Ukraine/The Ukraine

[Josh Wilson]

Dear Seelangers - 

I feel like I'm treading into dangerous waters here - but I'm genuinely
curious... 

Does anyone know if there have been studies on v/na usage inside Ukraine? 

I've met Ukrainians (on two occasions) that actually use "na." They were
from Crimea and East Ukraine, and both stated that it was not uncommon in
their view for Ukrainian citizens to use the construction. Arguments for
continuing the use of "na" included 1) that's the way it's always been
(granted, which is a flawed argument) and 2) it recalls Ukraine's "great
Soviet past."

Obviously these are not the habits and opinions of all Ukrainians, but
knowing that Soviet nostalgia is fairly common in many places of the former
USSR, I would be interested to know just how widespread it is in Ukraine and
how this might affect language use there (and how much diversity in this
remains in Ukraine), should anyone know of such a study....

Miru mir, 



Josh Wilson
Assistant Director
The School of Russian and Asian Studies
Editor in Chief
Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
SRAS.org 
jwilson at sras.org 





-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Paul B. Gallagher
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 5:56 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Ukraine/The Ukraine

anne marie devlin wrote:

> Dear Seelangers
>
> Would any of you happen to know when 'The Ukraine' officially became 
> known as 'Ukraine' in English?  I presume sometime after 1993, but 
> would be very grateful for precise information on this as I can't seem 
> to find it anywhere.

Since there is no "académie anglaise" or equivalent, everyone pretty much
does as they please; there is no "official" English.

Of course, you can make up your own definition by setting some organization
as your standard. E.g., "since xx.xx.xxxx, the U.S. State Department has
dropped the article." That makes it much easier to do the research.

This article may be of use in that research:
<http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2006/460614.shtml>

--
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------