Abstract
In the year in which I’ve been away from the UAE, the fervor for the use of “Arabian Gulf” instead of “Persian Gulf” has certainly heated up here. This map showing the travels of Ibn Battuta in Dubai’s Ibn Battuta Mall identified the gulf as “Persian” when I took the first picture in January 2010. By December 2010, when I took the second picture an unsightly white piece of paper had been used to cover up the “Persian Gulf” name. I suppose the official internationally recognized name “Persian Gulf” became unspeakable (or rather unshowable) in this Dubai mall in the wake of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deliberate flouting of international conventions when she used “Arabian Gulf” in October this year.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Specialist publication | Language on the move |
| Publisher | Language on the move |
| Publication status | Published - 20 Dec 2010 |
Bibliographical note
© 2018 Language on the Move. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.Republished by Fully (Sic) https://blogs.crikey.com.au/fullysic/2010/12/21/a-gulf-by-any-other-name/
Keywords
- 200401 applied linguistics and educational linguistics
- 200405 language in culture and society (sociolinguistics)