If there are 5 people saying “the Ukraine”, I am one of them. If there is 1 person saying “the Ukraine”, that person is me. If there is no one saying " the Ukraine", I am no longer alive. If the entire world says “the Ukraine”, I will support the entire world. 'Till my last breath, I will say “the Ukraine”.

  • crosswind [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    Same thing with ‘Keev’ suddenly becoming the only acceptable pronunciation of Kiev/Kyiv. The ‘authentic’ way to pronounce it uses vowel sounds that are close to Polish and are very difficult for most English speakers to get right. The distinction between the Ukrainian and Russian pronunciations was artificially reconstructed within the bounds of English speakers’ familiarity as “keev” vs “key-ev” in a way mostly unrecognizable to the actual speakers. But now there was an easy indicator of whether someone was sufficiently loyal and willing to snap to the good righteous Ukrainian way, or if they were an agent of Putin who said it the Russian way.