What are Americans?

[wilde_oscar]

The Conversation about Native Canadians vs Native Americans sparked one of my favortie pet peeves.....

People from Canada are Canadian. People from Mexico are Mexicans. People from The United States of America are Americans? But since it is North America and South America isn't all of that the Americas... so arn't they all Americans?

Kevin needs to break out the books on style and grammer... I have a huge pet peeve on this. The common gutteral is to refer to The United States of America as "America" which is fine for everyday conversation but for proper writing like a news paper I find annoying.

Thoughts?

 

[DisneyKevin]

Me?

I didnt say anything.

 

[I<3EvilQueen]

Technically both versions of using America are correct.

The Americas are indeed North and South America so you could use that context to refer to anyone in the "new world". But once that new world started to get carved up and labeled and people started to form nations they became in a more defined context Canadians, Hondurans, Mexicans, Brazilians etc... It is just easier to locate and to narrow down the broad label. (ie European vs German for example).

As for why American is used for the USA that is simple. We are the United States of America. So technically America is our "noun" and United States is the "adjective".

Just like we don't say that people from Pennsylvannia are Commonwealthers, even though they are from the offical name, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvannia.

I hope this made sense as I not known for my writing. But you are right this is a great topic of debate and study

 

[wilde_oscar]

I'll rephrase... their* is a time and a place for being politically correct, and a time and a place for proper English usage, what is your considered opinion on the use of Americans to refer to people from or residing in The United States of America. Further, I would believe Native American to be correct to identify the indiginous peoples of the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Like I said, this is a pet peeve, maybe I need to put my ear plugs in a little tighter to keep the crazy from leaking out of my head?

*There, their, they're I use them interchangably and so should you.

 

[I<3EvilQueen]

Oh believe me I understand pet peeves, so no worry there

Like for instance mine is when someone will say "My pleasure" after I thank them for a standard business transaction. Like at the drive through for instance. Like did you giving me a burger and fries did that really give you pleasure???? so we all have a little bit of crazy so I would worry about it too much.

But as for the native peoples of the Americas, I would believe that Native Americans is correct for all of them. But I think because we live here in the US that we have our own image of what "Native American" means to us culturally when we hear or say it. Probably images of the South Western tribes or eatern tribes like the Cherokee before the Trail of Tears etc... The northern tribes of the Innuit and the Eskimos are probably what we think of as being the stereotypical (however right or wrong) Native people of Canada.

Being from the Detroit area I know that that stereotypical image is incorrect but I can see how it would happen. So I can see how Julie got alittle tongue tied when trying to convey an image of a Northern tribe and the battlefield that is Political Correctness

Besides I just thought that Native Canadians sounded cute. I would love to hear from some of our Canadian brothers and sisters on this topic though.

 

[cxcelica]

AND Coming soon Mexico America's Beard.

 

[ChoirBoy]

I had a similar conflict involving Australia. My chorus sang this song called "Ngana". I posted the video of the song on Youtube, and random Austalian got angry with me. Apparently, my teacher had translated all of the "Aboriginal" words before we sang, and the Australian started an arguement, saying Aboriginies could apply to any country. He said that the Native Americans could even be called aboriginies. We argue back and forth through comments on the video, and in the end I said Yes, the Webster's Dictionary definition said "aboriginie" meant the original early inhabitants of the land, but if you looked at the second definition, it said natives of Australia, which is what most people think of when they hear this word.

Do you have anything to add, AussieJohn?

 

[fakereadhed]

About the whole (fill in the blank)American issue: My senior citizen mom is so tired of all of the PC stuff she is now saying, "I'm a native American. I was born here, although I'm not First Nation."

Also, all this PC stuff is very confusing to kids as well. At camp, my daughter had a counselor from France. Her best friend kept calling the counselor African American. When my daughter pointed out that she was French and not American her friend had no idea what she would be called when describing her to her mother in a letter back home. My DD pointed out that she could just leave that out, and tell her she was from France, because the rest really didn't matter anyway.

That's my view too. Julie did her best to describe things, but really, in the end, who cares?

 

[SnackyStacky]

The Conversation about Native Canadians vs Native Americans sparked one of my favortie pet peeves.....

People from Canada are Canadian. People from Mexico are Mexicans. People from The United States of America are Americans? But since it is North America and South America isn't all of that the Americas... so arn't they all Americans?

