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Geography for writers Geography can really perplex a
writer, not so much because of the mountains and lakes themselves, but because we're always renaming everything. Then there are confusing bits. Granada is in Spain, for example, while Grenada is in the Caribbean. This
essay will help you stay current on the geopolitical lingo. It includes information on Canada, the United States, Africa, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, the Pacific and the Poles (North and South,
not Walesa and Chopin). Feel free to CANADA Adjectives Do not inflect the names of provinces when used adjectivally. Huh? Put in plain English, that means it's okay to use Albertan
as a noun, but not as an adjective. "The Alberta doctor saw many Albertans in her practice." This doesn't work for all provinces though. There is no real adjectival form for Saskatchewan or Ontario, although in a pinch you can get away with Saskatchewaners and Ontarians. People from PEI can just be called Islanders. Quebeckers can be called Quebecois.
St. John's and Saint John Don't mix up St. John's, Newfoundland, with Saint John, New Brunswick. Speaking of which, Saint John is never abbreviated St. John. People from both cities are called "people
from Saint John" or "people from St. John's." Not pretty, but it works. Be careful to avoid sentences like "St. John's hockey team," and try less confusing sentences that still convey that sense
of possession, such as "the hockey team in St. John's." Hudson Bay vs. Hudson's Bay The apostrophe belongs on store fronts, not on the water. Individual provinces Alberta: A person from
Alberta is an Albertan. The postal abbreviation is AB; the normal abbreviation is Alta. British Columbia: Note the spelling. British Columbia is spelled with a U after the L, but the South
American country of Colombia is spelled with an O after the L. However, anything in the Americas that predates Columbus is pre-Columbian. British Columbia is home to the British Columbians. The postal
abbreviation is BC, but it is B.C. otherwise. Manitoba: A person from Manitoba is a Manitoban. The postal abbreviation is MB, otherwise it is Man. New Brunswick: Someone from New Brunswick is a New
Brunswicker. The postal abbreviation is NB, otherwise it is N.B. Newfoundland: Someone from Newfoundland is a Newfoundlander. The postal abbreviation is NF, otherwise it is Nfld. Note that the name of the
province itself is Newfoundland and Labrador. Northwest Territories: Note the spelling! The postal abbreviation is NT but otherwise it is abbreviated N.W.T. Note that this territory is about to be broken up,
with the eastern half to be called Nunavut. Double check place names, as many have changed. Frobisher Bay, for example, is now known as Iqaluit, from an Inuktitut word meaning where the fish are
. Like Arabic words, Inuktitut words often have q's that are not followed by u's. This is especially important in this case, because according to Ken Weber's Did the Corinthians Ever Write Back
, the word iqualuit means unclean buttocks. Nova Scotia: Nova Scotians address their letters with NS even though the abbreviation in other contexts is N.S. Nunavut: Soon to be Canada's
third territory, Nunavut is the eastern half of the present Northwest Territories. There is no abbreviation yet for Nunavut. Ontario: Someone from Ontario is an Ontarian. The postal abbreviation is ON, but the
regular abbreviation is Ont. Prince Edward Island: The postal abbreviation is PE, but it is P.E.I. otherwise. Someone from P.E.I. is an Islander. Quebec: There is no accent in English. (The same holds
true for Montreal. For more on French place names, see page 163 of Write Better, Right Now.) Someone from Quebec is a Quebecker. You may also use Quebecois, although many understand the term to mean
French-Quebecker. The abbreviation is Que., although the post office prefers QC. Note that PQ is no longer used. Saskatchewan: Saskatchewan is the province, and Saskatoon is a city in that province. People from
Saskatchewan are occasionally called Saskatchewaners, but are usually just called "people from Saskatchewan." The abbreviation is Sask., although Canada Post prefers SK. Yukon: This territory is
properly called Yukon, not the Yukon. People from there are called Yukoners. The postal abbreviation is YT while the regular abbreviation is Y.T. or Yuk. (The T is for Territory.) THE UNITED STATES
Is it a U.S. author or an American author? We'd suggest saving the adjective U.S.
for official functions. The U.S. flag flew at the U.S. embassy when the American basketball team came to visit. Some Canadians, for misguided reasons of geographic nationalism, claim that technically they too are "Americans" and refuse to address the United States as such. Whatever gets you through the night, eh?
