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From: rgh@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Re: north of the border
Message-ID: <7300045@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Dec-85 12:49:00 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.7300045
Posted: Sat Dec  7 12:49:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Dec-85 03:49:48 EST
References: <2586@sunybcs.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:sunybcs:-258600:inmet:7300045:000:1360
Nf-From: inmet!rgh    Dec  7 12:49:00 1985


It is an act of simple courtesy to refer to people in the way they
wish to be referred to.  Citizens of the United States of America
refer to themselves, and to each other, as "Americans".  "America"
means, in the USA, the USA, and not "the Americas", or "the New
World" or "the Western Hemisphere".

I gather that the objection to allowing us to refer to ourselves as
"Americans" is that the usage is felt to imply some imperial attitude
toward the rest of North and South (and Central) America.  That is not
the intent: even we anti-imperialists refer to ourselves as Americans.

Similarly, in this sort of conversation:
	 Q: Where are you from?
	 A: America.
	 Q: You mean, the United States?
I trust the intent is not to be insulting or patronizing or
pedagogic or simply anti-American, but it sure feels like that
after the tenth time.  This dialogue implies that Q thinks that a Spaniard
might reply "Europe" or "Eurasia" rather than "Spain", or that a
Canadian or Brazilian might reply "America" rather than "Canada"
or "Brazil" -- it's really hard for me to believe that Q really
needs to ask the disambiguating question.

Note that the Brazilian might legitimately reply "the United States".
It seems like people who can keep straight which country is "the
United States" could handle the ambiguity of "America".

	Randy Hudson  {ihnp4,ima}!inmet!rgh