Ukraine vs The Ukraine

[W Brewer]

Another thought on articulated place names. English probably prefixes (or
used to anyway) <the> onto place names ala franc,ais. I.e. French was the
diplomatic language on the Continent for centuries; in French, all (?)
place names are articulated. Vive l'Ukraine! A` bas la Russe!
    Here we have a conflict of linguistic fashions. On the one hand,
francophilia encourages hypergallic articulations. On the other hand,
political correctness connects <the+placename> with British colonialism.
And I am caught in the middle.

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