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.

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