Coming late to this, but as Bob W's normal erudtion seems to have taken a
holiday:
British Isles (n) - a small archipelago off the North West coast of Europe.
Great Britain (GB) (n) - an island, the largest (hence the word "great")
of the British Isles. It contains the nations of England, Scotland and
Wales. The term has no other correct meaning (Winston Churchill, please
note).
Ireland (n) - second largest island of the British Isles. It contains the
country of Eire (the independent Republic of Ireland) and the
pseudo-nation of Northern Ireland. The separation (in 1917) occurred
largely as a result of religious differences. The working classes are
keen to observe the differences (there are separate national soccer teams
and terrorist organisations), whilst the middle classes aren't (at rugby,
one team represents all Ireland).
UK (n) - a country, in full the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland.
English (adj) - pertaining to the nation of England and its people. Their
nationality, however, is British, not English.
English (n) - the language of England, and main language of the British
Isles. Dialects are found world-wide.
British (adj) - a term which until the independence of Eire related to the
whole of the British Isles. Now it relates only to the UK.
Britain (n) - a synonym for the UK. Some people who should know better
(including The Economist and W Churchill) erroneously use Great Britain
when they mean Britain.
Irish (adj) - pertaining to Ireland (the island), OR to Eire (esp. as
regards nationality).
Northern Irish (adj) - pertaining to Northern Ireland (but the nationality
of the people is British, and their language English).
Irish AKA Gaelic or Erse (n) - original language of Ireland, still spoken
in remote parts.
Scots Gaelic (n) - variant of Irish, spoken in highland Scotland before
English, still spoken in remote parts like Lewis and Harris (whence Harris
Tweed).
Lowland Scots (n) - a Scottish variant of English, known world-wide
through the vernacular poetry (eg: Auld Lang Syne) of Robert Burns,
possibly the world's most quoted poet. Now defunct (Burns and the
language, but the poetry lives on).
Welsh (adj) - of Wales and its people. Their nationality is British.
Welsh (n) - the original language of Wales, one of the few minority
languages to be increasing in popularity (mainly so that English
holiday-makers in Wales can't understand what is being said about them).
The terms "UK" and "British" are normally all you require to denote the
country that is ruled nominally by Queen Elizabeth II (head of the British
branch of an old German family), and actually by Tony Blair. "England"
and "English" should generally be avoided, unless you know what you are
doing.
Simple, really.
John
On Sat, 26 Nov 2005 19:37:13 -0000, Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Wales does not feature in the name 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland' because, as I mentioned in an earlier email, it was
annexed into England several hundred years before the union of England
and
Scotland. By a Welshman, as it happens.
--
Cheers,
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Shell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 26 November 2005 19:13
To: pentax-discuss@pdml.net
Subject: Re: Language - Britian, England, or United Kingdom?
On Nov 26, 2005, at 2:05 PM, Kostas Kavoussanakis wrote:
>> UK is the United Kingdom, which is the name of the
political entity
>> consisting of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so you must
>> turn the
>
> Wales?
Yes, as in "Prince of...." Kids here invariably get it wrong
and say Prince of Whales. Now there is a title to be aspired to!
Bob
--
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