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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
The Australian I met who had been to the Gambia was an opthalmologist. He was in The Gambia investigating river blindness incidence (or something like that) for WHO. He was notable for the pebble-lense glasses he wore himself and the fact that he hadn't heard my one and only opthalmology joke - what do you call an Alaskan eye doctor? - an optical Aleutian.
I know nothing about The Gambia beyond what has been said above.
Den Hague is the CAPITAL of Holland. It's not a town, it's a city. It's quite extraordinarily beautiful, too.
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
>Den Hague is the CAPITAL of Holland.
Nice splicing of two languages, there, Capfka. I allus thought you could say "The Hague", or "Den Haag", or, if you're feeling archaic " 's-Gravenhage" - I ain't never seen "Den Hague" before.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
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If we are being picky, actually The Hague is not the capital of Holland.
The Hague (Den Haag, also called 's-Gravenhage) is the capital of South Holland. Haarlem is the capital of North Holland (two separate administrative areas as in Carolina or Dakota). Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, although the seat of government is in The Hague.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
The Hague is where the parliament is, it's where all the foreign embassies are, it's where the royal family lives, ergo it's the capital. Haarlem is dead and alive by comparison. Amsterdam is certainly the financial capital, but. It also has a monopoly on red lighting in Europe. I love Amsterdam (having spent quite some time working out of there in 1997!). But The Hague is top dog.
And, yes, I goofed over the spelling. Big deal!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Yeah, well, I goofed first. Knew there was something wrong when I wrote it. And you're right, it is a beautiful city with some lovely suburbs. I find Amsterdam to be more cosmopolitan, but in some ways less Dutch! Den Haag and Rotterdam also have their red light areas, but they are less in your face.
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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
Thanks for the feedback on The Gambia. I'm surprised how everyone takes the capitalised 'The' in stride. It just looks a little funny to me. Anyway, I've been rapidly learning about The Gambia since yesterday. You see, I'm translating a report about so called Community Forestry in The Gambia - and some Gambian-German Project.
I really like Den Haag too, btw. I've been there a few times and consider it a place I'd really like to live. I spent a fantastic night in Leiden just outside The Hague in, amongst other places, a smokey little jazz club. My other favourite Dutch town is Maastricht near Aachen; not that I know that many Dutch towns.
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 6 |
Another country that used to have "The" while I was growing up was Ukraine. We started leaving it off only about 20 years ago, I believe.
As Ukraine means "on the edge/border" perhaps it made sense to earlier people to refer to it as "The Edge."
Gambia seems to be named after The Gambia River, and the various peoples are the Gambia, too. So Republic of The Gambia could also be called "of the Gambians."
Slava
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Whilst I have never been a philatelist of any sort, I do remember from my youth seeing postage stamps from the country in question - they had "The Gambia" printed on them. Which is, I suppose, why I accept the name unquestioningly.
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addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555 |
I enjoyed reading this thread, and although i am late....
The Netherlands and the USA, have the definite article preceding the country name, because they are pluralised forms. In Gambia's case, the region (Senegal and Gambia) was colonized by the British and since its split from Senegal, it continues to use the term that the British used for the specific region that was geographically located around the river. *The Vatican seems like another example of this - 'the' used to define a location within a location.
The Ukraine, I don't understand. The country escaped the Brits and so, I can only imagine that it is translated from Ukrainian. Is it called *the Ukraine in the regional tongue?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I seem to remember their complaining about foreigners using the in front of their country's name, prefering simply Ukraine. I also believe that the language does not have a definite article, so it would be impossible for the native name to be The Ukraine.
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