"the" before country name

[Benjamin Barrett]

I thought I remembered this discussion before on this list, but maybe
it was elsewhere.

What I recall is that during the heyday of the British Empire, the
British had a custom of referring to regions with a definite article.
Thus, the Congo, the Gambia (sorry, not the Ghana; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambia)
, (perhaps) the Argentine.

I don't know that this explanation was substantiated, but that's what
I recall. BB

On May 11, 2008, at 9:33 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>
>
> I presume that "the Argentine" is short for "the Argentine
> Republic," =
> the formal name of Argentina, and that the "the" in "Republic of the =
> Congo" refers to the Congo River.  I haven't heard "the Ghana," but
> it =
> doesn't seem to be too common.
> =20
> =20
> John Baker
> =20
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Laurence Horn
> Sent: Mon 5/12/2008 12:19 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "the" before country name
>
>
>
> At 7:20 PM -0700 5/11/08, Katharine The Grate wrote:
>> People used to say "the Congo".
>
> and they (or at least some of them) used to say "The Argentine".
>

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