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From: emcmanus@gr.osf.org (amonn McManus)
Subject: Re: Ceylon 2, Sri Lanka 1 (was Re: Burmese by any other name...)
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Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 13:00:49 GMT
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lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross) writes:
> In a previous article (the Welsh for which I shall not risk), 
> 	sjb1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Simon Buck) ysgrifennodd:
> >And, of course, the Kingdom of Great Britain includes more islands than
> >just Great Britain.

There is no "Kingdom of Great Britain".  The kingdom that includes
Great Britain is called "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland".  Of course it includes some other islands as well,
but they are quite small.

> Seems to me the Sri Lanka / Ceylon distinction may be more like the 
> Ireland / Eire one, and may become more like it if and when Northern part 
> of it becomes the Tigers' Democratic Republic of South Tamil Nadu or what 
> ever *those* blokes propose to call *their* country.

There is no distinction between Ireland and ire other than
the languages those words belong to.  The names of the country that
makes up the majority of that island (and the entirety of a number of
small adjacent islands) are "The Republic of Ireland" and "Poblacht na
hireann" in the respective languages.  Using ire in opposition
to Ireland to designate the Republic is a solecism.

,
Eamonn
  The more people you know, the more people people you know know there are.
-- 
