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Cdaniels · Last edited by Cdaniels on Tue Dec 20, 2005 1:01 am; edited 1 time in total

Yeah, interesting topic! OK-European linguistically. Might be Languages in the Indo-European family, which includes: a Satem group in the east (Baltic, Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Armenian) and a Centum group in the west (Greek, Italic, Celtic, Germanic) Basque is beleived to be an isolate language surrounded geogrphically by Indo-European languages. Russian, Serbian and Turkish* are part of the "Satem" group. "Indo "specifically refers to India alone. -(polemical)
I would think the division at Dave's has more to do with numbers of posters/ internet traffic, though. Wink

-(non-polemical)

*I was mistaken. Turkish is not included in this group

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

Look at the yahoo website. Only U.S., Greenland, Canada, and Mexico are listed as part of North America.

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-577820-map_of_north_america-i

In school I learned that there are 7 continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

but from what I know some countries learn other classifications like Eurasian and Oceania

What have you learned in school?

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

I learned it the same way you did, making Central America not a continent, but where to draw the line for Europe and Asia?

And what about Iceland?

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

Or maybe North America and South America should just be called the Americas since only by man's manipulation of nature are they separate masses.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Even then, ask Mexicans what they they think and you get odd responses. some say all of Mexico is NA, some say none of it, and other say you draw the line south of Mexico City, splitting the country.

I think pure geography freaks would sum it up to continental plates...

Deja vu...we've had this conversation before...

Cdaniels · Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:21 am Post subject: Scandinavia

Iceland is definitely European. Often people don't think of Scandinavia as European- Certainly Scandinavia has important cultural and economic interests that seperate it from the rest of Europe. (Big, hearty breakfasts come to mind!) Greenland (officially, Kalaallit Nunaat) was granted homerule in 1979 after being a Danish colony. There is a despute about who owns Hans Island Canada or Greenland/Denmark because it will be of much importance if the climate changes and Acrtic Ice melts away.

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

Here in Peru, if you ask people if they have been to America they say yes. I'm refering to the USA, but they say yes because they live in South America and think that the North and the SOuth are one continent divided into two parts.

Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 6:26 pm Post subject:

How many continents were you taught there are?

I'm curious about this, as it seems to vary a lot from place to place. I was taught 7; North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica.

Most of the Europeans who I've discussed this with were taught 5; America as one continent, Antarctica omitted.

For me, the geographical separation between North and South America seems enough to justify it being two continents, whereas the line between Europe and Asia I've always considered a little less clear. (My impression is that they were named at a time when leading intellectuals didn't agree about where, or even if, they met in the middle. And the cultures are very different...)

But I was certainly taught that Russia was in Europe. (I am American, by the way. Why would anyone assume otherwise?) And there are many slavic nations within Europe, including Slovakia. I probably wouldn't consider Turkey to be in Europe, although they always seem to have good entrants in the Eurovision song competition. Very Happy

If "EU" is a criteria for "European," then it's spreading, and now includes a lot of what was "Eastern Europe" when I was in school. Also, where does that leave Switzerland? It's not EU, but it seems clearly to be surrounded by countries that most would consider "European."

It's a funny world...

Justin

MELEE · Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 6:55 pm Post subject:

Mexicans seem to get confused between continents and world cup soccer regions!

They count Australia together with Asia!

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

Luna Chica · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 177 Location: Trujillo, Peru

Yeah I came up against this one with my father-in-law. Being Australian we are pretty ezxcited about the fact that we are the only island nation that is also a continent. He would not believe that it was and reeled off the list of continents he had learned at school which came to 6 and I reeled of my list including Australia which came to 7. We had to agree to disagree because neither one of us could accept the other was right. BTW I know I really was je je.