Anglo Rustico, Prince Edward Island

Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British descent in Anglo-America, the Anglophone Caribbean, South Africa, Namibia, Australia, and New Zealand. It is used in Canada to differentiate between the French speakers (Francophone) of mainly Quebec and some parts of New Brunswick, and the English speakers (Anglophone) in the rest of Canada. It is also used in the United States to distinguish the Latino population from the non-Latino white majority.

Anglo is a Late Latin prefix used to denote ''English-'' in conjunction with another toponym or demonym. The word is derived from Anglia, the Latin name for England and still used in the modern name for its eastern region, East Anglia. Anglia and England both mean ''land of the Angles'', a Germanic people originating in the north German peninsula of Angeln, that is, the region of today's Lower Saxony that joins the Jutland Peninsula. (There are various hypotheses for the origin of the name 'Angeln'.)

It is also often used to refer to ''British'' in historical and other contexts after the Acts of Union 1707, for example such as in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, where in later years agreement was between the British government and the Dutch, not an English government. Typical examples of this use are also shown below, where non-English people from the British Isles are described as being ''Anglo''.

''Anglo'' is not an easily defined term. For traditionalists, there are linguistic problems with using the word as an adjective or noun on its own. For example, the purpose of the ''-o'' ending is to enable the formation of a compound term (for example ''Anglo-Saxon'' meaning of Angle and Saxon origin), so there is only an apparent parallelism between, for example, Latino and Anglo. However, a semantic change has taken place in many English-speaking regions so that in informal usage the meanings listed below are common. The definition is changed in each region which defines how it is identified.

Specialized usage

Africa

The term ''Anglo-African'' has been used historically to self-identify by people of mixed British and African ancestry born in the United States and in Africa. ''The Anglo-African'' and ''The Weekly Anglo-African'' were the names of newspapers published by African American abolitionist Robert Hamilton (1819–1870) in New York during the American Civil War era. ''The Anglo-African'' was also the name of a newspaper published in Lagos (now part of Nigeria) from 1863 to 1865. It was founded and edited by Robert Campbell (1829–1884), a Jamaican born son of a Scottish father and Mulatto mother. The term has also been used historically to describe people living in the British Empire in Africa. ''The Anglo-African Who's Who and Biographical Sketch-Book'' published in London in 1905 includes details of prominent British and Afrikaner people in Africa at that time.

Australia

In Australia, ''Anglo'' is used as part of the terms ''Anglo-Australian'' and '' Anglo-Celtic'', which refer to the majority of Australians, who are of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish descent.

Canada

In Canada, and especially in Canadian French, '' Anglophone'' is widely used to designate someone whose mother tongue is English, as opposed to ''Francophone'', which describes someone whose mother tongue is French, and to '' Allophone'', which describes someone whose mother tongue is a language other than English or French. '' Anglo-Métis'' is also sometimes used to refer to an ethnic group.

Israel

Immigrants from English-speaking countries are sometimes referred to as ''Anglos''.

Scotland

In Scotland the term ''Anglo-Scot'', often shortened to ''Anglos'', is used to refer to people with mixed Scottish-English ancestry, people with English ancestry born in Scotland or even the Lowland Scots in general.

The term Anglo-Scot is more often used to describe Scottish sports players who are based in England or playing for English teams, or vice versa. This usage is especially used in football and notably in rugby union, where the Anglo Scots were a Scottish non-native select provincial District side that competed in the Scottish Inter-District Championship.

United States

In many parts of the United States, especially those with high Latino populations, "Anglo-American" is shortened to "Anglo" and applied to white Americans who are not of Latino origin. In the Southwest United States, "Anglo", short for "Anglo American", is used as a synonym for non-Latino whites; that is European Americans, most of whom speak the English language, even those who are not necessarily of English or British descent. Some non-Latino whites in the United States who speak English but are not of English or British ancestry do not identify with the term "Anglo" and find the term offensive. For instance, some Cajuns in southern Louisiana use the term to refer to white people who do not have Francophone backgrounds. Irish Americans, the second largest self-identified ethnic group in the United States following German-Americans, also sometimes take umbrage at being called "Anglo"."The Irish-Mexican Thing" by Julie Reynolds. ''El Andar Magazine'', March 199

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Countries with significant populations

Although conceptions of "Anglo" identity vary from country to country, the below table provides estimates of native English-speaking "white" populations by country.

See also

* Angles
*Anglo-Burmese people
* Anglo-Celtic
* Anglo-Indian
* Anglo-Irish people
*Anglo-Norman
*Anglo-Saxon (disambiguation)
* Anglo-Saxons
* Anglo-Scottish border
* Anglophile
* Anglophobia
*Anglosphere
* Second Boer War
* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

Notes

References

{{reflist

English culture
History of England
English diaspora