The boss's latest avatar

[RonKiley]

Just to add fuel, I am a Yank but not a Yankee. There is a difference.

Ron

[Bloomfield]

I disagree.

If I told you I was born in a country other than the US, but I was simply raised here all my life. Then what? Would you still call me a yank?

Where do I come into it? Why would it matter what I would call you to the question whether you are "yank" to an Englishman from Cornwall? You are so full of the garbled remains of a century-old grudge that you are mixing things up a bit, here. The meaning of words is not the same thing historical justice or group allegiance.

You come into it in that you're not even a native English speaker yet you attack the way I use language and how I say things and use words (like "yank") far too much.

I am sure I am guilty as charged. It's fun, too. I wish I could resist sometimes. Just for the record, though, I wasn't talking about how you use the word "yank." Oh, but there I go again.

[I.D.10-t]

You may not be a Yank to a New Englander but you are to him.

No I'm not.

Oh yes, you are. Sorry. You get to pick what others are to you, but not what you are to others. Social construction, schwere Sprache.

Well yes, you can. By claming the name that others give you and going on despite the hardships they give you can change their minds much the heroine of the scarlet letter did.

Even through the veil of political correctness you may get that name changed but any stigmas will be transferred from one to the other. This may be your point, but I find by constantly running from the image (or worse excepting it) that others give to you is a form of victimization.

Therefore the only way change can occur is claiming the name, choosing what you dislike about it, and proving to others that you are the opposite of what they initially thought.

But this is all just in fun.

[SteveShaw]

Why would it matter what I would call you to the question whether you are "yank" to an Englishman from Cornwall? You are so full of the garbled remains of a century-old grudge that you are mixing things up a bit, here. The meaning of words is not the same thing historical justice or group allegiance.

Heheh. To us Cornishmen, "yank" refers to any denizen of any one of the many states (50-ish I believe - I've not kept up! ) of the USA. Should I spell it with a capital "Y" or not?

Now, my good man, "Englishman from Cornwall." On the assumption that you're not trying to cause trouble here I must point out that the Cornish largely regard themselves as separate from England, so, in the average pub in Cornwall, you'd be given a frosty reception for that phrase.

[Bloomfield]

Well yes, you can. By claming the name that others give you and going on despite the hardships they give you can change their minds much the heroine of the scarlet letter did.

Even through the veil of political correctness you may get that name changed but any stigmas will be transferred from one to the other. This may be your point, but I find by constantly running from the image (or worse excepting it) that others give to you is a form of victimization.

Therefore the only way change can occur is claiming the name, choosing what you dislike about it, and proving to others that you are the opposite of what they initially thought.

That's interesting. Some form of education certainly comes into it: The problem is not just one of negative labeling, though. In referring to "yanks" I am sure that the English and Irish I hear doing it are not implying that Southerns don't have their own identy, weren't wronged by Lincoln, etc. etc. But the distinction that you might want to draw in America doesn't exist in the context of an English/Irish speaker pointing out differences between English and US popular culture. There are some fascinating aspects to these vanishing and re-appearing distinctions in the language.

[jsluder]

Heheh. To us Cornishmen, "yank" refers to any denizen of any one of the many states (50-ish I believe - I've not kept up! ) of the USA. Should I spell it with a capital "Y" or not?

Now, my good man, "Englishman from Cornwall." On the assumption that you're not trying to cause trouble here I must point out that the Cornish largely regard themselves as separate from England, so, in the average pub in Cornwall, you'd be given a frosty reception for that phrase.

You're all limeys to us.

[Bloomfield]

Now, my good man, "Englishman from Cornwall." On the assumption that you're not trying to cause trouble here I must point out that the Cornish largely regard themselves as separate from England, so, in the average pub in Cornwall, you'd be given a frosty reception for that phrase.

I wondered whether that would work. Let me assure you that I deplore the many injustices done to the Cornish by the English, starting with Robert of Normandy, for sure. The place has just not been the same since the Prayer Book Rebellion, Mounts Bay, and the Monmouth rebellion. The English even imposed their own bloody currency. Let me just hasten to add that I am sure that James II and Judge Jeffreys were not motivated by a desire to abolish slavery.

[Cynth]

I'm not a Yank either, and I don't know really who he is, but I have heard the name and do have a rough idea.

You may not be a Yank to a New Englander but you are to him.

Oh no, not this again!! Try posting all the definitions of Yank from a dictionary. I believe the response will be that if a dictionary said pigs fly that wouldn't mean it was true. Then you say, but dictionaries don't say pigs fly for a very good reason. Pigs don't fly. Dictionaries have some correspondence with reality. Not in this case they don't. So on, on, and on. It's hopeless.

[Jack]

I think we're all a little bit right or else it wouldn't cause a lot of issue. If one of us were clearly right and all the others clearly wrong it wouldn't be as sticky a situation.

P.S. I'm not a yank!!!

[Cynth]

No. Many dictionaries have the same definitions. I say that the numerous dictionaries are right.

[chas]

Cranberry, maybe it would help if you explain why you're not a yank.

When I first met some of my wife's friends, they exclaimed, "You're marryin' a Yaynkee?" I didn't have the balls at that point to explain to them that I'd lived in the South for longer than my wife had.

BTW, Steve, I dunno if you are aware, but in case you're not: In the US, to some there's a distinction between Yankee and Rebel -- the states that were in the North or South during our civil war.

[Jack]

No. Many dictionaries have the same definitions. I say that the numerous dictionaries are right.

Yes. I told you before. I am not a prescriptivist. You're using the dictionary in a priscriptivist manner and that doesn't work in my view. If we were speaking French and the dictionary you were using was in fact the Academie Francaise (or whatever), maybe, but we're not.

[Jack]

Cranberry, maybe it would help if you explain why you're not a yank.

I thought about that too, and I really don't think I should have to. Calling all Americans "yanks" is EXACTLY the same as calling all Irishmen "British," when truthfully only a small number of Irishmen are British and only a small number of Americans are yanks. It's a very resentful thing.

Of course it can be done in a very lighthearted, poke-fun kind of way, but it can also be done out of pure ignorance and really step on a lot of toes and make people hate you.

[Bloomfield]

No. Many dictionaries have the same definitions. I say that the numerous dictionaries are right.

Yes. I told you before. I am not a prescriptivist. You're using the dictionary in a priscriptivist manner and that doesn't work in my view. If we were speaking French and the dictionary you were using was in fact the Academie Francaise (or whatever), maybe, but we're not.

I think you may have gotten that exactly backwards, Cran. Interesting whether one even can "use a dictionary in a prescriptive manner." But at any rate Cynth would be hard-pressed to find "numerous" prescriptive dictionaries in this day and age.

[peeplj]

I reckon you can call me what you want to--except probably not late to supper--but if you go calling me anything but my name, don't expect me to answer.

It is inevitable in a country the size of the U.S. that strong regional affiliations would develop. There's a lot more to it than what someone from across the Pond is likely to understand, and it has much less to do with the States War than you might be led to think.

I understand Cran's position--most of the folks I know, you wouldn't want to call them a Yank, not unless it was from a very safe distance. Wouldn't be prudent, as it were.

--James