Thursday, December 04, 2008

It's Ukraine, not The Ukraine, dummy

In case you were confused.


Steven Carr said...

'The 'the' for Ukrainians has echoes of imperial and soviet dependence."'

I guess people in the Gambia, the Lebanon and the Netherlands are also offended.

How can it have echoes of soviet dependence when Russian doesn't use 'the'?

Steven Carr said...


Like 'the Andalucia', 'the Aragon', 'the Provence', 'the Prussia', 'the Newfoundland', 'the Queensland'.

This is all nonsense, surely?

Ohio State said...

My university thinks it a mechanism of pride to say "The Ohio State University." You know, implies it's priority. But to each his own, I guess.

Ilíon said...

Gambia, Lebanon and Netherlands were not nation-states when they were first call 'the.'

Steven Carr said...

Don't the French say 'The Low Countries', implying that these areas of land are countries?

The Froggy said...

"Pays" in"Pays-Bas" does not mean "country" but something like "place" or "area".