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Joined: Dec 2000
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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
I was wondering what people think about this country name. I have always just known it as "Gambia", but recently found out it seems to be strictly "The Gambia". Thus many would write: "I was in The Gambia last year."
Google reveals 159,000 cases of 'The Gambia' and 390,000 cases of 'Gambia' in a direct comparison.
Is this odd to anyone else? Particularly the capitalization of our beloved definite article mid-sentence seems a bit weird to me. Am I the only one not clued in on this? Are there many other (country or non-country) examples of this in English? I mean, I guess people write 'I was at The Dorchester' (meaning the hotel), but somehow this doesn't seem as odd to me. Oh, well.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Island groups are often named like that. The Cyclades, The Sorades, The Hebrides, the Orkneys. So what is the Gambias? I don't remember ever hearing of them Gotta go search.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Good thinking, Dr. Bill, and, um, well, Crispy, we're the United States of America... Don't think the "the" is normally capitalized, though.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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The first thing I found was in German, which BY can deal with so much better than I can, I'll leave it to him.
Gambia ist in insgesamt sechs Verwaltungsbezirke (divisions) gegliedert. Diese Bezirke sind wiederum in Verwaltungsgebiete unterteilt (districts). Viele dieser Gebiete sind identisch mit den historischen Territorien der traditionellen Stammesreiche oder Königtümer. Die sechs Divisionen haben jeweils einen für vier Jahre gewählten Bezirksrat, den "Area Council", der zugleich eine Exekutiv- und Legislativ-Institution mit recht hoher Autonomie ist."
Sounds as though there is a group of very loosely federated small political units.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Here you go, Crispy:
Gambia, The (găm'bēə, gäm'–) , officially Republic of The Gambia, republic (1995 est. pop. 1,150,000), 4,361 sq mi (11,295 sq km), W Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west and surrounded on the remaining three sides by Senegal. The capital is Banjul.
From The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 1999, Columbia University Press, via Atomica.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Met an Australian who had worked there once. He called it "The Gambia". Dunno if that's representative, though.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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Did he mention what it was like? Information, man, information!
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Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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I have not been there, but The Gambia is a small, very poor country, with an AIDS problem, on the west coast of Africa that has been trying, with some success to build a tourist industry. It is named after the Gambia river - I believe. And that is all I know without looking it up.
The only other place with a similar name that comes to mind is not a country but a town in the Netherlands - The Hague (or Den Hague).
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addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2001
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The only other place with a similar name that comes to mind is not a country but a town in the Netherlands - The Hague (or Den Hague).You stole my little bit o thunder, dxb. Glad I read through the entire thread before posting, thus avoiding the dreaded chopped liver syndrome. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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A chum of mine was sent to The Gambia as a specialist in agricultural communication. He described to me how he arrived in country by airplane. Then he boarded a bus. Then he road in a private car. Then he got on a launch and went up river. And, when he arrived at his destination, he was welcomes by a large red-and-white metal sign on the building at the dock which read "Coca Cola."
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