Argentine V. Argentinian

[ajoknoblauch]

I finally got around to addressing the issue at: http://tinyurl.com/kfgrd8v. I'm happy to hear feedback, but will not include a poll.

 

[internationalguy]

I finally got around to addressing the issue at: http://tinyurl.com/kfgrd8v. I'm happy to hear feedback, but will not include a poll.

Your writing is almost always excellent. The article is interesting and well structured. I like how you interweave your personal insight and you personal side to the story. I also like the reasoning you provide. Really good job ajo.

As far as the term is concerned I think shorter is better (not always), but in this case Argentine seems adequate. I use the "Argentyne" version though. I don't know why but it seems right and natural to me.

 

[Rich One]

Its a blank message

 

[PhilipDT]

My first or second day at my first job I made the mistake of saying Argentinean; my Argentine boss wasted no time in correcting me.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Your writing is almost always excellent. The article is interesting and well structured. I like how you interweave your personal insight and you personal side to the story. I also like the reasoning you provide. Really good job ajo.

As far as the term is concerned I think shorter is better (not always), but in this case Argentine seems adequate. I use the "Argentyne" version though. I don't know why but it seems right and natural to me.

Thank you for the compliment.

 

[internationalguy]

Thank you for the compliment.

You're welcome, I really meant it.

 

[Redpossum]

Yup, good writing. And I've always said Argentine.

When my great-(however many times)-grandfather left Ireland for the USA at the time of the potato famine, he had brothers who instead went to "the Argentine". But we've never been sure whether that really meant Argentina specifically, or whether they just used that as a general term for South America, as I seriously doubt their grasp of geography was very good.

At any rate, I should have distant cousins here somewhere, but with Bryan being such a common Irish name, good luck ever tracking them down.

 

[Sockhopper]

A couple more arguments against using 'Argentinian' as an adjective or noun:

-The 100+ yo social dance that's indigenous to Argentina has always exclusively been called "Argentine Tango". I've never heard anybody get that wrong. And yet, some people still switch to saying "Argentinian" for everything else!

-The "ian" or "ean" in 'Argentinian'/ 'Argentinean' contains and can be felt as a put-down or diminishment of what some thing or person actually is. Like describing something or a person firmly connected to or identified with Scotland as "Scottish" rather than "Scots", "Argentinian" suggests that a thing or person is just 'sort of like' in some way(s) something that is wholly and exclusively of Argentina.

I was taught this by a Scots' friend who quite rightly objected when I called her 'Scottish'. Perhaps the Scots are more sensitive to this than Argentines are. But even if Argentines take being called the wrong thing with a grain of salt, the wrong word is stilll tinged by just saying that a thing is less than it is.

If somebody were to say that I dance "Argentinian Tango", that could mean that I'm not dancing the real thing but am only moving in a way that I mistook for, was mis-taught (eg in a foreign country), fabricated, or insist on believing must be the true thing or near enough to it to pass as such.

 

[internationalguy]

They can't get too picky. They do some awfully retarded things like calling all Americans yankees and all Spaniards gallegos.

 

[Redpossum]

They can't get too picky. They do some awfully retarded things like calling all Americans yankees and all Spaniards gallegos.

Heh, I at first didn't even understand what SHON-kee was supposed to mean