Countries with needless definite article.

[mje@xxxxxxxx]

[Flash:]
> Michael Edwards muses:
>
> ≪I have an idea that there's one country that is still almost always
> prefixed with "the", although I don't recall which one it is≫
>
> Er, The Philippines?
   Well, yes, I guess that is one; but it isn't the one I had mind.
 I've thought about it a bit further, and I believe "the Lebanon" is
the one I was trying to think of (which I did mention earlier).
   I'm thinking of an A.B.C. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
current-affairs presenter who always says "the Lebanon", and I always
found it curious and illogical - even the tiniest touch irritating,
since it seemed to be utterly without reason. I suppose it's some
antique linguistic/historic fossil which is amazingly persistent even
today.
   Perhaps it's a bit like people who refer to India and some of
its neighbouring countries as "the subcontinent", even though they are
talking about the political/social entities those countries represent,
and even though I believe a subcontinent is only a geological entity,
not a political or national one. It just sounds strange to me.

             Regards,
             Michael Edwards.