Cheap or stingy.

@Lingyis.

We are more like Canadians than Americans in New Zealand. Nobody I know can understand the kind of racism that goes on in the deep south and places like that. We do have a few stereotypes of course (Maoris steal, Asians run the dairies type thing) but nothing is taken very seriously. Of course things are probably different in Auckland, but who gives a shit about Auckland? (I apologise to any Jafas on the board for that =P)

actually where I live everyone seems to love Canada for unknown reasons.

 I'm sorry, I may have explained a little poorly. I did do a little looking up before posting and found,

"A number of dictionaries have provided different suggestions as to the origin of chink. Some of these suggestions are that it originated from the Chinese courtesy, ching-ching, that it evolved from the word "China", or that it was an alteration of 'Qing', as in the Qing Dynasty. A final explanation posits that the word evolved from the other meaning of chink, which is a small crevice, being a simile for small or slanted eyes." 

From Chinese, it is modifying and adding the "k" 

"ching-ching" being changed to it would seem very obviously to be a modification making fun of them.

Evolved from China is a modification that replaces.

Alteration from Qing is a modification that is even adding making it longer.

"Japanese" to "Jap" is what I'm considering an abbreviation and not so much a modification in the sense that it only removed what was there. It did not replace it with something else or add something, so it seems more like a logical way to abbreviate it especially if you don't know that it was used in a derogatory manner before. 

I apologize if the word offends you, but what I meant to be getting across is that it does seem like it should be a logical abbreviation.

Just as a reference - I live in the deep south. There are some places where even I wouldn't go, but its not terrible. There is a lot of racism here, but from my experience, people are more likely to spot racism in places not close to home, rather than look closely to where they live.

Its a phonetic change. Adding a letter or altering spellings slightly makes little difference, when viewed from the likelihood that it was derived from phonetic listening.

I'll give you another example with Japanese to Jap. Nippon is the Japanese sounding name for Japan. Nip is a shortened version that is highly offensive. Makes for a great logical abbreviation, but is still offensive.

It is a logical abbreviation, sure, but you are trying to put logic into deeply ingrained emotion. It just doesn't work like that.     

"""canada does the best job in these kind of education. america does a reasonable job. europe in general does a horrible job."""

==> any evidence of this ?
I m pretty sure that US/canada and Europe dont solve this problem the same way but I m not sure that the US/Canada way is better.

 *writes down in notes to make sure to not accidently use that* Yeah, I understand what you're saying. Just this last post did I notice, "History is the greatest of comedies" and found it pretty amusing.

Thanks for the interesting discussion all. I'd likely be up for some more grammar and/or linguistics discussions another day.

1st, i don't want to leave anyone out, 2nd, this WILL offend some... please step back, and understand that if you are offended, you have "empowered" these words... YOU have given them strength. cracker, spic, redneck, wop, hillbilly, coon, shit-kicker, chinks, peckerwoods, kikes, white-trash, gooks, anglo, wetback, trailer-king, camel jockey. did anyone else notice that some of those are "acceptable"? one was even half of a tv show. i can be called a cracker on a whim, though if i responded in like, i'm a racist. just pointing out. these words are useless to me, if i WANTED to hate you.... i assure you i can find better reasons. actually, if you are offended, go to a lighter subject, this is not for you, though i do apologise. Is this something too sensitive to discuss?

Word's meanings change over time. Jap is still offensive, so don't use it. Just think what are some of your cultural/ethnic/racial family roots, now picture being 100% that and some one calling you a derogatory name.

As far as I know it is alway one letter abbreviation of Japanese. JRPG, JPop, JDevelopers, JPublishers, JCharts. I think those are the one's I've seen, that are appropriate.

Americans we tend to be a little more flexible, and don't care what people call us... unless it involves are race, religion, ethnic group, color, creed, a second nationality, physical or mental disability (don't call it a handicap), political beliefs, financial background, or sexual orientation. Other than that it's cool, you can say what ever you want.

Let me put it this way: Guns don't kill people, people kill people.  Same thing with words.  Words have different meanings when used in different contexts.  George Carlin once said, "You can prick your finger, but you can't finger your prick!"  See the difference?  Those very simple words have two completely different meanings, just like "Jap" might be an abbreviation or a racial slur.

Just like guns, it's the way people USE words that causes injury, not the words themselves.