In the workshopping of one of my limericks, someone commented on my use of the phrasing "us Yanks" as opposed to the correct "we Yanks." His comment ran along the lines of, "Well, as a colloquialism, I suppose it's OK."

While I do love the English language, I certainly am not 100% expert in its use and, honest soul that I am, I'll admit to mistakes when I make them. An odd thing about this error, however, was that I had used "us Yanks" because the phrasing "us Yanks" tends to sound correct to "us Yanks." On the other hand, had I been born and raised in the land of Tony Blair, I very probably would have used the phrasing "we Brits" because that sounds correct to me as well.

I think this is a reflection of a deep-seated prejudice many Americans have in regards to the way our British cousins speak. Deep down in our post-colonial hearts, we tend to suspect that British English is more correct, proper, and otherwise preferable to our own homegrown variety. Not infrequently, we're correct. Still, this feeling can have its drawbacks.

I knew of a married military couple, both Americans, who had had two children in England when they were stationed there for several years. When they finally transferred back to the States, the kids were in the early grades of elementary school and sounded just like the brother and sister from "Mary Poppins." The parents reported that almost all their teachers gave them credit for being far smarter than they actually were because of their "darling little accents" although I suspect it had more to do with this same pro-British American prejudice.


Any other examples?

quote:

Originally posted by Chris J. Strolin:
... we tend to suspect that British English is more correct ...

Who you calling we, kemosabe?

quote:

had I been born and raised in the land of Tony Blair,

Had that been the case we would all have far more problems than simple pronoun use :-(

The Labour Party has been re-elected and that does mean that we will have to suffer their mismanagement of the country for a while longer. Fortunately Tony Blair will remain in charge for only as long as his Party will keep him - and most are hoping that won't be for too long.

Whatever happens it will never be "his" country, thank the stars - though I am sure he would like it to be.

quote:

almost all their teachers gave them credit for being far smarter than they actually were because of their "darling little accents"

This brings to my mind the movie Love Actually where one of the male characters wants to go to America because all the beautiful young American Women would fall instantly in love with him because of his accent. Amazingly, it worked for the funny-lookin guy just as he thought it would!

When I wasd at College I always thought of going to America complete with my Dinner Suit as I was convinced I would be accomodated by a different woman every night. Sadly I never followed this idea through but when I saw Love Actually it certainly brought the memory back and made me regret my choice not to go all the more.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris J. Strolin:teachers gave them credit for being far smarter than they actually were because of their "darling little accents"

To a degree that also happens in this country where certain accents are generally disliked. For a small country we have a surprising range of accents and some, like Brummie or Scouse, are often equated with a limited intelligence. Conversely a child who 'speaks posh' is usually assumed to be clever and well educated.

like Brummie or Scouse, are often equated with a limited intelligence.

Tell me about it. This gets to me so much I've tried to lose my Midlands accent for years (it's a mild mix of B'ham and Black Country), with various degrees of success. Nearly every non-Midlander I've met - actually, usually Southerner, I'm sad to say - has taken the piss out of my accent or tried to copy it. Oddly enough, the Brummie accent is one that everyone seems to think they can do but few people actually can do properly. Most do an embarrassingly bad stereotype.

Interestingly, until I first started travelling to the Midlands and the North I had never consciously thought about the differences between us. I was very surprised when I started to do so and experienced the same kind of reaction every time.

First it was, "Don't you talk posh!"

Then, "What do you Southerners think of us Northerners, the?"

And the response, when I said (genuinely) that I had never given the matter much thought, was "I suppose you think we all walk about in turbans, wear clogs, keep whippets, talk stupid" - or whatever particular cliche the speaker wished to use.

It took me while to realise that "Northerners" - and by that I mean anyone north of Coventry, seem to be preoccupied by what we Southerners think of them and many appear to have an idea that we denigrate them and feel they're stupid (as Cat says). But in my experience that just isn't the case. Southerners don't consider Northerners as "special" people - indeed, we rarely even think about them at all - just as we don't spend a lot of time thinking about those from the West Country, or East Anglia, either.

And as for the accent - we all acquire an accent from our parents and peers and, unless we seek to change it, that's the accent we have. That the Southern accent happens also to be the standard "BBC" accent or even the Queen's accent, doesn't make us different, or better, or more well educated.

Cat, those you feel are denigrating your accent are not worthy of your consideration; it they who are the stupid ones, not you. You keep your accent just as it is - I think it's gorgeous.

