Recently I overheard a conversation (surely they were talking too loudly, right? I hope you believe I wasn't eavesdropping, most definitely I was not.) about how people from different states/countries are referred to.
(Wow, to be the person in the world who has nothing better to do than think on such things -- and most especially I'd like to be the one who really has nothing better to do than overhear a conversation on such and then actually contemplate the issue.)
If you are from America, you are an American. Just add an N at the end. So why aren't people from China called Chinan instead of Chinese?
If you are from Japan, you are Japanese...Taiwan, Taiwanese. Just add ESE after the N. I'm okay with that. It makes sense.
California -- Californian. Georgia - Georgian. Add an N to the end. Ok.
Oklahoma -- Oklahoman. Alaska -- Alaskan. Add an N to the end.
So how come people from Alabama aren't called Alabamans? Or people from Florida called Floridans? Is it the whole vowel-consonant-vowel vs. consonant-consonant-vowel crap we learned in school?
It's bugging me, really. Can you help?
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