America and American

[Dennis R. Preston]

I have mixed feelings about this America business.
On the one hand, I have a great deal of political sympathy with those
who might feel themselves slighted (or worse) by a (the?) superpower.
On the other hand, I know very few countries where people do not us
the last name in the long string of words which usually constitutes
the official name of the country to designate their nationality. I
once caught a lot of flack from a Brasilian, who complained about our
use of "American" (I hadn't, by the way) until  I pointed out that he
was from "The United States of Brasil" and that when he called
himself a Brasilian he was doing nothing different from those who
call themselves American from the United States of America.
In fact, when I lived (and played basketball) in Brasil, my court
nickname was "Americano."

dInIs





>Just my limited experience, but I knew several
>Canadians in the 60's who, when they heard USians
>refer to themselves as Americans, made it clear that
>Canadians were Americans also.
>
>
>--- Paul Frank <paulfrank at WANADOO.FR> wrote:
>>  In Spanish many people say "americano" when they
>>  mean someone from the
>>  American continent. One of Pablo Neruda's poems, an
>>  ode to the potato, says
>>  "somos americanos." My question is this: when did
>>  the words America and
>>  American become synonymous with the United States of
>>  America? Have Canadians
>>  ever thought of themselves as being American (though
>>  not in the sense of
>>  being part of the United States)?
>>
>>  Paul
>>  _________________________________
>>  Paul Frank
>>  English translation from Chinese, German,
>>  French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese
>>  Cell phone: +33 681 146 755 - France
>>  E-mail: paulfrank at wanadoo.fr
>
>
>=====
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>                                |or slowly and cautiously.
>
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--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736