British = English?

[Jay Cee]

So, a high percentage of people, mainly Americans (I'm not pointing fingers, it's just the higher percentage of people!) seem to think that "British" means "English". That may very well be true, but it doesn't just stop there. Being "British" means your part of Britain, or the UK. However, it can't be used in the sense that it's your nationality. It's a lable, yes. However, if I were to have "British" as my nationality, that would mean I'm Welsh, Scottish, English and partly Irish.

I'm just throwing this out there but, everyone gets that right? I hate to be a little elitist, but this is the Escapist, and it's built up of a mutli-diverse, but mainly intelligent group of people so I'm assuming the answer is yes.

But, just to be sure, and probally a bit patronizing, you all get that right?

Northern Ireland is park of the UK, not Britain

I think your better off checking your facts before becoming condescending.
That's a religious debate anyway, the hard facts essentially prove that Northern Ireland is a British region.

I fully empathize with this threads point but I think the source is probably from the sheer size of America in comparison.

 

[Abedeus]

For a person proud of being a Brit, you don't seem to know the basics between "your" and "you're".

Foreigners don't make such errors.

I've never been good with puncuation.

"Foreigners" usually have better English than be anyway. Either way, I hope you didn't mean foreigners as an insult to non-English people.

Actually, I used "foreigners" as an insult to native Brits/Americans that can't spell. And it's "punctuation".

I mean, how could I use "foreigner" as an insult to non-natives? I'm a foreigner.

 

[Sonicron]

On a related note: Dutch and Deutsch are two entirely different things. Stop confusing the two!

Seriously? People get these confused...?
I think I'm going to cry.

OT, language-wise, there is a very clear distinction between Britain and America, and the terms 'British English' and 'American English' were coined decades ago accordingly, with both being the subject of ongoing intensive linguistic studies.

 

[Jonatron]

In Britain, and the UK, there's a level of patriotism to that specific chunk.

British =/= English,
English = British.

But it's always appreciated to be alknowledged to your country.

Personally, I'm Scottish.
British =/= Scottish,
Scotland = British.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

According to the Font of All Knowledge and Wisdom (aka Wikipedia) the demonym for the people of the United Kingdom is "British". Therefore:

All Scots are British
All Welshmen are British
All Englishmen are British
All Northern Irelanders are British

You do get that right?

Contesting that would be exactly like a Texan, Californian, New Yorker, or Michigander arguing that they aren't American (American being the demonym for the people of the United States of America).

Never trust Wikipedia, it failed my Science exam for me when I was a wee lad.

Anyway, as a label, yes. However, not a nationality.

No, it's a nationality. The unsovereign nations of the UK have nationalities but so too does the UK itself.

You were pointing out that British and English are not synonymous which is a valid point. But all who are English are also British (just not vice versa) regardless of however specific you British people feel like being.

 

[rdaleric]

I don't really mind what people say, English or British, I mean I wouldn't always be able to say which particular fit of America someone was when I met them. I'd be more annoyed if I was Indian or Pakistani or Bangladeshi and constantly being referred to as Asian. It's like when several complaints were made that there were no Asian Soccer players in the English Premier league, even though there are a few Russians, Koreans and Chinese players..........man that wandered off the topic quick! lol

 

[That Guy Ya Know]

Why is it not your nationality? I usually go by whats on my passport rather than the name of my state. That does not mean I'm part Alaskan, but that I share a country with a piece of land called Alaska, just as you share a country with a piece of land called Wales.

You're a citizen of the United Kingdom correct? Not of just Wales, Scotland, England, or Northern Ireland.

I must admit I don't get it. Why can't it be used?

To clarify on the history of the British Isles, waaay back in the mist of time there was this country called normandy, an unassuming little place on the north coast of France being the sneaky bugger he was the Norman king, William, forced the most prominent claimant as heir to the English throne, Harold, (The current king having no children the matter was slightly confused) to declare support for William's candidacy. When the king died Harold had himself crowned he then went and fought of one claimant from Norway before rushing back down to the south to get himself killed by William. William then proceeded to set up England as we know it today.

