"The" Philippines

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Wed, 30 Mar 2005 07:33:48 -0600,  "Sally O. Donlon"
_sod at LOUISIANA.EDU_ (mailto:sod at LOUISIANA.EDU)  writes:

>s a kid  I always wondered why we said Hawaii for the Hawaiian Islands,
>ut not  Phillipi for the Phillipine Islands.



Because the Hawaiian Islands were united into one political unit by  King
Kamehameha I who started out ruling the island of Hawaii only.   Similarly the
Roman Empire (and earlier the Roman Republic) got their names  because they were
created by the government in the city of Rome, and  incidentally the Eastern
Roman Empire continued in existence for centuries after  the King of the Goths
took over the rule of the city of Rome.