For no reason beyond boredom, I was thinking of countries where the name of the language is also the name of the citizens. By definition, it has to be the same term used for both men and women because they both have to match the name of the language.
He’s an American, she’s an American, and they speak American English, so that doesn’t work.
He’s a German, she’s a German, and they speak German. It works!
He’s an Italian, she’s an Italian, and they speak Italian. It works!
He’s a French…doesn’t work.
He’s a Chinese…doesn’t work.
He’s an English…doesn’t work.
He’s a Swede, she’s a Swede, they both speak Swedish…doesn’t work. Close, but adjectives don’t count.
How many countries fit this wholly arbitrary and meaningless convention? I count Germany and Italy, but surely there are others, yes?
He/she’s a Korean…
He/she’s a Russian…
He/she’s a Norwegian…
He/she’s a Ukrainian…
He/she’s an Estonian…
He/she’s a Hungarian…
He/she’s a Czech…
He’/she’s a Bulgarian…
Persian. It’s not the official name of the country, but a lot of people do use it to refer to themselves. Likewise with the language - some people say Persian, some Farsi
It almost works in Scotland too. "He’s a Scot, she’s a Scot, they’re both Scots, they speak Scots (ok, nearly everyone speaks English most of the time … but it’s possible in theory)
It may not sound right to your ears, but technically it works. Chinese is a noun referring to a single person (as well as plural), and to the language. As well as an adjective.
That’s odd. It didn’t occur to me to search for an existing thread, but there was a near-identical one from only a couple weeks ago? Wow.
I’ve (occasionally) thought about this idea over the past several years, mainly in the context of being happy that my country’s name for citizens (Americans) isn’t gendered and so will never need to change with the times.
But clearly it is true that there are no new ideas, I guess. At least from me. Weeks ago?! Good lord.
In English, there tends to be a distinction for Laos in which the people are Laotian and the language Lao. Sometimes you hear “Laotian” for both. But I’ve actually been told by clueless Westerners that calling the people “Lao” is offensive, but “Lao” is what they call both themselves and their language, and in Thai it is “Lao” for both too.
Similarly, I’ve been told I should use “Nepali” for people and “Nepalese” for everything else – language, food etc – but I know from personal experience that it’s not uncommon in Nepal to hear “Nepalese” used for the people.
Sounds perfectly cromulent to me. Have used it myself including in Vietnam. I guess you do hear, “He is Vietnamese” more often than “a Vietnamese,” but I have heard it. Anyway, previous examples above include French and English, where you definitely would not use an indefinite article.
Indonesian and Malaysian are the same language – Bahasa. Each country has standardized the sligftly-different version in that country, known as Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. It was originally collective known as Malay.
