more on the _the_ thing

[Gregg Opelka]

It seems to me that the language of the speaker has de facto "home court
advantage." Are we, by which I mean speakers of English like myself, to
scrap Moscow in favor of Moskva (I can see that discussion coming next).
And do not Russians bastardize Paris, calling it Parizh? I take no
umbrage at the fact that my home state of Illinois is mispronounced by
Russians, who pronounce the silent final s, nor at the fact that my home
town, Chicago, is mispronounced through transliteration of the "ch"
rather than "sh" initial consonant. It's their language, for God's sake,
and however they want to refer to us is peachy with me, as long as they
keep Chicago in Illinois and don't put it somewhere in Alaska or Nevada.
I agree with the chap from England. Don't tell me how to speak in my own
house. It's not polite. And I still offer Ukrainia as a solution (for us
English-speakers on whose ears "Ukraine" grates). -- gregg opelka