Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!news.mathworks.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.mtholyoke.edu!world!jcf
From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Re: Father tongue & motherland?
Message-ID: <D8DLCx.IG9@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <3ons01$eum@oravannahka.Helsinki.FI> <3oo7n2$aii@news.bu.edu> <3opo1s$24e@eldborg.rhi.hi.is> <3oq8dt$998@news.bu.edu>
Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 18:43:45 GMT
Lines: 13

It is curious that in the U.S., tho we may call ourselves patriots
(which I suppose must come from the Greek for fatherland), we don't
use _either_ "fatherland" or "motherland" very freely for our own
country.  The emotive term in patriotic songs etc. is usually "native
land".  However, the Anglophiles among us do sometimes refer to
England or Britain as "the mother country" -- not in relation to
ourselves, but in relation to the U.S.  It is never "the father
country".  Perhaps we feel it is better to rebel against a mother than
a father.  %^)
-- 
        Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
        239 Clinton Road        (617) 731-9190
        Brookline, MA 02146
