Yeah, why do the Brits say "Pah-riss" instead of "Pah-reee" for the French Capital ??
And here it is "Pahreees"
And Zürich ? Here, it is Züri, officially it is Zürich, in Baaasel it is "Züüüri", in Cairo it is "Zürech" and in the USA (and elsewhere it is "Syurick" So what ?
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I say Paris,Holland not Netherlands, and people from the USA I do not call them American, America is a large continent and Canadians are not pleased when you ask if they are from the USA.
Holland is not the same as the Netherlands, much the same way that England isn't the same as Britain.
I say Paris,Holland not Netherlands, and people from the USA I do not call them American, America is a large continent and Canadians are not pleased when you ask if they are from the USA. I am not a Brit but English. By the way what do you actually name someone from the USA.. a Usain???
Just for the records, Holland in fact is only a major part of the Netherlands. Accepted, I also speak about Holland and the "Holländer", but I out of principle in writing write about Netherlands/Niederlande and Dutch/Niederländer .
As England makes up roughly 70 or 80 % of Great Britain, it is general usage to speak about the "Ängländer" here and about "deet in Ängland"
In regard to the USA, I use the term US-Americans/US-Amerikaner almost always. I however with amusement saw how many North-Americans here in the Reagan-years became "Canadians" and then in the Clinton years "US-Americans", and in the Double-U years Canadians again, but then US-Americans again in the Obama years.
The word "estadounidense" exists in Spanish (los Estados Unidos being the United States), but I don't think there's an equivalent in English... I guess you say something like "U.S. citizen"?
We also call them gringos
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Re: Why do the Swiss say Humer (who mer) instead of Homer?
Strictly speaking, the USA is one of the two countries in the world that don't actually have a name. The states have all names, and they happen to be united in a continent called America. Nothing more. Not a name. Hence, there is no solution to the said problem, as there is no noun to make an adjective out of. There is only a periphrase.
The second nameless country, thus named periphrastically, is the United Emirates.
The French Canadians made up the neologism étatsunien. EDIT: Corrected, thanks Nil, it is only slang and not widely used.
EDIT2: I can't believe I've been groaned at just because somebody does not understand the difference between periphrastic naming and an actual name. I just can't believe it...
__________________ Es wird nichts ausgelassen, um mich hier herauszuekeln. Ein Lehrbuch. False accusations and attacks continue. There is no stopping righteous people when they are wrong.
Last edited by Faltrad; 20.02.2011 at 22:51.
Reason: felt like it
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Strictly speaking, the USA is one of the two countries in the world that don't actually have a name. The states have all names, and they happen to be united in a continent called America. Nothing more. Not a name. Hence, there is no solution to the said problem, as there is no noun to make an adjective out of. There is only a periphrase.
The second nameless country, thus named periphrastically, is the United Emirates.
The French Canadians made up the neologism étatsunien. It is widely used there, much less in French speaking Europe.
Well, if we are speaking strictly, you would have to add the Swiss Confederation (the official name of Switzerland) to your list. How about the United Kingdom?
Strictly speaking, the USA is one of the two countries in the world that don't actually have a name. The states have all names, and they happen to be united in a continent called America. Nothing more. Not a name. Hence, there is no solution to the said problem, as there is no noun to make an adjective out of. There is only a periphrase.
The second nameless country, thus named periphrastically, is the United Emirates.
The French Canadians made up the neologism étatsunien. It is widely used there, much less in French speaking Europe.
United ARAB Emirates please ! and the name for those folks is clear. It is "the Emiratis" And people who live on the Arabian Gulf, the Khaleej, so are "the Khaleejis" . So simple really
Yes, that would be it. So why did the Germans have to change the pronunciation?
Here a bit of phonetics.
The wave length and articulation of vowels are different in English and German. Each language has its own vowels. The frontiere between two vowels is acoustically not the same, it will depend the language system and partially even depend on dialectal differences.
In other words, the German long /o:/ is rounder than its English cousin, which means that English speakers will identify this same sound as a /u:/ because it is closer to that vowel in English vowel acoustic repartition system.
Hence: English ears will hear English vowels, even if the same vowel will be heared as a different German vowel by a German ear.
Did that help?
__________________ Es wird nichts ausgelassen, um mich hier herauszuekeln. Ein Lehrbuch. False accusations and attacks continue. There is no stopping righteous people when they are wrong.
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Re: Why do the Swiss say Humer (who mer) instead of Homer?
The best is when Swiss people try to pronounce US brands like Nike (Swissenglish: Niickey) or Levis ( Swissenglish: Leeevfisss). Those are always great moments to witness.
The WhoMer thing must be a Canton of Congo phenomena 
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