Re: CHAT Stambul (was: A new version of Genesis)

Nik Taylor wrote:

>I don't question the "City" part of the story, I question the
>preposition "in".  I could easily see "The City" becoming analyzed as a
>name, but the incorporation of a preposition seems a bit far-fetched to
>me.
>
>
[That was one hellova quick reply. Thunderbird is broken and can't
thread properly, so even though your message appeared as a child of
mine, I assumed that it was just Thunderbird's brokenness shining
through...]

Fair enough. But I suppose that all depends on the people. I would say
I'm going to the city but into town (with an equivalent, though more old
fashioned, meaning). I see no reason why a soundchange couldn't apply to
a regularly-used phrase in the surrounding areas so that 'into town'
converts down to one single word (and subsequently reanalysed as just a
place that takes 'into' like any other), then the word gets moved from
the surrounds to the city itself... I don't know if this is a reasonable
explanation for the specific case of Istambul, but it's certainly fine
for an hypothetical case...

--
Tristan.

>Tristan Mc Leay wrote:
>
>
>>Roger Mills wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>When I visited San Francisco a long time ago-- stayed with relatives in one
>>>of the suburbs-- they and neighbors consistently referred to "The City".
>>>Similarly in NYC, tho "The City" means Manhattan, nowhere else.  In my
>>>admittedly sketchy contacts, I don't recall any others referring to their
>>>metropolis as "The City". Bostonians?? Chicagoans?? Philadelphians??
>>>Atlantans?? Angelenos?? Houstonians?? Minneapolitans?? I don't think so.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>Well, in Melbourne, 'the city' refers to the CBD and the immediately
>>surrounding areas. (IIUC, therefore, 'the city' means something very
>>similar to 'downtown' in American usage.) This seems to be standard
>>throughout Australia. In fact, there is a suburb of Canberra (the
>>capital city of Australia) called 'City', which suggests that this usage
>>is old enough to have been around when the Canberra was being built
>>(1911ish). (The city can simultaneously refer to the entire
>>metropolitan/urban area, just the same as Melbourne can refer to the
>>CBD, the suburb of Melbourne, the City of Greater Melbourne or Melbourne
>>and its suburbs.)
>>
>>--
>>Tristan.
>>
>>