Let me ask you something. If the word Limey really offender you ... would changing the alowable spelling to "Lim", or "Li", really make a difference?
thats different because limey is a nickname, not the shortened form of the nationality. english favours 2 syllable words given the chance. hence the
Irish, the
Welsh and the
Scots. note that only
Scottish is commonly shortened because the longer form is too clumsy for everyday use, it doesnt scan well in conversation. in the same way we shorten
Czechoslovakian to
Czech, or
Japanese to
Jap. sometimes there arent enough syllables for the short form to work well, so british english favours adding a
-y or
-ie sound to a word to pad it out, hence
Argentinian to
Argie and
Pakistani to
Paki. the last example is the closest to
Jap in terms of attempts to ban a word by the people it represents.
edit: btw I dont appreciate my language being manipulated for political reasons and am happy to make a stand. If these shortened forms are not allowed, fair enough, rules are rules. I will, however, insist that I am known as a
Citizen of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland rather than a
Brit ...
