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Well, "Asian" or "European" or "African" are not languages either. Why would "American" be? ;)
by elnygren 11y ago
Well, "Asian" or "European" or "African" are not languages either. Why would "American" be? ;)
- CHAT_SKYWALKER 11y agoHahah!
- learc83 11y agoThe accepted English demonym for inhabitants of the United States of America is American. It has been this way for 200 years. We call ourselves American, and every English speaking country calls us American. The only measure of correctness for language is use, and when speaking in English, American is only commonly used in one way--in English, American is almost universally unambiguous. No other country name contains the word America, and no one else commonly refers to themselves as American in English. I don't go around telling Colombians they can't call themselves Colombians because Columbia is another name for the Americas. It's also not a problem here because we don't recognize one American continent. Who refers to themselves by continent anyway? In what sense is it useful to identify to yourself as someone who lives somewhere in the entire western hemisphere? There is also no common language, race, ethnicity, or culture that unifies North and South America.
- satori99 11y ago>Who refers to themselves by continent anyway? satori99 Waves hello from Australia :)
- learc83 11y agoHa :) But are you really referring to yourself as being from the continent or the country? By the way, do people from New Guinea get on your case about calling yourselves Australian (since it is part of the continent), like South Americans do to us?
- satori99 11y agoI haven't ever met anyone from PNG, but I'll be sure to ask when I do!
- sehr 11y agoPlease avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html