| Many of you indicate the US is commonly refered to as "America" by other than gringoes, I wonder how true this is. I've been to a few foreign countries and it didn't seem that way to me. In Britain I perceived a somewhat derisive use whenever the term "Americans" was used. In Spain, as noted before, they call gringoes "Yankees" and this expression in various phonetic transliterations commonly decorates protestors banners (usually followed by "go home"). I don't know whether it is the case most Asians or Africans have adopted gringan usage.
I would distinguish "formal" from other usages. Governments, official documents, authorities and such don't use "American" to refer to gringoes, though colloquially people everywhere have. When discussing "proper" usage, particularly by a community like the hispanics, who tend to have a high regard for formal rules, the use of "American" would naturally be disfavored as it contravenes several. I would have expected Asians to be more mindful of grammatical propriety too.
It is argued English grammatical flexibility and its tendency to accomodate usage should suggest "American" is the correct term, but to most non-native English speakers language is not something whose rules can be changed so easily. |