Re: Language naming terminology

Nik Taylor wrote:

>Carlos Thompson wrote:
>> There is an adjective in Spanish for people from the United States:
>> 'estadounidences' or 'estadinences' for short.
>
>But this is a rather formal term, yes?  Is it *ever* actually used in
>speech, or is it merely a written form?
Let me answer to this.

I've never heard or read 'estadinences' here in Argentina. The official
word is 'estadounidense', which is a normal derivation of the name of the
country in Spanish. This is mostly formal, but you may hear it from time to
time. The unofficial and most used word is 'norteamericano' (North
American). Of course nobody includes Canadians in this term. Many people
(and not necessarily with a bad attitude) say 'yankee' (here in Argentina
it's written 'yanqui' and pronounced /'Sanki/). Curiously, 'gringo' is
never used in that sense. In this area at least, 'gringo' means 'Italian'!

Also, Italian are informally called 'tanos' (contracted from
'italianos'???); Spaniards are 'gallegos' /ga'Segos/ (from Galicia/Galizia,
a region in Spain); and Arabs are 'turcos' ('Turkish'). The last two may be
considered offensive by the addressed people, even if that was not the
speaker's intention (I remember hearing that the worst way of insulting a
Polish person is calling him/her Russian, and viceversa... Here, anyone
from Eastern Europe is called 'ruso'.)


Carlos also wrote:
>I know the English word for _virrey_ is Vicerois (from French) as used in
>India.  How should I refer to the place a Vicerois rules? Viceroisdom?
How do you say 'kingdom' in French?


To Carlos: We were talking about the term 'American' used to mean 'from the
USA', and you said it was "stolen".
I said:
>>_Stolen_, yes. It's a shame that the rest of the people in America (the
>>continent) cannot say that we are 'American' or that we have, say, an
>>American character (as there is European character, or Asian character,
for
>>example).
You replied:
>I put "stolen" in italics because I knew it wasn't a purpousse of
>imperialism or something like that.
>When someone once said
>"America for the Americans" had the wide American concept in mind, but
>many believed US Imperialism over its _backyard_ begun with that phrase.
Please don't misunderstand me! I also think "stolen" should be in italics
or quotes. It'd be silly to think of history in that simplistic way. What I
really meant was that the term now has its connotations because of the
current supremacy of the US in the world, and that that seems a bit unfair
for the rest of us in (North, Central and South) America. But history and
international politics don't have to be fair for anyone.

And I agree with you: let's stop chatting about this -- our real concern is
*language* :)

--Pablo Flores