Ukraine with definite article?

[Martin Votruba]

> normal English usage cannot say simply
> "Baltics" or "Indies" or "Czech Republic"

Each for a different reason: the Baltics is in the plural, the Indies 
is an archipelago, and the Czech _Republic_ does not have a name as 
the headword (just like it is France without _the_, but the 
_Republic_ of France, Slovakia, but the Slovak _Republic_).


The demand to use _Ukraine_ without _the_ is based on traditional 
British English usage, and therefore may appear obscure to the 
speakers of American English, as well as to younger Brits.

The two key issues in the argument are A) that the headword in 
_Ukraine_ is a name, and B) the traditional British usage of _the_ 
with regions: the Tirol/Tyrol (Austria), the Ticino (Switzerland), 
the Sudan, the Congo (the region, not the river).  Once the Sudan and 
the Congo ceased being seen as (colonized) regions and became 
countries, the article was dropped (but not in the Democratic 
_Republic_ of Congo, because of the nature of the headword).  That is 
the origin of _the Argentine_ and _Argentina_, too, not the silent ?e.

Some argue that the usage of _the Ukraine_ is inappropriate now that 
it has become a country rather than a region, that it demotes its 
image to that of a region.


Martin

votruba “at” pitt “dot” edu

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