textbook recommendation

[Pavel Samsonov]

   << As I understand it from the press, the demand for removal of the
English
definite article came in fact from the Ukrainian foreign ministry. I can
only
imagine that they took this strange step as a result of representations from
North American activists, since it can hardly matter much to them at home.
Are
North American Ukrainian nationalists like North American Irish
nationalists,
i.e. much more 'patriotic' than their counterparts back home (I speak as an
occasional Irishman)?
    The point I thought I had made is that the use of the definite article
in
English (and French, e.g. 'La France' and German, e.g. 'die Schweiz') is not
thought to be offensive in other placename contexts and in fact cannot by
itself be offensive, as the analogues demonstrate, e.g. the Dutch do not
object
to 'The Netherlands' (and are tolerant even of our sloppy and incorrect use
of
'Holland'>>>

I agree wholeheartedly.

Here I have my small comment.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union (BTW, it was THE Soviet Union), it
was normal both in Russian and Ukrainian to say "na Ukraine". With the
advent of independence, this colonial and humiliating expression was changed
by Kiev's linguists to "v Ukraine"  both in Russian and English for the
official use.

In Belarus, however, the situation was absolutely different. Here the
colonial "v Belorusii" (in Russian) and "u Belarusi" (Belarusian) was
officially changed to "na Belorussii" (Russian) and "na Belarusi"
(Belarussian) by the linguists from the Academy of Sciences.

Yes, independence can be quite inspirational for linguists.

Pavel

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