etymology - Is it "the Yemen" or "Yemen"?


There's a film just out called Salmon fishing in the Yemen.


I've also heard people talk about the country Yemen as "the Yemen".


Is it wrong to call Yemen "The Yemen" - or does it date back to some colonial era, where that was what people said?



Answer



See also Using the definite article before a country/state name .


The names of regions often take the definite article, especially if they are named after a natural feature such as a river or mountain, as in "the Congo" or "the Lebanon." Before Yemen was the name of a country, it was a historical region, and called "the Yemen" much like "the Argentine" or "the Gold Coast."


The article has fallen out of use in some cases (e.g. Sudan for the Republic of the Sudan), in other cases it is officially discouraged (e.g. Ukraine, not the Ukraine), in others it is part of the name and always included (e.g. The Gambia), and in still others it is not considered part of the name but is nevertheless always included (e.g. the United Kingdom).


I am not sure of the era when the film is set. It is possible that "the Yemen" is what the main character, an Brit, would have called that region in that time, or that the old name is used deliberately to highlight a prejudice or neo-colonial attitude toward Yemen on his part.


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