This disambiguation page is within the scope of WikiProject South America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to
South America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.South AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject South AmericaTemplate:WikiProject South AmericaSouth America articles
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North America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.North AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject North AmericaTemplate:WikiProject North AmericaNorth America articles
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the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Central AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject Central AmericaTemplate:WikiProject Central AmericaCentral America articles
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Caribbean on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the
project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the
discussion. If you are new to editing Wikipedia visit the
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Student using America
I am a geographer and my student used the term America instead of The USA in his essay and claimed that it was in Wikipedia. Quoting Wikipedia is not allowed in essays anyway. The essay was rejected to be corrected right. I checked Wikipedia, so here I am... is English Wikipedia intended for local US use (4%) of the world population or global? I am aware that America is used as a local term but need to warn of the wrong global use. People from Argentina, Chile ...or Canada are also Americans, the same Irish people, Czhecks, and Italians are all Europeans. Nobody can be so ignorant to claim Europe for him/herself. The citizens of the UK are not been Europeans anymore since Brexit? — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
193.77.43.130 (
talk) 06:56, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
"America" is is not (old error) just a local (US only) term. It's used prominently in all varieties of English to refer to the United States. Most Canadians will be insulted if you call them "Americans", so I would not recommend doing that! If you are teaching geography, then you are doing your students a disservice if you are only teaching one view of the world. You need to teach them to be flexible, and to realize that other cultures and nations may view geography differently than what may be taught in your country. Give them a full education, not just one narrow view of the world.
BilCat (
talk) 09:44, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Geography is a science, not a "peep talk", so we need to use certain standards with the terminology,... try to convert the US pounds from English to another language wit online (Google) translator... someone will get a translation that one pound is one kilogram and the error will become the reality. Same is with mathematics... similar ignorance with, again The USA and "billion" (wrong understanding the French but adopted into the wrong use) instead milliard...even forced the UK to change it in 1974,...but it was a political decision not linguistic, so the proper use would be still milliard (UK or the USA can not decide how to use the language which became universal)... e.g. none of the EU countries use English as the first language but we use English to communicate sure we use metrics, and milliards, and Celsius...even science in the USA use metrics and the local units are are just for "locals" not global use. My point is...is this Wikipedia a local, the USA language (4% of world population) or is it about the content written in English as global language (96% world population)?
193.77.43.130 (
talk) 10:21, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Neither. It about all the countries that speak English as a first language. Take a simple question such as how many continents are in the world. Some people would say 4, 5, 6, or 7, or even 8, depending on what country they are from, and what they are taught. Some people think there is only one correct answer to that question, and that all the other views are wrong. But it depends on how one defines a continent. The English Wikipedia article on
Continents is written from the point of view that there are 7 continents, as that is what is taught in most countries where English is a first language. But it does not claim this is the only view, and it presents the other views as equally valid.
BilCat (
talk) 11:07, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
All clear but Wikipedia is not about language but the content. English is not a "local language" but a universal global communication which needs to be with global standards not exotic or local. I am academics but long time ago stopped to use English as "English" - just a communication tool (UL). Term of what is America is just local linguistic as said, could be used as slang for the country. In the United Nations country list there is no such country as America. I was doing a shadow school monitoring in the USA and I am aware about the level of the education there and the general knowledge of people... even the university students there thought that Africa is a country... mentioning that that we need some rules before there is a contamination with wrong ideas.
193.77.43.130 (
talk) 13:17, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Yes, it would be great if geography had a unified international standard over those things that everybody uses (at least, before we get into the finer details of whose standard would prevail), but that's neither here nor there. Right now, there is no such standard, and it's not up to us to create one. We're not an international bureau of the English language, but just a humble internet page. By the way, remember that
South Africais a country. Thinking that "Africa" is a country is indeed an error, but not one so big as you make it seem.
Cambalachero (
talk) 13:42, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
None is with America as a country, so what's the problem?
Btw... South Africa is a good example to compare with the United States of America to get the idea of wrong use, much better than e.g. European Union which is even not a country but "a trade organisation", ... pretending to be a country...
193.77.43.130 (
talk) 14:02, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Thinking that Africa is a country, is a mistake at least as big as the continent itself. Not sure how else you could measure a mistake like that. How strange to think otherwise.
