Digenis.org

In the comments to a recent post Wes asked if I intentionally say Ukraine, as opposed to the Ukraine. As a matter of fact, I do. While it was perfectly correct to use the definite article when referring to Ukraine in the past, that all changed when Ukraine won its independence in 1991. Many people still use the former variant out of habit, but according to the ‘rules’, we should be calling it simply Ukraine. This has been widely accepted in academic and journalistic spheres.

So, why shouldn’t we say the Ukraine? After all, as my friend points out, we say the Netherlands. True; we also say the Philippines and the United States of America. There are definitely instances when it is necessary to use a definite article in the name of a country. Though there are exceptions to every rule (you can read more about these rules in Richard Hughes’ dissertation abstract), things aren’t as fuzzy in this area as some would make them out to be:

We say the Philippines because it refers to a group of islands. The general rule is that if the proper noun refers to group of islands or mountains, then it requires the definite article. For example, we say the Himalayas and the Hawaiian Islands.

When we refer to the political setup of a country we also use the definite article. That is why we say the United States of America (as opposed to just America), the Russian Federation (as opposed to Russia), and the United Kingdom (Great Britain).

The Netherlands is an interesting example that could possibly be classified as one of those ‘exceptions’. I, however, will argue otherwise. Another instance when we will use the with the name of a place is when we are referring to a geographical area. For example, the Dakota Badlands, the Cameron Highlands, etc.

Names of places which are derived from a geographical name (in the native language of its people, of course) also required the definite article in the past. For example, we used to say the Sudan, the Lebanon, the Gambia, and the Ukraine, because each of these proper nouns referred to geographical feature in the people’s language. However, for some reason English seems to have discarded this rule.

Then why do we still say the Netherlands? The only reason I can think of is that since we have both the words ‘nether’ and ‘land’ in English, it doesn’t seem as foreign to our ears, thus allowing it to fit nicely into the same paradigm with the Dakota Badlands. It makes sense to me, but it might be a stretch. . .

Most English speakers haven’t a clue where the name Ukraine came from, so if there is any truth to my idea of why we can still say the Netherlands, then it gives us one more reason not to say the Ukraine. As a matter of fact, there is still dispute among Ukrainians and Russian as to the proper etymology of the name of the country. Some will argue that it comes from the word окраина (outlying, remote area). Others say that it comes from край (border) or краïна (Ukr: country).

Interestingly enough, an analogous argument exists regarding Ukraine in Russian. However, since Russian (and Ukranian, for that matter) has neither definite nor indefinite articles, the argument centers on the use of the prepositions в and на (both of which can be translated as ‘in’ depending on context).

In Russia, the majority of people tend to say “на Украине”, just as they did in Soviet times before Ukraine was an independent country. I should point out here, that with almost every country (exceptions, like на Кубе, follow many of the English rules mentioned above) Russians will use the preposition в. Ukranians, on the other hand, call for Russians to use the preposition в when referring to Ukraine, so as not to specially set it apart from any other country. There was a great discussion about this on Chris Tessone’s LiveJournal page back in 2002. If you can read Russian, I’d encourage you to check out what was said there (especially Ilya Vinarsky’s and Wlodek’s comments).

Everything that’s been going on in Ukraine recently has put this debate back on the front burner. I’ve witnessed several Russians adamantly declaring their loyalty to the traditional way of saying it, many of them claiming that “в Украине” sounds absolutely horrid. But still, isn’t some degree of protest or disgust characteristic of any change in language? Even though Gramota.ru, the official site of the Russian Academy of Sciences Department of Russian Language, says that “на Украине” is correct, some of the mass media in Russia have already begun to use в.

The controversiality of this issue isn’t going to die any time soon. Some Ukrainians may assert that Russia isn’t fully recognizing their country’s independence if it doesn’t use the same preposition as referring to other countries. Some Russians may even accuse the Ukrainians of trying to change Russian grammar.

Still, humans are creatures of habit and if any change is going to take place in language, it will take time before it becomes the norm. This is still a relatively young example right now, but, as wlodek predicts in Chris’ discussion, “In about 20 years students will altogether forget that the name of our country [Ukraine] was written with a definite article.”