Kevin needs to break out the books on style and grammer... I have a huge pet peeve on this. The common gutteral is to refer to The United States of America as "America" which is fine for everyday conversation but for proper writing like a news paper I find annoying.

Thoughts?

Perhaps United Statesians? It doesn't make sense.

If we're talking about the Podcast here (and I haven't listened to it yet, so I'm not even sure that's what we're doing) - it's not scripted. It's a conversation between a bunch of Disney dweebs! (I use the phrase with love and consider myself such a dweeb) Anyway - you said referring to the US as America in casual conversation is fine - and that's all this is. We're not talking about a state of the union address, here.

And back to my opening sentence - no matter what the proper name of the country is, the adjective is "american". If you'd like to petition Merriam Webster to have "united statesian" put into the English language as a proper adjective to describe a citizen of the United States - have at it. But until then, a citizen of the US is an American citizen.

 

[lunabkat]

So, the old USSR'rs should have been called... Republicans...clears things up a little doesnt it?

Africa, also the name of a continent = Africans, also can be described by any country the originate from such as Nigerians, Kenyans, etc.

Antarctica = Antarcticans (anybody?) Arctic = Arcticans? or Arcticanish?

Why is it pronounced Americans instead of Amareekins (like Puerto Rican)?

Are you a Canadian, French Canadian, French CanadianCanadian or CanadianCanadian? hmmm....

I guess as far a American goes, we just had first dibbs on the name and it stuck. Before we were the USA we were just America weren't we?

Just wondering...

 

[drag n' fly]

I'll rephrase... their* is a time and a place for being politically correct, and a time and a place for proper English usage, what is your considered opinion on the use of Americans to refer to people from or residing in The United States of America. Further, I would believe Native American to be correct to identify the indiginous peoples of the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Like I said, this is a pet peeve, maybe I need to put my ear plugs in a little tighter to keep the crazy from leaking out of my head?

*There, their, they're I use them interchangably and so should you.

That would be First Nations people up in Canada. No Native Americans here I am Canadian but of French Acadian descent. My relatives originally came from Louisiana. To this day I still have family in Baton Rouge. Does that make me Canmerican?

 

[DisneyKevin]

Does anybody else remeber the "Paprikans" conversation?

 

[WebmasterJohn]

My Pet Peeve = people mistaking Kevin's voice for mine

I was the one who raised the question when Julie's said '..or should I say Native Canadian instead of Native American'.

Sheeesh - I can't even get credit for making wildoscar upset

Besides - I think we're both saying the same thing - wouldn't they still be considered "Native Americans" because that term refers to the ingenious peoples of the continent known as the America's - not just the ones living with the mapped out borders of the USA?

John

 

[I<3EvilQueen]

Does anybody else remeber the "Paprikans" conversation?

Now the Paprikans... what a people

 

[CanadianGuy]

Just cuz this is a matter I happen to know just enough about to be dangerous..

In Canada, we frequently refer to indigenous people as exactly that.. or as:
- aboriginal (this is the current favorite)
- native people
- First Nation (as a term of ethnicity)
- and yes.. "Native Canadians"

We do not use the term "Native Americans" at all in referring to our indigenous peoples.

More info can be found here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Nations

Knox

 

[DisGirlAllie]

My Pet Peeve = people mistaking Kevin's voice for mine

I was the one who raised the question when Julie's said '..or should I say Native Canadian instead of Native American'.

Sheeesh - I can't even get credit for making wildoscar upset

Besides - I think we're both saying the same thing - wouldn't they still be considered "Native Americans" because that term refers to the ingenious peoples of the continent known as the America's - not just the ones living with the mapped out borders of the USA?

John

Personally I just call myself american.

 

[disneyholic family]

AND Coming soon Mexico America's Beard.

of course america's hat now has money stronger than the US dollar....
talk about sweet revenge!

 

[cxcelica]

of course america's hat now has money stronger than the US dollar....
talk about sweet revenge!

Uggh don't remind me. I had relatives down from Canada two weeks ago, who loved it here because they now consider coming to the US a "flea market" because of the weakness of the dollar.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Why do we call it a band-aid when it is made by 3M? Because we do.

 

[3DisneyKids]

*There, their, they're I use them interchangably and so should you.

Why on Earth do you use them interchangeably? (The misuse of all of these....to, two, and too, etc. are MY pet peeve....as this the VAST misuse of the apostrophe s). And why would expect others to inentionally misuse these? They all have completely different meanings, as you clearly know.