Demonyms and Gentilicios or Brummies and Gaditanos

Lumi, Elena and José Antionio were most amused. We were in the Culebrón village hall and I'd just asked if the collective name for people from Culebrón were Culebronista. They put me right, I'd be a Culebronero. The Spaniards told me that the -ista ending was usually for supporters of something. I thought Culebronistas sounded good but I was probably thinking about the Nicaraguan Sandinistas from the time when Dani Ortega was still a bit of a hero and not the raving despot that he is nowadays.

You're going to have to stick with me now for a bit of Spanish grammar. I'll try to keep it brief. Spanish has two genders for its words so Lumi, being female, would be a Culebonera and Jose Antonio, being male, would be a Culebronero. In the language sense sex and gender don't always match. Of the many Spanish slang words for penis at least four I know are, grammatically, feminine - picha, polla, chorra and verga - while a couple of the many slang words for a vagina are coño and chocho both of which, surprise surprise, are grammatically masculine. 

So, imagine that we have both females and males with a group identity. Brothers and sisters might be a good example; hermanos and hermanas. The grammar rules say that a group made up of any number of sisters, as long as there is at least brother, should be described as brothers, hermanos. Or, for another example, back in the village hall there is a neighbourhood meeting; just one man but several women. The grammar rules say that we should forget the women and concentrate on the man. The collective group should be referred to as Culebroneros. Nowadays, for obvious reasons, anyone who is reasonably aware wants to include both sexes in the generalised description - like the way that the one time firemen are now firefighters. Imagine the Shakespearean Julius Caesar transported to 21st century Culebrón. Provided he wasn't a card carrying member of VOX he'd be asking that Culebroneros and Culebroneras lend him their ears. In fact, if he were a progressive Spanish politician he may have wanted to get the attention of those who identify with neither of those genders - Culebroneras (women), Culebroneros (men) and Culebroneres (unassigned) lend me etc. 

I can't pretend that this is a particularly stylish linguistic flourish, repeating the male and female forms all the times is tedious. Nonetheless it's a battle that's being fought in Spanish. There is only one possible outcome and it's not a victory for anyone clinging to arguments about rules of grammar. In written forms the @ symbol is often used because it looks like a combined o and a - Culebroner@s

This thing of using a name for the natives or inhabitants of a particular place is dead common worldwide. Scousers, Glaswegians, Brummies and Geordies do it. For Britons there are a range of generic terminations; think endings like  -er and -ian. So we get Londoner, East Ender, Mancunian, Bedfordian and Invernessian. I didn't realise there were some strange British examples Haligonian for Halifax and Cantabrigian for Cambridge, though I've worked in both places and I'd never heard either till Wikiwhatever told me they existed. In the UK some of these demonyms (technical term for the names) are used a lot more than others. Liverpudlian, Mancunian and Aberdonian are, to my mind, in common use whilst Exonian (Exeter) and Silhillian (Solihull) were another Wikisurprise to me. 

It's similar in Spain. For our situation we can start with the region: Valenciano/a, go on to the province, Alicantino/a and then the municipality, Pinosero/a. Just over the border into Murcia it's Murciano/a. Lots of the names are like those, the root is obvious enough, Madrileño/a for Madrid, Barcelonés/esa for Barcelona, Toledano/a for Toledo. Some others are a bit trickier, Gallego/a for Galicia, Oscense for Huesca or Jiennense for Jaen but at least they share some of the same letters. Others you either know or you don't - Gaditano/a from Cadiz, Abulenses from Ávila and Conquense from Cuenca. Cities can be even odder, from Elche for instance we have Ilicitano/a, in Badajoz they're Pacenses and in Ciudad Rodrigo they are Mirobrigenses. 

Once you realise that these terms exist you'd be surprised how regularly they are used in everyday conversation particularly by sports commentators. As I said in English these descriptors are apparently called demonyms and in Spain they are gentilicio. If you're ever curious just ask Google for the gentilicio of a town and you'll usually find that a name pops up even for places as small as Culebrón (not that it really does but I'm not going to spoil a goodish ending with the truth).