Tuesday, March 11, 2014

The the


My learned readers, when were the "The"s dropped from Crimea and Ukraine?

5 Comments:

Blogger Eurodog said...

I don't think the the should have been there in the first place, WW.

12:51 pm  
Anonymous kinglear said...

Hmm I'd say from " The Ukraine" when it stopped being part of USSR ( as in a region thereof) and became a country in it's own right. We wouldn't say " The England". The only one I can think of is that ghastly Trump woman who referred to the hamster-headed one as "The Donald".
But from "the Crimea"? I don't know. It is still a region of Ukraine ( the country) and therefore should not have lost it's "the". But that's the BBC for you.

4:00 pm  
Blogger janerowena said...

I didn't realise it had been. I don't watch much television. though. I would find it irritating. It may be from the French Russian - 'Les Landes' etc. The Dordogne, being regions.

10:41 am  
Blogger Whispering Walls said...

Salut ED - do/did they have le/la in French?

True KL & JR. "The" refers to a region/valley/mountains. It varies in France (the Languedoc, the Camargue, the Midi but Provence, Normandy etc). What about The Caucasus?

11:06 am  
Blogger Eurodog said...

It's l'Ukraine and la Crimée en Français but all countries have le/la in French. La Belgique, la Chine, le Pakistan, le Brésil. Now how do you determine a country is le or la? I cannot answer that question. Does it warrant further research?

2:56 pm  

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