Sorry. We can be as polite as you like about it, but if somebody has a brummie accent, it will be assumed that they are stupid.

Even in the wonderful country we have woken up to this morning. Just think, four more years of high employment and tolerance. Despite being up against a war-mongering liar, and despite playing the race card for all its worth, that nasty Mr Howard still lost.

Especially because of the use of the unpleasant word "Brits", "us Brits" sounds just as good/bad as "we Brits". I can't speak about the the "Yanks" side for obvious reasons.

Awww, thanks Richard. That's really nice . Maybe I've just met a lot of particularly judgemental Southerners when it comes to accents, as in my experience they've been more likely to impersonate my accent than those from elsewhere - it's happened to me a surprising number of times.


Graham does have a point too though, sadly. It's something that needs to be rectified. There are call centres who don't employ people with Brummie accents (it was in the local paper a few years ago), and that shouldn't be allowed. As long as you speak clearly enough to be understood, that should be all that matters.

quote:

Originally posted by Cat:

There are call centres who don't employ people with Brummie accents

Not really all that surprising. There aren't that many people with Brummie accents in Southern India.

I don't know, "us + N:subj" is grammatically as normal as "we + N:subj" everywhere in the English-speaking world I know of, with just the register difference, but that's entirely subjective on my part and there might be other real usage differences.

If Americans think of "Britons" it seems to be usually of highly stereotyped culturally superior types, very distant from the situation on the ground. Although there are people who have such stereotyped dialect, they're often subject to complicated social attitudes: being posh is no longer seen as a good or natural thing. Of course they'd have to travel here to hear "I ent done nuffink, innit?" and realize it was genuine, not putting it on for comic effect in a film.

Well, I at last got Cat stirred up about something. Personally I don't worry too much about accents but there are some exceptions I'm afraid to say. I consciously know that there are some very clever liverpudlians out there but when I hear the accent I am instinctively pushed away. I can only assume that it is a stereotype that is built in to our national psyche because I must have developed this sub-conscious reaction from somewhere.

I recall that on my Degree course they talked about the southern accent as being 'correct' English but then pointed out that as more people DON'T speak BBC English, it must therefore be considered incorrect English. This approach must help to pacify those from the north who seem to believe that southern english is somehow better.

I am originally from the north east of England and I am proud of my roots yet some of the school kids say I sound 'posh' simply because I can use words with more than 2 syllables. Diversity can be a wonderful thing and if more people appreciated that, it seems to me that the world would be a much brighter place.

Sad to say, The United States has similar stereotypes associated with varying accents of our people. An Appalachian accent (hillbilly, mountain folk) is considered to show the person is "base" or less intelligent, less educated. My husband, who grew up in South Eastern Ohio (the foothill of Appalachia, right on the border with West (by God) Virginia .. . pronounced Wess Bah Gawd Verrgeenya)made a conscious effort in his teens to get rid of the accent most of his family carries. He was nicknamed "Perfessor" by his football teammates, and considered stuck-up (snobbish). I still tease him about a few of his pronounciations (mostly because I just tease him, anyway).

Many Northerners would feel that people with thick Southern accents are slower thinkers, although I think that is going away. It's funny to hear the Brits talking about Southern accents being posh - here it's rather the opposite direction.

I'd say "us Yanks" is just fine, being that it's better than "us'n's" . . . the close (inbred) cousin of "y'uns" .

Somehow I missed this lovely thread! CJ has always had a knack for creating good discussions.

First off, though, I would say "we Yanks," not "us Yanks." Remember Tinman's criticism of my "Is it just I?"? I don't think CJ's use of "us Yanks" has anything to do with our "deep-seated prejudice" against the Brits' supposed better English.

Secondly, for the first time here (after almost 3 years) I hear that you don't like the name "Brits?" Really? I had never used it before this board, but I have been using it because I thought the Brits liked it! I am happy to say "English" or "Britons" or anything else. Which do you Britons prefer?

BTW, never worry about Americans thinking anything negative about your accent, Cat. We just love all English accents! I will never forget the time that I was in an elevator filled with female nurses, and there was one man. He made some comment, like, "first floor, please" with a gorgeous English accent. Suddenly the women were all over him ("Where are you from?" "What a great accent!" "How do you like the U.S." etc.!). I think he got a kick out of it!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

quote:

Suddenly the women were all over him ("Where are you from?" "What a great accent!" "How do you like the U.S." etc.!).

