Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Remember also that for many people, their nationality is not limited by political boundaries but rather by much older and deeper cultural ties. I think some residents of Saudi Arabia, Dubai, UAE, etc, are Arabs or Arabian. Some people in Iraq are Sunni, some Shiite, some Kurd. Many people living in Israel are Palestinian.

Especially when dealing with smaller states in Europe and the Middle East I think the political boundaries should not trump cultural identities.

Well if Nigerians are from Nigeria, what on earth is someone from Niger called?

To make things simpler, (and I could post this under Recommended Reading, but I'll go ahead and do it here) everyone should grab a copy of Labels for Locals by Paul Dickson. I recommend it to all logophiles, not just onomaphiles(sp.?).

I recently spent some time in Spain to learn, as you might expect, Spanish; specifically Castellano Spanish. I was please to learn that there is a Spanish word, "estadounidense", for an American specifically from the U.S. This came in handy whenever I was asked what my nationality was. My answer, "Soy estadounidense." was clear and concise: "I am from the United States."

If I had said, "Soy americano."; there would be more questions.

My impression was that this distinction was more important from the European perspective; especially from Spain. Their tendency was to see "America" more as a continent than a country. This impression was reinforced by relationships I developed with Latin Americans, also visiting Spain at the time, who also proudly bore the title of "American".

Now that I am back in the U.S, I'm wondering why we don't have an American English noun or label that describes us specifically from the U.S.