3 ms·
> I've been informed that before this conflict started, there was nothing offensive about this linguistic difference (between saying "Ukraine" vs. "the Ukraine"
by jgwil2 5y ago
> I've been informed that before this conflict started, there was nothing offensive about this linguistic difference (between saying "Ukraine" vs. "the Ukraine" in Russian)
The Russian and Ukrainian languages don't have the definite article, so there is literally no way of saying "the Ukraine" in either.
- dmytrish 5y agoThere is a very direct analog: the way you say "in Ukraine". In Russian/Ukrainian, both «на Україні» and «в Україні» аre grammatically correct, but the first one has the same connotation as 'the Ukraine', Ukraine being an open territory without borders, which is often the intentional undertone in modern Russian. Curiously, "na Ukrainie" in Polish usually does not bother us much, this usage does not feel directly linked to possible aggressive contempt, but more to archaic Polish perception of Ukraine from Middle Ages.