When I look into Duden Die Grammatik, this authoritative reference work about German grammar says that proper names (Angela, Berlin, Christmas) don't get an article: "Hamburg liegt an der Elbe." But it mentions many exceptions, like for rivers who actually do get an article (such as "die Elbe"). An article you use also for institutions ("die UNO") and works ("der Wallenstein", "das Ave Verum"). So what is "Wikipedia", an institution, a work, a proper name? In German texts I find a lot of inconsequences, sometimes in one sentence there is "die Wikipedia" an then again "Wikipedia". I believed that that has to do with the context: "I am registered at Wikipedia" (institution), and "I have written something in the Wikipedia" (work). But this does not fit with my actual findings. Then I thought that "Wikipedia" without article is an anglicism, but it seems not to be that easy, too. What else do we compare (the) Wikipedia with, except for other encyclopedias? A web site like Google? A social movement like Greenpeace? And how about "Wikimedia"? In a short corpus I studied the reporter said "Wikimedia e.V." in German, although I say "die Wikimedia". In English, is it "the Wikimedia"? "The Foundation"? "The Wikimedia Foundation"? Kind regards, your confused Ziko
2009/6/27 Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com:
2009/6/27 Michael Snow wikipedia@verizon.net:
Ziko van Dijk wrote:
Hello, Could someone explain to me why "Wikipedia" is without definite article? In English you say "the Britannica", so why not "the Wikipedia"? I am wondering that also in German Wikipedians and non-Wikipedians tend to drop the article, although we say "der Brockhaus".
Actually, singular proper nouns commonly do not take the definite article in English. I would not say "the Britannica" anymore than I would say "the Wikipedia" (or, as noted, "the Encarta"). This particular case may indicate a difference between British and American English here, I'm guessing from the other comments.
There are some situations where you would use the definite article for singular proper nouns, such as with some geographical names, or when the name is actually a combination of common and proper nouns. Thus, I might refer to "the Encyclopedia Britannica" because it's "the encyclopedia" and "Britannica" identifies which encyclopedia I mean.
I agree with you, and I speak British English. I would say "the Encyclopaedia Britannica" (NB. the middle word has two a's. As suggested by the final word, it is (originally) a British thing, so takes the British spelling, which has two a's [or an "æ" if you want to be pedantic].). I would, however, say "Britannica" not "the Britannica".
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