Thanks Kalleh, you're making me regret my decision not to go to America as a single man even more

I wonder if Americans distinguish between British accents as much as we do here. I only wonder because many years ago I worked with a number of French people who told me that they noticed no British accents at all, it was just 'English'. I was stunned that someone from the south of England could sound the same as a Glaswegian. I imagine that you do notice our accents as you also speak English (of a sort) but are you as sensitive to the various nuances as we are? I notice American accents but I doubt if I'd spot different ones as much as you do.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doad,

I can distinguish different types of accents among English . . . but I rarely know what they signify because I don't know what indiosyncracies go with which area.

you also speak English (of a sort)
Don't think I didn't notice that

quote:

you also speak English (of a sort)
Don't think I didn't notice that

Oops! Caught again!

You two!

quote:

I wonder if Americans distinguish between British accents as much as we do here.

Vaguely, Doad. When I was at that conference in Oxford, my facilitator was from Scotland. I surely knew that his accent was very different from Arnie's or Bob's or Richard's or Cat's. As for those 4, I did see that Cat and Bob spoke similarly, and it seemed that Arnie and Richard spoke fairly similarly. One strange thing, though, was that I felt (I could be wrong) that Richard and his wife had slightly different accents. Yet, compared to that facilitator from Scotland, all 4 wordcrafters spoke the same. I surely didn't have the feeling that any of the accents denoted a higher or lower class.

Scottish accents can vary a great deal themselves. The Glasgow accent can be quite a harsh sound and can come across as being aggressive whereas Edinburgh uses a far softer tone and is considered 'posh' in that country. As you move into the north of Scotland they tend not to use their mouths as much in my experience and it always seems to come across as more of a mutter or mumble. Perhaps you would just have spotted that it was Scottish. It can take a while to get used to. When I first moved up there I found that for the first few months I had to really concentrate but after a while it became second nature and I know longer even think about it much. I sent CW some CD's with the comedian Billy Connolly on and she certainly said that it took a couple of listens before she started to grasp what was going on. I wonder how she would get on with the old TV show 'Rab C. Nesbitt'

I remember when I first took my wife up to the North East, where I originally come from, she really struggled with the Geordie accent. She kept commenting that it sounded like they were 'singing' as the tone of voice does tend to rise and fall a bit.

As far as American accents are concerned, it never crossed my mind that one was considered posher than another. The pronunciations that CW refers to I found very funny and I certainly notice when I've been there. I once drove from Toronto to Orlando and the change in accents was remarkable. The further south I travelled, the more syllables they seemed to be able to squeeze into a word. I swear that in Georgia they can make a simple word like 'bed' sound as if it has six syllables! It always seems to be a very slow and drawled pronunciation and I assume that this is why they are supposed to be slow witted.

As Doad pointed out my wife is a native french speaker. She has worked in many states and always understood the locals. In the UK she regularly struggles to catch all the words. If this siginfies anything at all I am not sure. We were looking at the DVD of Rab C. Nesbitt just the other day, but did not purchase as it did not have sub titles. I doubt it will ever screen in the states, not even BBC America.

Of course with Rab C. Nesbitt it isn't just the accent. After a while living in Scotland I could understand it without difficulty but alot of the dialogue uses colloquial language and that is significantly more problematic if there isn't someone to translate, although the meaning can sometimes be deduced from the context I suppose.

You must be very careful when making sweeping genralisations about the correctness of Southern well-to-do English.

Edinburgh English can sound perfect with every vowel perfectly-formed and the correct length, so it is not just a North/South thing.

It is not just a posh thing either. I don't think anybody would still claim that there is anything correct about the strained 1950s Brief Encounter accents or ludicrous 1980s Sloane accents. It is wrong to say dawg when you mean dog and cresh when you mean crash.

Quote, "...Secondly, for the first time here (after almost 3 years) I hear that you don't like the name "Brits?" Really? I had never used it before this board, but I have been using it because I thought the Brits liked it! I am happy to say "English" or "Britons" or anything else. Which do you Britons prefer?..."

Well, it would be rude to make an issue over something like that, wouldn't it ;-)

The reason why "Brit" is not really liked is that we simply don't use it. The correct term for a native of Great Britain is "Briton" - never abbreviated. The correct name for someone from England (the largest country of the British Isles) is English. Those from Scotland are Scots or Scottish (and never Scotch). The Welsh come from Wales and those from Northern Ireland are - Northern Irish. Those from the only country in the British Islands that is not part of Great Britain - Ireland - are Irish.

