They should be called United Statesians in English. I know États-Uniens is the official name in French.
What is it in other langages? How can we promote such use?
Why am I asking? The US administration is currently a disgrace on the world stage, and I am thinking how it unjustly hurts people from the rest of the American continent.
I am thinking how it unjustly hurts people from the rest of the American continent.
Here in Canada, we call people from the USA “Americans”. There’s no confusion, and if you called a Canadian “American” they would correct you immediately. If you explained you meant it in reference to the continent of North America they would still insist that you don’t. It may be technically correct, but it would be frowned upon. We appreciate your consideration, but the word is firmly their word, at least to us. “North American” would be fine, though.
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I used to work with a Canadian (From Vancouver, iirc) who used to emphasize “North American” when people made the wrong assumption. I guess it makes sense once the focus is on region/continent instead of country.
There’s literally no reason to. Colloquially, nobody thinks American refers to both continents, plus the other countries already have something else to call themselves to differentiate.
For now. I figured we ought to start somewhere, and now is probably the best time after yesterday
Don’t fix things that aren’t broken. There are plenty of broken things to actually work on instead.
I mean, “Yanks” is right there.
Or “septics”, if you wish to be politically correct.
/jk
Writer H. L. Mencken collected a number of proposals from between 1789 and 1939, finding terms including Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Colonican, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Uessian, U-S-ian, Uesican, and United Stater.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonyms_for_the_United_States
Realistically? The breakup/balkanization of the US. Which is a nonzero and growing possibility by the look of things here.
Similarly in Spanish OP, we say estadounidense as the demonym for something from USA. We often use americano interchangeably though, but that gives room for confusion sometimes.
I think you should have posted this in Unpopular Opinions hah. I don’t give much weight to it and, as long as everyone knows what you mean by American when you say it is fine, so I don’t necessarily agree with your opinion that it hurts the rest of the continent. But as far as semantics go we both know the question is about as old as the country itself.
We’re gonna get downvoted to hell. See you there :)
“USian” just sounds better and not horrid to me . Normalise calling them USians
Does that make the rest of the world Themians?
I’m pronouncing it like Asian, but with a U. How about everyone else?
Each of the 50 states has a somewhat unique name, and residents of the state therefore have a unique demonym. Use those instead?
If that’s too many names, Colin Woodward has identified 11 culturally-distinct nations in the US. That would actually promote a lot better understanding of why the country is the way it is. I’d be a Yankee.
Changing the collective name demonym Americans would be confusing during the transition, and for what benefit? Is this really a concern for residents of other countries in the Americas? Are Colombianos really scrambling to be called Americans?
Instead, I suggest taking Pres. Sheinbaum’s suggestion, if you want to do something: Call the continent Mexican America. Everybody would know what you mean from context right away. No confusion, no need to get anybody else to play along.
“americans” is a bad name but it’s more specific than “united statesians”. But I would fully support dissolving that country and founding a new one (or multiple) with a better name.
I’m not OP. As someone whose native language isn’t English, I agree with OP that something like “united statesians” would be more specific than just “american” to refer to someone belonging to the US. A united statesian would be only from US, whereas someone just american could be referring to anyone in the American continent - both North and South.
And that’s exactly how Spanish language deals with the issue. Native Spanish speakers understand that colloquially, american means someone from US and wouldn’t call a Canadian or a Brazilian an American. However it does lend itself to confusion, it is a question often raised by children when learning adjectives, and as far as adjectives go, things other than people (animals for example) usually follow the regular rules of language. Finally, Spanish speakers also say “united statesians” ( * estadounidense* ) instead of “american” when referring to people living in US.
There are other united states than the United States of America, for example The United Mexican States (Mexico)
Mexicans call themselves mexicans in Spanish, and refer to their country as just Mexico even if it is formally " united mexican states". Also note is “mexican” and doesn’t say “american” anywhere, so I still don’t see where the confusion would be, at least not in Spanish language ( which mexicans also speak). The only country in the world that refers to itself as a continent (that also comprises other countries) both formally and colloquially is USA.
Edit: “that also comprises other countries” because yes Australia fits the bill.
I’ve not known any USA residents that call the continent as “America”. Instead, the continent – which in this case basically just means USA + Canada – would be “North America”. And if they meant the whole post-1490s “New World”, it would be “The Americas” for both North and South America together.
Agree, I also don’t know of any USA residents doing so. But outside it’s a very different story especially in places where the language isn’t English.
What is the demonym for something that can be found or belongs to “The Americas”, comprising both North and South America (and potentially Central if you go by the Three Americas way of splitting the continent)?
Why is it that you have terms such as “North American” to describe something related to USA+anything north in the continent, then you have another term such as “South American” for anything Mexico and south of it in the continent, but when you say American , that’s right, the generic one that doesn’t specify and encompasses it all then it is presumed to be exclusively USA? I understand the history that explains that, but as far as semantics go, it’s still a legitimate question. Languages other than English have different answers for it.
But outside it’s a very different story especially in places where the language isn’t English.
What is the demonym for something that can be found or belongs to “The Americas”, comprising both North and South America (and potentially Central if you go by the Three Americas way of splitting the continent)?
This is a fair question, and I suspect there simply is no generally accepted demonym in English. One could be introduced, but contrast that fairly simple exercise with the replacement of the broadly-recognized demonym for USA residents: “American”. Quickly, it becomes apparent that replacement is far harder than introducing a new demonym, even if the to-be-replaced demonym itself isn’t very logical within the English language.
English is the same language that calls people from Deutschland as “German”, and then American English specifically might also call them “Dutch”, as in, the Pennsylvania Dutch, whom immigrated from Germany. Consistency is not strong in the English language, even over only a few hundred years.
Australia.
True but it has no other countries in it. Which is the whole point OP is making.
