# Swedish: Latin-American



## MarX

Hello!

Is the translation of Latino/Latina = *Mellanamerikanskt*?
Doesn't it only pertain to Central American?

Thank you!

Salam,


MarX


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

MarX said:


> Is the translation of Latino/Latina = *Mellanamerikanskt*?
> Doesn't it only pertain to Central American?


No, if you mean a hispanic *person* from anywhere in the Americas, (en) latinamerikan/-ska would be the most appropriate translation (*noun*).  

Your mellanamerikanskt is an *adjective* that is rarely used, centralamerikansk/-t is the appropriate translation of Central American as an adjective. In any case, most nouns relating to humans are "en" gender, while you were using the suffix -t pertaining to the "ett" gender.

End of Swedish grammar lesson! 
/Wilma


----------



## MarX

Thank you Wilma!

I asked because I found a list of options of ethnic type.

In English:
-Latin
-Mediterranean
-Mixed

In German:
-Latino
-Südländer
-Mixed

In Spanish:
-Latino
-Mediterráneo
-Mixto

In Portuguese:
-latino
-mediterrâneo
-mestiço

In French:
-Latino
-Méditerranéen
-Métis

In Dutch:
-Latino
-Mediterraan
-Gemengd

And in Swedish it's:
Ursprung:
-Mellanamerikanskt
-Sydländskt
-Mulatt


----------



## María Madrid

I don't know where you got that "list" but Sydländskt being considered an "ethnic" group is actually funny. Where does the South begin exactly? Skåne? France? Morocco? Not to mention latino/mediterráneo as 2 different ethnic groups. So someone from Lazio would be Mediterranean but not Latin? Or those who live in Argentina and have Italian heritage? LOL

This sounds as the very "creative" ethnic distinctions made up in the US which in some cases have really nothing to do with race but culture and language. Those are certainly not used in Europe.

Even at the risk of being off-topic. Mixto in Spanish is short for ham and cheese sandwiches, not people's ethnicity.


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

María Madrid said:


> Where does the South begin exactly? Skåne?


Absolutely!  

But seriously, sydländsk is a somewhat vague Swedish adjective depicting just about anyone or anything from anywhere south of Scandinavia, (=different from the Nordic ethnicity), although traditionally we mean the European countries bordering the Mediterranean.

The list doesn't make sense anyhow, as María points out, at best it's a whimsical mixed salad of adjectives in different languages, and the mixtures in themselves are odd: Swedish mulatt is a person of African/European mixture, while French métis and Portuguese mestiço as I understand it, refer to native American/European mixture. 

I don't know where you found that list, but I'd misplace it PDQ if I were you! 

/Wilma


----------



## MarX

Thanks guys!

The Swedish version of the site was just introduced last month, and apparently they'll still have to correct some things. 

Wilma, what does PDQ mean?


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

MarX said:


> Wilma, what does PDQ mean?


Informal acronym, means Pretty Damn Quick.  Perhaps you should show the webmaster our objections before you misplace the URL... ?

/Wilma


----------



## larica

Wilma_Sweden said:


> Swedish mulatt is a person of African/European mixture, while French métis and Portuguese mestiço as I understand it, refer to native American/European mixture.
> 
> /Wilma


 
In Portuguese, "mestiço" is refered to a person of any kind of racial mixture (black/white; white/yellow, and so on). In Portuguese whe also have the word "mulato" with the same meaning as in Swedish.

In Portugal we use the term "latino" to define those countries (and theirs people) whose languages derived from latin. Therefore, "latinos" are: The Portuguese, the Spanish, the French, the Italians and the Romanians.


----------



## MarX

larica said:


> In Portuguese, "mestiço" is refered to a person of any kind of racial mixture (black/white; white/yellow, and so on). In Portuguese whe also have the word "mulato" with the same meaning as in Swedish.
> 
> In Portugal we use the term "latino" to define those countries (and theirs people) whose languages derived from latin. Therefore, "latinos" are: The Portuguese, the Spanish, the French, the Italians and the Romanians.


Thanks for the explanations!

The original website was in German.
I reckon in the case of German, "Südländer" refers to the people of "Mediterranean" type, whereas "Latino" refers more to the Latin Americans. I know this is a huge generalization. Just trying to make things a bit clearer.


----------