Long story short: as said the English version of wikipedia is not a national, local or cultural domain (of 4% world population) but became global communication tool. When someone is searching for term America, the USA came first, which is wrong. I believe that the editors are influenced by kind of local patriotism or indoctrinated education, but my advice is, for as sake of a credibility to pass that. The first step would be to put American (world) first and than America for the USA (local)... or declare English wikipedia USA only, so people would post their content to Global English. I believe that most of the English Wikipedia content wasn't created by citizens of the USA?
193.77.43.130 (
talk) 18:49, 20 March 2023 (UTC)reply
You haven't been listening: America generally refers to the US in all native variants of English, not just American English. That includes British English, Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English, Indian English, South African English, and the various African aand Caribbean Englishes. That's why it is, and will continue to be, listed first on this DAB page.
BilCat (
talk) 19:41, 20 March 2023 (UTC)reply
The word "America" most commonly refers to the United States of America. That's not the only meaning of it, of course, just like that big city over in Peru isn't the only meaning of
Lima. (See
Lima (disambiguation)) But it's the thing most people mean most of the time when they say "Lima" in English, and likewise, the country of blue jeans and jazz and lacrosse is the topic most people mean (most of the time) when saying "America" in English. And that's why
America continues to redirect to
the United States of America.
RedSlash 18:39, 21 March 2023 (UTC)reply
But of course, the DAB page claiming that "America" is a short form of "United States of America"—when it is clearly and provably synecdoche—is indeed incorrect, which is what the conversation in the section above was referring to. If it's what "most people mean most of the time", then that would support the idea that it should read America commonly refers to the United States, as I suggested there, rather than making an incorrect claim. I really don't understand why pages like this are being policed so vigilantly when there is obvious and persistent contention with the way it reads and is structured, and the alternatives being suggested are entirely neutral and acceptable to both parties.
Getsnoopy (
talk) 04:20, 28 July 2023 (UTC)reply
The suggestion, "America commonly refers to the United States", would clearly not be acceptable to the OP of this section, nor to most who object to "America" being used for the United States. I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish by hijacking a discussion from 4 months ago to push a topic from over two years ago. If you actually wanted to reopen that old discussion, it might have been better to open a new coach below. Instead, the hijacking of this topic just appears to be disgruntled sniping.
BilCat (
talk) 08:35, 28 July 2023 (UTC)reply
And you think America is a short-form name for the United States of America is? It's not only incorrect, but also objectionable to people like OP. It's not really hijacking, since the sentiment of this section is the same as the one in the section above.
Getsnoopy (
talk) 17:50, 1 August 2023 (UTC)reply
Probably not.
BilCat (
talk) 21:04, 22 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Per
WP:DABCOMBINE, "A single disambiguation page may be used to disambiguate a number of similar terms. Sets of terms which are commonly so combined include: ... Variant spellings." But "Editorial judgement should be used in deciding whether to combine terms in the ways described above. If a combined disambiguation page would be inconveniently long, it may be better to split the disambiguation page into separate pages." Now that I look at
Amerika (disambiguation), it would definitely be unwieldy to combine the two. But they should link to each other. --
R'n'B (
call me Russ) 21:29, 22 March 2023 (UTC)reply
They do link to each other, at the bottom of this page under "See also" and similarly at the bottom of the
Amerika dab page.
Deor (
talk) 21:56, 22 March 2023 (UTC)reply
So... time to remove all the Amerika stuff, then, and trust the link at the bottom of the page?
RedSlash 15:14, 23 March 2023 (UTC)reply
I don't see any "Amerika stuff" left on this page.
Deor (
talk) 16:09, 23 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Yep, looks good to me
RedSlash 21:22, 23 March 2023 (UTC)reply
interwiki language links
I donʼt know where else to put this, but the interwiki links (where it groups them by place) should be changed to say "The Americas" instead of "America".
