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0 pointspseudo03y ago0 comments

The article mentions the hole in their argument and then glosses over it:

> There are exceptions, but these are the general principles that bind speakers of Russian and English.

These exceptions include collections of states (eg. the UAE, the US) and country names derived from regions (the Netherlands, the Congo, the Ukraine).

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ThePowerOfFuet3y ago

>These exceptions include collections of states (eg. the UAE, the US) and country names derived from regions

Let's take these one by one:

>the Netherlands This is plural: the Low Countries. You are referring to a group, same as the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

>the Congo Which one? ... Exactly.

>the Ukraine Already discussed, referring to it as a region denies its sovereignty.

pseudo0OP3y ago

The etymology of the Netherlands is the Dutch "nederland", or "lower lands". I'd consider "the lowlands" to fall into the region category, much in the same way that the Ukraine translates to "the frontier" or "the border".

> Which one? ... Exactly

What can I say, English is weird. The Gambia does the same, in both cases referring to the region around a particular river.

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