I think it's different because it excludes Australia and New Zealand, which are otherwise exactly like North America in that they've inherited their language and culture from Britain. If you want to talk about the world-wide English-speaking-culturally-British-based-community it's "Anglo-American" that is more wildly incorrect, which makes "Anglo-Saxon" -- denoting the common heritage from a British, English-speaking, culture -- more correct.
It makes more sense to me for other countries to not think about the specific countries/continents, but strikes me as odd for a Canadian to use American in that context (I don't mean it as a criticism, though). Similarly, I would understand a non-brit getting confused between the terms English and British, but I would be very surprised to see a Scot doing that.
>Most references to the people on the American continents are to North Americans, Central Americans, or South Americans. Referring to the collective as 'Americans' is rare and virtually meaningless
The terms Latin/Anglo-Saxon America are just as used used exactly to highlight this aspect of the continent.
>given the total lack of shared culture, language, or ethnicity between say, Canadians and Brazilians, comparable to comparing Britons and Chinese.
This is not true. Apart from Canada and the US the rest of the Americas are actually quite close culturally.
I am just saying that it is idiomatic North American English. I, for instance, could not write in idiomatic British English if I tried. For instance, your use of "state" in your username and "anglosphere" in your one sentence strongly hints to me that your English is not purely North American. (I see your profile, too.) The vast majority of Americans would use different terms.
But, there is arguably no more commonality between the people of Norway, Portugal and Bulgaria than between Canadians, Mexicans and Chileans, so why can we call the first group collectively European but not the second collectively American?
The standard English nomenclature for residents of the USA (which I belive isn't so much of an issue in other languages) is confusing.
For the most part they say "North American," South American or "Latin American" even "Anglo Saxon America" for North America not including Mexico, go figure.
It seems to me like a simple cultural/language difference related to how we count the continents. In the Anglosphere (not just the USA) children are brought up thinking of seven continents, including North and South America, while in Spanish-speaking countries they think of six, including simply America. Neither is really right or wrong, because there’s no formal definition of what a continent is—it’s merely convention. (Some people consider Eurasia a single continent, some people don’t consider Antarctica a continent…)
Because of this difference in convention, the word “América” in Spanish is more accurately translated to English as “the Americas” than “America.”
Is this actually a problem that needs fixing in English? Is it a problem at all? Are there any Canadians out there offended at not being called Americans despite making up a major part of [North] America?
The suggested alternative of using “United States” to refer to America-the-country overlooks that there is another country (even another North American country!) with that name: Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
>Pan American Games / Copa América / Summit of the Americas / Pan American Treaty / I could go on.
Oh, come now. You yourself acknowledged that "the Americas" refers to North and South America. I don't need to explain why "Pan American" isn't the same thing as "American". And as I said before, the English use of "America/American" to specifically refer to the USA and its people is shared by all European languages other than Spanish.
>"Being European" is a relatively new idea that emerged in the aftermath of two world (but euro-centric) wars. It didn't really have a geographic locus per se, but referred to a certain kind of committment to a certain idea of "Europe". The UK did not consider itself part of that idea for several decades after the end of WWII, and arguably a majority of the population never really did (even if they supported the idea "for those people over there").
I don't disagree at all about the historical distinguishing between the UK and "Europe". (Insert "FOG COVERS CHANNEL / EUROPE CUT OFF" anecdote here.) But that is orthogonal to whether Brexit made the UK suddenly not "European" (at least, any more than before), as the other poster's wailing claimed.
You also didn't answer my/Venn's question. Are the Swiss and Norwegians European, and why/why not?
Now, it's entirely possible that, should the EU survive, perhaps a century from now, "Europe/European" will refer specifically to the EU and its residents. But we're not there yet and not even the most fanatic pro-EU Remainer in the UK would claim this. (The relevance of this question to the aforementioned discussion of "America/American"'s meaning is left as an exercise for the reader.)
Yes, but it seems a tad inconsiderate for presume 'American' usage as the default one is all. I understand the original article may have written with an exclusively 'American' audience in mind, but writers and editors could have avoided that assumption by putting some thought into choosing a more 'international' usage, if only to gently nudge those Americans into a broader worldview, who might have an insular, exceptional view of their country, as goes an often expressed peeve.
The continent that the US, Cuba, Mexico and Argentina are a part of is called "The Americas", frequently split into "North America" and "South America" because of the isthmus at its center.
Yes, there's a problem that residents of the United States of America (just one country within North America/the Americas) adopted the term "American" to describe (mostly) only themselves. But there are plenty of sporting and diplomatic events that make clear that "American" has broader meaning than "the USA".
The situation in the UK is different from the situation with, say, residents of the USA and Mexico. The latter are separated by an arbitrary and mobile political boundary that in many place can be walked across rather easily (even where the boundary is the Rio Grande). The UK is an island and this has created both a physical boundary with the rest of the continent and (largely because of that) a centuries old sense of isolation.
The years that the UK was a part of (initially the EEC and then later) the EU saw a diminishment of that sense of isolation and a growing awareness of the cultural and historical linkage between the people living in the UK and those in the rest of Europe. Cheap and fast travel also contributed to that.
>that residents of the United States of America (just one country within North America/the Americas) adopted the term "American" to describe (mostly) only themselves.
The use of America to, in English, refer specifically to the English-speaking residents of North America long precedes 1776.
Further, the English language's use of "America/Americans" to refer specifically to the United States and its people as opposed to Chileans or Mexicans is consistent in every major European language except Spanish.
>But there are plenty of sporting and diplomatic events that make clear that "American" has broader meaning than "the USA".
Yes, the Organization of American States (headquartered in Washington DC) = "plenty of sporting and diplomatic events".
I will pose the same question that Veen did elsewhere, regarding the hysterical claim that after Brexit, Britons are no longer European. Are Swiss and Norwegians European? Why, or why not?
Technically correct, but I guess it depends on context, both cultural and conversational. In the UK for example, "America" and "American" always refer to US not the continent, unless there's specific context surrounding it to suggest otherwise. I believe that's generally the case in the US as well, and I suspect (but could be wrong) in most countries?
Well... TIL! (Though, rather obvious thinking about it...) It definitely screws up my generalisation. I thought "North American" would be nice given the U.S. and Canada generally share the same language and culture. Mexico messes with that, slightly. Though, I suppose states like Florida (from my Dexter knowledge) would have similar issues given the high-proportion of Spanish speakers.
Speaking as a Brit, we do (rather ignorantly) generally refer to citizens of the U.S. as "American."
In the USA, “America” is a name of our country and “Americans” is the name for residents of the country. Canadians, Mexicans, and residents of South America etc are certainly not “Americans”.
This isn’t anything new, and it’s not “appropriated”
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