Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Why Ukrainians don’t like the the

 A man wrapped in the Ukrainian flag takes part in Unity Day celebrations in Kiev on 22 January 2017. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Tony Burson (Letters, 21 January) asks why some countries are (or were) preceded by the definite article. In the case of Ukraine, it was in the past known as “the Ukraine”. However, the name is an Old Slavic word for “borderlands”, implying that the (now independent) country is merely an outlying part of Russia. Ukrainian nationalists were, understandably, not happy to be minimised in this way, so the definite article is only now used by the unwise.

Dr Richard Carter
London

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