Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I prefer 'Murican

Fuck yeah!

Yes, yes, you hate the United States - we get that from the thread you started in the Politics subforum.

Now please crawl back under your rock.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does anyone expect the word "american" to mean the same in both english and spanish? Different languages, hence the different meanings attached to the same word.

It does mean the same thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They know exactly what you mean when you say it. They are just trying to prove some ridiculous point that why are you guys allowed to call yourselves American when we all live in South and Central America. Because the word "America" IS NOT in your countries name. Well, Mexico has United States in their name. Okay, well let them call themselves the United Stateters if they want. Around the world it is understood that American = someone from someplace like DC not Quito, Ecuador.

I am a native speaker in Spanish and majored in it in Spanish.

American means USA in French too.

Huh?

-and she earned a "B" as her grade.

South American here (from the south sub-section of the continent called America). I agree with almost everything you posted. Except for one.

China is a country, so referring to it as "People's Republic of China" is unambiguous. But, originally, America was not a country or a political entity -- it was a part of the world as referred to by the Europeans. When the British created colonies in the east coast of the northern part of the continent known as America, they simply referred to as their colonies in the continent of America. When the 13 colonies became independent, they referred themselves as the united states of America -- that is, the united states located in the continent called America. But they could have called themselves the united states of North America. Or the United States in Eastern North America.

One could even argue that this country is one of the few that doesnt have an actual name, like Italy or India. It refers to a collective political organization in a vague geographical location.

But I agree that the translation for "American" (ie someone from the USA) is "estadounidense" and vice versa. Most reasonable Latin Americans wouldn't mind if Americans use that words in English in that context. Similarly, the translation of "Americano" (ie someone from the continent of America , or if you insist, from the Americas) should also be "American."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a pet peeve of mine. American to describe a citizen of the USA is inaccurate. Perhaps specifying USA would be helpful.

But America is in our name, not in the other's names.

Exactly, many countries that have political descriptors in the official title "People's Republic of ..." like United States of ...." or United ____ States" do not use the political description in casual English discourse, just the last part, such as China, Mexico, etc. So following the same usage pattern, the United States of America is shortened to America. When a distinction NEEDS to be made for clarity, people make it. In the Olympics: "U.S.A!" and the US Team or the Athlete from the US or the US Athletes -- but that doesn't work in English when trying to use one word to group all citizens. Then the only choice in English currently is Americans. So, its pretty much just English linguistics that we're stuck with from 1776 (which does not match the Spanish linguistics), not some major arrogant political statement of the current century.

So, in the English language, we have The Americas (all the continents grouped), North America, Central America, and South America, and America (which is 1) the shortened form of USA, which is one of the countries in North America, AND 2) a synonym for The Americas, a usage which is linguistically frowned upon due to lack of clarity). I suppose what upsets people is that, while one of the several correct connotations of the word American is "inhabitant of one of the continents in the Americas" it is rarely used that way in the U.S., because it is the weaker, less clear connotation, and would be marked as such by a grammar teacher unless the context were made explicit in the body of the text.

As for the translation issue, any translator will tell you, translations are rarely literal word-for-word, rather interpretation and usage must be taken into account. So the English translation of the Spanish word for "United Stateser" is "American," an English word that has more than one correct connotation and usage in an English dictionary. As such, the correct translation of the word "American" into Spanish will depend on how the world was being used in English, and the translator will choose the Spanish word that matches the correct English connotation.

The re-drawing of Waldseemüller' 1507 map. Note that the name of "America" is assigned to what's now known as South America.

The name "America" was first used by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507. He named the new continent in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer who first demonstrated that the continent (or super-continent, if you insist) was not the eastern part of India. Columbus never thought that his newly discovered land was an unknown continent -- to his death, he always assumed it was part of India.

Perhaps the continent should be called Columbia. We are all Columbians !

I am curious about something: what name(s) did the Indian nations in what's now the USA use to refer to what's now the USA?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A big chunk of humanity disagree. Based on geology, Europe and Asia should be a single continent, but most people distinguish them to be two continents. Based on history, obviously America is only one continent. At the very least, that is how Europeans described the new continent.

Which history? What history?

1492 doesn't ring a bell? European colonization?

That was the Caribbean islands (which Columbus thought were India), plus North America, plus South America, not to mention the Pacific islands and Australia. Maybe the whole western hemisphere should be one continent?

Europeans explorers and cartographers called the newly discovered continent "America". This is an historical fact. Its European colonization was unique, particularly as the Spanish reached the Western part of what is now the USA the same they reached Florida the same they reached down to Chile and Argentina. The massacre of the Indigenous population (not replicated in the other places you mentioned) by the Spanish and, to a much greater degree, by the English, among others. .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A big chunk of humanity disagree. Based on geology, Europe and Asia should be a single continent, but most people distinguish them to be two continents. Based on history, obviously America is only one continent. At the very least, that is how Europeans described the new continent.

