[Foundation-l] Why "Wikipedia" and not "the Wikipedia"?

Sat Jun 27 17:59:48 UTC 2009

On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 10:37, Michael Snow <wikipedia at verizon.net> wrote:

> 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.

I would also use the definite article if I were referring to a specific
language's Wikipedia - "the English Wikipedia", "the Swahili Wikipedia", et
al. - instead of to the Wikipedia project in general.

As for referring to Wikimedia, in English one would say "the Wikimedia
Foundation" since "Wikimedia" clarifies which foundation we're talking
about.  If the name didn't use the word "foundation" - if it were "Wikimedia
Earth" or "Wikimedia United" - then the definite article would not be
necessary.

-- 
Jim Redmond
jim at scrubnugget.com