difference between away in a manger from away in a manger.” (Away being the Filipino word for fighting.) There is, of course, context: readers should be able to immediately distinguish if people are moving away from the manger, as opposed to a fight taking place in a manger, if such a sentence was used in a story. But I doubt if the style guides of various publishers (including the one I work for) will be changing anytime soon.
