Americans, look here!

[johan]

I'm in a terminology discussion elsewhere.

In very relaxed and colloquial US English, is Canada included when the average American talks about North America, or do both terms North America and America refer to just the US? Does "I live in North America, not in Canada" come off naturally in your ears, as something an ordinary American in a bar might say?

Comments desired!

Comments

[drquuxum.livejournal.com]

"North America" is and should be defined as Canada, USA and Mexico.

Depends on the bar ...

[tcr25.livejournal.com]

There might be a few people who'd rather obliviously exclude Canada as "North America", but the usual common parlance is for the typical person in the States:

"America" = the United States of America
"North America" = the U.S. & Canada (and maybe Mexico, if they think about it)

Mexico is often lumped in with Central America, which is typically spoken of as if it's not part of North America. "Latin America" is also used to cover Mexico and everything south to Antarctica. Greenland and the Caribbean nations are also in a gray zone of afterthought at best.

[apel.livejournal.com]

My Canadian boyfriend uses "North America" to mean the US and Canada. Not that you asked but it's another data point. If somebody used the term without including Canada, he would correct them.

[mireille21.livejournal.com]

In common parlance in my experience, (if typical Australian usage is of any use at all) when people say "America" they are generally referring to the USA, perhaps having not thought about (or been aware of?) geography. Don't underestaimte some peoples' stupidity I have learned.

Using "North America" indicates that they not only know their geography, but are therefore by definition deliberately referring to Canada, USA and probably Mexico.

On a personal note, I dislike the egocentricity implied in using "America" so tend to say "The U.S." for my own purposes, although I still refer to "Americans."

And as a complete aside, it flips both ways as I discovered recently upon witnessing what became a slightly heated debate between Americans and Australians about what defined Australia, Australasia and the South-East Asian Pacific region.

[arhyalon.livejournal.com]

I agree with those I've read here. North America is definitely used to mean all three countries. "America" is used for what, in Europe, is called The States.


How cool to find you after all this time! Just came upon you on the Tor site.

I live near Washington D.C. now and every time I visit, I kick myself for not having somehow rearranging my schedule to show you around D.C. more when you were here. There are so many wonderful things to see.

(On the other hand, the particular roleplaying session that you so kindly sat through is still the centerpiece of the game -- which is still running. Kirsten, who had been visiting from California that session, has never been able to play since. Her character still survives, however, and will appear in the novel I'm working on based on the game. Meanwhile, my first trilogy -- also vaguely based the same game, though not that session -- comes out from Tor next summer!)

Anyway, just wanted to say hello and apologize for not somehow having been able to better entertain you while you were here.

Jagi

The basis of it all...

[(Anonymous)]

Better late than never...

Sixth Avenue, Manhattan, says it all - its official name is the Avenue of the Americas. Please note the plural s. America (south and north) are the continents.

On the other hand, "americans" is *unfortunately* much easier to pronounce than the correct "united stateans".

cheers,
Roffie the Swede

(Hi there, Jophan! :)