[Mesorah] Heh Hayedia

[Zev Sero]

On 18/12/2011 10:47 AM, Mandel, Seth wrote:
> In the same way, proper nouns in English and in most languages
> generally do not accept the definite article.  However, some proper
> names are "marked" as taking the definite article; this is a
> different class of proper nouns, and include Bronx in English, and
> 'Ay in Hebrew.

This is not a different class of proper nouns.  The "the" in "the
Bronx" or "the Hague" is not really a definite article, but simply
part of the borough's name.  The street across from my parents home
is called "The Avenue".  The "the" in "the Netherlands" sounds like
it's a definite article, but not the "the" in "the Congo", "the Sudan",
"the Amazon", or "the Ukraine".  (Ukranians, for some reason, insist
that their country be called simply "Ukraine", without a "the", but
I see no reason to change the English language just to suit their
sensitivities.)

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon