The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
Language
 british geography nationalities terms




Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: abw@dsbc.icl.co.uk (Andy Wardley)
Subject: Re: Buying doctorates
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 14:38:42 GMT

Joseph Askew writes:
>..have enough British posters for at least one Englishman around here
>to know, would Eawn Kirk or one of the other English posters like
>to have a go?

I really have to point out the innaccurracciess in your understanding of British geography.

England is a country. I am English.

Scotland is a country. Ewan is Scottish (not scotch, that's drunk).

Wales is a country. Andrew Welsh isn't.

Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK for short) is Great Britain + Northern Ireland.

Eire is Southern Ireland.

The British Isles includes all of the above.

I had a mild toast war with an American on rec.arts.tv.uk who replied to the question "what does UK mean?" (as in rec.tv.arts.uk) by saying "United Kingdom, i.e England". When I pointed out his mistake he got all uppity about how it didn't matter that he was wrong because all Americans call the UK England, so he was explaining to the question poser (an American) in terms she would understand.

I don't mind being called English because I am, but to assume that any Brit is English is like calling any American a New Yorker.

On the other hand, the vast majority of British people call Canadians Americans.

Andy "you can call me Bernard if it makes you happy" Wardley

From: abw@dsbc.icl.co.uk (Andy Wardley)
Subject: Re: Buying doctorates
To: jrh@dixie.aiss.uiuc.edu (Jason R. Heimbaugh) Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 09:24:44 +0100 (BST)

Jason R. Heimbaugh writes:
>I assume then to be called 'British' a bloke must hail from The United
>Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? Or is it just from Great
>Britain?

Hmm, I'm not sure about that. I think probably just from GB. I would certainly refer to an Irishman as Irish rather than British, mainly because Ireland seems to have a greater seperate identity than either of the mainland countries.

Cheers


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