I'am Barcelonian

http://www.gettingcontacts.com/en/events/view/iambarcelonian

I'am Barcelonian

Welcome to Barcelona, a vibrant and creative business city

And also a city where the Council can’t be bothered to get its English-language material aimed at expats corrected by a proper translator or proofreader.

The event, that will take place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona, will provide all the information and services the city offers you for landing, doing business and having fun.

For those who may not know, Barcelonian is a totally invented word. It is a word I have never heard or seen in over 30 years’ residence in this city. If this had come to me, I would have certainly recommended I’m from Barcelona.

http://www.gettingcontacts.com/en/events/view/iambarcelonian

Comments

[John Cowan]

Merriam-Webster dot com gives the noun Barcelonan, as in "I'm a Barcelonan", and the adjective Barcelonese, as in "I am Barcelonese", though without citations. I'm familiar with the first but not the second. None of the other dictionaries I usually look at (AHD, RHD, Collins, ODO, OED) lists either one. Perhaps they are more often used of the city in Venezuela.

The OED, however, does give two senses of the ordinary noun barcelona, an obsolete one meaning 'a handkerchief or neckerchief of soft twilled silk', and a possibly current one (the entry is not yet fully updated but does have 20C citations) meaning 'hazelnut'. Both are products of southern exported to the UK and elsewhere through Barcelona.

[Peter Harvey]

The words can be invented, sure, but are never used. Such words rarely are. I'm Parisian, Viennese, Athenian? We just don't say that. Those adjectives are occasionally found in the wild, so to speak, but Barcelon(i)an is a pure invention.