Well, everybody born in the american continent is technically “american” too, including Central and South America. Is there a specific term in english for these people?

Edit: Thanks for all your answers, especially the wholesome ones and those patient enough to explain it thoroughly. Since we (South Americans) and you (North Americans) use different models/conventions of continent boundaries, it makes sense for you to go by “Americans”, while it doesn’t for us.

  • valvemanOP
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    1 year ago

    First off, this wasn’t supposed to be an argument, just a question. My native language has a specific word for them (and some other languages have too) and I got curious if english itself had such a thing.

    Latin America people got pissed off

    Maybe it’s because people say “America” and everybody instantly thinks of the USA, even though you’re just another country in the whole continent? For these people you are stealing the word “american” and changing its meaning. People from Asia have the word “asian”, people in Europe got “european”, people in Africa got “african”, but we? We don’t have a meaningful word anymore. And I’m not saying it’s your fault or even it’s a fault of your founding fathers. I’m just trying to tell you why these people get mad.

    • nathris@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      There is no continent called “America”. We have North America and South America.

      When someone says “South American” I don’t think Alabama I think Brazil or Argentina.

      The term “North American” is commonly used when you’re describing something that applies to both Canada and the US. Eg. “North American sports teams”.

      We commonly use the term “Central American” when referring to Mexico, El Salvador, etc. because even though they are technically in North America there is a strong cultural divide, similar to how the middle East is technically Asia, but you’d never refer to someone from Saudi Arabia as “Asian”.

      • racsol@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Mexico is also in North America though, not in Central America.

        LATAM are usually pissy about the term “Americans” because the “geographical division” colloquially seem to be more of a third vs. first world division rather than a geographical division.

        You can see how people from LATAM usually call themselves “americanos” to include everyone from The Americas, but Canada and USA think “North America” doesn’t include Mexico.

      • Granixo@feddit.cl
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        1 year ago

        It’s understandable for El Salvador, but México it’s absolutely part of North America.

    • asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If most people say Korea they mean South Korea. That’s because North Korea is far less likely the thing to be referenced, so you need to go out of your way to specify North if you actually mean that instead of South.

      Same goes for all kinds of things.

      • lorty@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        The Korean people are one, regardless of the political situation there.

        Other peoples in the Americas have been denied even their right to call themselves part of the continent.

        • JonEFive@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          I don’t think anyone is denying them the right to call themselves American if they so choose, but as this whole conversation illustrates, the term is incredibly ambiguous. When the argument is that “American” could mean anyone from the Americas, that effectively covers the entire western hemisphere which is a bit nonsensical to me. The point they’re trying to make is exactly the problem. There are lots of Americas.

          Frankly, I don’t understand why this is so much of an issue. There’s no continental culture and solidarity connecting the northern tips of Canada to the southernmost parts of Chile. Nobody is trying to erase a deep historical culture of America being one group of people. Why are these people trying so hard to create a continental identity that doesn’t culturally exist? I honestly think the point is to take the term “American” away from US Americans just because.

          I’ve never heard of a person from Peru or Brazil or Guatemala deeply yearning to call themselves “American” meaning somewhere in North or South America, but refraining from doing so because they feel marginalized. Feeling marginalized isn’t why they don’t do it, they don’t do it because saying “I’m American” meaning continents is useless. You might as well say “I’m from somewhere on the west side of the Atlantic.” The term “American” becomes pointless if you mean it that broadly. Imagine someone from the other side of the Atlantic saying “I’m Eurasiafrican”. There’s no culture that connects all of those peoples, it would just be a pointless moniker.

        • Uncle_Bagel@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          Cool, but my Korean phone wasn’t designed by a company based in Pyongyang. And go ahead and ask a Canadian how they feel about being called “American”.

          North American, Central American, and South American are all terms you can use similarly to European, Asian, or African.

    • DreBeast@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Do South and Central American words not exist in spanish? Soy de Sudamérica. Soy de Centroamérica. As the other comment said, this question is not ambiguous at all. And I know why people get mad, they hate the US, which I understand because they’re assholes. No one will deny it. Ask any self respecting american and they will agree.

      But with all due respect, this is a dumb ass question. Respectfully.

      • Phrodo_00@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        In southern European tradition (which ends up in Latin America), those are not continents but regions. America is the Continent.

          • Phrodo_00@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Huh? That article backs me up?

            Most English-speaking countries recognize seven regions as continents.

            Different variations with fewer continents merge some of these regions

            The six-continent combined-America model is taught in Greece and many Romance-speaking countries—including Latin America.

            • DreBeast@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I’m sorry, I thought you were talking about the regions that matter. We already knew Latin Americans refer to it as one. Unfortunately, you have to convince Americans to change their adjective to whatever it is latinos prefer. Good luck with that.

              Edit: if my point wasn’t clear enough, it doesn’t matter what romance language speaking countries call the Americas (North and South). You can see that from the same article you cherry picked the info you copied and paste above

              • Phrodo_00@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Why are you arguing against yourself? In the comment I replied to you asked if we didn’t have a word for South American, and we do, it just doesn’t mean the same (edit: because those aren’t continents in the Continental model used back when the Americas were being colonized). I’m not sure what you’re arguing anymore other than trolling.

                • DreBeast@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  That was a rhetorical question about south America. I know the regions and I know what the continents are. I don’t need you to explain them to me. Is that all you were trying to say or do you have another point?