2600:8800:2C09:3200:453B:26CB:72A8:3F0E (
talk) 04:58, 11 January 2024 (UTC)reply
This disambiguation page is within the scope of WikiProject South America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to
South America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.South AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject South AmericaTemplate:WikiProject South AmericaSouth America articles
This disambiguation page is within the scope of WikiProject North America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
North America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.North AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject North AmericaTemplate:WikiProject North AmericaNorth America articles
This disambiguation page is within the scope of WikiProject Central America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
Central America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Central AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject Central AmericaTemplate:WikiProject Central AmericaCentral America articles
This disambiguation page is within the scope of WikiProject Caribbean, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to the countries of the
Caribbean on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the
project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the
discussion. If you are new to editing Wikipedia visit the
welcome page to become familiar with the guidelines.CaribbeanWikipedia:WikiProject CaribbeanTemplate:WikiProject CaribbeanCaribbean articles
This article is within the scope of
WikiProject Americas, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.AmericasWikipedia:WikiProject AmericasTemplate:WikiProject AmericasAmericas articles
This disambiguation page is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the
United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This disambiguation page is within the scope of WikiProject Disambiguation, an attempt to structure and organize all
disambiguation pages on Wikipedia. If you wish to help, you can edit the page attached to this talk page, or visit the
project page, where you can join the project or contribute to the
discussion.DisambiguationWikipedia:WikiProject DisambiguationTemplate:WikiProject DisambiguationDisambiguation articles
This page has archives. Sections older than 90 days may be automatically archived by Lowercase sigmabot III when more than 3 sections are present.
Student using America
I am a geographer and my student used the term America instead of The USA in his essay and claimed that it was in Wikipedia. Quoting Wikipedia is not allowed in essays anyway. The essay was rejected to be corrected right. I checked Wikipedia, so here I am... is English Wikipedia intended for local US use (4%) of the world population or global? I am aware that America is used as a local term but need to warn of the wrong global use. People from Argentina, Chile ...or Canada are also Americans, the same Irish people, Czhecks, and Italians are all Europeans. Nobody can be so ignorant to claim Europe for him/herself. The citizens of the UK are not been Europeans anymore since Brexit? — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
193.77.43.130 (
talk) 06:56, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
"America" is is not (old error) just a local (US only) term. It's used prominently in all varieties of English to refer to the United States. Most Canadians will be insulted if you call them "Americans", so I would not recommend doing that! If you are teaching geography, then you are doing your students a disservice if you are only teaching one view of the world. You need to teach them to be flexible, and to realize that other cultures and nations may view geography differently than what may be taught in your country. Give them a full education, not just one narrow view of the world.
BilCat (
talk) 09:44, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Geography is a science, not a "peep talk", so we need to use certain standards with the terminology,... try to convert the US pounds from English to another language wit online (Google) translator... someone will get a translation that one pound is one kilogram and the error will become the reality. Same is with mathematics... similar ignorance with, again The USA and "billion" (wrong understanding the French but adopted into the wrong use) instead milliard...even forced the UK to change it in 1974,...but it was a political decision not linguistic, so the proper use would be still milliard (UK or the USA can not decide how to use the language which became universal)... e.g. none of the EU countries use English as the first language but we use English to communicate sure we use metrics, and milliards, and Celsius...even science in the USA use metrics and the local units are are just for "locals" not global use. My point is...is this Wikipedia a local, the USA language (4% of world population) or is it about the content written in English as global language (96% world population)?
193.77.43.130 (
talk) 10:21, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Neither. It about all the countries that speak English as a first language. Take a simple question such as how many continents are in the world. Some people would say 4, 5, 6, or 7, or even 8, depending on what country they are from, and what they are taught. Some people think there is only one correct answer to that question, and that all the other views are wrong. But it depends on how one defines a continent. The English Wikipedia article on
Continents is written from the point of view that there are 7 continents, as that is what is taught in most countries where English is a first language. But it does not claim this is the only view, and it presents the other views as equally valid.
BilCat (
talk) 11:07, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
All clear but Wikipedia is not about language but the content. English is not a "local language" but a universal global communication which needs to be with global standards not exotic or local. I am academics but long time ago stopped to use English as "English" - just a communication tool (UL). Term of what is America is just local linguistic as said, could be used as slang for the country. In the United Nations country list there is no such country as America. I was doing a shadow school monitoring in the USA and I am aware about the level of the education there and the general knowledge of people... even the university students there thought that Africa is a country... mentioning that that we need some rules before there is a contamination with wrong ideas.
193.77.43.130 (
talk) 13:17, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Yes, it would be great if geography had a unified international standard over those things that everybody uses (at least, before we get into the finer details of whose standard would prevail), but that's neither here nor there. Right now, there is no such standard, and it's not up to us to create one. We're not an international bureau of the English language, but just a humble internet page. By the way, remember that
South Africais a country. Thinking that "Africa" is a country is indeed an error, but not one so big as you make it seem.
Cambalachero (
talk) 13:42, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
None is with America as a country, so what's the problem?
