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

[Dan Goodman]

Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:

>
>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?

What seems likely to be:  They overestimate how important it is in
English.  If I recall correctly, at least some Slavic languages don't
have direct equivalents of "the."

--
Dan Goodman
"I have always depended on the kindness of stranglers."
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
Journal http://dsgood.livejournal.com <http://dsgood.livejournal.com/>
Futures http://clerkfuturist.wordpress.com
Mirror Journal http://dsgood.insanejournal.com
Mirror 2 http://dsgood.wordpress.com
Links http://del.icio.us/dsgood

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org