And only the kind that also get on everyone else’s nerves by pushing Latinx
Comment on Why is there no true Progressive party in America right now?
huginn@feddit.it 5 months agoFor better or worse in the anglosphere America = USA.
FWIW that’s also true in Italian.
It’s only Spanish speakers who make the distinction afaik (maybe also Portuguese but I don’t speak the language so I’m not sure).
DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 5 months ago
huginn@feddit.it 5 months ago
Idk about that. EEUU is how you abbreviate USA and Estados Unidenses is how it’s usually written - They drop the “of America” and just say/write United States.
But I only have schooling in Spanish - no real world experience.
DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 5 months ago
Estadounidense is the “progressive” version of “Americanos” or “Norteamericano.” When they translate it to English they usually go with Usians or things of that nature.
Because intellectual coherency in respecting self identity is very, very hard for a certain kind of internet activist.
huginn@feddit.it 5 months ago
TIL ty
My knowledge of Spanish is only high school level and that was how it was taught.
tiredofsametab@kbin.run 5 months ago
Japanese as well. Technically, there are at least two words for the US, one of which is Amerika (so phonetically really close) and the other beikoku (bei here being kinda like 'bay' in general US English -- neither of these have a stressed syllable like in English) which is typically only used in political contexts in my experience.
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
The country has a name that isn’t America in all languages, it’s just a bad habit that came from the USA and spread all over… and as an American that doesn’t live in the USA, I’m just doing my part to remind people that America isn’t the USA.
I would love to see people’s reaction if France started calling itself Europe or China called itself Asia…
kirklennon@kbin.social 5 months ago
I consider your comment highly offensive. You can’t tell a people what they are allowed to call themselves in their own language just because the same word means something else in another language. In English “America” refers unambiguously to the United States because there is no continent called “America.”
This comparison would work only if “Europe” meant one thing in French, and if the word “China” meant one thing in Chinese, and they both meant different in other languages.
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Funny because all dictionaries mention that America is also a word that refers to the continent(s) and I find it highly offensive that you guys find it acceptable to appropriate the term to refer to one country that actually has another name (when the “America” in that name actually refers to the continent too).
kirklennon@kbin.social 5 months ago
In English, there is North America and there is South America. Collectively, you can call them the Americas. Just "America" on its own refers to the country. It doesn't matter what A-M-E-R-I-C-A mean in a different language. Spanish has what is fundamentally a different word, with the same spelling, to refer to something else. In linguistic terms it's a false friend. The etymological origins are, indeed, the same, but it took on separate meanings in different languages. Nobody is confused about this, however. You're just being an asshole.
huginn@feddit.it 5 months ago
And literally literally means figuratively.
A teaching my advanced linguistic classes drilled into me is “l’uso fa legge”.
Or, translated, usage makes the rules.
No language is logical, and consensus is how language is derived.
Pedantry is never ingratiating.
sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
Well, for them there is “North America” and “South America”, for us the continent is just America. So I can see how it isn’t confusing depending on your culture.