Re: CHAT: silly names, prepositions
| From: | Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Friday, March 23, 2001, 5:07 |
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It is the utmost arrogance when a citizen of another country tries to tell
you what you should or should not call yourself! by this same logic South
Africans have no right to call themselves South Africans as they thus
exclude "all the other" South Africans including Mozambiqans, Namibians,
Botswanans, Swazilanders, Lesotoans, Zambians, Zimbabweans, Malawians, etc.
And how many nations of the world call themselves the "United States" of
something or other? I know Mexico is a "United States". How dare the
English call themselves "British" and thus exclude the Irish who also live
on one of the British Isles. How dare the Serbs call themselves Yougoslvians
and exclude all the other southern Slavs, such as Bulgarians, Makadonians,
Croats. Slovenes, Bosnian Serbs, etc. Or even more extreme, how dare the
citizens of the People's Republic of China call themselves Chinese! They
should be forced to call themselves People's Republicans so as not to
exclude all the other Chinese who live in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.
What the French wish to call themselves in their own language is their
business. What the citizens of MY country call ourselves in our language is
our business. Call us what you like in French. But when speaking English
have the courtesy to call us what we call ourselves.
Adam
>From: Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: Re: CHAT: silly names, prepositions
>Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 14:50:58 +0100
>
>En réponse ?Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...>:
>
> > Me too! There is one and ONLY one acceptable self-designation for
> > citizens
> > of the United States of AMERICA, and that is American. You may call us
> > whatever you wish when speaking of us in French or German or Swahili or
> > Russian or Spanish, but when speaking to us in English PLEASE have the
> > courtesy to call us by our self-designation!!! Call me an
> > estadoeunidienso
> > (or whatever) in Spanish if you so desire (We call no one by their
> > self-designations either.), but when speaking English call me an
> > American.
> > How incredibly arrogant to try to force another people to change their
> > name
> > for themselves!!!
> >
>
>Approximately as arrogant as using the word corresponding to a whole
>continent
>to refer to oneself, excluding all the other people on this continent. I'm
>sorry, but Argentinians, Brasilians, etc... are also Americans, even if
>"only"
>South-Americans. Inhabitants of the United States are not the only
>inhabitants
>of America, not even the only ones in North America. So it is your
>self-designation which is arrogant in the first place. Moreover, English is
>the
>language not only of the USA, but also of other countries (including the
>motherland of English), which may want to make a distinction between
>Usonians
>and Americans. So why forbiding them to do so because they happen to speak
>the
>same language as you do (historically, it is even you who happen to speak
>the
>same language as them)? Isn't that "incredibly arrogant"? What do you think
>would happen if French people decided that they wanted to be called
>"Européens"
>in French, excluding all the other European countries of this designation,
>or at
>least putting an ambiguity where there was no need to be? Don't you think
>the
>other countries would have some right to want us to change our
>self-designation,
>even if they don't actually use French? You were talking about courtesy.
>Please
>have the courtesy of recognizing that there are many other English speakers
>who
>are not from the USA, and that they also have their word to say about how
>they
>want to call inhabitants of the USA.
>
>Note that I don't want to offend or flame anyone. I just want to put things
>back
>in the right order. Note also that I try to correct people each time they
>call
>the citizens of the European Community "Europeans", excluding all the other
>Europeans. It is just to show that I'm not biased against the citizens of
>the
>United States of America.
>
>Christophe.
>
>
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