Get It Right!

It's Ukraine – not the Ukraine. Remember that!

From raefried beans...

I have been told in no uncertain terms by several Ukrainians that most of their countrymen are offended by the un-PC convention of saying "the Ukraine." This linguistic sensitivity stems from Ukraine's complicated political history with Russia, from whom it has never actually been an independent nation until the collapse of the USSR. The very name "Ukraine" ("Ukraina" in Ukrainian and Russian) comes from the Russian phrase "u kraia" meaning "at the borderlands." In other words, the name of their country evolved from the Russian equivalent of "the boonies." By using the definite article "the" in English to refer to Ukraine, the speaker is subtly reinforcing the notion that Ukraine is nothing more than a hickier region of Russia at worst, and defined only in relation to Russia at best. Since the collapse of the USSR, educated Ukrainians prefer using just "Ukraine," a small linguistic act of independence. Yeah, I know, Eastern European intellectuals are so touchy... -Mel

Oh, and another thing while I'm at it...

It's screen printing – not silk-screening!

It's been over twenty years since silk was used in the process of printing such things as T-shirts, so how is it that people who are barely twenty years old are saying "we're going to have it silk-screened"?!?