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Use of the word American in the English language differs between historical, geographical and political contexts. Deriving from America, a term originally referring to all of the New World (also called the Americas), its usage has evolved over time, and differs from uses of cognate words in other languages.
The word can be used as both a noun and an adjective. In adjectival use, it is generally understood to mean "of or relating to the United States of America"; for example, "Elvis Presley was an American singer" or "the American president gave a speech today;" in noun form, it generally means U.S. citizen or national. When used with a grammatical qualifer the adjective American can mean "of or relating to the Americas," as in Latin American or Indigenous American. Less frequently, the adjective can take this meaning without a qualifier, even when used in the United States, as in "American Spanish dialects and pronunciation differ by country," or "The ancient American civilizations of the pre-Columbian period were advanced in mathematics and astronomy." A third, but related use of the term pertains specifically to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, for instance, "In the 15th century, many Americans died from European diseases during the Spanish Conquest".
In contrast, cognates of the word "American" in other languages have primarily the pan-American function. For example, the Spanish americano generally refers to the entire New World; the adjective and noun describing the United States is estadounidense, deriving from Estados Unidos de América, the United States of America. Also, the term norteamericano, North American, is used in some Central American and South American countries, to describe the people of the United states. The differences in usage of the cognates cause some cultural friction between U.S. nationals and Latin Americans; Latin Americans, in particular, may object to the primary English usage of American, feeling it unfairly appropriates the term.
History of the word
Various theories exist for the derivation of the word America. The most commonly expounded theory is that German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller derived it from the Latinized version of the name of Amerigo Vespucci (Americus Vespucius), an Italian merchant and cartographer whose exploratory journeys in the early 1500s brought him to the eastern coastline of South America and to the Caribbean. A more elaborate theory states that Vespucci changed his Christian name of Alberigo Vespucci (Albericus Vespucius) to Amerigo Vespucci only after coming into contact with natives from the eponymous Amerrique ranges of Nicaragua, which connect North America to South America, an important geographical feature of New World atlases. The newest theory suggests America derives from the name of one Richard Amerike of Bristol in England, financier of John Cabot's expedition in 1497; Cabot is believed to be the first Western European to set foot on the mainland. In contrast to the first theory aforementioned, this newer theory lacks clear supporting evidence. However it came into existence, the term American was subsequently used as an adjective describing the New World and its native people.
In the 1500s, the word American was used by Europeans for the indigenous habitants of the New World; soon it was extended to describe newly settled Europeans, namely Spaniards and their mixed progeny. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation proclaimed a new country, "The United States of America". The Articles of Confederation state the following above the signatories: "In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Eight, and in the Third Year of the independence of America." Divergence in usage becomes evident because only the word America, not the United States, is used in this section.
Alexander Hamilton employs two different meanings for American in the Federalist Papers. For example, Alexander Hamilton writes of "the American republic" in Federalist Paper 51 and 70. In contrast, Hamilton uses American to describe land outside the political borders of the United States of America in Federalist Paper 24
Though a wide ocean separates the United States from Europe, yet there are various considerations that warn us against an excess of confidence or security. On one side of us, and stretching far into our rear, are growing settlements subject to the dominion of Britain. On the other side, and extending to meet the British settlements, are colonies and establishments subject to the dominion of Spain. This situation and the vicinity of the West India Islands, belonging to these two powers create between them, in respect to their American possessions and in relation to us, a common interest.
Some proposals for a different name for the country were made prior to the Constitutional Convention, with the most popular name being "Columbia". The problems with the name "United States of America" (its length, awkwardness, vague and imprecise meaning) were known and discussed at the time, but the Constitution did not address the topic, using both "United States of America" and "United States" interchangeably.
Peculiar inconsistencies are evident in official documents shortly after the United States became a sovereign nation. The 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France uses the term "United States of North America" in the first sentence, but subsequently uses just "the said United States". Both "United States of America" and "United States of North America" came from the earlier terms "United Colonies of America" and "United Colonies of North America".
The Treaty of Peace and Amity, Signed at Algiers September 5, 1795, is an agreement with the "United States of North America" which uses both "citizens of the United States" and "American Citizens" in the document.
Semantic divergence in the Anglophone world would not affect the Spanish colonies. In 1801, a document titled "Letter to American Spaniards" is believed to have directly influenced the Act of Independence and the 1811 Constitution of Venezuela. This document was published in French, Spanish, and English in 1799, 1801 and 1808, respectively.
