General Discussion

Last edited Tue Jun 3, 2025, 05:56 PM - Edit history (1)

That claim makes no sense. Slavic languages have no articles. Украйна (the Russian spelling) means “the Ukraine,” “a Ukraine,” and “Ukraine.” It’s the same in Ukrainian. There is no “Russian way of saying it.” You can translate it how you want. Just like the Russian newspaper правда translates as “The Truth” and/or “Truth.” There is no “Russian way to say it” because it’s the same.

The country to my immediate west calls itself “Nederland.” The people there don’t get on our case because we call it “The Netherlands,” and they don’t bash the Germans because the Germans say “Die Niederlande.”

The British call what we call “Lebanon” “The Lebanon.” As the second language there (i.e. Lebanon) is French, and in French it is “Le Liban,” should they be giving us a lesson in political correctness for leaving out the article?

The majority German-speaking Swiss call their country “Die Schweiz (Schwyz in local dialect), “ so are we incorrect in not saying “The Switzerland?”

And the Italians must really be confused, because while they say, “siamo in Italia adesso (we’re in Italy now),” they also say “l’Italia é un paese bello (the Italy is a beautiful country.” )

There is no correct way or incorrect way to translate Украйна or Украïна into English as far as usage of an article goes, because in their language, there is no difference at all. In Germany, it is “die Ukraine,” and our Ukrainian immigrant neighbor says it that way when he speaks German (my wife speaks no Russian). Any argument over which is correct in English makes no sense to Russians or Ukrainians, because to them, it’s an argument over something neither language has. It’s an argument we made entirely by ourselves.

If you’re old enough, you’ll remember that Natasha would tell Boris, “look! Is moose and squirrel!” Someone among the scriptwriters was familiar with Slavic languages.