Valencian Language Tag registration request

[Mark Crispin]

On Fri, 19 Jun 2009, Lang Gérard wrote:
> For example, "United States" is certainly the most common way people 
> living in the USA think of their country name

I disagree strongly.

I am a 53-year old American.  I have *never* used "United States" as the 
name of my country.  It has always been either "USA" or "United States of 
America".

We commonly use "US" as the adjectival form, e.g., "US government" (never 
"USA government"); but always in the abbreviated form.

I can only think of "United States" used as the country name in the 
following cases:
  . use by foreigners (similarly, the use of "America" to refer to the
     USA is strictly a foreigner usage, although "American" is correct
     for a person from the USA).
  . computer programs that offer it in a menu of countries, apparently
     because the full name is too long; similar abbreviations are used
     for other countries.
  . the government's adjectival form: "United States Note" (a type of
     paper currency in use up to about 40 years ago), "United States
     Navy", "United States Treasury", etc.  But ordinary people use "US
     Navy", "US Treasury", etc.

It is perhaps not as extreme to refer to the USA as "United States" as it 
would be to refer to France as "République", but it's the same general 
idea.

> some other countries can have a "United States" part in their country 
> name.

Americans, at least those in the southwest, are also quite aware of other 
nations called "United States".  México is on our southern border!

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.