Which history? What history?

1492 doesn't ring a bell? European colonization?

That was the Caribbean islands (which Columbus thought were India), plus North America, plus South America, not to mention the Pacific islands and Australia. Maybe the whole western hemisphere should be one continent?

Europeans explorers and cartographers called the newly discovered continent "America". This is an historical fact. Its European colonization was unique, particularly as the Spanish reached the Western part of what is now the USA the same they reached Florida the same they reached down to Chile and Argentina. The massacre of the Indigenous population (not replicated in the other places you mentioned) by the Spanish and, to a much greater degree, by the English, among others. .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This US-centric use of the word "American" reminds me of the fact that people in the US use the name "World Series" for domestic baseball.

(BTW: the country that won the most Olympic gold medals for baseball was... Cuba).

What do you propose as an alternative in English?

I have no suggestion. I like "U.S. people," but it is not practical. The name of the country is such that the adjective "American" is the least cacophonic. But in Spanish, "estadounidense" is fine, or in French "etat-unien".

A point where everyone could agree is that "American" can mean different things depending on the context.

And for those who insist that there is no such thing as a continent called "America" -- despite the fact that that name was given to the New World by the Europeans (and latter used to describe sub-sections of the continent into north, central, and south) and despite the facts that all Latin americans, most Western Europeans, at least the former French colonies in Africa, and many others believe this continent exists -- they can at least understand that anyone from the "Americas" is also an American.

Anonymous wrote:This US-centric use of the word "American" reminds me of the fact that people in the US use the name "World Series" for domestic baseball.

(BTW: the country that won the most Olympic gold medals for baseball was... Cuba).

What do you propose as an alternative in English?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A big chunk of humanity disagree. Based on geology, Europe and Asia should be a single continent, but most people distinguish them to be two continents. Based on history, obviously America is only one continent. At the very least, that is how Europeans described the new continent.

Which history? What history?

1492 doesn't ring a bell? European colonization?

That was the Caribbean islands (which Columbus thought were India), plus North America, plus South America, not to mention the Pacific islands and Australia. Maybe the whole western hemisphere should be one continent?

This US-centric use of the word "American" reminds me of the fact that people in the US use the name "World Series" for domestic baseball.

(BTW: the country that won the most Olympic gold medals for baseball was... Cuba).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this important?

Its not important but often on this site people like to downplay national pride in favor of being a good world citizen. Americans - oops, I mean citizens of the United States - are entitled, boorish, fat, treat solders like heroes, need big houses, need big cars, etc, etc.


By-product of a liberal bias. Part of the plan to systematically attack all of the things that made the country great.



United States'er - just wow.

I am guessing that if you poll the seven billion people in the world and ask them who the american are, we are all pretty much on the same page. Canadians are not Americans and I am pretty sure they don't think they are.

I was the poster that asked why this is important.
You have pretty much said what I was thinking.
Eight pages of comments on this silly question - wow.
I call myself American. I frankly don’t care what others think.

Our neighbors to the South find it important. It bugs them. A huge part of our economic future is tied to the developing markets in South America, particularly Brazil. Learning to navigate those relationships is important for business and politics going forward.

"Don't care what others think..." thanks for demonstrating exactly the type of arrogant, narrow-minded, parochial, self-absorbed attitude that bugs people.

Er, so some people in South America mean we should make up a new, awkward word to call ourselves? Are we talking about Spanish or English? It may sound arrogant to say that we won't be changing our name, but it's not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this important?

Its not important but often on this site people like to downplay national pride in favor of being a good world citizen. Americans - oops, I mean citizens of the United States - are entitled, boorish, fat, treat solders like heroes, need big houses, need big cars, etc, etc.


By-product of a liberal bias. Part of the plan to systematically attack all of the things that made the country great.



United States'er - just wow.

I am guessing that if you poll the seven billion people in the world and ask them who the american are, we are all pretty much on the same page. Canadians are not Americans and I am pretty sure they don't think they are.

I was the poster that asked why this is important.
You have pretty much said what I was thinking.
Eight pages of comments on this silly question - wow.
I call myself American. I frankly don’t care what others think.

Our neighbors to the South find it important. It bugs them. A huge part of our economic future is tied to the developing markets in South America, particularly Brazil. Learning to navigate those relationships is important for business and politics going forward.

"Don't care what others think..." thanks for demonstrating exactly the type of arrogant, narrow-minded, parochial, self-absorbed attitude that bugs people.

+1000