"Anglophone"

[Jack Sidnell]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Anglophone is very much in use in Canada where it is used to
distinguish speakers of English from 'Francophones'.
Jack Sidnell


>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi,
>
>A terminological question:  What about "anglophone"?
>
>I ask because I find myself reacting against the term when I see it in
>contexts where I would expect something like "English speakers", as for
>example in something like, "
 there where X number of anglophones in New
>Zealand in the 1850s", meaning presumably "English speakers" and used so
>as not to confuse Maori speakers in the number.  I see the term, I
>believe, mostly in writings from English Anglicists, and I wonder how
>general usages are such as, for example, "
 among the anglophone
>dialects of the British Isles 
", where, if the goal is to include only
>English and exclude Welsh, Irish, Scots Gaelic, and so on, I would
>expect to see just "among English dialects 
" or "among dialects of
>English speakers" or some such thing.   The term feels too much like a
>French loan that would only be useful in writing about French topics
>where English speakers might come to be mentioned, but even in that
>context I personally would probably avoid it.
>
>My question then is, what is the reaction of others?  Are there
>conventions or information that I am missing?
>
>Lyle


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