Btw... South Africa is a good example to compare with the United States of America to get the idea of wrong use, much better than e.g. European Union which is even not a country but "a trade organisation", ... pretending to be a country...
193.77.43.130 (
talk) 14:02, 15 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Thinking that Africa is a country, is a mistake at least as big as the continent itself. Not sure how else you could measure a mistake like that. How strange to think otherwise.
Long story short: as said the English version of wikipedia is not a national, local or cultural domain (of 4% world population) but became global communication tool. When someone is searching for term America, the USA came first, which is wrong. I believe that the editors are influenced by kind of local patriotism or indoctrinated education, but my advice is, for as sake of a credibility to pass that. The first step would be to put American (world) first and than America for the USA (local)... or declare English wikipedia USA only, so people would post their content to Global English. I believe that most of the English Wikipedia content wasn't created by citizens of the USA?
193.77.43.130 (
talk) 18:49, 20 March 2023 (UTC)reply
You haven't been listening: America generally refers to the US in all native variants of English, not just American English. That includes British English, Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English, Indian English, South African English, and the various African aand Caribbean Englishes. That's why it is, and will continue to be, listed first on this DAB page.
BilCat (
talk) 19:41, 20 March 2023 (UTC)reply
The word "America" most commonly refers to the United States of America. That's not the only meaning of it, of course, just like that big city over in Peru isn't the only meaning of
Lima. (See
Lima (disambiguation)) But it's the thing most people mean most of the time when they say "Lima" in English, and likewise, the country of blue jeans and jazz and lacrosse is the topic most people mean (most of the time) when saying "America" in English. And that's why
America continues to redirect to
the United States of America.
RedSlash 18:39, 21 March 2023 (UTC)reply
But of course, the DAB page claiming that "America" is a short form of "United States of America"—when it is clearly and provably synecdoche—is indeed incorrect, which is what the conversation in the section above was referring to. If it's what "most people mean most of the time", then that would support the idea that it should read America commonly refers to the United States, as I suggested there, rather than making an incorrect claim. I really don't understand why pages like this are being policed so vigilantly when there is obvious and persistent contention with the way it reads and is structured, and the alternatives being suggested are entirely neutral and acceptable to both parties.
Getsnoopy (
talk) 04:20, 28 July 2023 (UTC)reply
The suggestion, "America commonly refers to the United States", would clearly not be acceptable to the OP of this section, nor to most who object to "America" being used for the United States. I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish by hijacking a discussion from 4 months ago to push a topic from over two years ago. If you actually wanted to reopen that old discussion, it might have been better to open a new coach below. Instead, the hijacking of this topic just appears to be disgruntled sniping.
BilCat (
talk) 08:35, 28 July 2023 (UTC)reply
And you think America is a short-form name for the United States of America is? It's not only incorrect, but also objectionable to people like OP. It's not really hijacking, since the sentiment of this section is the same as the one in the section above.
Getsnoopy (
talk) 17:50, 1 August 2023 (UTC)reply
Probably not.
BilCat (
talk) 21:04, 22 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Per
WP:DABCOMBINE, "A single disambiguation page may be used to disambiguate a number of similar terms. Sets of terms which are commonly so combined include: ... Variant spellings." But "Editorial judgement should be used in deciding whether to combine terms in the ways described above. If a combined disambiguation page would be inconveniently long, it may be better to split the disambiguation page into separate pages." Now that I look at
Amerika (disambiguation), it would definitely be unwieldy to combine the two. But they should link to each other. --
R'n'B (
call me Russ) 21:29, 22 March 2023 (UTC)reply
They do link to each other, at the bottom of this page under "See also" and similarly at the bottom of the
Amerika dab page.
Deor (
talk) 21:56, 22 March 2023 (UTC)reply
So... time to remove all the Amerika stuff, then, and trust the link at the bottom of the page?
RedSlash 15:14, 23 March 2023 (UTC)reply
I don't see any "Amerika stuff" left on this page.
Deor (
talk) 16:09, 23 March 2023 (UTC)reply
Yep, looks good to me
RedSlash 21:22, 23 March 2023 (UTC)reply
interwiki language links
I donʼt know where else to put this, but the interwiki links (where it groups them by place) should be changed to say "The Americas" instead of "America".
2600:8800:2C09:3200:453B:26CB:72A8:3F0E (
talk) 04:58, 11 January 2024 (UTC)reply
