posted
I have encountered Canadians who got pissy on this issue. On another message board I occasionally visit, there's a Canadian who absolutely insists that "American" can't be used to describe a United States citizen as opposed to a Canadian. Instead he's made up some ridiculous non-term like "US-ian", or something equally inane, and insists that it is the correct term. He even tried to "correct" my usage once when I was saying something or other about Americans. You can bet I treated that with the disdain that it deserved.
I'm glad to learn he is in the minority, though. I was actually worried that it might be a common complaint over there. (I'd say 'up there', but Canada isn't north of where I live; it's east.) Good to know the majority of Canadians don't even bother with this one.
quote:There are people that really get in a tizzy about this down in Brazil. IIRC, OSC even mentions it in passing in his short story America, found in Folk of the Fringe.
That was a different, though equally specious, issue. The argument there was that only Native peoples have a right to call themselves "Americans", and that white people, regardless of whether they are from the United States, or Canada, or Brazil, or anywhere else, must call themselves "Europeans". Thankfully, I've never heard anyone in real life try to make that claim.
quote:Consequently, I just realized that it is my awareness of the vagueness of the term "America" that I choose to say "The States" instead most of the time.
If "America" is a vague term (and I still say that it is not), then surely "The States" is even more so. The USA is not the only country in the world that has states. As has already been pointed out, Mexico and Brazil have states. So do many countries not even in the Americas, such as Australia and Germany. I'm not saying I object to the term "The States". It doesn't bother me at all, actually. I'm just saying that, taken out of context, it is less specific than "America", not more.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
At any rate, the few people in the world who actually concern themselves with this issue should thank whatever deity they believe in that the North won the Civil War. Can you imagine if the Confederate States of America had survived? Then there'd be two countries laying claim to exclusive use of the terms "American" and "The States".
No doubt they'd end up being called "The Union" and "The Confederacy", with "Union" and "Confederate" as adjectives. But what about the inhabitants themselves? "Confederates" is easy enough, but "Unionists" doesn't quite work. It sounds more like a philosophy than a national identity. Aside from the fact that they'd both probably call themselves "Americans" and each other "Yankees" and "Rebs", when they could restrain themselves from profanity, the whole issue would still be a lot more complicated and a lot less easy to ignore.
posted
Another very good point, Verily. Maybe my motivation is that while saying "The States" is not more accurate, it is less likely to offend.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
True. I understand that the Canadians themselves often say "The States". That wouldn't be offensive in Canada, because Canada has provinces and territories instead of states. Of course, given the rest of the issue, I'd say it opens up a whole new can of worms that conveniently "offends" only people that aren't Canadian.
But since no one is actually offended, and the percentage of people who care about any part of this issue is so miniscule, I'm certainly not going to bother getting heated up about it. Still, it's good to keep in mind in case I ever meet a Canadian who is offended by our use of the word "America" and then proceeds to call it "The States". I now have an argument to use in that contingency. I can bust this hypothetical Canadian on hypocracy or chauvinism. Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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The term USONA is an acronym for New Union of South Africa. I'm not quite sure how it fits, but it is.
Frank Lloyd Wright coined the term "Usonian" in about 1910, to identify the United States of North America, hence, "Usonia."
The term still exists but it refers specifically to the style of architecture Wright invented for the American middle class. In my opinion Usonian architecture is superior to Leavit's cheapo cracker boxes, but it is more expensive and requires more skilled laborers to construct, thus the Leavittown style is the dominant style.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I feel the need to bring this up again because it was soooo well done:
quote: Because inevitably, patriotism on the part of this country's own inhabitants, that is to say, national self-love, would then be called "Usonanism".
posted
You learn something new every day. Or at least something is moved from the periphery of your knowledge to the forefront. Someone is an LDS not a Mormon. Who knew?
Anyway, as far is the initial post on this thread goes I'm just going to give a shout back to my original posts. There are loonies in every country about every issue. Case. Closed. Although, if we're going to be picky, we’re not actually called Canada: From the British North America Act, created "one Dominion under the name of Canada". So it's actually The Dominion of Canada. Mind you, the 1982 Canadian Constitution doesn't use the term, but neither does it amend it. (The government started phasing out the word "Dominion" in the 50s and "Dominion Day" was changed to "Canada Day" some time within the last 20 years. But the word still floats around to differentiate between the federal and provincial governments). I'd wager that the vast majority of Canadians don't realize this though, so keep on calling us Canada (and flaunt how you know more about Canada than the upstart who takes issue with “America” should you ever find one).
The only other question, as it were, seems to be about Canada and the monarchy. Booooy howdy, Bev. You sure weren't paying attention two years ago when then Deputy Prime Minister Manley suggested we do away with the whole monarchy thing. And he certainly isn't the only government official to suggest such a thing in recent years. There was a fair amount of fallout from such a suggestion, but a heck of a lot of support as well.
You have to remember that Canada is a really young country. We gained full control over our affairs in 1931 with the Statute of Westminster and the Canadian Constitution was adopted in 1982 (a much different document than the American iteration. Much of the Canadian one isn't actually written but is rather inferred from tradition and precedent. Not only that, but Quebec never actually ratified the thing. Anyway, to continue) There are still a lot of people alive who remember the British influence fondly and would hate to see it go. As well there was a non-negligible brain drain from the UK to Canada around 30 years ago and a lot of them are still very keen on the monarchy.
The rest of us? Couldn't care less. Think it's pretty antiquated. Axe it (and the senate in my opinion, but that's another kettle of fish). My guess sees us sever ties with the British monarchy within my lifetime. Probably in another 20 or 30 years. The Queen’s role is filled "by proxy" by the Governor General. Which is to say, the Governor General works and the queen sits around and looks pretty. The role of the Governor General, and actually the whole Canadian government is actually a tangled, non-functioning mess that has been smoothed out over the years. I just wish someone would write down these "traditions" and make them "official". But this is probably a much longer look at Canadian politics than anyone really wanted.
Oh, and yes most Canadians refer to America as "The States." That's probably the most common way of referring to your country, actually. By a long shot.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I'm sure I can't speak for all of the Canadians but I would say that we have a basic respect for the Monarchy as they relate to our history. We do still require it to pass laws but that is in signature alone. On the other hand when the Queen was gave birth to Charles we did give her a piece of Canada downtown Ottawa.
So maybe we do love them?
Posts: 42 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Porteiro...to tell you the truth, I don't know any brazilians who are annoyed that Americans are called thus.
What we do is calling the U.S. "Estados Unidos" (United States), and not "America", to avoid further confusion. Ok, ok...Brazil is "República dos Estados Unidos do Brasil", but nobody else uses the "Estados Unidos", so...
But yes...if someone is worried about that, the person in question must have much idle time in his/her hands.
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