31 Countries, nationalities and languages Using ‘the’ Most names of countries are used without ‘the’, but some countries and other names have “the before them, e.g. The USA, The United Kingdom / UK, The Commonwealth. Some countries may be referred to with or without ‘the’ (the) Lebanon, (the) Gambia, (the) Ukraine, (the) Sudan, Adjectives referring to countries and languages With ish: British Irish Flemish Danish Turkish Spanish Wich -an: Canadian Brazilian American Russian Australian With -ese: Japanese Chinese Guyanese Burmese Maltese Taiwanese With is Israeli Iraqi Kuwaiti Pakistani Yemeni Bangladeshi With -ic: Icelandic Arabic Some, adjectives are worth learning separately e.g, Swiss, Thai, Greek, Dutch, Cypriot. Nationalities Some nationalities have nouns for referring to people, e.g. a Finn, a Swede, a Turk, a Spaniard, a Dane, a Briton, an Arab. For most nationalities we can use the adjective as a noun, e.g. a German, an Italian, a Belgian, a Catalan, a Greek, an African, Some need woman/man/person added to them (you can’t say ‘a Dutch’), so if in doubt, use them, e.g. a Dutch man, a French woman, an Irish person, an Icelandic man, World regions Ete ecie™ seanginavin Asia rer _ “Juwsye The The Pe America = Middle Fae ap, The North Africa” Base Ex? pie. Caribbean ~S SemContral Atos of Latin € ‘Americaf’ ‘The Southern) y Indian ~ Atlantic Africa cen Australasia a The Antarctic People belong to ethnic groups and regional groups such as Afro-Caribbeans, Asians and Orientals and Latin Americans. What are you? (e.g. North African, Southern African, European, Melanesian) They speak dialects as well as languages. Everyone has a/mother tongue or first language; many have second and third languages. Some people are perfect in more than ‘one language and are bilingual or multilingual. name: Wanija Krishnamurthan _second/third languages: English, Malay nationality: Malaysian type or dialect of English: Malaysian mother tongue: Tamil (S. India) _ethnic group: Asian (Tamil Indian) Peoples and races2 3 4 Ss Exercises Ways of learning nationality and language adjectives. Some adjectives can form regiona’ ‘groups, e.g. Latin American countries are almost all described by -(iJan adjectives. 1 Complete this list of Latin American adjectives. Look at a world map if you have t« Brazilian, Chilean,... 2. The same applies to former European socialist countries and parts of the former So Union. Complete the list. Hungarian, Armenian,,.. 3. What other regional groupings can you see on the left-hand page? (e.g. many -ish adjectives are European) Famous names. Can you name a famous... Example: Argentinian sportsman or woman? Diego Maradonna 1 Chinese politician? 2 Black Southern African political figure? 3. Polish person who became a world religious leader? 4 Italian opera singer? 5 Irish rock-music group? All these nationality adjectives have a change in stress and/or pronunciation from the 1€ of the country. Make sure you can pronounce them. Use a dictionary for any you don . know. Use phonetic script if possible (see Unit 5). Example: ran —> Iranian /t'remtan/ (US = /r'rentan/) 1 Panama > Panamanian 4 Jordan -* Jordanian 2 Cyprus > Cypriot 5 Egypt. Egyptian 3 Ghana Ghanaian 6 Fiji = Fijian Correct the mistakes in these newspaper headlines. * Madonna to marry a French?) ©____ POLICE ARREST DANISH Hollywood sensation! Vietnamian SMUGGLING CHARGE > refugees) —————— Britains have highest ) leave Hong ¢ ° tragian delegation me: =~ tax rate in EC Kong camps Pakistanian Presiden — ——_— World quiz 1. What are the main ethnic groups in Malaysia? 2. Which countries, strictly speaking, are in Scandinavia? 3. What are the five countries with the highest population? 4 How many languages are there in the world? 5. Where is Kiribati? 6 Where do people speak Inuit? 7 What are the five most widely spoken languages? Follow-up: Make sure you can describe your nationality, country, region, ethnic group, language(s), etc. in English.