A Pet Linguistic Peeve

[ajoknoblauch]

Why use the clumsy five-syllable "Argentinean" when the three-syllable "Argentine" will do?

 

[Tangerine]

THANK YOU!!!!
Google has voted
Argentinean 3,580,000
Argentinian 13,900,000
and the winner by 5X is Argentine 68,000,000

Dead Last Argentineans 245,000

 

[PhilipDT]

I said Argentinean when I first got here until an Argentine corrected me.

 

[internationalguy]

There's nothing to correct. The three forms Argentine, Argentinian, and Argentinean are all correct.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

There's nothing to correct. The three forms Argentine, Argentinian, and Argentinean are all correct.

Strictly speaking, perhaps not, but Argentine has a more elegant simplicity.

 

[internationalguy]

Strictly speaking, perhaps not, but Argentine has a more elegant simplicity.

I agree

 

[AngelinBA]

Well, I'm obviously in the minority saying argentinean, then again I also add a u to words like colour and say aluminIUM, not aluminum. Maybe people from my small corner of the world like to add letters and syllables to everything...

 

[la_guachita]

This post is very satisfying as I work with young writers and have been insisting on across the board use of 'Argentine,' on my websites and have met much resistance. I've doubted myself because some dictionaries insist that Argentine should only be used as an adjective and not a noun but the AP stylebook says Argentine is the preferred term, even though it is a throwback to when they called this country 'The Argentine'.

You can find examples in its historical use. Did you know that less than a hundred years ago to refer to someone wealthy people would say, 'He's as rich as an Argentine'?

 

[internationalguy]

You can find examples in its historical use. Did you know that less than a hundred years ago to refer to someone wealthy people would say, 'He's as rich as an Argentine'?

Argentina was the 8th richest country in the world 100 years ago.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/what-happened-to-argentina/?_r=0

 

[ajoknoblauch]

No Spanish speaker would ever say "argentiniano."