I'm an old fart who learned in primary school that The Ukraine, along with several other countries like The Netherlands, The Philippines or The Congo, was spelled with "the" for some reason. The geography teacher never told us why. It was just the way it was.

And yes, now I'm older, I realize there are several Philippine islands and several nether lands, and The Congo is an outdated - possibly colonial - short for Democratic Republic of the Congo, and that DR Congo is more acceptable today.

And yes, I know it's Ukraine now, since Ukraine gained its independence. But I always thought the switch from The Ukraine to Ukraine-sans-the was a cutesy to mark the event.

So, childhood habits being what they are, I regularly kept calling it The Ukraine, and I thought it didn't matter all that much.

But today, I found this article, and it really brought the point home of why it's a lot more important than it seems!

I figured I'd share, for other English-speaking old farts who were never taught why the Ukraine SSR was spelled out with "the" and why it shouldn't be anymore.

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[–] FarraigePlaisteach@piefed.social 22 points 3 hours ago

So basically when translated directly from Russian, "the" means that the place is no a sovereign place (eg, a hill). This is done deliberately to lull people into the idea that Ukraine is not an independent state. Ukraine has asked Russia to refrain from this, which it doesn't. But we don't have to collude. Fair enough.

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 hours ago

That's Dr. Congo to you pal

[–] Lehmuusa@nord.pub 11 points 4 hours ago

This is the reason I always write "the Russia", never just "Russia". It's an artificial construct and if you read its history, it's unclear where it really begins or ends. A very weird thing that it even has some thing such as a capital!

[–] Rose@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

The na construction is, however, still widely used in Russia.

From what I know, it wasn't until the 2014 invasion, making the change as political as the Russian media being instructed to refer to the Ukrainian government strictly as "the Kyiv regime" (though they'd probably spell it as Kiev).

[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

though they’d probably spell it as Kiev

Oh yeah, that's another one I still do out of habit.
And Bombay
And Rangoon
And Calcutta
And Gorky
...

Funny how you learn a lot of stuff in school that becomes increasingly irrelevant and incorrect 🙂

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 1 points 53 minutes ago

Every so often I still call it Constantinople! It's tough to dislodge some things we learn as children!

[–] MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 hours ago

They'd probably spell it Киев