"The" Philippines

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:26 PM -0800 3/30/05, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>In the Netherlands one finds "The Hague."  There also used to be
>"The Argentine."
>Slightly closer to home is "The Yukon."
>
>JL

and "The Dalles" (Ore.), not to mention "The Bronx"

>FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: FRITZ JUENGLING
>Subject: Re: "The" Philippines
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>We also have, or have had, The Netherlands (which I think is clear),
>The Ukraine, (and as every reader of Victorian colonial exploits
>reads), The Sudan, and The Gambia. From my reading, I don't think
>the last refers to only the river, but to an area, which has become
>the country. I don't think 'The' is obligatory except for
>'Netherlands.'
>In German, we have 'die Schweiz', which is short for 'die schweizere
>Eidgenossenschaft, die T¸rkei, der Sudan, (der) Irak, (der) Iran,
>die Niederlande, die Ukraine, die Tschechoslowakei, die Tschechei,
>der Tschad, die Vereinigten Staaten,and die USA (which is always
>plural!). The are certainly others. It has always intrigued me why
>English and German use articles in front of country names, some of
>which are optional, but German has so many more than English.
>Fritz Juengling
>
>>>>  wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM 03/30/05 04:46AM >>>
>Short for "the Philippine Islands."
>
>JL
>
>Yan Zhang wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Yan Zhang
>Subject: "The" Philippines
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Hi,
>I am a Chinese TESOL teacher. In today's dictation exercise, there
>is a sentence "China is the first leg of the President° s
>four-nation tour, which also includes Japan, South Korea and the
>Philippines." One student asked me why there is a "the" in front of
>Philippines, while usually people don't put definite article before
>a country name. Could anybody help? Thanks a lot.
>
>Yan
>
>
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