Ukraine vs The Ukraine

Wed Mar 5 22:02:37 UTC 2014

Not to mention THE United Kingdom and THE Soviet Union. Clearly all aching to escape from the chains of colonialism. Oh ,wait....

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)

Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it to anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks.

----- Original Message -----

> From: "W Brewer" <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 4:49:33 PM
> Subject: Re: Ukraine vs The Ukraine

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Ukraine vs The Ukraine
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> This morning, CNN interview with a Ukrainian official (foreign
> minister?):
> Interviewing reporter says <Crimea>. The Ukrainian official says <the
> Crimea>.
> WB learned a set of place names in elementary school geography class
> in the '50s; this set of place names included a prefixed <the>. WB
> recalls
> reporting Angst to Linguist List upon hearing a BBC news reader
> dropping
> <the> from <the Ukraine>, maybe twenty years ago. WB was instructed
> that
> <the> was a relic of colonialism, and had to be eliminated, end of
> discussion. WB is still loath to give up the <the>, because that is
> what he
> grew up with, and you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead mouth.

> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org