A brief English language lesson

People from the US egotistically assume that the term Americans refers to people from the USA. Kind of like saying all Europeans are from France.

-Darke

I don't think we egotistically assume that, people from the United States somehow "own" the term American. I just think that's how the term "became to be," since noone in the Americas really refer to themselves as North American or South American, it's always based on the country of origin. And since United Statian (or something similar) doesn't really roll off your tongue, American just became the defacto term. And then there's the whole Native American can 'o worms...

I know of noone (however, I wouldn't be surprised that there are some based on the some of the sheeple we have here) who would naturally assume someone calling themselves European to be only French. However, I don't THINK anyone when asked "where are you from," would reply "Oh, I'm European." Well, based on the images from the World Cup, most Europeans paint their country's flag on their faces anyway, so it's not too tough to tell them apart.

But if that was the case, the next logical question would be, if the conversation was leaning that way, would be "from which country", or at the very least, what part.

But now, if we were to figure out what the difference is between Great Britian and the United Kingdom, well, that's a completely different subject!

OR is it:

The latter is what I was taught by the nuns...so I KNOW it's correct. ;)

Anyway, who needs to worry about all this stuff nowadays? With spell check AND now grammar check PLUS dragon speak we can all just mumble a bit. No longer is it garbage in, garbage out. Now we have a culture where we really don't need to memorize anything anymore because we can autocorrect ourselves into a blissful state of brilliance.

My physics teacher in high school said that America (yeah, just America) started going to pot when students were no longer required to memorize logarithms...maybe he was on to something....

I'm so game!! My mother was an English teacher; this might be a fun project.

Does anyone remember diagramming sentences? Truly a lost art. Hmmmm...A game designed around diagramming sentences...what do we think?

-John

And if you think it’s just us Americans who “egotistically” assume so, then go ahead, refer to a Canadian as an “American” to his face and see what happens! (Or a Mexican, or a Uruguayan, or a Jamaican...)

Now that's a fight I'd like to see...how would one calculate hit points for a nun? (Sorry, Sr. Helen... I just couldn't resist)

-John

That's just the thing...a lot of impressions, thoughts, emotions, ( :) ) and opinions on the subject...just no hard facts.

All right...now my internet is acting goofy...seriously. I'm going to go say a penance.

The worldy people of this thread are all looney!

Now that's a fight I'd like to see...how would one calculate hit points for a nun?
(LOL) The nuns would win hands down. The AP would fight with words, and the nuns would rap their knuckles with a ruler. (And take my word for it, they know how to do that so it really hurts a lot!)

Frankly, I knew it was a mistake to mention "American English" at all in my post, but "US English" looked wrong. I have lots of American friends, some of whom live in Mexico, Canada, Brazil etc., so I usually try not to use the term "American" at all if I can help it :-)

Meanwhile, as to the question of whether England is a country? One generally accepted definition of a country is "a politically organized body of people under a single government", which would be fine except that our single government also adminsters Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to greater or lesser extents.
My passport says that I am a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. So that doesn't help.
The best answer I can give is that England is a country because it is recognised as such by other countries, and we recognise them in return. This isn't a useful answer, but it does explain why a place like "Sealand" isn't a country, despite declaring itself to be one.

Well maybe the answer was easier to find than we had thought... According to the CIA, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales are Administrative Divisions. It's not a piece of paper, but if I print it out...

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html

No need to split the atom. It's all rather simple:

America = The United States
American English = What Americans speak
England = Land of the English

No I meant two continents that are called America, i.e. North and South America. The last time I took a geography class Central America was not yet a continent.

-Darke
That's because that geography class wasn't in Latin America (or some places in Europe), where America is just one continent (See Wikipedia here).

Wow, I thought I was the only one who every brought that up! I'd suggest we use "Paraguay", but, unfortunately, it's been taken.
And if it weren't, Uruguay should take it. We're often confused with Paraguay, and Uruguay is just as bad in the Country Name department as USA. Your name is a general description, and our name is just an address: República Oriental del Uruguay (the oficial name) means Republic at the East of Uruguay (which is actually a river). So I suggest you change the name into Hedgeland or something similar. ;-)

America = The United States
American English = What Americans speak
England = Land of the EnglishSo where do I live, then? Is Uruguay part of The United States (since I've been tought that it's in America) or is this another continent? If so, how do you call it? Same Applies to our Canadian friends. Do Yougurt, Josh and Larienna live in The United States, or Canada is outside America? It's not so simple.

Seo