Re: Hebrew, etc. [was: Multi-lingos

On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, Dan Sulani wrote:

> In Israeli Hebrew, "Ha-Maghreb" is used to denote
> the western end of north Africa, especially Morocco.
It's called "the Maghreb" in English too.

>     Interestingly, we refer to our region as  "ha-mizrach ha-tichon"
> or "the middle east", preserving a western view of geography.
I am just beginning to see the phrase "West Asia" applied to the Middle
East, paralleling "South Asia" for the Indian subcontinent and
the much older "East Asia" and "Southeast Asia".

And of course it's familiar in the U.S. that the "Middle West" is a local
region, whereas the "Middle East" is a global one.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
"[O]n the whole I'd rather make love than shoot guns [...]"
        --Eric Raymond