Those from the small Crown dependencies such as The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man have different names yet again.

So, at least with "Brit" you're going to be right most of the time - but we would usually prefer "Briton" rather than the abbreviation.

quote:

As far as American accents are concerned, it never crossed my mind that one was considered posher than another.

I don't consider any American accents (or English ones either) "posher" than others. It just has never occurred to me. CW, which American accents do you consider "posher?"

Richard, that is so interesting that you agree with arnie on that. As I said, I had never said "Brit" until this board. I thought that's what you Britons preferred!

quote:

As long as you speak clearly enough to be understood, that should be all that matters.

I suspect (although I have done no research) that some accents have a greater understandablity than others. That is to say that, for example, more English speakers will understand more of what a person with a London accent says than would someone with a Liverpudlian accent.

A strong Black Country accent is arguably less comprehensible, as is probably a strong Glaswegian accent.

Havin said which, proper voice training to eliminate local slang and jargon will go a long way towards improving comprehension of any accent.

But I would be very sorry were local accents to disappear; they are one of the more charming aspects of the UK.

I agree Richard. Much as there are some accents that I care for less than others I still think it would be a shame if we were to ever lose them as it helps to supply a degree of individuality and character to a region and, as I have said before, we are able to cram a remarkable number of different accents into such a small country. My gut feeling is that America doesn't have the same scope of accents in proportion to the size of their country but I may be wrong on this.

Kalleh - scroll up to my post on this thread from May 6 for my opinions of which American accents are felt to be posh or not.

I would agree, Doad, about America not having the variety of accents per square mile that England does. However, I think we do have an enormous variety. Boston, Brooklyn, Harlem, Queens, Western Pennsylvania, Appalachia, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Cleveland, Chicago, Southern California, Louisianna, and many other areas have distinctive bits of accent. Sometimes it's an accent very similar to some other area (all the "country" type accents, let's say) but there might be a word or phrase that is more commonly used that would distinguish one from another.

I would say that it's not just accents that make the UK or the US more charming . . . but I would take it a step further and propose that this is one of the many things that make human being so fascinating.

Vive la difference!

Thanks to all for an interesting discussion. Like Kalleh, I had no idea that the term "Brit" was not readily used by our British brethren themselves and I assume it goes without saying that no slight was intended.

One of our Irish writers from the other site mentioned the phrase "Air hair lair" as a way that one particularly accented person would greet someone and I cracked up. I imagine that all the UKers here will know what this means but how about (to reprise the reason for this thread) us Yanks?

quote:

"Air hair lair"

This means "Oh hello". It would be an extraordinarily affected person who spoke thus but it is a representation of the way that small minority of very "upper crust" types might speak at some sort of "top persons" event - such as Ascot or Henley Regatta.

And a last take on "Britons". We use the word to describe the inhabitants of Britain but we would rarely say "we Britons", and certainly not "we Brits". Should we need to refer to the British as a group we would say "we British". Briton is usually used in the singular to describe a British person - "one Briton was amongst those injured". More likely, though, any reporter would recast the sentence to say something like, "one British holidaymaker was amongst the injured".

There is a passtime common to North American youth when inebriated, Cow Tipping. This is simply pushing a sleeping bovine over.
My wife had a very srange mental picture when faced with the british term "Fly Tipping".
This is infact the illegal dumping of rubbish "on the fly". Fly being hurridly in this context rather than an alternative immage of us all finding flies to drop rubbish on.

It's odd. The terms Britain and British are widely used, and indeed indispensable, they being our flag-carrier, our passport, and in most respects (other than sport, countryside, and sentiment) our international presence. But Briton is just a news report word, and 'Brit', though you do hear it sometimes on British tongues, is rather unpleasant: it strikes me like Jap or Yank, clipped and dismissive.

We're sadly hampered by the lack of a simple form like 'Scot' for the other countries. I am an... Englishman? Well yes, but Cat and I are... Englishpeople? (Englanders? Angles??) To some extent the adjective English can stand in as a noun, but it won't in all contexts; and especially here where we often want to talk separately and distinctly about the language and the nationality. Annoyingly unresolvable.

Fly tipping: that image isn't going to go out of my head now.

quote:

Originally posted by Cat:
Awww, thanks Richard. That's really nice . Maybe I've just met a lot of particularly judgemental Southerners when it comes to accents, as in my experience they've been more likely to impersonate my accent than those from elsewhere - it's happened to me a surprising number of times.

