What college you guys go to?

Donk: [quote author=andyz link=board=youth;num=1035831068;start=15#24 date=11/29/02 at 10:47:49]
GUYZ in BRITAIN are bigger than any yankie *!![/quote]

I just hope andy is not making the common mistake of refering to any American as a "Yankee." Where I'm from, them's fightin' words.

Probably so. It's not really a mistake; outside of the U.S. the word Yankee or Yank (or some linguistic variation) is always used to mean any American. I remember the Spanish version of the word (Yanquí) being used this way while I was still in Cuba. Only in the U.S. does it have the North vs. South distinction. A Brit using the term to mean 'any American' is completely justified in his own idiom.

I plead guilty to using the "y word" to describe any American.

There's no excuse for me really .. as a Brit and an Englishman I know just how incandescent a Scot or a Welshman gets when those two terms are treated as interchangeable.

Donk: With all due respect to my good bud DMW, yes, it is a mistake. And, to some of us, an insult (albeit unintended, I'm sure). Where I'm from, one should not be called a "Yankee" unless one is a Yankee.

But consider its origin. Janke, which is Dutch for 'Johnny', was a word the settlers of New Amsterdam used to mean 'country bumpkin'. The English adopted the word, changed it to Yankee and applied to all Americans to imply that the colonists were rustic and uncouth. So it was indeed in origin an insult. Now in the North vs. South sense, it still meant American when used by the Confederates. The Southerners seceded. They were no longer part of the U.S. and used the term 'Yankee' (= American) to designate the Northerners who were part of the United States from the Southerners who did not consider themselves to be in the U.S., but in the Confederacy. So even then 'Yankee' meant any U.S. national. It was in the aftermath of the Civil War that the word 'Yankee' gained a new connotation, but that didn't cancel its original meaning. It was a word originally used by the British; who are we to say they don't know how to use their own language?

SizeRulz: DMW, I see you're from Cuba. I was there last summer. Wonderful, wonderful people. They were so friendly and fun. I would love to go back, but traveling there for U.S. citizens is even more difficult than it was.

Donk: First the disclaimer: Apologies for continuing this off-topic discussion and for disputing with DMW, whom I regard as my bud, but I must respectfully continue to disagree on several points concerning the word "Yankee."

First, the colonists were English and, of course, we continue to use the English language and are the most populous English-speaking nation today, so English is our language too and we are more than justified in having opinions on its use, especially when they are applying the term to us.

From earliest times, the term was used to refer more specifically to the New England colonists and more generally to Northeasterners, although there may be examples of its use to refer even to more southerly colonists such as those in Virginia. In modern usage, many Southerners tend to use it to refer to those from any of the northerly states, while New Englanders proudly retain the term as refering specifically to them. (Regarding modern use of this originally-insulting term by New Englanders as a source of pride, compare the adoption by the homosexual community of terms like "gay" and "queer" that were originally used as insults.)

Second, Southerners used the term to refer specifically to Northerners long before there was a Confederacy and before the War. And the Confederates always considered themselves "Americans." The full name of the Confederacy was, of course, the Confederate States of America. And it is not unheard of in some parts of the South to hear the War Between the States refered to as "When the North invaded America." :-) So it is not accurate to say that the term got a new connotation after the War, it retained the same connotation it had long had.

Finally, I want to mention that I regard the insulting nature of "Yankee" as a situational thing. That is, if I am refered to as a "Yankee", I find it insulting since I am Southern born and bred. But it is not an insult when I tell one of my Yankee friends that he is a "Yankee" and they do not take it as such. In that situation, it is just a statement of fact regarding that person's geographical origin. But when a Southerner is refered to as a "Yankee" (especially by another Southerner), it tends to imply that the so-called "Yankee" has negative characteristics--e.g., rudeness, lack of breeding--that Southerners tend to associate with Northerners. Either the person calling me a "Yankee" is making a comment on my behavior or he is really ignorant of my geographical origin--and I am proud of where I come from.

OK, I will try to shut up about this now. I dislike going off topic and I especially dislike arguing with DMW and disputing with my good limey--er, I mean, British--friends like Max.

P.S. I also want to mention that my pride in my regional origin does not extend to pride in the racist aspects of its past (or, for that matter, its present). And after spending time living in the Northeast, I also know that obnoxious racist attitudes--past and present--are certainly not confined to the American South. In fact, I'm sure racism is an evil that rears its ugly head in most places where human beings live on this planet. Its existence should be a source of shame to us all.

Okay, Donk, but realise that if you travel overseas you may be called a 'Yankee', and probably without intent to insult. It is still correct in non-American usage.

Late_Bloomer: You call someone from the Northeast a Yankee? What would you call someone from the South? Dixie?

Donk: [quote author=Late_Bloomer link=board=youth;num=1035831068;start=30#38 date=12/16/02 at 1925]You call someone from the Northeast a Yankee? What would you call someone from the South? Dixie?[/quote]

An American :)

littlbigguy: There's been so much esoteric discussion here that, as one who's come late to this table, my head is swimming. Where i grew up "Yankee" denotes "professional athlete in pin striped suit" and is the opposite of "Met".

Icarus213: That's hilarious. Go Yanks!! 8)

Late_Bloomer: [quote author=Donk link=board=youth;num=1035831068;start=30#39 date=12/16/02 at 19:50:38]

An American :)[/quote]
That's funny because we call you Southerners and we call them New Englanders. We're so uncreative.

bairdoman: I cant believe the south still cares about losing. ::)

8isenough: Rochester Institute of Technology