Demonyms - Where Are You From?
Today we learn about demonyms, the term or name used to identify natives or residents from a specific place. It differs from nationality, which is the country you are from.
So instead of saying 'people from London' it's easier and quicker to say 'Londoners'. Most of us are familiar with the obvious; like London, or if you're from New York, you're a 'New Yorker'. But what about the less obvious ones? What do you call people from Sydney, Vancouver or Miami for instance? Read on to find out, and some may surprise you.
The Rules:
There have been attempts to try and come up with a definitive guide on how to correctly add an ending to each word. However there are no hard or fast rules, there are weak rules and many, many exceptions. The guidelines are more confusing than they are helpful, however the typical add-ons you will find include ‘er’, ‘ite’, ‘ian’ or ‘an’.
Some Examples:
Whether you’re studying in one of our schools in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK or Ireland you’ll now know what the locals in each city are called.
The ‘er’
London – Londoner
Edinburgh - Edinburgher
Dublin - Dubliners
Auckland – Aucklander
New York – New Yorker
Portland – Portlander
The ‘ite’
Perth – Perthite
Brisbane – Brisbanite
Cairns – Cairnsitte
Vancouver – Vancouverite
Seattle - Seattleite
The ‘ian’
Manchester – Mancunian (Manc for short)
Cambridge - Cantabrigians
Liverpool – Liverpudlian (slang scousers)
Oxford - Oxonians
Torquay (Devon) – Devonians
Bath – Bathonians
Bournemouth - Bournemouthians
Melbourne – Melbournian
Adelaide – Adelaidian
Philadelphia – Philadelphian
Miami – Miamian
Boston – Bostonian
Washington – Washingtonian
Toronto – Torontonian
The ‘an’
Chicago – Chicagoan
San Francisco – San Franciscan
San Diego – San Diegan
Some Exceptions
Los Angeles - Angeleno
Sydney – Sydneysider
Where are you from, and what's your demonym? Comment below and let us know!
Want to learn about idioms or adjectives? We have more posts to help boost your English knowledge.