Thread: Why are they called Americans?

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

3. Whilst it is *mostly* in the continent of North America, Hawaii and Alaska are not.

The first sentence of the Wikipedia article "Alaska" is: Alaska (IPA: /əˈlæskə/, Russian: Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent.

Since archipelagos are continentless by definition, we can't really hold it against Hawaii

I like it when you say "US of A". Reminds of Archie Bunker.

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

2. It has no official language at federal level though English is the National language (de facto.)

My fun fact to this one is that early discussions on establishing an official language resulted in heated debate as to whether it should be English or German. They ended up sending it to committee.

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Please excuse my ignorance - what continent is Alaska in?

Originally Posted by Quick Orange

The first sentence of the Wikipedia article "Alaska" is: Alaska (IPA: /əˈlæskə/, Russian: Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent.

Since archipelagos are continentless by definition, we can't really hold it against Hawaii

My mistake. Like I say, lifted straight from wiki.

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

Ok, Here's something me and my brother were talking about the other day.

Why do people from the United States call themselves "Americans"? I mean...America is a continent....not a country.....

Shouldn't they be called "United Statians" instead?

Cos....Canadians are from America, Mexicans are from America, Venezualans are from America...(although from what I understand most people would rather ignore that country at the moment) etc etc.

Does anyone know what's up with that?

Venezuelans aren't the culprits for Chavez's issues any more than Americans are the culprits for Bush's issues. I doubt it's the entire country that people ignore. Well, at least no one ignores our women, I know that, said the resident SRP Venezuelan.

Originally Posted by tjgriffin

I believe the USA is the only country in the world with "America" in it's formal title. "The Americas", that was done by European explorers, but probably derived from local names. At least thats the way I learned it ages ago...

In general, citizens of the USA don't claim any monopoly on the term "American." It can be properly used to describe people or cultures of the inhabits of ANY of the American continents. But usually its non-Americans (in the broadest sense of the word) that raise a stink about it.

You got it right. The U.S. is the onlyh country in the world with the work America in it's name, hence the only one with the right to call themselves Americans. You'd probably get slapped upside the head if you called a Mexican "American"; same forCanadians and I would think anyone from any part of South America. If someone ask what I am, the answer is "American", but if theyask where I'm from, it's the U.S, not America.

The name America comes from map maker Amerigo Vespucci, probably the first European to realize this was not Asia.

Originally Posted by Nickelking

My fun fact to this one is that early discussions on establishing an official language resulted in heated debate as to whether it should be English or German. They ended up sending it to committee.

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English." In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c."

Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k." This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" w! ill be replaced with "f." This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v."

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining ou".

Efter ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil! be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

NEWSPEAK at last!!!! Wont BB be proud! (no dammit not bridget bardot)

Originally Posted by Seraphim

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. ... Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

CLAP CLAP CLAP
HAHAHA

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

...
Why do people from the United States call themselves "Americans"?
...

Darned if I know. Maybe Europeans started it and the name just stuck. Then again, since many Americans emigrated from Europe in the first place...

Maybe when a European told their neighbors, "We're going to immigrate to America."; the United States was just a natural assumption?