How do you judge an accent as pretentious?

Guest   Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:10 pm GMT
I don't know, do I? It's too early for standards, just let people use their creativity, but you natives who know the language well, could at least try and make the efford.
Skippy   Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:38 pm GMT
In the US, the "politically correct" term for Americans is Americans. I have no idea where this whole notion of "Statians" originated, but it seems to have only caught on in a few places, and it is certainly not catching on (even with the PC crowd) in the US.
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:55 am GMT
"Of course, because it is the word that Stations use themselves."

Apparently you didn't read my post all the way through.

"American" is the term most of the world uses, not just "Statians"--and that includes you Englishmen, too.
Damian in Edinburgh   Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:47 am GMT
I'm quite sure that that Antimoon is the only "place" where the silly sounding term "Statian" is used. I'm also quite sure that were I to go up to a group of American tourists here and say to them: "I hope you Statians have a wonderful time while you are here in Scotland" I would get some strange looks. I won't even try it out - it's too silly for words.
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:34 am GMT
It may be silly but it's SO logical!
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:11 pm GMT
How is it logical? Nobody calls a people or culture by the name of an adjective for a political and economic structure. Of course you're right, it is logical - people call the people from the United Kingdom "Uniteds" and people from the European Union "Unionists". Not English, Scottish, European, etc.

You're right, it _IS_ so logical! Or, more correctly, you're an idiot and all the people who suggest this are idiots, particularly the people who are ESL and have no right to suggest what goes on within the English language. There is no excuse for the Canadians who talk about this, they're just a lost cause.
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:22 pm GMT
Also, there seems to be a wider movement of these freaks who think "American" should also mean "Canadian" and "Paraguayan". You can read it on like ... the Guardian or BBC's little comment sections, they pop up once in a blue moon.

"America??? Are you talking about Canadians or Brazilians?? Because they're in America, too!" Where did these even come from? America isn't even the name of any continent on this planet--there's North America and South America, and these people are called North Americans and South Americans when speaking on continental terms (because the continents are, surprise surprise, called North America and South America--the Americas is used, but it's not the name of a continent, it just cuts North and South America out of the group for sake of linguistic efficiency since "America" is the common name shared between two completely different continents).

The people who make this argument are just looking for an excuse to criticize America, a nation and people who are blamed for everything that goes wrong anywhere in the world. Your wife divorced you? America did it, and man, foreigners will get right in your face about it.
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:50 pm GMT
"people who are ESL and have no right to suggest what goes on"
We ESL demand the right to elect the president of the USA. If he is going to meddle with our life, we have every right to elect the one we like. We're not happy with the presidents you Statians elect; they are unsuitable.
Jasper   Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:53 pm GMT
"We ESL demand the right to elect the president of the USA. If he is going to meddle with our life, we have every right to elect the one we like. We're not happy with the presidents you Statians elect; they are unsuitable."

lol

It looks like the Christians' horror of the notion of a New World Order is beginning to take root in the world's zeitgeist.
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:16 pm GMT
"America??? Are you talking about Canadians or Brazilians?? Because they're in America, too!" Where did these even come from? America isn't even the name of any continent on this planet--there's North America and South America, and these people are called North Americans and South Americans when speaking on continental terms (because the continents are, surprise surprise, called North America and South America--the Americas is used, but it's not the name of a continent, it just cuts North and South America out of the group for sake of linguistic efficiency since "America" is the common name shared between two completely different continents)."

You're mad as a brush mate, a thing can't have a North and a South and at the same time not exist. That's an ontological impossibility. And a thing can belong to a proper subset of itself, that's even more absurd. So America as a country inside North America is just riduculous however you look at it.
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:21 pm GMT
"America" is the common name shared between two completely different continents"

How extraordinary!
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:33 pm GMT
"How is it logical? Nobody calls a people or culture by the name of an adjective for a political and economic structure. Of course you're right, it is logical - people call the people from the United Kingdom "Uniteds" and people from the European Union "Unionists". Not English, Scottish, European, etc."

The difference is that we don't say that Scots are not British or Italians are not Europeans, but you do say that Mexicans are not Americans. For God's sake, how the hell can anyone be a North American but not an American? That's doesn't make any sense.
Wintereis   Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:58 pm GMT
<<The difference is that we don't say that Scots are not British or Italians are not Europeans, but you do say that Mexicans are not Americans. For God's sake, how the hell can anyone be a North American but not an American? That's doesn't make any sense.>>

Mexicans are not Americans. They are North Americans and they are Mexicans. There is no such continent as America. It does not exist. It has never and will never exist. When you want to distinguish between Europeans from Finland and Denmark and Europeans from Italy and Spain, you say Northern and Southern European and these are not even defined places. North America is a defined place. People from North Carolina are North Carolinians and People from South Carolina are South Carolinians. It is as simple as that my dear friend. Your assertion is absurd and ill argued.
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:09 pm GMT
All of you who are getting hysterical over the term "Americans" must have a very easy life.

When you've been knocked around by life a bit---deaths in the family, unemployment, facing the prospect of homelessness---having to hear the term "Americans" doesn't seem like a such a life tragedy anymore. Get a life!
Guest   Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:15 pm GMT
Non-existent things can't have a North, as plain as that, otherwise you sould rename your country as the United States of Nowhere.