Ukraine

[Keith GOERINGER]

Greetings.

I have a question for those knowledgeable in things relating to Ukraine.
Not long after the dissolution of the USSR, I seem to remember reading
somewhere that the Ukrainian government (on the recommendation of the
Academy of Sciences?) had decreed that thenceforth, the name of the country
would be known as "Ukraine", that is, without an article for those
languages that used it; and that (at least in Russian), the preposition to
indicate location in or direction to the country would be *v* (i.e., no
longer *na Ukraine/Ukrainu* but *v Ukraine/Ukrainu*).  This presumably was
enacted to reinforce the idea that it was now an independent country, not a
territory (?).

I have certainly seen the first rule in action -- it is rare to hear
reference to "the" Ukraine, at least in English.  But can people comment on
the situation in other languages that might have used the article in that
context; and of mroe direct interest to me, about which preposition was and
is used in Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, and so on?  I would also be
interested in hearing what the situation is in, for example, German.

This clearly has the potential to become a thread-from-hell in terms of
longevity, and in light of Alex Rudd's recent posting about the dangers of
running out of storage space for archived messages, I would request that
you respond OFF-LIST to me at <keg at violet.berkeley.edu>.  I will post a
summary of whatever information I get once responses slow to a trickle.
Remember, don't just hit "REPLY" to respond...

Thanks,
Keith

Keith Goeringer
UC Berkeley
Slavic Languages & Literatures
keg at violet.berkeley.edu