Re: Osama or Usama?

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Sat, 13 Oct 2001 07:44:16 +0000 (/etc/localtime), Jeremy Mixer <mixer@zoso.net> said:

> not trying to start an arguement here, but that means that if I were to
> say that I live in the city of Bangor I would be speaking
> improperly?

Probably not, because that is most likely the municipality's official
name.  We say things like that in order to emphasize which specific
entity by that name one is referring to.  To say ``the capital city of
Kabul'' implies that either (1) Kabul is something larger than a city
which has a city as its capital, or (2) there is another city called
Kabul in the same general area which is not the capital.

Compare the distinction which exists in Connecticut between the City
of Hartford, the Town of Hartford, and the County of Hartford.  (The
Town of Hartford is conterminous with the city of the same name, and
still officially exists as a legal venue but has no day-to-day
function -- as is also true of the county!  Every city in Connecticut
is located within a town of the same name, but all share the same
boundaries except for the Grotons.)  In some other places people
normally put the type after the name when the distinction is
important, like Durham City versus Durham County, N.C.

-GAWollman