• Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgOP
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    10 hours ago

    I realize that foreigners, in languages other than English, use terms that directly translate to US American. However our preferred nomenclature is American.

    I usually use US American as Canadians and Mexicans are also Americans, and that can go all the way to Central and South America depending on how you divide continents

    • _skj@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      You won’t find many people who would seriously complain about that phrasing, but it would come off as awkward and stilted to most people from the US.

      And if you extrapolate this and start saying Mexico Americans and Canada Americans for people in those countries, you’re just going to confuse people

      • superduperpirate@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        You won’t find many people who would seriously complain about that phrasing, but it would come off as awkward and stilted to most people from the US.

        Awkward, stilted, and a little holier-than-thou.

        And if you extrapolate this and start saying Mexico Americans and Canada Americans for people in those countries, you’re just going to confuse people

        Mexico American - doesn’t make sense

        Mexican American - American whose origins lie primarily in Mexico

        Canada American - doesn’t make sense

        Canadian American - American whose origins lie primarily in Canada

        Frankly, I think most Canadians would probably feel insulted if you addressed them as Canada Americans. They don’t want to be tainted by association with us.

        • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgOP
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          8 hours ago

          Mexicans and Canadians have those demonyms, so no need to worry for them.

          Frankly, I think most Canadians would probably feel insulted if you addressed them as Canada Americans. They don’t want to be tainted by association with us.

          I’ve seen Canadians being okay with being called “North Americans”, when discussing something impacting both Canada and the USA, so it seems in this situations it’s fine by team. Canada Americans would indeed be strange.

          • _skj@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            North American yes, but it would be unusual for a Canadian to call themselves just American. Same for Mexico, though obviously Spanish has its own demonyms that don’t have this problem.

            For a European equivalent, should we say “UK British” when referring to people living in the UK? The UK is the only country to commonly use British to refer to its citizens, but they are not the only country on the British Isles.

            • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgOP
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              2 hours ago

              The UK British example is interesting.

              Not British, so hopefully I’m not butchering this up.

              UK is Great Britain (so Scotland, England, Wales) + Northern Ireland.

              UK British in opposition to UK Northern Irish makes limited sense because both demonyms are enough to see who’s who (British vs Northern Irish). And if you want to go deeper, you can use Scottish, English, Welsh.

              To have a situation similar to America would be to have the English using British to only qualify themselves, disregarding Scottish and Welsh people.