Why It's "American" & Not "Americanese" - How Countries' Demonyms Work

The Origin & Meaning Of Country's Demonyms Support me on Patreon & get exclusive / ahead of time content! https://www.patreon.com/generalknowledge In this video I talk about Demonyms. Explaining what they are - a noun used to denote the natives or inhabitants of a particular country or region, differentiating them from the words or adjectives used to denote people from a specific heritage group or ethnicity. Also explaining how Demonyms work and how they are usually constructed: by adding a suffix at the end of a placename (or a variation of it), and understanding that the majority of these suffixes - used for Countries' Demonyms in English - are taken from the Germanic, Latin, Semitic, or Celtic originals. After this, we go through a worldwide view of what each country's English demonym is (through a map created by reddit user u/Far_Grass, which colour codes each type of suffix). First we go through the 'unique' suffixes used, such as the one in 'French', 'Swiss', 'Malagasy', 'Kosovar' or 'Cypriot', and then we go through the different categories, learning which countries have which suffixes in their demonyms. First those with "-ian" such as "Brazilian", then those with "-ean" such as "Korean", then "-an" where "American" or "German" are examples. Moving on the "-ese", "Portuguese" or "Chinese" for example. Then "-ish", such as "Polish", "British", "Swedish". Then "-i", "Omani", "Pakistani", etc. And finally "-er" only used nationally in "Luxembourger" and "New Zealander". As well as "-ic" for "Greenlandic" and "Icelandic". Understanding finally that there doesn't seem to be much of a criteria for the attribution of a specific type of suffix to a specific type of country name. With the only two possible criteria being what the name happens to be in English (so, what makes sense to use as a suffix for it), and what the origin of the suffix is; if it is "-ish" then it likely comes from the Germanic demonym for that specific place, with the origin being the cause for adoption. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 What is a Demonym? 00:33 Demonyms in different languages 01:28 How Demonyms work + Etymology 02:30 The construction of Demonyms 02:45 What is each country's English Demonym? 02:58 Unique Demonyms 03:46 "-ian" suffix Demonyms 03:59 "-ean" Demonyms 04:24 "-an" Demonyms 04:49 "-ese" Demonyms 04:56 "-i" Demonyms 05:10 "-ish" Demonyms 05:31 Worldwide Demonyms View 06:05 "-ic" Demonyms