3 ms·
Is it non-American all the way down?
by mnsc 9mo ago
Is it non-American all the way down?
- messh 9mo agoI was born in Argentina, so technically American, yes ;)
- messh 9mo agoIf it is successful then the next region would be in the US
- WhyNotHugo 9mo agoWeird fun fact (as an Argentinian who went to school in England for a few years): in English-speaking countries, America is not a continent in the same way as in Spanish. In English they have two continents: South America and North America. So the word "American" in English does not mean the same as "Americano" in Spanish. There's really no natural word in English to refer to someone from "El continente Americano", because no such continent exists in English. That's why they use the word "American" to refer to someone from USA exclusively.
- ekropotin 9mo agoFrankly, the model with the single America continent doesn’t make any sense, because south and north Americas are so different in both geographical and cultural/historical sense.
- singpolyma3 9mo agoContinents are about geology not culture
- Alupis 9mo agoWell, North and South America are two different tectonic plates[1]. [1] https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/tectonic-plates-earth https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/tectonic-plates-earth
- wredcoll 9mo agoThey really aren't, there's no objective way to divide the world into exactly 7 continents (or 6) using geology.
- nextaccountic 9mo agoAmerica, Afro-Eurasia, Australia, Antarctica I can count 4
- wredcoll 9mo agoBased on what?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- nextaccountic 9mo agoBased on being large landmasses Potentially any island is a continent if your cutoff is low enough
- unmole 9mo agoEurope says hi.
- singpolyma3 9mo ago"American" to refer to USA exclusively does make sense either way because USA shares the continent with at least two other countries no matter how you slice it.
- krick 9mo agoYou probably meant "doesn't make sense".
- singpolyma3 9mo agoCorrect
- unwind 9mo agoThat sounded fascinating as a rather large difference in world view stemming only from using different languages. It turns out that there are various models for the number of continents, and that is (phew) known in Spanish, too. See the Wikipedia page [1] (link to Spanish version) for instance. This is for European Spanish though, but I couldn't find a version of the page in es-AR. [1]: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continente#Modelos_continentales https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continente#Modelos_continental...
- dwedge 9mo agoI think "the Americas" means the continent(s), and America (to some extent) can mean either but it would feel more like something used as a gotcha at a pub quiz. You're definitely right about there not being a word for someone from that continent though.
- derrida 9mo agoThat is weird isn't it "Asian, African, European"