Graham does have a point too though, sadly. It's something that needs to be rectified. There are call centres who don't employ people with Brummie accents (it was in the local paper a few years ago), and that shouldn't be allowed. As long as you speak clearly enough to be understood, that should be all that matters.

My father and ex-husband were both in the Royal Air Force, so I trailed around all over the place for the first 27 years of my life. I found that I tended to absorb the local accent of wherever I happened to be at the time. When my marriage broke up, I spent four years (from 1990-1994) at Loughborough University in the Midlands, I came down to the south with a strange accent which was heavily influenced by the flat vowels of the Midlands. Instead of pronouncing the central "a" of path and bath as "pahth" and "bahth" like I used to, I rhymed the central "a" with the "a" in "mat" and "rat". Now, having spent 11 years down south, I'm gradually reverting to my original pronunciation.

I have a friend who's married to a man with a strong Yorkshire accent and if I phone her and he answers, I tease him by mimicking his accent shamelessly (but only because I know him very well and he's a good sport who gives as good as he gets ).

I agree that there is a widespread prejudice against Midlands accents, but I would rather have a good honest Birmingham, Coventry or Wolverhampton accent than the horrible nasal whine and glottal stops of "Sahrf London est-yoo-ree" that most people seem to affect nowadays .

quote:

I knew of a married military couple, both Americans, who had had two children in England when they were stationed there for several years. When they finally transferred back to the States, the kids were in the early grades of elementary school and sounded just like the brother and sister from "Mary Poppins." The parents reported that almost all their teachers gave them credit for being far smarter than they actually were because of their "darling little accents" although I suspect it had more to do with this same pro-British American prejudice.

Any other examples?

I spent three weeks in LA in February and everyone there commented on my accent (favourably). I often wonder whether I could get a good job over there answering the telephone for some swish upmarket company who wanted to project a classy image .

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:

quote:

had I been born and raised in the land of Tony Blair,

Had that been the case we would all have far more problems than simple pronoun use :-(

The Labour Party has been re-elected and that does mean that we will have to suffer their mismanagement of the country for a while longer. Fortunately Tony Blair will remain in charge for only as long as his Party will keep him - and most are hoping that won't be for too long.

Whatever happens it will never be "his" country, thank the stars - though I am sure he would like it to be.

That reminds me of the press having a field day with Maggie Thatcher back in the 80s when she announced that We are a grandmother

Cat and I are... Englishpeople?

Actually, I'm a mongrel. Plenty of Celt: (mainly Welsh but some Irish) as well as Anglo-Saxon in me .

I rhymed the central "a" with the "a" in "mat" and "rat".

Well of course - that's how they're supposed to be pronounced .

quote:

Well of course - that's how they're supposed to be pronounced

As I understand it this is the ealier pronunciation, which is why American English uses the "short a". The "long a" is mainly a southern English phenomenon which was, I understand, caused when it was considered fashionable to mimic French pronunciation which generally uses the "long a".

In other words ...

quote:

Should we need to refer to the British as a group we would say "we British".

Jerry, thanks for that. I don't think I have ever heard "demonym" before. I was just about to comment on Richard's post about that...is it grammatically correct to say "we British?" Wouldn't it be like saying "we intelligent" or "we pretty?" Intelligent what? Pretty what?

Now I am all confused. Richard, arnie, aput (I consider "Jap" an all out slur!) all hate Brits. Briton is a media term. British is an adjective, and I don't feel comfortable using it as a noun, unless you.......(what do I call you?).......say it's okay. Should I say "you British" from now on and not worry about grammar? Oy vey!

I do want to be respectful!

quote:

Now I am all confused. Richard, arnie, aput (I consider "Jap" an all out slur!) all hate Brits. Briton is a media term. British is an adjective, and I don't feel comfortable using it as a noun, unless you.......(what do I call you?).......say it's okay. Should I say "you British" from now on and not worry about grammar? Oy vey!

I do want to be respectful!

On the basis that I've been called a lot worse in my time, I don't mind being called a "Brit".

Just for balance, I can't say I'd be at all bothered to be called a Brit.

Memo from the Unsolicited Advice Department ...

Kalleh, reacting to the anguish expressed in your post I am motivated to help you search for a solution. First, I try to define your problem. As I see it, you perceive a deep need for a suitable label for your audience when you want to address the entire population of the United Kingdom, and find that the population is around sixty million.