Incidentally, people from Los Angeles are called Angelinos. And technically, since rio grande is Spanish for big river, you don't need to further specify Rio Grande River. We agree, but only
because the Rio Grande is a famous river. AFRICA Most of us are familiar by now with the post-colonial names of African nations. But a few have changed only recently, and older books will have the older
names. Here are a few of the ones you may see. Most recently, Zaire was renamed Congo after Laurent Kabila took control of the country that Mobutu Sese Seko had renamed Zaire. Congo is the country's original name, but
there already is a Congo, just across the Congo River. Confusing? You bet. Properly, the countries should be distinguished by their capital cities, so former Zaire should be called Congo (Kinshasha), while the smaller
Congo should be known as Congo (Brazzaville). In the list that follows, the new name is on the left, and the old name is on the right.
EAST ASIA Note that people from Asia are Asians, not Asiatics. Also, geographically, Asia includes Siberia and Arabia. Bangladesh Once East Pakistan, this country most often comes up because it
has unlucky weather, and because it supposedly shows why the Maritimes can't stay part of Canada without Quebec in between. Burma Officially, this country is known as Myanmar and its capital is called Yangon
instead of Rangoon. Most newspapers ignore this since, deep down, everyone knows the batch of thugs running the place is going to be run out of town sooner or later, so why go through the trouble. Cambodia
For a while, Cambodia was called Kampuchea. China There are two Chinas. The huge, communist mainland nation of a billion people is the People's Republic of China (note the placement of the apostrophe). The
Republic of China is also called Taiwan and was once known as Formosa. It lies off the coast of the bigger China. After the Communists came to power, the old regime fled to Taiwan. Both countries claim to represent the
whole country, and until the 1970s, Taiwan actually held the Chinese seat at the United Nations. China also gives writers headaches because Chinese sounds don't quite work with our alphabet. There have been various
systems for trying to trick our letters into sounding like their sounds. The old fashioned way is the Wade-Giles system, used since 1892. But since 1958, there has been a new kid on the block, one gaining increasing
popularity. Pinyin ("spelling") is the system preferred by the People's Republic of China and most newspapers. Here are some Pinyin place names (on the left), with their old-fashioned equivalents (on the
right). Note that culinary expressions, such as Peking duck, still use the old terms.
Those X's are "palatal voiceless fricatives" and should sound like a hs. The Pinyin for Hong Kong, incidentally, is Xianggang. Finally, people from China are called Chinese, even in the singular, and
not Chinamen. "I met a Chinese last week for breakfast." India There is some confusion between Hindu and Hindi. A Hindu is someone who believes in the religion called Hinduism. Hindi is a language
spoken in northern India. The Indians have also been renaming their cities recently. Bombay, for example, is now Mumbai, while Madras is now called Chennai. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh all used to be part of one
British colony, and are very similar racially. People from this part of the world can be called East Indians or South Asians. Japan Somebody from Japan is a Japanese, even in the singular. "I met a
Japanese last week for lunch." Sri Lanka South of India, this country was once Ceylon. Vietnam The notable note here is that Saigon is now called Ho Chi Minh City. EUROPE Many of
these countries belong to a free-trade area called the European Union. This is the current name for the body that was once known as the European Economic Community, and then simply as the European Community. An
important EU city is The Hague, for which the T is always capitalized. Czechoslovakia This country split, probably because we always though that Czechoslovakians were all Czechs. The two countries are
now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. There had been some talk that the Czech Republic would be called Bohemia and Moravia, but that's what the Nazis called their puppet regime there. Germany This no longer
matters, given the reunification of Germany, but East Germany (the communist half) used to be the German Democratic Republic, while West Germany (the free half) used to be (and still is) the Federal Republic of Germany.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland What country will Prince Charles someday rule? This is more complicated than it sounds. He will rule England, and England is a country, but so are Scotland and Wales.
