Connecticuters

Reading Accidental therapists: For insect detectives, the trickiest cases involve the bugs that aren’t really there by Eric Boodman which I'll blog about separately.  For the time being, I was distracted by:

It might sound like some dusty holdover from another, more agricultural time, when the fates of Connecticutters and critters were more closely intertwined.

Connecticutters?  That is the collective noun for those who live in Connecticut?  With all the history and travel I read, how did I not know this?  Is it even true?

Apparently, yes, it is the collective noun, though properly spelled Connecticuters.

Kevin Vellturo has the story in ‘Connecticuter?’ Government style manual raises the question: What do you call someone from Connecticut?  Apparently, while Connecticuter is both proper and official, it is not particularly widely known and there are those with strong feelings against the name.  

After about a dozen arguments about what to call residents of certain states, I finally googled and found the U.S. Government Publishing Office Style Manual. Have fun with this, twitter. pic.twitter.com/H8bugwOH2j

— Natalie Jackson (@nataliemj10) July 31, 2019

Most of these make sense to me.  But there are a handful deviant from what I am accustomed to hearing or have never seen.

Alabamian - I live next door to Alabama and am not sue I have heard them called anything but Alabamans.

Hawaii resident - Why not Hawaiian?  I think that is all I have ever seen.

Hoosier - I am familiar with the nickname but it is the only state on the list where the official name is a nickname.

Massachusettsan - I don't have a ready alternative, but I wouldn't have guessed Massachusettsan.

Wyomingite - Also sounds improbable.

But that's the beauty of the English language.  It is a living and evolving example of living and evolving linguistic democracy.  The rules are descriptive not normative.