Since the late 18th century American has been used in both the historical continental sense and to refer to the United States of America. Though the English and Spanish cognates have multiple, nearly identical meanings today, the common unqualified form in the respective language often differs.
Disagreement over meaning
Of the thirty five sovereign countries in North and South America, only the United States of America contains the word America within its longform name. The use of American as a national demonym for U.S. citizens has been frequently challenged primarily by Latin Americans.
Political-cultural views
Latin American countries
Latin Americans consider everyone in the Americas to be americanos. Use of the word to refer specifically to U.S. citizens may be seen as ignorant, arrogant, incorrect, or even self-serving depending on the context. The same sentiments may apply to the use of the word American in English. The Luxury Link travel guide advises U.S. nationals traveling in Mexico to avoid referring to themselves as Americans, as Mexicans consider themselves Americans.
In Latin America, the slippage between the word American as a relation to the landmass of the Western Hemisphere and American exclusively to refer to U.S. nationals is seen as beneficial to the advances of United States foreign policy in Latin America; namely American exceptionalism or a diplomatic renewal of the Monroe Doctrine depending on contemporary political interests. Also, in American Spanish, the word Estadounidense is used to describe U.S. nationals, and the use of the word American to refer to only U.S. nationals is seen as culturally aggressive and imperialistic in nature, especially in countries with strong anti-U.S. sentiment like Bolivia and Venezuela.
Spain
In Spain, people who have lived in the Western Hemisphere but now live in Spain may be called americanos. The Diccionario de la Lengua Española (Dictionary of the Spanish Language) published by the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), also gives estadounidense (United Stater) as one of the definitions of americano, meaning "someone from the United States or relating to the United States".
Canada
In Canada, their southern neighbour is seldom referred to as "America" with "the United States", "the U.S.", or (informally) "the States" used instead. In addition, some Canadians resent being referred to as Americans because of mistaken assumptions that they are U.S. citizens or an inability—particularly of people overseas—to distinguish Canadian English and American English accents.Some Canadians protested the use of American as a national demonym in the past.
Portugal
Americano is generally used to refer to the United States only. In Portugal Brazilians are always called Brasileiros and never Americanos.
However, the usage of americano in specific reference to the United States is not recommended by the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa (Lisbon Science Academy, which regulates language use) because the word estado-unidense (estadunidense, alternative spelling) clearly identifies an United Stater.
United States
In the United States Census, a significant portion of people described their ancestry or ethnic origin as American, particularly those in the South. This region has a high percentage of people who trace their ancestry to the colonial origins of the United States but often lack records of the specific countries of their ancestors' origins. People who describe themselves as Italian American, Mexican American, or Native American were coded separately per census tabulation rules as they self-identifed as being ethnic Americans.
Usage of the word can vary in diplomatic situations. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is quoted as saying, "…todos somos americanos" during a speech in Honduras. His quotation is translated as "We are all Americans" by the Washington Post and CNN.
There is also some dispute about the meaning of American in the Monroe Doctrine to this day.
American in other contexts
The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual (1994) defines American as "An acceptable description for a resident of the United States. It also may be applied to any resident or citizen of nations in North or South America." It also advises that United States should "be spelled out when used as a noun. Use U.S. (no space) only as an adjective."
In the entry for America, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage (1999) says that the "terms America, American(s) and Americas refer not only to the United States, but to all of North America and South America. They may be used in any of their senses, including references to just the United States, if the context is clear. The countries of the Western Hemisphere are collectively the Americas."
American in international law
In legal circles a citizen of the United States is usually referred to as a U.S. citizen, not an American citizen, though the latter term is common in popular usage. The following excerpt is from the North American Free Trade Agreement:
Only air carriers that are U.S. citizens are permitted to operate domestic air services or operate international air services as a "U.S." carrier; non-U.S. citizens may own and control foreign air carriers that operate between the U.S. and foreign points.
American in U.S. law, generally
In the 6th Edition of Black's Law Dictionary, American is defined as "Of or pertaining to the United States." In the two newer editions of the same dictionary there is no entry for American.
American in U.S. marketplace regulation
Products labeled, advertised, or marketed in the U.S. as "American Made" must be "all or virtually all made in the U.S." The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, in order to prevent deception and unfair competition, considers an unqualified "American Made" claim to be an express claim of U.S. manufacture. "The FTC Act gives the Commission the power to bring law enforcement actions against false or misleading claims that a product is of U.S. origin."
