Notes & Asides

notes & asides

Dear Mr. Buckley: Regarding Notes & Asides in the Sept. 29 issue: I respectfully take issue with Mr. William J. McNamara’s suggestion that we should never refer to the Ukraine as “the Ukraine.” The world “Ukraine” means “the frontier” in both Ukrainian and Russian. The only reason the Russians and Ukrainians don’t use a definite article with the name of the country is that—-like the Finns, the ancient Romans, and many others—they manage to get by without having an equivalent for “the” or “a” in their languages.

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notes & asides

Dear Mr. Buckley: Regarding Notes & Asides in the Sept. 29 issue: I respectfully take issue with Mr. William J. McNamara’s suggestion that we should never refer to the Ukraine as “the Ukraine.” The world “Ukraine” means “the frontier” in both Ukrainian and Russian. The only reason the Russians and Ukrainians don’t use a definite article with the name of the country is that—-like the Finns, the ancient Romans, and many others—they manage to get by without having an equivalent for “the” or “a” in their languages.