What is a Yankee?

JMT   Mon Dec 25, 2006 6:57 pm GMT
I just looked up 'yankee' and found they have all moved away and are replaced by foreigners! I went to NYC last night and sure enough it's true. Only whites and blacks I saw were police. Better answer is a carpetbagger...they still exist! Only now they use Vinyl siding to second mortgage a house!!!
Jessyca   Mon Dec 25, 2006 8:01 pm GMT
"Scotsmen - Jocks

Frenchman - Frogs

Germans - Krauts

Americans - Yanks

Welshman - Taffs

Irishmen - Paddies"

Why, Adam! I noticed you didn't give the name for Britains...
Adam   Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:06 pm GMT
"Why, Adam! I noticed you didn't give the name for Britains"

Judging by this sentence I'm obviously a lot more intelligent than you.
Jessyca   Tue Dec 26, 2006 10:45 pm GMT
"Judging by this sentence I'm obviously a lot more intelligent than you."

I wouldn't doubt it. You're probably a hell of a lot older than me. Doesn't mean I can't despise you though. ;) And I'd rather be an idiot than a stuck-up intellectual.

"Why, Adam! I noticed you didn't give the name for Britains"

I'm still waiting for an answer, by the way.
greg   Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:57 am GMT
Anglais —> Rosbifs.

Adam est trop timide...
Guest   Thu Dec 28, 2006 5:30 pm GMT
>> Americans - Yanks <<

Really, you guys, if you called a Southerner or Westerner a "Yank" they would look at you funny, and the joke would be on you.
Guest 2   Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:00 pm GMT
"Really, you guys, if you called a Southerner or Westerner a "Yank" they would look at you funny, and the joke would be on you."

It depends on where you are. If you're outside America, then it would be more insulting, especially since most Americans have no idea what a Yank even is. If you're inside America and the majority don't know what you're calling them, then they would think you're speaking gibberish.
Pommies/wasps/weeds   Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:44 pm GMT
Scotsmen - Jocks

Frenchman - Frogs

Germans - Krauts

Americans - Yanks

Welshman - Taffs

Irishmen - Paddies



English - Pommies/wasps/weeds
American   Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:23 pm GMT
Scotsmen - Jocks

Frenchman - Frogs

Germans - Krauts

Americans - Americans

Welshman - Taffs

Irishmen - Paddies
Uriel   Fri Dec 29, 2006 8:06 pm GMT
Actually, for the most part Americans don't have any nicknames for Scots or Welshmen. I've never heard "jock" or "taff", or any other names. Frog and kraut I have heard, but paddy seems old-fashioned -- I doubt it's still much in use here.
Lazar   Fri Dec 29, 2006 8:22 pm GMT
I have heard of "taff" or "taffy", but that's probably just because my mother is part Welsh and she spent a lot of time in the UK. Like Uriel, though, I've never heard of "jock".
Travis   Fri Dec 29, 2006 8:56 pm GMT
>>Actually, for the most part Americans don't have any nicknames for Scots or Welshmen. I've never heard "jock" or "taff", or any other names. Frog and kraut I have heard, but paddy seems old-fashioned -- I doubt it's still much in use here. <<

And even then, around here the main people I hear use, say, "kraut" are middle aged and older ethnic Germans who think that they can make jokingly fun of German people due to being ethnically German. To me it definitely sounds old-fashioned, and is not used at all by younger people, even the rightwing scumbags who use the term "frog" a lot.
Uriel   Sat Dec 30, 2006 10:43 am GMT
I agree -- virtually no one uses "kraut" anymore. But it's still a recognizable term to us, whereas "jock" or "taff" would be rather mystifying.

There are plenty of people of Scottish descent in the US, but unlike the Irish, they didn't seem to suffer from any stigma historically, so they never got a pejorative term. And the Welsh are so far below our radar that they never rated one either. I think the only concentration of Welsh immigrants that I've ever even heard of in the US is in Pennsylvania, with Bryn Mawr being the only actual Welsh placename I can think of offhand. They either didn't come here in very many numbers, or they got lumped in with the English, I guess. I tend to not make much distinction between the two myself, and I doubt many other Americans do, either, unless they just happen to have a strong connection to or interest in the British Isles.
Damian in Edinburgh   Sat Dec 30, 2006 3:15 pm GMT
The word "Taff" (often lenghthened to Taffy) has been the national nickname for the Welsh since time immemorial. Even Shakespeare used it when referring to his most famous Welsh character, Fluellen, in Henry V.

Henry V himself was, of course, a Welshman, as were his family dynasty, the Tudors, and this turbulent Tudor hailed from the town of Monmouth, which itself is only a stone's throw inside of Wales, being right on the borders with the English counties of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire.

The origin of the word Taff is a wee bit obscure. Some people link it to the river on which the Welsh capital city, Cardiff, stands - the Taff. A few miles up this river from Cardiff is the suburb of Taffs Well. Other people (I guess all of them English - they must be considering the reason they give! - who else would think so!) believe that the name comes from the Welsh pronunciation of the popular Welsh name for David - Dafydd. Personally I think this is cobblers, but that's the English for you! Ha!

As a Scot who has been taught Welsh pronunciation by a Welshman I can see no real link there. For one think the initial letters are different, and the Welsh "f" is sounded as a "v" and the Welsh "dd" comes out as "th" as in the English definite article "the". Let the English think what they want - they make it a national pastime to deliberately mangle Welsh (and Scottish!) placenames whenever they go west of the border or north of The Border.

Welsh people are automatically nicknamed Taff (or Taffy) in most UK circles, and especially in the British military. As soon as a new recruit squaddie (soldier, sailor, airman) opens his gob he is immediately called Taff / Taffy. The same goes for my own countrymen - Scots are instantly labelled Jock. I had never been called Jock until I went to uni but as the uni was in England and that was the first time I had ever really left home it was an expected experience and I liked it. As I say all I had to do was open my gob and I was Jock to a good many of the other lads.....invariably English. Strangely enough I found that Welsh people don't call me Jock as a rule, nor people from outside the British Isles but they wouldn't be aware of it anyway, would they?

Scotland's big holiday weekend now - Hogmanay. Wildest night out on the entire planet in Scotland tomorrow night, and best of all in Edinburgh. The Jocks' show the rest of the world how to hae a guid time!
Anti-American American   Tue Jan 23, 2007 7:21 pm GMT
"Scotsmen - Jocks

Frenchman - Frogs

Germans - Krauts

Americans - Americans

Welshman - Taffs

Irishmen - Paddies"

LMAO, "Americans-Americans"? Well, aren't you blind....