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From: dacosta@natlab.research.philips.com (Paulo da Costa)
Subject: Eastern Republic of Uruguay (was Re: Burmese by any other name...)
Originator: dacosta@bach
Sender: news@natlab.research.philips.com (USENET News System)
Message-ID: <dacosta.844070534@bach>
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 08:02:14 GMT
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References: <51melc$t7k@agate.berkeley.edu> <Dy5E3o.6Hr@tigadmin.ml.com> <52bkan$bbs@news.kth.se> <843751436snz@vision25.demon.co.uk>
Organization: Philips Research Laboratories Eindhoven, Netherlands
Lines: 22

In <843751436snz@vision25.demon.co.uk> phil@vision25.demon.co.uk (Phil Hunt) writes:

>In article <52bkan$bbs@news.kth.se> bw@e.kth.se "Bertilo Wennergren" writes:
[...]
>>while in most cases the long and official form is hardly ever used.
>>Nobody calls Sweden "the Kingdom of Sweden". No one talks about the
>>"Eastern Republic of Uruguay".

>Why "Eastern"? Is there a Western Republic of Uruguay as well?

The place was originally called "Banda Oriental del Uruguay", or, "The
East Bank of the Uruguay (River)". When that became a country, they just
changed the "Bank" to "Republic", with a strange-sounding result. It's
just like the West Bank (of the Jordan), the "East Bank" of the Jordan
is in the kingdom of Jordan, and the "East Bank" of the Uruguay is in
Argentina, but there people don't usually have a reason for referring to
them as such.
-- 
      Paulo M. Castello da Costa     /\/\/\  Minha terra tem palmeiras   /\/\/\
dacosta@natlab.research.philips.com  \/\/\/    Onde canta o sabia'...    \/\/\/
Philips Research Labs, bldg WY8.011, / Tel +31 40 2744281  Fax +31 40 2744675 \
Prof Holstln 4, 5656 AA Eindhoven NL \_________ SERI: dacosta@prles2 _________/
