Re: Double impact at K-T boundary ?

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

On Mon, Aug 30th, 2010 at 6:58 PM, Tim Williams <tijawi@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au> wrote:
> 
>  
> > 'The' Ukraine? As opposed to the other false Ukraines?
> > 
> > For consistancy, shouldn't they have also written 'the
> > Chicxulub', 'the Mexico' and 'the Boltysh'? :-)
> 
> :-)
> 
> Well, we (by which I mean the English-speaking world) do say "the 
> Netherlands" and "the Congo"
> and "the Gambia".  So the definite article is still retained in the names of 
> some countries.  

Technically it should only be used if there is a plural in the name of the 
country, such as 'The 
Netherlands' of 'The United States', or if there is an adjective or compound 
form, such as 'The 
United Kingdom'. Geographic regions that are not discrete countries also get 
away with it (the 
Arctic, for example).

There are no articles in the Ukrainian language, so they themselves have 
certainly never called the 
country/region 'The Ukraine'. Even before its borders were more strictly 
defined in 1917, the 
definite article only appeared during the 20th century, and only in some 
English translations. 


> Villandra wrote:
>
> The Ukraine is a geographical region with no distinct location or borders. 

That statement is almost a century out of date now. :-)


-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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