A little while later England got fed up of the sheep shaggers next door with whom we had been fighting for ages so we finally conquered them once and for all. Then we got all the sheep! ;D

The English "conquest" of Scotland is a bit more involved, unlike the Welsh who were basically a pushover because they were too busy with their sheep the Scots like getting drunk and fighting which meant they were harder to put down. Ultimately the fights between the two nations came to a close when a Scottish king also became the English king, throw in the English civil wars for a bit of extra fun in which our Parliament (Our equivalent of the senate back then) decided that the king advisors were misleading him (You couldn't actually directly accuse the king or else you'd lose all your support) and decided the best thing to do was go to war with him. After a lot of farting about in which neither side actually wanted to win Parliament finally got their act straight promised the Scots we would introduce their religion over here and had them capture the king for us, we then let him escape so that we could recapture and execute him. This really pissed off the Scots since he was their king too and they came and fought us and lost. A lot of fannying about and the conquest of Ireland later the only person in England who had any clue what was going on died we fought among ourselves for a bit and the scots got fed up marched into London and plonked the old kings son on the throne.

The conquest of Ireland actually happened a lot earlier but it was during the civil war that they became independent again, once we had won it (and lost it, that's the problem with a civil war) Oliver Cromwell the guy behind the execution of the king and ruler of England for while marched over to Ireland and slaughtered them until they decided maybe it was better to be English subjects than dead.

From this brief overview you can see that the Welsh hate being called English because we stole their sheep. The Scots hate being called English because despite beating us and having their king on the throne twice we still rule them. And the Irish hate being called English because us English are evil protestants who eat good catholic babies for breakfast. As for the English we hate being called English because it is a painful reminder that we aren't American.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Contesting that would be exactly like a Texan, Californian, New Yorker, or Michigander arguing that they aren't American (American being the demonym for the people of the United States of America).

So you are comparing a state of a country to that of an entire country. I don't call myself a Londoner, or people from Essex Essixers. It's really not a fair comparison at all.

What? Those are cities.

England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Whales are considered nations but all are part of the United Kingdom, a nation-state. Similarly the 50 States of the United States are each considered to be a nation that is part of a greater nation-state.

It's an apt comparison as the systems are pretty much identical. The only difference being that people in the UK get more butthurt about it.

 

[Flamezdudes]

Blah blah blah.
If you let the Queen of England rule over you, that means you're English. Gain independence and then we'll talk.

The Queen doesn't do shit, the Government does the most of the work. If it weren't for us British (I'm half English and R Irish), you American's wouldn't really exist.

 

[fix-the-spade]

No they don't get it. they need to have it explained to them all the time.

I'm constantly explaining this to Canadians (not picking on them, I just happen to meet a lot of Canadians in my life) and the thing about England that confuses them the most is what's the difference between British and English. It really seems to throw them the number of countries within the British Isles. I suppose it's a side effect of living in a massive country that's next to another massive country. A six hour flight will land you still in Canada so it's not surprising that if you're used to that the idea of 4 (5 counting the Isle of Man) other countries being 3 hours drive away is a bit odd.

 

[thisisyournamenow]

im british as in i live in the uk. but im from northern ireland. thus makeing me an ulster man or irish man or porn star

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

Correct me if I'm wrong. The UK is short for the United Kingdom, which in turn is short for The United Kingdom of Great Britain and (Northern)Ireland.

I usually say British when referring to someone who lives or is from that Island. I'll only elaborate if I'm certain of whether they're English, Scotch, or Welsh.

 

[Syndef]

The way I see it is: English people are from England, just like Scottish people are from Scotland and Irish people are from Ireland. I just don't use the word "British". Besides, I would assume most would prefer to be called either English, Scottish, or Irish, even if they're all in the British Isles.

By the way, as an American, I don't know much about the whole English vs. Irish thing. Can someone enlighten me? Why all the hate? Some kind of territorial or independence issue?

 

[Salmaras]

According to the Font of All Knowledge and Wisdom (aka Wikipedia) the demonym for the people of the United Kingdom is "British". Therefore:

All Scots are British
All Welshmen are British
All Englishmen are British
All Northern Irelanders are British

You do get that right?

Contesting that would be exactly like a Texan, Californian, New Yorker, or Michigander arguing that they aren't American (American being the demonym for the people of the United States of America).

