On 03/29/2014 10:52 PM, Mark H Harris wrote:
On 3/29/14 10:45 AM, Mark Lawrence wrote:
On 29/03/2014 08:21, Mark H Harris wrote:
Yes. Well, as the joke goes, if you're trilingual you speak three
languages, if you're bilingual you speak two languages, if you're
monolingual you're an American (well, that might go for Australia too,
maybe). When whole continents speak the same language that tends to
happen.
You mean like the USA, where I saw an ad in a shop for a bilingual shop
assistant? Or is Spanish so like US English it doesn't count as a
separate language?
I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. We have people here from all
over the earth, and
enough illegal immigrants speaking Spanish to account for a population about
the size of Ohio.
But, Americans are mostly monolingual. ...point of fact.
I believe the point is your generalized use of "American". After all, Mexicans are Americans
too, as well as Canadians, Peruvians and ...
Unfortunately, there is no good word for "USA-ian". "United States Citizen" is too long and
awkward and "United Statesian" is ridiculous. The common usage of "American" for this is at
best ambiguous, and definitely inaccurate (as well as chauvinistic, and rather insulting to
other North and South Americans outside the US).
-=- Larry -=-
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