Ukraine with definite article?

[Steven Hill]

Dear colleagues:

Perhaps I'm in a minority which still sees two ways, in English, to handle country names
that apparently can have both a "latinized" form  and a "gallicized" form.  E.g., latinized
"Argentina" (ending in -A) and gallicized "The Argentine" (ending in "silent -E").  I still
remember the 1940s pop song, "Tangerine," in which the gal's name is rhymed with "The
Argentine."

In the 2 parallel forms, one notes that the name ending in -A (latinized) does NOT
have the definite article, while the name ending in "silent  -E" (gallicized) DOES have the
definite article.

Same rule of thumb strikes me as relevant to the way that we native speakers of English
may refer to the land of the Ukrainians.  My (Engl.) native speaker's ear tells me that a
name like "Ukrain(i)a" would work all right in English, if one wished to use it, without the
definitearticle.  And equally well a name like "The Ukraine" (WITH the definite article)
sounds all right to my English ear.

But what grates on my (Engl.) native speaker's ear  is mixing the two forms: "Ukraine"
(ends in "silent "-E," but lacks definite article).  Just doesn't sound right  to me, as if it
was uttered or written  by a non-native speaker  of English, whose native language
lacked definite & indefinite articles.   (Quite reasonably, such speakers sometimes omit
the 2 articles in their English usage, in places where standard English would retain the
articles.)  Just as non-native speakers of Russian, etc. (including yours truly) have
difficulty in Russian with pf. vs. impf. verbs.  And with many other  phenomena, as well...

"The Argentine" &  "The Ukraine" may find a parallel in the 3 states just SW of
Petersburg.  One says in English, I think, "The Baltics" and "Baltica" (given that the latter
has a more specialized meaning). In the same spirit, perhaps "The Indies" and "India,"
although these are really a stretch.   Further afield, although still slightly parallel, one
finds "Slovakia" (lacks definite article) and "The Czech Republic" (has definite article). My
point here is that even in these far-fetched examples, normal English usage cannot say
simply "Baltics" or "Indies" or "Czech Republic" -- in each instance there must be a
definite article preceding.

If I looked far enough,  I might well  run into a number of exceptions. ("Sheikh of
Arabie"?)  So maybe my instincts here are not as applicable as they first seem to be.
I've been wrong before. In any event, I myself, in using English, will  probably continue to
utter, and to write, "The Ukraine."   Also "The Argentine," "The Baltics," "The Indies,"
"the Czech Republic."  It's a free country.

Sincerely,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois (USA).

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