>I was watching my favourite intellectual quiz show last week: "QI", and one of the questions was "What is the nationality of a person from the USA?". I kinda missed the answers. Now a lot of them would say "American" but that essentially refers to the continent; a Canadian could equally call himself "American" (as indeed could a Mexican, Bolivian or Chilean - "North" or "South" aren't included).
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>So what is the nationality?

An interesting question. What is nationality? People from our “colonies” (American Samoa, etc.) are considered U.S. nationals.

In some countries nationality refers to Ethnicity. Within the United States you will find many people born here of different nationalities. We are a melting pot.


With time terms related to our nationality change, and within groups it can be different. You must be politically correct!

Are you an Indian? From India or the United States? Lets resolve this question by saying a “Native American” is one whose ancestors were here before Europeans. That is politically correct as of this moment. Many American Indians have different terms to describer themselves other than those we use. The terms related to American Indian’s have changed several times. American Indians were not given United States Citizenship until 1924.

If you are born in the United States are you not a “Native American”?

You hear “Irish American”, “Italian American”, “African American”, and so on.

Overseas we are called Americans. Now that relates to a person from the United States but leaves out all other nations from north, south and Central America. That seems to indicate people from other countries do not know what to call anyone from the American Continent.

People from Europe are called Europeans. Some English refuse to be called European.