Ukraine; was Re: I say Myanmar, you say Burma

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

        Yes. In Russian, "kraj" (pronounced like English "cry") means "edge, border, and "u" means "at." So: "at the border."
        But I don't see the difference between thinking of the country as "The Border Land" ("The Ukraine") vs. simply "Border Land" ("Ukraine"). Why is "The" so important here?

        Gerald Cohen


        Original message from Mark Mandel, Wed., May 7:

> ISTR the argument that the origin of the word was a common noun that
> meant something like "borderland", which is how the article got into
> the English name. The Ukrainian government reasoned that their country
> was not a borderland, especially now that it was independent again.
>
> --
> Mark Mandel
>
>

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