I'm pretty sure the Northern Irish arn't British. (By which i mean they are a part of the United Kingdoms, not of Britain itself, which to my understand is the small island i'm currently sitting on.)

 

[RavingLibDem]

Being a Scot, and a semi-scottish nationalist at that, I do have severe issues with people confusing Brittishness with Englishness. I know for a fact that Scottish identity is particularly different from that of being Brittish or English. In fact it is often to say that there is no particularly Brittish characteristic, as those often cited as Brittish when examined tend to be English stereotypes extended to cover the rest of the island.

I for instance can point to various scots characteristics, prudence, a particularly harsh sence of humour, a certain coldness that can be mistaken for unkindness that are in fact very different from English characteristics, and can often lead to English nationals feel unwelcome in Scotland. I work in tourism over the summer, and have regularly seen customers baffled by my very scottish colleague's attempts at humour, not because he isn't particularly funny, but because it is so different, and often almost approaches rudeness.

Anyway, yeah, it really annoys me that the very different nationalities regularly get pushed together so much!

 

[mattman106]

I'm from England but consider myself British and it annoys the shit out of me when people refer to us British as English. It'd be like talking to someone from NY and saying 'you Texans are so friendly' just because it is part of the country doesn't mean it's the whole country!

Well the only reason people wonder about people from NI is because instead of everyone calling themselves 'Citizens of the UK' they call themselves British which doesn't apply to NI :/

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

Contesting that would be exactly like a Texan, Californian, New Yorker, or Michigander arguing that they aren't American (American being the demonym for the people of the United States of America).

So you are comparing a state of a country to that of an entire country. I don't call myself a Londoner, or people from Essex Essixers. It's really not a fair comparison at all.

What? Those are cities.

England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Whales are considered nations but all are part of the United Kingdom, a nation-state. Similarly the 50 States of the United States are each considered to be a nation that is part of a greater nation-state.

It's an apt comparison as the systems are pretty much identical. The only difference being that people in the UK get more butthurt about it.

Both London (and the area surrounding) and Essex are counties, not cities.
Besides, since this argument is from the poor wikipedia definitions anyway: "The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and unitary state consisting of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.[19]"

 

[Mr Companion]

Oh come on. Even if you are not British I will still call you British because then my brain thinks that you have a funny British accent which makes you a lot cooler.

Yeh I actually quite like been a steriotype, It means people find me instantly funny no matter what I do, even if it is just normal conversation people for some reason laugh hysterically. It must be the accent. It is quite posh in comparison to most modern day Brits.

The only thing that I would hate is if I ever hear an American consider their language to be "American"
I swear if I ever hear that said ill strike that man down, by the gods! I mean we did have an all consuming terrifying empire once upon a time that enslaved and brutalised third world countries. At least our offspring could write to us every now and then. If you see what I mean.

 

[Agayek]

In a way this is correct, both Americans and Brit's speak English, their very own dialects of English but English nonetheless. So British = English and American = English.

I always say they Speak American. Because so many words have been "Americanised".
Like A certain metal.

The correct way to say it in staight English is Al-u-min-I-Um
But The Americans say Al-Um-In-Um

But yeah
OT

I'm proud to be English. But I dont mind being called British or saying Im British.

As far as I've seen though, it's spelt Aluminum in both places. There's no second "i" for that random syllable you guys insist must be there.

 

[afaceforradio]

So, a high percentage of people, mainly Americans (I'm not pointing fingers, it's just the higher percentage of people!) seem to think that "British" means "English". That may very well be true, but it doesn't just stop there. Being "British" means your part of Britain, or the UK. However, it can't be used in the sense that it's your nationality. It's a lable, yes. However, if I were to have "British" as my nationality, that would mean I'm Welsh, Scottish, English and partly Irish.

I'm just throwing this out there but, everyone gets that right? I hate to be a little elitist, but this is the Escapist, and it's built up of a mutli-diverse, but mainly intelligent group of people so I'm assuming the answer is yes.

But, just to be sure, and probally a bit patronizing, you all get that right?

No I agree with you mate. I always say I'm English and from England. England may be within the British Isles but I'm neither Welsh, Scottish or Irish like you say. That's like saying that you're European just because the UK is part of the European Union. So annoying, it's just another hack job to appease the PC tossers!