The Ukraine vs Ukraine

It's Friday, and my final blog for this semester is due today (I will continue to blog but this is a benchmark I felt like sharing).

In one of my previous posts I talked about being inclusive in language, and in this post I'd like to exend that to being politically correct. I've been struggling with adjusting my language to omit the "the" in front of Ukraine. I was corrected last week, and when I asked why it is that it is inappropriate to say "the Ukraine" the only answer that was offered was "you don't say 'the Canada'!". I've been digging around ever since to see what I could find.

Ukraine, when translated mean "at the Border" (as in at the border of Russia). Ukraine has a rich history of giving and taking land from Russia. Until final independence came with the fall of the Soviet union Ukraine played a significant role in the USSR. “Ukraine” has been part of the English language since 1187, and did not appear first along with its article (“the”).

I came across many ways of explaining the incorrectness of “the Ukraine”. I will explain two of the most salient reasons why this is incorrect.

Grammar. Trying to understand English grammar is like walking a path over grown with rose bushes – tangled and thorny. There are rules, and exceptions to rules and exceptions to the exceptions, but it seems like the rules on articles are pretty straight forward. “The” is an article. Articles combine with nouns to indicate the type of reference being made: either definite or indefinite. “The” is a definite article which indicates that a noun is a particular one (ie. the dogs indicates a specific group of dogs, where dogs is a generalization). Looking at it this way when you say “the Ukraine” it implies that there are other Ukraines. Grammar also dictates that there is no use for an article in front of the names of most countries. There are only two groups of countries which require the article in English: Those with plural names (the United States, the Netherlands), and those that have names with adjectival or compound forms (the United Kingdom, the Dominion of Canada, or the Ukrainian SSR). English grammar does not require a definite article before the names of singular countries such as England, Canada or Ukraine (which is why we don't say “the Canada”).

There is also a political reason for not using the article when referring to Ukraine. In English we refer to geographical regions using the definite article like the Arctic, the Atlantic, the North, the West, and the prairies Ukraine, on the other hand is an independent country and has had definite borders since 1917. referring to Ukraine using the definite article reduces the country name to it's meaning as a border region. Some political writers have promoted the use of “the Ukraine” as a way to undermine the political status of Ukraine.

It could be that Ukrainian immigrants, with little or no grasp of the inner workings of English grammar, mistakenly used the article and it caught on, but now understanding the implication of such a tiny word, I think it is time to change!

It is really tough to break a language habit - I had a friend in highschool who had grown up with English as a second language parents who would refer to a "hamper" as a "humper"; needless to say his rendition of the word was not so popular in highschool, but despite the razzing he was subject to, it was a challenge to break the habit. I think of all the times I have corrected someone when they use “gay” or “retarded” as synonyms for dumb or stupid (as I wrote about extensively in last week's post), and now here I am with a taste of my own medicine. I have tried my darnedest to break myself of adding "the" to my placement country, but never really understood why it was an issue. Now I know why “the” is such a problem and how it undermines Ukrainian Sovereignty, and status as a nation. I am now committed to changing my language and explaining to everyone why it is inappropriate to refer to my placement country as “the Ukraine”.

In May of 2010 I will be volunteering in Ukraine for 4 months to work in an orphanage for girls with mental and physical disabilities.

*love*