Together, these three countries are called Great Britain. But these leaves out Northern Ireland, which is not on the island of Britain. The official name of Charles's future realm is the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland. To call the whole mess British is acceptable, albeit technically imprecise. To make things even more confusing, the British Isles includes the island of Britain and
the island of Ireland. Be careful of calling Northern Ireland Ulster. Most of the ancient province of Ulster is in Northern Ireland, but some of it is in the Republic of Ireland. Ulster
also has political connotations. We should also talk about Scotland and its adjectives. Scottish refers to the people, language or country of Scotland. Scotch
refers to something of Scottish origin. This may not sound like much of a difference. It isn't. We have Scotch plaid and Scotch whisky, and even Scotch tape. The people who live in Scotland are called Scots. Finally,
avoid using Welsh as a verb. Welshing on a bet is an aspersion on the Welsh. (Yeah we know the Welsh aren't exactly a powerfully organized group of the oppressed, but principles are principles.) Greece
So, which adjective do you use for something from Greece? Greek
is usually best, while Grecian is mostly used archeologically and for hair colouring, and Hellenic usually means the influence Greece exerted after Alexander the Great built a worldwide empire. The Netherlands
Officially, the country is known as the Netherlands. Holland is a province of the Netherlands (well two provinces, technically). The people who live here are Dutch. (The word appears to be a confusion of the Dutch
with the Germans, whose name for their country is Deutschland.) Be careful of phrases like Dutch treat, going Dutch and Dutch date
, since they all derive from the offensive belief that the Dutch are miserly. The Soviet Union Gone and unlamented. Leningrad is once again St. Petersburg. The former Soviet republics have all been freed and
many of them have changed names. The 15 former Soviet republics are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia (renamed Belarus), Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghiziya (renamed Kyrgyzstan), Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia (renamed
Moldova), Russia, Tadzhikistan (renamed Tajikistan), Turkmenia (renamed Turkmenistan), Ukraine, and Uzbekistan Note that Ukraine is no longer called the Ukraine. Yugoslavia Yugoslavia was cobbled
together out of bits of collapsed empires, and never really made much sense as a country. It encompassed six republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Montenegro and Serbia
are still part of Yugoslavia, but the other four are now independent countries. Two of these countries deserve special notice. First, don't refer Bosnia and Herzegovina as simply Bosnia. In fact, Bosnia and
Herzegovina are separate regions of the same country. Second, the Greeks are really unhappy about the existence of a country called Macedonia, because Alexander the Great was Macedonian, and Athens doesn't much care for
the idea that Greece's greatest hero was by implication a foreigner. The Greeks made such a stink about this that the United Nations calls it The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. LATIN AMERICA Most of
these countries have been independent for at least 100 years, and have generally stuck to the names God gave them. The notable name change was Belize, which used to be known as British Honduras when it was still a
colony. One source of confusion is the triple Guyanas: the country called Guyana was the British colony, French Guiana is next door, and so is Suriname, which used to be Dutch Guiana.
One spelling note: while British Columbia is spelled with a U after the L, the South American country of Colombia is spelled with an O after the L. However, anything in the Americas that
predates Columbus is pre-Columbian. There are also two often-confused locations. Guadalupe is in Mexico. Guadeloupe is in the Caribbean. Note the fifth letter in each word. THE MIDDLE EAST First, not all
Arabs are Moslems. Generally, Arabs live in Arabia. Be especially careful about including the Turks and Iranians as "Arabs" since both countries have very different political and religious histories. (Iran,
incidentally, used to be Persia.) The United Arab Emirates used to be called the Trucial States (from the Perpetual Maritime Truce signed with Great Britain in 1853). The states, familiar to stamp collectors, are Abu
Dhabi, Ajman, Dubayy, al-Fujayrah, Ras al-Khaymah, ash-Shariqah, and Umm al-Qaywayn. The United Arab Republic used to be a union of Egypt and Syria. That only lasted a few years, but Egypt was officially the UAR until
the 1970s. Yemen used to be two countries, but is now one. THE PACIFIC Several tiny nations emerged in the Pacific in the 1970s and 1980s. Vanuatu was once the New Hebrides. The Gilbert Islands are now
Kiribati (pronounced Kiri-baws, from the local pronunciation of "Gilbert"), while the Ellice Islands are now Tuvalu (the local word for "eight islands"). Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands
all emerged from the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a United Nations trusteeship administered by the United States. THE POLES (North and South, not Walesa and Chopin!) The area around the North Pole
is the Arctic. The area around the South Pole is the Antarctic. There are no polar bears in the Antarctic and no penguins in the Arctic. I happen to have a funny story about the distinction. I once wanted to demonstrate
how fast technology was changing the world by saying that you could direct dial the South Pole. To verify this, I called the operator. She asked me what city in the Antarctic I wanted. This was a bad start. She
eventually passed me on to an operator ... in Iqaluit. I had been sent to the wrong end of the earth.
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