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LonelyJar
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12 Jun 2015, 2:43 am

When does one deviate from the traditional rule for making the prefix? Who decides what the right order is for these adjectives, like for Sino-Russian vs. Russo-Chinese?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_nationality_prefixes



The_Walrus
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12 Jun 2015, 8:55 am

Think it's basically "whatever sounds cooler".

"Americo-" is pretty lame, so let's go with "-American", for example.



naturalplastic
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12 Jun 2015, 3:17 pm

If its ties, or agreements, they usually use "U.S." (Obama seeks renewed U.S.-China ties).

If its names of wars- who knows?

In the U.S.A. we call the 1846 war with Mexico the "Mexican War".

Don't know what Mexicans call it ("the American War'?). Nor do I know what disinterested third party countries not involved call it ("the U.S.- Mexican War"?).



pluto
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12 Jun 2015, 3:53 pm

The names that come from Latin are interesting. Hiberno- for Irish is related to the word hibernate and French
l'hiver (winter),because the Romans thought it was like winter all year round in Ireland.
The order probably just goes with what trips off the tongue better.


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0_equals_true
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12 Jun 2015, 4:55 pm

Anglo-Indian and British Indian have different meanings.

For instance food: Kedgeree, Mulligatawny are Anglo-Indian and Balti, Tikka-Masala are British-Indian.

I use Indian is the broader historic sense.