Re: Countries with needless definite article.

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

mje@xxxxxxxx wrote:
>  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).
That is rather British. Again, Lebanon was a region, and perhaps
a mountain range, long before nation-states were dreamed of.
(It's mentioned by that name in the Hebrew Scripture.) Or are
you, perhaps, thinking of that terribly un-PC expression The
Levant? Generally, regions do take the definite article. And for
some reason, modern nations would rather we forget that many of
them are also regions. Why, I cannot imagine.


--
Patricia M. Godfrey
priscamg@xxxxxxxx