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

On Wednesday, June 16, 2004, at 05:03 , Roger Mills wrote:

> Nik Taylor wrote:
>> Ray Brown wrote:
>>> This is anglocentric reasoning. When we are asked where where we live or
>>> where we come from, we normally answer just with the name of the town,
>>> county, state, country or whatever. This is _not_ necessarily the habit
>>> of
>>> speakers of other languages.
>> [snip]
>>
>> Well, you've convinced me!  :-)
>
> Moi aussi.  Thanks to Tamas too, who addressed some other questions I'd
> had.
Yes, indeed - I second the thanks to Tamas.

>
> My question whether other peoples referred to their principal city as "The
> City" was simply to indicate that in my experience, that seems a rather
> rare
> practice.  Do Parisians routinely refer to La Ville? Romans to La Città?
(Sorry if my reply sounded a little testy. Those familiar with British
Academia will know it's that time of the year when coursework results are
compiled and our time is spent doing an incredible amount of petty paper
work, made worse by the inevitable ne'er-do-wells that one hasn't seen for
months suddenly appearing and pestering you every moment in their panic to
achieve some marks - these creatures seem to track down any hiding place
you find! - and, of course, the almost inevitable very hot whether that
accompanies all this. Forget about air-conditioning in Academia   :=(

I don't know about modern Romans, but the ancient ones most certainly
commonly used unqualified 'Urbs' for the metropolis of their empire.

> Jakartans do not refer to Kotanya, Bonasairenses* do not refer to La
> Ciudad.
> etc. etc.  (Obviously too, The City for a Londoner refers to a
> specifically
> defined area, not to the entire metro area.
Quite right.

When I was a youngster, however, growing up in Sussex, 'going to Town' (no
definite article) was commonly used to mean 'going to London'. I'm not
sure how widespread this idiom was in England and, although I still
occasionally hear it (I live in Surrey now), I get the feeling it's now
old-fashioned - but I may be wrong about that.

Ray
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