Ukraine/The Ukraine

[R. M. Cleminson]

No, the BBC has said Beijing for years.

V/na in Slavonic languages for territories is totally arbitrary, as is article/no article in English, masc./fem. in French, and so on.

The question is, if they can tell us how to speak English, can we tell them how to speak Ukrainian?

----- Pôvodná správa -----
Od: "Alina Israeli" <aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU>
Komu: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Odoslané: štvrtok, 19. jún 2014 17:58:02
Predmet: Re: [SEELANGS] Ukraine/The Ukraine

That's "conservative" for you. BBC still says "Peking" while the US has gotten used to Beijing. It was the same story: the name was changed by request from the government, and it was awkward in the beginning but a couple of generations later it has become a norm. Trubachev's grandchildren will get used to it, if they are still in Russia.

Alina

On Jun 18, 2014, at 6:57 PM, Robert Orr <colkitto at rogers.com> wrote:

> "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".
> 

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