Re: Language naming terminology

-----Mensaje original-----
De: Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Para: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
Fecha: Lunes 21 de Septiembre de 1998 12:49
Asunto: Re: Language naming terminology


> Carlos Eugenio Thompson Pinz=F3n wrote:
> > the Northamerican Union, who had no name of their own, took the name
> > of the continent: The United States of America, with the adjective
American
> > _stoled_ from all we other Americans.
>
> Actually, the term American for the English colonists predates the
> Revolutionary War, and there was some debate over what to call the new
> nation, since United States of America, which was by far the most
> popular choice, had the problem of adjective - Unitedstatsian (ugly) or
> American (inaccurate).  But, the terms America and American were to
> well-established to change to anything else (among other choices instea=
d
> of America: Fredonia (Frede), Appalachia (would've quickly become
> inaccurate))
>
There is an adjective in Spanish for people from the United States:
'estadounidences' or 'estadinences' for short.  Althow there existes, mos=
t
people just say 'gringo', 'americano' or 'norteamericano'.  Leftish peopl=
e,
who refuse to use 'americano', say 'yankee' with some imperialistic meani=
ng
implied.  Personally I don't find 'estadinence' ugly... I can't say the s=
ame
about Unitedstatisian.

I was thinking about a proposal for an adjective... but I guess is too la=
te
for that (and we are talking about a natlang: English).  In Esperanto the
United States are Usono (after USA)... maybe something for hipotetical
futuristic English, when USA becames Usa, and the adjective Usian?

In many of my previous projects, one of the thinks I thoght a lot about, =
was
naming countries.  I almost always translated United States of America, l=
ike
{Tiug'eces Amerikai' Olfei'} in NGL, took the abbreviation {TAO} and deri=
ved
the adjective, {Tao'i, Tao'or}.  But these were conlangs.