How do we decide what to call the people from each country? For instance people from America are Americans and people from Iraq are Iraqis. Why not Iraqans or Chinans or Scotties?
by 
Sugar-licious a bellydancing rum maiden
ANSWERS: 3
-
I don't know how it came about, but I wonder why people from the United States aren't called United Statesians to differentiate them from all the other inhabitants of the Americas.
-
Good question. It is all linguistic and historical. The "ish" ending is English/Germanic, of course. "an/ian" is Latin/ Spanish, "oise/ain" is French, and "ese" is from Portugese. These were the first main exploring nations from the fifteenth century on and the names they gave to the lands and peoples they encountered..."stuck". Some endings are from the language of the people themselves, e.g., Iraqi, Saudi, Kuwaiti. The "i" is an Arabic ending.
-
because Americis would not roll of the tongue as well, nor would would Iraqans. There are different way depending on the language you speak and they all sound as best as they can.
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC