Anyway, I have said this a long time ago on these forums. There are two kinds of Americans (because of the two general cultures that each coined the word at almost the same darn time, being South American and United States American) - try and learn to deal with with it.![]()
I automatically assume that asking an "American" a question means that it's intended that a resident of the United States should answer.If I ask 'Americans' a question, who might I be referring to? If the answer is unclear, your use of language is clumsy.
Back when they were choosing a name for their country, they should have gone with the explorer's first name. "The United States of Vespucci" has a nice ring -- all hail to our southern neighbors, the Vespuccians!As Brennan summed up...
It should probably be added that, in much of Latin America (and French Quebec), "The Americas" are defined as a single continent - "America" stretching from the Cape Horn all the way to Canada.
In the perspective of many of those people, the American use of "Americans" as if they were the only Americans in the world is unbridled American arrogance and hubris - to think that they actually have a right to the name of our continent for themselves, and themselves alone. (And in the process, denying us inhabitants of America-the-continent the right to our proper name - like the people of Asia are Asians, the people of Europe are Europeans, the people of Africa Africans...but the people of America are not Americans because the most annoying country on the continent has decided they had a monopoly on that name.
The fact that said country has a bad tendency to treat the entire America/Americas as their own private playground, and any country within as their pet vassals, on whom it has rights of life and death, really doesn't help either - in that sort of condition, their hijacking of the continent name for their own country feel like more of the same horsehockey imperialism.
Mind, personally, I tend to only use USians or United Statesians when I'm being whimsical or not very serious (ie, the same times I,m likely to use Canuckistan, Hockeyland and various other less-than-serious names for places) ; in serious discussion, I want to be understood, not to make a point about how ridiculously arrogant Americans are when it comes to naming themselves.
When talking French, though, "Étatsuniens" is far more commonly used, and I'm not shy about using it either.
When the United States became a country, not only was it the only independent country on either of the two American continents...
I don't think the indigineous population called themselves Americans.
But they had countries, yes?
Oh, my. So the Iroquois Confederacy, the Aztecs, the Incans, the Northwest Coast tribes (culturally connected via the potlatch customs), the Mound Builder culture, and many others both pre-European contact and contemporaneous -- NONE of those would constitute an "independent country"? I beg to differ.Well, how much they were countries in the modern sense vary from group to group. Certainly the Aztecs and Incans had something approximating countries ; you could certainly make a case for, say, the Iroquois as well.
The rest? Not so much.
Personally, I never feel referred to by the term "American." On the other hand, the term "North American" is a different matter. The thing is, the first refers to a foreign country. The latter refers to the continent where I happen to live.I for one am often too lazy to write 'US Americans' or 'US citizens'. Simply calling them 'Americans' can be confusing, though - people from all the many other countries on the two continents can feel referred to. So why not 'USians'? it is short, precise, easily understood.
Yes, let's not start describing ourselves as "Canadian Americans."If the Canadians feel that they wish to incorporate the term Americans into their self-describers, they are perfectly free to do what the South Americans have done and still do and cause years and years of confusion and unsolvable disagreement between our respective countries.
You'll always be yanks to me. Especially those from the south.
Let's say us people from the US gave up the adjective American to describe us. How many of you are going to pick it up now that the moniker is available? Not that many. You will most likely still refer to yourselves as Canadian or Mexican or Bolivian or etc. American is what we call ourselves, America is in the name of our country, and it flows off the tongue better than USians or United Statesians.
This attitude is in evidence yet further when we see citizens of the USA refer to, say, the president of Iran as "Ahmanutjob", "Ahma-din-Laden", "Ahmadinawhatevathefukyoucallhim" and "you-know-who-ejad".It should probably be added that, in much of Latin America (and French Quebec), "The Americas" are defined as a single continent - "America" stretching from the Cape Horn all the way to Canada.
In the perspective of many of those people, the American use of "Americans" as if they were the only Americans in the world is unbridled American arrogance and hubris - to think that they actually have a right to the name of our continent for themselves, and themselves alone. (And in the process, denying us inhabitants of America-the-continent the right to our proper name - like the people of Asia are Asians, the people of Europe are Europeans, the people of Africa Africans...but the people of America are not Americans because the most annoying country on the continent has decided they had a monopoly on that name.
The fact that said country has a bad tendency to treat the entire America/Americas as their own private playground, and any country within as their pet vassals, on whom it has rights of life and death, really doesn't help either - in that sort of condition, their hijacking of the continent name for their own country feel like more of the same horsehockey imperialism.
I was waiting for someone to mention him. Here's some more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldseemüller_mapValka D'Ur said:Back when they were choosing a name for their country, they should have gone with the explorer's first name. "The United States of Vespucci" has a nice ring -- all hail to our southern neighbors, the Vespuccians!![]()
Aye. Medvedev was the other example that I couldn't remember. It's all basically a blend of arrogance and ignorance, which most people find to be quite a tasteless cocktail to encounter.Ram, that post reminds me of the one about Medvedev, some Americans here on OT were outraged that Yurps thought Condoleeza Rice should learnt to pronounce it properly