Originally Posted by
neloon
How can you possibly be Scottish - you are a US American
It's just common Colonial shorthand.
Somebody will self-identify here saying "I'm Irish" or "I'm German" or what have you, and we know it's not a claim of being a citizen of a foreign country. It's just faster than saying "I'm a US citizen of Irish ancestry".
Unlike most people in Britain, 99% of us came to our current hemisphere of abode from somewhere else within a few generations.
At least around here, when someone was born elsewhere they'll say "I'm from Ireland" or "I'm from Germany".
In contrast to someone saying "my family came from Ireland" which indicates that they're born here. (It's said the same whether the family came here in 1750, or 1850, or 1950.)
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
Bookmarks