The Rhine River

Fun on the Internets with the Google

President Bush is making surprising progress leaving his mark on the lexicon of digital communication, laughter notwithstanding. But perhaps his usage of "the Google" isn't ignorance, but actually reflects his websurfing in foreign languages (which don't tolerate the absence of an article as well as English)? After all, in Portuguese he would use "o Google." Perhaps he reads Rua da Judiaria!

(So far, I have found a few references to le Google (French), el Google (Spanish), Der Google (German), and one to Googlen (Danish). De Google (Dutch) reference only Bush's usage. Interestingly, in languages with the choice between gendered and neutral articles, Google is masculine (or common in Danish and Dutch).)

posted by Nathanael @ 12:46 PM