Tuesday, August 01, 2006

United Statesians?

We really need a word for "American" that is more specific. I mean, technically, American can refer to anyone born on the continent of America... Canadians, Mexicans, all the people from Central and South America, et caetera.

I mean, in Spanish, for example, the word "americano" refers to anyone in North or South America. The word to refer to citizens of the United States of America is "estadounidense" coming from the name of our country in Spanish -- "Los Estados Unidos". Spanish speakers, in fact, often think that we are very egocentric because we call ourselves "Americans" and we often call our country "America" as if to say that we're all that matter on the continent of America.

Of course, the truth is, that they simple don't understand that "American" and "americano" are not synonyms. In modern English, "American" only refers to the citizens of the USA. And anyone who speaks English uses the word "American" to describe us, including all the many other English speaking countries. If we need to be broader than that, we can say "North American" which includes the Canadians and Mexicans... or "South American" even. So if we think we're all that matter on this continent, I suppose that means that England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and so on all agree that we are all that matter. :P

Anyway, I'm tired of being lectured by Spanish speakers... and a few Brazilians. Especially ironic that the Brazilians try to lecture me on that. Especially since in Portuguese, they HAVE a word that refers specifically to us Americans -- "Estadunidense" -- but NO ONE uses it! They always choose to use the word "americano". Really kind of strange to me.

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