American-ness [was RE: even my dumb nontechnical anime group gets it -- why don't we?]

[Owen Byrne]

Paul says:
> Owen Byrne wrote:
> >
> >...
> >
> > I wonder what you do call someone from the UAE? And I would love to see
the
> > inanity that would result if France decided to rename itself "United
States
> > of Europe" and started using "European" as a synonym for "French."
>
> By the way, if the EU stayed its current size, but deepened its bonds
> until it was a Single Country, wouldn't you expect "European" to
> increasingly mean "citizen of the EU" and exclude countries that were
> not part of it? Or would we say "European Unionite?"
>

Methinks if they get to the point of a single country, they will have dealt
with naming issues ad infinitum.Not to mention that add a bunch of languages
to the mix and the arguments could get heated. Friends of mine in Spain had
a good laugh over "English Channel." I suspect that some EC standards body
will determine the correct naming in various languages. I like SpItFrEnGer,
but that's not very compliant.

Meanwhile I'm having a sudden vision of Keir Dullea at the end of 2001: A
Space Odyssey - "My God, its full of smilies..."

Owen