Lebanon or The Lebanon

B

bogwarrior

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back in the 80's when Beirut was always in the news, the country used to be referred to as The Lebanon (on rte you'd often here reports like 'Irish peacekeeping troops came under fire in the Lebanon today').
In the same vein, Ukraine was The Ukraine and Congo was The Congo.
Were these the actual names of the countries or was it just an RTE naming thing? I heard 'The Lebanon' being mentioned again this morning on the radio.

What do other news services refer to these countries as?
 
I was told before that it should be referred to as 'Lebanon' and the 'The' part was stuck on by newsreaders and it stuck.
 
same vein. why is it always 'czech republick' should it not just be czech? after all slovakia is known as just that.
 
My Lebanese friends call it Lebanon when they speak of it in English. No "The"! So I always say Lebanon, as I figure I'm getting it from the people that know best!!!

Another weird one is: when people refer to the citizens of Argentina - some say "Argentines" some say "Argentinians". Im sure the former is correct though.
 
I asked this of a friend who has travelled the leb, he says it is definitely "The lebanon", reason is that it is the name of a geograhical area akin to "The Ukraine", "The Balkans" or "The Burren", as he said, you wouldnt say "I live in Burren". However, see the wiki on it, the country was named after the geo region, hence either reference should be correct. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon
 
To be honest, I think it is just English speakers who lump "The" onto places. I worked with a Ukrainian girl a couple of years back and she used to say " I am from Ukraine" and "In Ukraine we......" etc.....

The Arabic for Lebanon is Lubnan. My Lebanese friend reckons that the tendency in some circles to say The Lebanon originally comes from French speakers assuming Lebanon to be "Le Banon" or "The Banon" and it stuck as The Lebanon in English!!!
 
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