Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 01:35:31 CST

From: "Donald M. Lance" ENGDL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIZZOU1.BITNET

Subject: Re: 'the' in place names (Kaye)



I was the one who mentioned La Habana, El Panama, etc. I'm not exposed to

much vernacular use of Spanish in central Missouri, but I would expect

encroachments of English to lead to the loss of 'el' in the names of

countries and cities in Latin America -- at least in spoken language,

though newspapers are probably more conservative (and more knowledgeable

regarding 'points of grammar') than contemporary U.S. copy editors. (I've

shifted from 'newspapers' to people in this sentence, but I ain't gonna go

back and edit.)

DMLance