U.S. national in other languages
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, popular Portuguese and Russian speakers may use American (Japanese: アメリカ人 roma-ji: amerika-jin), (Template:Lang-ru) (Mandarin Chinese: pinyin- měiguórén, traditional- 美國人, simplified- 美国人) to refer to U.S. citizens. These languages generally have other terms for U.S. nationals; for example, there is U.S. Amerikaner in German, étatsunien in French, or statunitense in Italian.
In Spanish, estadounidense, estado-unidense or estadunidense are preferred to americano for U.S. nationals; the latter tends to refer to any resident of the Americas and not necessarily from the United States; English spoken in Latin America often makes this distinction as well. In Portuguese, estado-unidense is the recommended form by language regulators but it is less frequently used than Americano.
Latin Americans also may employ the term norteamericano (North American), which itself conflates the United States and Canada. However, this term may also refer to anyone from the North American continent, which also includes Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Worldwide, speakers of Esperanto use the term "Usono" to refer to the United States of America, from the initials for "Unuiĝintaj Ŝtatoj de Nordameriko" (USN, pronounced as "oo-SO-no") hence a citizen or national of the United States is referred to as an "usonano". The Esperantist terms for North Americans and for South Americans, by continent rather than country, are Nordamerikano and Sudamerikano, respectively.
Adjectives derived from "United States" (such as United Statian) appear awkward in English, but similar constructions exist in Spanish (estadounidense or estadinense), Portuguese (estado-unidense, estadunidense) and Finnish (yhdysvaltalainen: from Yhdysvallat, United States); and also in French (états-unien) and Italian (statunitense).
The word Gringo is widely used in parts of Latin America in reference to U.S. residents, not necessarily in a pejorative way. Yanqui (Yankee) is also very common in some regions. In Argentina, Uruguay and some regions of Brazil, the word Gringo is also used for any foreigner, not just for U.S. Citizens.
With the 1994 passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the following words were used to label the United States Section of that organization: in French, étatsunien; in Spanish, estadounidense. In English the adjective used to indicate relation to the United States is U.S.
Alternative adjectives for U.S. citizens
Main article: Adjectives for U.S. citizensThere are a number of alternatives to the demonym "American" (a citizen of the United States) that do not simultaneously mean any inhabitant of the Americas. One uncommon alternative is "Usonian," which usually describes a certain style of residential architecture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Nevertheless, with the exception of "U.S." or "U.S. citizen", no alternative to "American" has been seriously considered.
References
- Alexander Hamilton. "The Federalist no. 51".
- Alexander Hamilton. "The Federalist no. 70".
- Hamilton, Alexander. "The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further Considered". The Federalist Papers. 24.
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"The Barbary Treaties: Treaty of Peace and Amity".
{{cite web}}: line feed character in|title=at position 22 (help) - "La "Carta dirigida a los españoles americanos", una carta que recorrió muchos caminos..." Template:Es icon
- Mencken, H. L. (1947). "Names for Americans". American Speech. 22 (4): 241–256.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Fee, Margery and McAlpine, J. 1997. Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-541619-8) Toronto: Oxford University Press; p. 36.
- de Ford, Miriam Allen (1927). "On the difficulty of indicating nativity in the United States". American Speech: 315.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - Carias, Suyapa (15 March 1999). "Clinton promises to lobby for more aid" (149 ed.). HondurasThisWeek.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Babington, Charles (10 March 1999). "Clinton Hails U.S. Efforts in Storm Zone". Washington Post.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Clinton surveys hurricane relief efforts in Central America". CNN. 9 March 1999.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "North American Free Trade Agreement". October 7 1992.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - The Columbia Guide to Standard American English.
See also
Scholarly sources
- Allen, Irving L. (1983). The Language of Ethnic Conflict: Social Organization and Lexical Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Condon, J.C. (1986). J.M. Valdes (ed.). Culture bound: Bridging the cultural gap in language teaching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 85–93. Chapter 8: “…So near the United States”.
- Herbst, Philip H. (1997). Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States. ISBN 1-877864-97-8.
External links
- Ryle, John (September 7, 1998). "The trouble with Americans". The Guardian.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Diccionario de la Lengua Española entry for americano