Ukraine/The Ukraine

[E Wayles Browne]

Once you go to the Google Ngram Viewer page, you can try it out on Russian material: between na Ukraine and v Ukraine, the form with V prevails over NA for only a few years, between 1997 and 2002.

--
Wayles Browne, Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu 
________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Robert Orr <colkitto at ROGERS.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 6:57 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Ukraine/The Ukraine

There is also the factor of different rates of the spread of "the Ukraine" as opposed to "Ukraine" in different parts of the Anglophone world, compounding the problems Paul mentioned.

"Ukraine" had already become commonplace in Canada while "The Ukraine" was still almost universal in Britain, and in the early 90's, I recall some British scholars being surprised at hearing "Ukraine".

It was also in 1993 that I remember Oleg Trubacev expressing his displeasure, in a private conversation, at the "ухорежущее" nature of "в Украине".

Sent from my iPad

> On Jun 18, 2014, at 6:41 PM, "Chernetsky, Vitaly A" <vchernetsky at KU.EDU> wrote:
>
> Dear Anne-Marie,
>
> As the BBC article below illustrates, it was the formal request of the government of Ukraine to drop the article in 1991. No article is used in the official English-language version of the Ukrainian Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
>
> http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18233844
>
> As Paul Gallagher indicated earlier, there is no single official norm of English usage, thus we can only speak of statistical trends and preferences adopted by such bodies as the UN, the US Board of Geographic Names, etc., all of which have endorsed the use without the definite article. As the Google Ngrams below illustrates, the shift in preference fully occurred circa 1993, with the English-speaking world taking a little time to heed Ukraine's requests:
>
> https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=in+Ukraine%2Cin+the+Ukraine&year_start=1961&year_end=2013&corpus=0&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cin%20Ukraine%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cin%20the%20Ukraine%3B%2Cc0
>
> Best,
>
> Vitaly Chernetsky
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Vitaly Chernetsky
> Associate Professor
> Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
> University of Kansas
> 2140 Wescoe Hall, 1445 Jayhawk Blvd.
> Lawrence, KS 66045-7594
> (785) 864-2359
> vchernetsky at ku.edu
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> ________________________________________
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of anne marie devlin [anne_mariedevlin at HOTMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 4:52 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Ukraine/The Ukraine
>
> Dear all
>
> Thanks for the replies so far.  I suppose I should have formed the question better as in when did Ukraine become the norm in English?  The newspaper articles will definitely help, William
>
> Oleksander, the reason I guessed 1993 ad not the year of independence was because of the following:
> Литературная норма современного русского языка: на Украине, с Украины.
> «В 1993 году по требованию Правительства Украины нормативными следовало признать варианты в Украину (и соответственно из Украины). Тем самым, по мнению Правительства Украины, разрывалась не устраивающая его этимологическая связь конструкций на Украину и на окраину. Украина как бы получала лингвистическое подтверждение своего статуса суверенного государства, поскольку названия государств, а не регионов оформляются в русской традиции с помощью предлогов в (во) и из...» (Граудина Л. К., Ицкович В. А., Катлинская Л. П. Грамматическая правильность русской речи. М.: Наука, 2001. С. 69)
>
> I don't know - but would like to find out - if something similar happened with English, i.e did the Ukraine government request the change from the Ukraine to Ukraine?
> Also, if anyone knows, did a change take place in any other language?
>
> Best
>
> Anne Marie
>
>
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