>>Which is probably the reason why the plural is needed in English. We say just "Balkan" (definite article is implied) and nobody really means the mountain, and very few mean the peninsula in the geographic sense. I'd actually bet that many don't even know that there's a mountain of the name (even though that's 6th grade stuff) - it's commonly used in exactly that sense, the political region. The next sense is Balkan as a state of mind, but not what you'd think. It's not a synonym for a free-for-all neighborly fight, it denotes the patriarchal, parochial mind. The geographic meaning takes a far third place.

>Did you learn about the Piedmont in North Carolina? That's 6th grade stuff too :o)

For NC kids probably, because there's about dozen other ones in other states, and about two dozen of them in Antarctica. And, ah, almost forgot the original one in Italy.

Seems to be this is my slurred writing day... I only meant that in the sense that I learned about the existence of the mountain when I was in 6th grade, or so... but never mind, it's Friday. Cheers :)