Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/12/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Peter, In defence of Americans and ignorant Continentals, I must point out that in most languages the word for the political entity UK is simply "England". For example, "Anglia" in Polish. There are of course official translations of the terms United Kingdom and Great Britain, but nobody uses them in everyday language. I do distinguish between the UK and its constituent parts, but only because I have several English and Scottish friends, and especially the latter tend to be extremely prickly about being lumped in with the English. Actually, other countries are victims of similar linguistic confusion too. For example, the place I live is commonly referred to as Holland by people in other countries, even though the real name is the Netherlands, and "Holland" refers to the two provinces of North Holland and South Holland. Or, take the common use of the term "America" to denote the USA, even though we all know that "America" really should mean the two continents of North and South America. Nathan Peter Dzwig wrote: > England is therefore VERY DEFINITELY a place. You have been wrongly > "bashed". Americans do have an annoying habit of failing to distinguish > between England and the UK/GB. People get very fed up about that for > both nationalistic reasons and because it betrays a lack of > comprehension of the geography of one of the US's oldest allies. > > The British Isles is the geographical name for the archipelago off the > coast of the NW European mainland which includes the above plus Eire and > is rarely used these days except in geographical/meteorological contexts. > > With apologies for any groups/islands/counties whose toes I may have > trodden on in the course of this rapid summary. > > Hope that this helps. > > Peter Dzwig > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > -- Nathan Wajsman Almere, The Netherlands General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com Bicycle project: http://www.fotocycle.nl Stock photography: http://www.alamy.com/search-results.asp?qt=wajsman http://myloupe.com/home/found_photographer.php?photographer=507 Prints for sale: http://www.photodeluge.com Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog