Ukraine/The Ukraine

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Further reading for those who are interested:

<http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2009/0515/chicken-kyiv>
<http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Verbal-Energy/2014/0311/Ukraine-and-the-politics-of-transliteration>

<http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2014/03/07/kiev-vs-kyiv/>

"Chicken Kyiv" --   9,070 hits
"Chicken Kiev" -- 879,000 hits
(as of today)


As for "The" United States, of course it's a general grammatical rule 
that geographic names containing generics such as "states," "islands," 
etc. take the article, even when the generic is elided ("The Bahamas"). 
There's no option here. Conversely, those without generics generally do 
not take the article. "The Gambia," "the Congo," "the Ukraine," etc. are 
aberrations. (If they're literal translations from languages with 
articles, then why isn't it "the France" and "the Israel"?)

The Russian Federation
The Emerald City
The United States/US/USA
The United Kingdom/UK
The French Republic
The Falkland (Island)s
The Florida Keys
The European Union/EU
The Soviet Union/USSR
The Warsaw Pact
The Commonwealth of Independent States/CIS
The West Bank
The Rive Gauche/Left Bank
The Lower East Side (of Manhattan)
The Mississippi (River)
The Great Lakes
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea/DPRK
The People's Republic of China/PRC
The Federal Republic of Germany/FRG
The South of France (BE) but southern France (AE)
etc.

Organizations often lose the article when abbreviated, thus "the North 
Atlantic Treaty Organization," but not "the NATO" anymore. Similarly, 
"DOD," "DOE," and other departments of the U.S. government tend to lose 
the article in insider jargon but retain it among outsiders. Compare 
elliptical phrasings such as "Energy has to approve that," with "the 
Department of" elided.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                        http://seelangs.wix.com/seelangs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------