Ukraine

[Gary H. Toops]

1) Frank Sciacca's example of Anglophones switching from "Peking" to
   "Beijing" misses the point.  Here we are talking strictly about
   lexicon, not grammar.  If the government of the People's Republic
   of China wants its capital to be known in English as "Beijing,"
   fine.  If Ceylon wants Anglophones to call it "Sri Lanka," fine.
   If Burma wants to be known as "Myanmar," fine.  No one is trying to
   dictate grammar in any of these instances.

2) The use or non-use of the definite article in English is a question
   of grammar.  Great Britain does not insist that Russians refer to
   it as "Velikaja Britanija" instead of "Velikobritanija" (although
   it could), nor does the U.S. Govt. insist that Bulgarians (and
   many others around the world) stop saying "United American States"
   (S"edinenite Amerikanski Shtati) and start saying, literally,
   "(the) United States of America."

3) Certain Ukrainians appear to be going above and beyond what the
   Chinese, Burmese/Myanmarese, Ceylonese/Sri Lankans, et al., have
   heretofore requested of Anglophones, and appear to be trying to
   dictate grammatical usage to native speakers of English.  I do not
   know why I have always referred to London Bridge without a definite
   article and to the Brooklyn Bridge with a definite article, but I
   would quickly turn a deaf ear to anyone (especially a non-native
   speaker of English) who would insist that I somehow "treat" all
   bridges "equally" by either consistently using or consistently
   omitting the definite article.

Gary H. Toops                               TOOPS at TWSUVM.UC.TWSU.EDU
Associate Professor                         Ph (316) 689-3180
Wichita State University                    Fx (316) 689-3293
Wichita, Kansas 67260-0011 USA              http://www.twsu.edu/~mcllwww