Ukraine vs The Ukraine

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Mar 5, 2014, at 3:11 AM, "ADSGarson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Tweet message:
> Author: Di W ‏@di_f_w
> Time stamp: 5:46 AM   5 Mar 2014
> [Begin excerpt]
> I wonder why we started saying "the Ukraine" and who I need to talk to
> about getting a power name like "the New Zealand"
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> Wikipedia: Name of Ukraine
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine
> [Begin excerpt]
> The name "Ukraine" (Ukrainian: Україна Ukrayina [ukraˈjina]) has been
> used in a variety of ways since the twelfth century. Today, it is the
> official name of Ukraine, the country in Eastern Europe. Previously
> the country was generally called The Ukraine in English, but this
> usage is on the wane and officially deprecated by the Ukrainian
> government and many English language media publications.
> [End excerpt]

a little irony here is that Ukrainian itself has no definite article.

arnold

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