AHC: The name of the USA includes a recent foreign loanword to English

Deleted member 97083

How could the name of the country we call the United States of America, through some alternate path of history, change to something that includes a recent foreign loanword?

By this I mean a word like Soviet, Junta, Bourgeois, Proletariat, Raj, Zollverein, etc. Any sort of loanword from another language into English used for administrative purposes is acceptable.

The POD can be between 1775 and now. The change can occur by a vote, by a revolution (either the American Revolution or a later one), or by successful invasion after 1900. However, the size of the country must not be much smaller than the current US.

For bonus points, include multiple loanwords; ridiculous constructions like "The Soviet Zollverein of America" or "Junta of American Proletariat" are welcome.
 
The trick here is an early PoD that cripples America and then gets invaded at a later date. Maybe the American Revolution fails and when the nation breaks free later, it's small and weak enough that it is annexed to another European colonizer during an alternate 20th century world war?
 

Deleted member 97083

The trick here is an early PoD that cripples America and then gets invaded at a later date. Maybe the American Revolution fails and when the nation breaks free later, it's small and weak enough that it is annexed to another European colonizer during an alternate 20th century world war?
Well, invading a tiny vassalized America isn't quite the same as the USA that has a previous identity and has controlled most of a continent. In the post, I said the size of the country must not be much smaller than the current US. They might not have the Mexican Cession, or maybe New England and only New England broke off during the War of 1812, but most of the land should be there.

There are feasible PODs without invasion, though. A scenario where FDR never takes power, the US falls deeper into the Great Depression, and a communist revolution happens, could lead to some permutation of "Soviet" being adopted in the name. Union of American Soviets, American Soviet Republics, or the like.

It could just be a provisional government that rules for a few years, too, as long as it controls most of the contiguous states.
 
Well, invading a tiny vassalized America isn't quite the same as the USA that has a previous identity and has controlled most of a continent. In the post, I said the size of the country must not be much smaller than the current US. They might not have the Mexican Cession, or maybe New England and only New England broke off during the War of 1812, but most of the land should be there.

There are feasible PODs without invasion, though. A scenario where FDR never takes power, the US falls deeper into the Great Depression, and a communist revolution happens, could lead to some permutation of "Soviet" being adopted in the name. Union of American Soviets, American Soviet Republics, or the like.

It could just be a provisional government that rules for a few years, too, as long as it controls most of the contiguous states.
America has never controlled most of the continent, at least not directly, it's not even the largest country on the continent.
The Combined size of Canada and Mexico is roughly 12 million squared km opposed to America which isn't even 10
 
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Communist revolution chooses a name like "Proletarian Republic of America". Outside of that, you'd have your usual Soviet America sort of name.

I'd love to see some way to get a Native American loanword into English which in an act of independence and American nationalism, comes into common use to describe something, maybe like an alternate term for state. Early Colonial North Carolina did employ the term "cassique" for its attempt at creating nobility. But all this would probably require a 17th century POD.
 

Deleted member 97083

'America'

Is a loan-word
Not a recent loanword though. And it's not from a foreign vernacular, but from the old universal lingua franca in the West; Latin, which English was so keen to borrow from.
 
Let's say that Spain's colonies break away first - say, the US loses the American Revolution, but France still falls into revolution and Spain still causes its colonies in the Americas to break away in anger, in reaction to Spain's conservatism. The more revolutionary Latin American wars of independence organize themselves as a number of legislatures named as "juntas", and the term "junta" becomes associated with revolution in the Americas. British North America, inspired by these revolutions, breaks away from Britain after anger against them increases once more, labels its own legislature a "junta", and calls itself the "Junta of American States", or a variation thereof.
 

samcster94

Banned
A communist USSA or anything like it is not likely, but maybe someone else secedes at some point for non racist reasons and uses a new loanword or something.
 
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