this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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US Americans, do you identify first as a US citizen, someone from your state, or from your town/city? (feddit.org)
submitted 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] superduperpirate 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

You won't find many people who would seriously complain about that phrasing, but it would come off as awkward and stilted to most people from the US.

Awkward, stilted, and a little holier-than-thou.

And if you extrapolate this and start saying Mexico Americans and Canada Americans for people in those countries, you're just going to confuse people

Mexico American - doesn’t make sense

Mexican American - American whose origins lie primarily in Mexico

Canada American - doesn’t make sense

Canadian American - American whose origins lie primarily in Canada

Frankly, I think most Canadians would probably feel insulted if you addressed them as Canada Americans. They don’t want to be tainted by association with us.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Mexicans and Canadians have those demonyms, so no need to worry for them.

Frankly, I think most Canadians would probably feel insulted if you addressed them as Canada Americans. They don’t want to be tainted by association with us.

I've seen Canadians being okay with being called "North Americans", when discussing something impacting both Canada and the USA, so it seems in this situations it's fine by team. Canada Americans would indeed be strange.

[–] _skj 2 points 1 hour ago

North American yes, but it would be unusual for a Canadian to call themselves just American. Same for Mexico, though obviously Spanish has its own demonyms that don't have this problem.

For a European equivalent, should we say "UK British" when referring to people living in the UK? The UK is the only country to commonly use British to refer to its citizens, but they are not the only country on the British Isles.