more Definite articles

[Thomas Anessi]

I would like to add a few comments, primarily from the political side of
the
question of country names.

One of the last comments in this series was that there seems to be no
link between
the definite article and independence.  Though there surely is no strong
connection (not counting the Congo and perhaps others),international
diplomacy has at least
since WWII recongized the right of governments of newly-independent
states to establish official equivalents for the name of their countries
in foreign languages.  In post-colonial Africa, for example,
"Africanizing" names has been the rule.  Those who stick with old names
in these cases would clearly be making a political statement.
More recently,the Czech Republic established  the name of  "Ceska
Republika " in English
itself. In Polish "Czechia" functions in most contexts, though I don't
know the Czech stance on this.

In addition, the "rules" on place names in English are so complex and
full of
exceptions that they really do not provide good concrete rules for what
a given
structure means. What has been said to date on this thread, however,
certainly  illuminates the rich web of connotations that some forms
possess, including the use of "the" in the name of a country, region,
island, etc.
The "tendencies" do, however, do tend to place "the Ukraine" as a very
rare
exception (article + one word name = country) as a country, where as a
region it existed as a more common exception.

Considering the aspects of courtesy and self-determination, which would
appear to me
to be quite important, especially among individuals involved in
academic, cultural and
linguistic studies of the culture involved, dropping the "the" appears
the best option.
Ukranians can be considered to be asserting (somewhat belatedly) their
right to linguistically differentiate Ukraine as an independent state
from the Ukraine, which was a republic, in its English equivalent.
Moreover, they are also moving the country's
name from being an exception to following the general rule of a one word
proper name for a country that exists in English and other countries.
Could this be an attempt at "normalizing" Ukraine in the eyes of speaker
of English, as well?  It certainly emphasizes that something has changed
in the countries status.

Pardon this long addition, but I believe this conversation is an
important one. I
have sensed some ruffled feathers in some recent (and not only) replies,
which is understandable, but I would hope that it is possible to discuss
even such sensitive issues without becoming offended, defensive,
offensive or dismissive. At least I hop we can try. :)

Thomas Anessi
filologia angielska
Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza
Poznan, Poland

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