Ethnic Epiphanies, Please share.

[CaraCicatriz]

Most white people, caucasions, euroamericans however you call it, claim a nation as their ethnicity. As in "I am part French and German" type thing. But many European countries really don't have their adjective group as the whole country and in fact you maybe quite different than you thought. My family always assume we were Spanish and Indian mixed but my Aunt did some geneaology and research and suprisingly, we speak Spanish by circumstance in the same way that an italian-irish american speaks English. My family actually is descended Portuguese (Salinas) and Basque (Roncal/Bilbao). This doesn't change the fact that I am proud of my "spanish" heritage as we got that from the new world but is interesting to see how our perceptions of who we are usually very obviously flawed as if you think about it, only 60% of Spain is spanish so it only makes sense
Anyone else have any ethnic epiphanies they'd like to share?

[AWAR]

Eastern Europe, and especially south-eastern is very complicated in that matter because it was a melting pot thousands of years before America was discovered

I'm close to 100% Montenegrin Serb ( Slavic 'meta-ethnicity', but if you dig a bit deeper in the past, you can find traces of also Sarmatian, Illyrian, Greek, and other ancestry. Nothing very accurate I'm afraid

This is one of the reasons why I'm very interested in anthropology and history.

[geirr]

I live in Australia but I'm born in Argentina. My father's side is from Italy (Piemonte) and infact my father spoke Italian when he was little. My mother's side is from northern Argentina she is many generations Argentinian of Iberian, mainly Basque and Portuguese descent. I have an interest in European history and anthropology as I feel my roots are there. Even though I have never found anything, I could easily have amerindian blood and don't know it. I don't think this is unusual for the Americas though.

[eufrenio]

What do you mean that only 60 % of Spain is spanish? It doesn´t make sense to me.

CaraCicatriz said:

Most white people, caucasions, euroamericans however you call it, claim a nation as their ethnicity. As in "I am part French and German" type thing. But many European countries really don't have their adjective group as the whole country and in fact you maybe quite different than you thought. My family always assume we were Spanish and Indian mixed but my Aunt did some geneaology and research and suprisingly, we speak Spanish by circumstance in the same way that an italian-irish american speaks English. My family actually is descended Portuguese (Salinas) and Basque (Roncal/Bilbao). This doesn't change the fact that I am proud of my "spanish" heritage as we got that from the new world but is interesting to see how our perceptions of who we are usually very obviously flawed as if you think about it, only 60% of Spain is spanish so it only makes sense
Anyone else have any ethnic epiphanies they'd like to share?

[AWAR]

eufrenio said:

What do you mean that only 60 % of Spain is spanish? It doesn´t make sense to me.

Perhaps he's speaking about Castillans being 60% of Spain, the rest being Catalan, Galisian, Basque etc.

[CaraCicatriz]

In Spanish it is much more easier to distinguish the term Spanish as in language and as in people from spain. The Spanish language like English from one part of Spain, you don't call English as British and we don't call Spanish as Spanish in our language we call it Castellano (some call it Espanol) as it is from Castille. So I mean that only 60% are Castillians, traditional speakers of the Spanish language.

[Graeme]

All countries in Europe are made up of different tribes and dialects. Think of Italy. The Italian language of today derives from the Tuscan dialect as written by Dante Alighieri and Plutarch. One tribe and their dialect overrides the others and their customs become the standard. Today their are fewer speakers of dialects. If Spain is considered it is the Catalans who are bilingual in Castilian and Catalan not the Castilians.

In addition the boundaries of European countries have shifted over time. So their are Danish speakers in Germany and vica versa. Switzerland has several "nationalities" occupying it. Poland has shrink, expanded, disappeared and reemerged off the map of Europe in its history.

[eufrenio]

I don´t agree with the 60% figure, now that I understand your reasoning.
If you really count the number of people whose primary language is Spanish (español ), from all parts of Spain excluding 40% of inhabitants of Catalonia, 40% of Valencia, 15 % of the Basque Country and 30 % of Galicia, you still have a 80-90 % figure of the total.

"Español" and Castellano are synonymous, but "español" is more correct and historically more accurate. Castille, the central area of the Peninsula, is but a small part in numbers of the overall native spanish speakers. You cannot call an Andalusian or an Asturian "castillian", yet they speak what you prefer to call "castillian".

CaraCicatriz said:

In Spanish it is much more easier to distinguish the term Spanish as in language and as in people from spain. The Spanish language like English from one part of Spain, you don't call English as British and we don't call Spanish as Spanish in our language we call it Castellano (some call it Espanol) as it is from Castille. So I mean that only 60% are Castillians, traditional speakers of the Spanish language.