Ukraine

[The Bohdan The Peter The Rekshynskyj]

At 6:45 3/26/96, Ralph Cleminson wrote:
>Gary H. Toops has written:
>>
>> It has always been my impression that English country names like "the
>> Lebanon" and "the Gambia" are British, not American; at least I grew up
>> in the U.S. saying "Lebanon" and "Gambia."  Also, "Gold Coast" (when it
>> existed) seemed American, "the Gold Coast" - British.
>>
>>
>
>This is interesting.  I (as a speaker of British English) have always
>felt that the definite article with these country names was
>obligatory, and its absence from any of them (including the Ukraine)
>grates on the ear.  I wonder whether it is Ukrainian familiarity with
>American rather than British English (via the diaspora perhaps) that
>has led them to consider the American norm as "correct" and to read
>all kinds of non-existent political implications into the British
>one.  Personally I feel rather affronted by Ukrainians telling me how
>to speak my own language: I don't tell them how to speak theirs,
>after all.  Wouldn't it be more civilised (with an s or a z (zed or a
>zee)) just to accept it as another instance of Anglo-American
>divergence and leave it at that?
>
>
>======================================================================
>Ralph Cleminson, Reader in Slavonic Studies, University of Portsmouth


Well said!

Cheers from the chap from THE BRITAIN!

All give praise to THE ENGLAND!

                        Cheers,

                                                        The Bohdan



PS - 'tis AMERICAN English which is NOW the "lingua franca" of the world.
         Sorry, old the chap!

;-)