Referring to Ukraine as "the Ukraine" is a symbol for many people of when it was a colony of part of the Soviet Union, rather than an independent nation. Similar to how many people use to refer to Kyiv as Kiev but changed as that was the more Russian spelling
It's the difference between a descriptive name for a region and the name of a sovereign country. This is particularly relevant given the repeated attempts to conquer it and make it no longer a sovereign country.
I was under the impression that Russian does not even have articles??! What do you mean by that? How can "The Ukraine" come from the Russian language??
Using "the" affirms it as "this one particular borderland (of Russia)" instead of the name of a specific country. I misused the word "translation". Not sure if transliteration is more apt.
Considering the staggering numbers of Ukrainians killed, maimed, displaced, deported, and more, in the fight for independence from terrorist Russia, referring to that country with its correct name is a sign of respect and acknowledgment.
For this conversation, I'm staying focused on Ukraine.
I suggest you do the same, otherwise there's a risk of diluting a very important topic.
The Kremlin has followed on from Nazi Germany in evolving and maturing its propaganda tactics. One of these tactics is to devalue and delegitimize other nations.
The addition of one simple word - "the" - is enough to shift the perception of a country (with its own culture, language, and history) into that of a mere region (an errant extension of Russia that needs to be brought back into the fold).
Russia has a long history of terrorism and genocide. It was one of the 'great' imperial powers, and its crimes over the last century were never punished, the way Germany was. Now, with invasion, further genocide, and threats of nuclear aggression, there's an urgent need for the world to step up and step forward to eradicate Russia altogether.
From the propagandist's mouth: "Russia is by far the largest country in the world, covering more than a ninth of the Earth’s land area. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe... The Russian Federation includes 21 republics, 9 territories, 46 regions, 1 autonomous region, 4 autonomous districts, and 2 cities of federal subordination" (https://canada.mid.ru/en/o_rossii/russia_in_facts_and_number...)
Considering how many other nations were subsumed by Muscovy, your assertion of "noble white people" is inflammatory and irrelevant.
Furthermore - to pre-empt anyone who might be offended - I refer to uncountable acts of terror, genocide, violation of the 'rules of war', and violation of the UN Charter. Keep in mind, Russia has an illegitimate permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Put simply: Russia has forfeited its right to exist.
> For this conversation, I'm staying focused on Ukraine.
You could had agreed or disagreed but you chose to divert. Because you like what Israel does in Gaza, what USA did and continues to do with countries on other side of the world.
> The addition of one simple word - "the"
You still don't get it? It's not Russian who added 'the', it's the one who actually use English language every day.
> Keep in mind, Russia has an illegitimate permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Oh lol. By your own logic everything the Soviet government did should be returned back to pre-USSR times. Including Crimea and Lwow.
English is spoken very widely in Ukraine in fact, and was just promoted to an official status (not as a primary language, but to a secondary official status nonetheless) in the past month.
So, maybe that is the difference to the German language? Here in the news you can hear "die Ukraine" (the Ukraine) all the time. And usually any "rules" in the rough vicinity of political correctness, anti-discrimination or simple politeness are meticulously adhered to in German news. Which I am personally fine with.
The situation with articles and country names in German is quite different. The article is essentially affixed to many country names as a standard part of the language, and the lack or presence of the article does not immediately convey regional or sub-national status like it generally does in English.
If anything the connotation is the opposite from English -- articles are generally more attached to certain countries for which Germany has historically had significant relations (for good reasons or bad). In modern times though, it's just another fussy part of the language that one is obliged to put up with and not give a second thought to. One simply has to say "im Frankreich", "in der Türkei", "im Iran" and so forth (but also not attach the article to most other countries), and that's all there is to it.
I wish I could point to an authoritative reference for this, but that's impossible nowadays that we have the zombie internet and everything online has been reduced to shitty apps, flashcards and "didya know?" pages.
As GP said, 'English is spoken very widely in Ukraine', though he forgot to add 'now' and 'because someone needs to brigade subreddits and do damage control when UA does something stupid and exposes itself again'[0].
The whole '"the" VS lack of "the"' stems from the Russian/Ukranian language distinction somewhat resembling that 'the regions vs the country' in English.
But again, they do demand Russian speakers everywhere to use the language they claim is not even used in their own country[1] as they see it fits them.
And this is the reason they aren't bothered to demand the same treatment to the Netherlands, the Bahamas and whatever else, and that's why they don't bother with German or any other language - it's just self-esteem and identity issues absolutely, totally unrelevant to anyone in the world.
The guy says 'just promoted to an official status ... in the past month'.
So he himself confirms, what for the 33 years they didn't bother with a language 'which is spoken very widely'. And suddenly, in the year 2022, not only it's spoken 'very widely' despite being non-existent in any conceivable metric[1] before, but promoted to 'a secondary official status nonetheless' absolutely ignoring the language which is used by 30% of the country.
Imagine Ottawa declares what Mandarin is now 'promoted to an official status (not as a primary language, but to a secondary official status nonetheless)' instead of French? [2]
The point is that in English, adding the definite article makes it sound like a region rather than a country: "the mountains", "the veldt", "the border land".
Removing the article is appropriate for a country, unless grammatically necessary like "The United States of America", but not "The America" or "The Germany".
Oops, that makes sense. Sorry that instead of thinking you reasonably missed two letters in that sentence, I assumed you were an idiot and started arguing with you. Personal issues.