But I know that's a much wider scope than you need. The individuals you want to include in "You (label)" are, I believe, Richard, Cat, Bob, Arnie, Leenol, Purdie, Doad, Quark, Dianthus, Graham Nice, aput, ... and perhaps a few others. A widely diversified group with one thing in common -- nationality -- or is it geographic location of residence? Language?

It's not a problem that I can readily relate to because I have never yet felt that same need.

One way could be "You lot," and another is to use their names.

It's parallel to the problem we briefly discussed earlier regarding the Hispanics ( ... Mexicans, meskins, spicks, beaners, ); a problem only if one needs to set that group apart from all others.

How do you Chicagoans feel about that?

.... you women? you wives? you mothers?

.... you nurses? you Jews?

,,,,, you educators?

Us beachcombers need to know !!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry thomas,

Just to add my voice, I've never had a problem with the word Brit, as I mentioned in the chat on Saturday.

How about 'you UK-ers'? I just made it up (although it's so obvious that someone else will also have, so I won't claims dibs on it). I wouldn't worry too much, Kalleh - it's personal preference: some of us don't mind it, some can't stand it, others may use it themsleves.

Or these always 'O Great and Powerful Esteemed One(s)'. I'd answer to that quite happily .

Any adjective can be used on its own in noun-like positions in certain contexts: The poor will always be with us; The vigorous have an advantage; The Swiss make chocolates and cuckoo-clocks.

'You English/British/Swiss' sounds okay, parallel to 'You Germans/Mozambicans'. Perhaps because of the sibilant ending: it sounds rather like a plural noun. I don't think we can say 'You Serb/Serbian', because in that case we have a readily pluralizable real noun.

One test for whether it's functioning as an adjective or a noun is whether you can modify it with an adjective: 'The resourceful poor...; The ingenious English...'. This makes it even more parallel to nationality nouns, I think, because I'd be strongly inclined to say 'the ingenious Scots', not 'the ingenious Scottish'. That is, you can't just use an adjective in that position. So words like 'English' (but not 'Scottish') are genuinely functioning as nouns when there is nothing else to serve.

That spoken by a linguist...so, from now on, it is "you British" (even though it sounds funny to me). I suspect I may forget a few times, but I know you will forgive me.

The problem with a phrase like British is that it lumps us English together with the Scots and Welsh. Also, anybody claiming to be British is so often either making a point about racial politics or the Irish question. Therefore, I rarely use the term.

And what do we call you folks on the other side of the pond? 'Americans' includes Argentines and Brazilians, as well as people from the USA. 'North Americans' still includes Mexicans and Canadians. 'Yanks', as in the thread title, does work, but is hardly polite. USAns?

quote:

The problem with a phrase like British is that it lumps us English together with the Scots and Welsh.

Indeed this is true. Unfortunately successive Governments have sought to deny the majority population of the British Islands their nationality. Although around 81% of the inhabitants of the British Islands (which includes the Republic of Ireland) are English, England alone has no separate Parliament. Neither does it even recognise its own Saint's day.

Quite why this has been Government policy over so many years I cannot say - but I, for one, voted for the English Democratic Party at the last election in the hope that the importance of the English is recognised, at least equally with the importance of the minority nations in these islands.

The problem with a phrase like British is that it lumps us English together with the Scots and Welsh. Also, anybody claiming to be British is so often either making a point about racial politics or the Irish question. Therefore, I rarely use the term.

I feel as though I am on a merry-go-round! I had just decided to use "British" because I thought we had British consensus for that term. Now Graham hardly ever uses it! What do you suggest, Graham? I think it is nice to be able to call the posters here who are from England something because often we have British/American discussions where we might ask, "What do you English residents think of this?".

quote:

And what do we call you folks on the other side of the pond? 'Americans' includes Argentines and Brazilians, as well as people from the USA. 'North Americans' still includes Mexicans and Canadians. 'Yanks', as in the thread title, does work, but is hardly polite. USAns?

arnie, I agree about about the term "Americans." The accepted terminology, though incorrect, tends to be that people living in the U.S. are called "Americans," people living in Canada are called "Canadians" and people living in Mexico are called "Mexicans." Central and South Americans are designated by their country or they are Central or South Americans. Not precise, but that seems to be standard. "Canadians" or "Mexicans" might be called "North Americans," but usually not "Americans."