The name ''

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

'' ( uk, Україна, translit=Ukraina , ) was first used in reference to a part of the territory of

Kyivan Rus' Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...

in the 12th century. The name has been used in a variety of ways since the 12th century, referring to numerous lands on the border between Poland and Kievan Rus' or its

successor states Succession of states is a concept in international relations regarding a successor state that has become a sovereign state over a territory (and populace) that was previously under the sovereignty of another state. The theory has its roots in 19th- ...

. The use of "the Ukraine" is officially deprecated by the

Ukrainian government The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine ( uk, Кабінет Міністрів України, translit=Kabinet Ministriv Ukrainy; shortened to CabMin), commonly referred to as the Government of Ukraine ( uk, Уряд України, ''Uriad Ukrai ...

and many English language media publications. ''Ukraine'' is the official full name of the country, as stated in its declaration of independence and its constitution; there is no official alternative long name. From 1922 until 1991, ''Ukraine'' was the informal name of the

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

within the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(annexed by Germany as during 1941–1944). After the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

in 1917–1921, there were the short-lived

Ukrainian People's Republic The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1 ...

and

Ukrainian State The Ukrainian State ( uk, Українська Держава, translit=Ukrainska Derzhava), sometimes also called the Second Hetmanate ( uk, Другий Гетьманат, translit=Druhyi Hetmanat, link=no), was an anti-Bolshevik government ...

, recognized in early 1918 as consisting of nine governorates of the former

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(without Taurida's

Crimean peninsula Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a po ...

), plus Chelm and the southern part of Grodno Governorate.

History

The oldest recorded mention of the word ''ukraina'' dates to the year 1187. In connection with the death of , the ruler of the

Principality of Pereyaslavl The Principality of Pereyaslavl ( uk, Переяславське князівство) was a regional principality of Kievan Rus' from the end of 9th century until 1323, based in the city of Pereyaslavl (now ''Pereiaslav'') on the Trubizh R ...

which was

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

's southern shield against the

Wild Fields The Wild Fields ( uk, Дике Поле, translit=Dyke Pole, russian: Дикое Поле, translit=Dikoye Polye, pl, Dzikie pola, lt, Dykra, la, Loca deserta or , also translated as "the wilderness") is a historical term used in the Polish ...

, the

Hypatian Codex The Hypatian Codex (also known as Hypatian Letopis or Ipatiev Letopis; be, Іпацьеўскі летапіс; russian: Ипатьевская летопись; uk, Іпатіївський літопис) is a ''svod'' (compendium) of three ''l ...

says "Oukraina groaned for him", (''o nem že Oukraina mnogo postona''). In the following decades and centuries this term was applied to fortified borderlands of different principalities of Rus' without a specific geographic fixation: Halych-Volhynia, Pskov,

Ryazan Ryazan ( rus, Рязань, p=rʲɪˈzanʲ, a=ru-Ryazan.ogg) is the largest city and administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the banks of the Oka River in Central Russia, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Census ...

etc.Пономарьов А. П. Етнічність та етнічна історія України: Курс лекцій.—К.: Либідь, 1996.— 272 с.: іл. І8ВМ 5-325-00615-0.Е. С. Острась. ЗВІДКИ ПІШЛА НАЗВА УКРАЇНА //ВІСНИК ДОНЕЦЬКОГО УНІВЕРСИТЕТУ, СЕР. Б: ГУМАНІТАРНІ НАУКИ, ВИП.1, 2008
After the south-western lands of former Rus' were subordinated to the

Polish Crown The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: ''Corona Regni Poloniae''), known also as the Polish Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, incl ...

in 1569, the territory from eastern

Podillia Podolia or Podilia ( uk, Поділля, Podillia, ; russian: Подолье, Podolye; ro, Podolia; pl, Podole; german: Podolien; be, Падолле, Padollie; lt, Podolė), is a historic region in Eastern Europe, located in the west-central ...

Zaporizhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. It is the Capital city, administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zapor ...

got the unofficial name Ukraina due to its border function to the nomadic Tatar world in the south. The Polish chronicler who wrote about the Khmelnytsky Uprising in 1660 explained the word Ukraina as the land located at the edge of the Polish kingdom. Thus, in the course of the 16th–18th centuries Ukraine became a concrete regional name among other historic regions such as

Severia Severia or Siveria ( orv, Сѣверія, russian: Северщина, translit=Severshchina, uk, Сіверія or , translit. ''Siveria'' or ''Sivershchyna'') is a historical region in present-day southwest Russia, northern Ukraine, eastern ...

, or

Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...

. It was used for the middle

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

territory controlled by the

Cossacks The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

. The people of Ukraina were called Ukrainians (, or ). Later, the term Ukraine was used for the Hetmanate lands on both sides of the Dnieper although it didn't become the official name of the state. From the 18th century on, Ukraine became known in the

by the geographic term

Little Russia Little Russia (russian: Малороссия/Малая Россия, Malaya Rossiya/Malorossiya; uk, Малоросія/Мала Росія, Malorosiia/Mala Rosiia), also known in English as Malorussia, Little Rus' (russian: Малая Ру� ...

. In the 1830s,

Nikolay Kostomarov Mykola Ivanovych Kostomarov or Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Костома́ров, ; uk, Микола Іванович Костомаров, ; May 16, 1817, vil. Yurasovka, Voronezh Governorate, ...

and his Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Kyiv started to use the name ''Ukrainians''. It was also taken up by

Volodymyr Antonovych Volodymyr Antonovych ( ukr, Володимир Боніфатійович Антонович, tr. ''Volodymyr Bonifatijovych Antonovych''; pl, Włodzimierz Antonowicz; russian: Влади́мир Бонифа́тьевич Антоно́вич, ...

and the '' Khlopomany'' ("peasant-lovers"), former Polish gentry in Eastern Ukraine, and later by the Ukrainophiles in

Halychyna Galicia ()"Galicia"
''

Ivan Franko Ivan Yakovych Franko (Ukrainian: Іван Якович Франко, pronounced ˈwɑn ˈjɑkowɪtʃ frɐnˈkɔ 27 August 1856 – 28 May 1916) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, ...

. The evolution of the meaning became particularly obvious at the end of the 19th century. The term is also mentioned by the Russian scientist and traveler of Ukrainian origin

Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Миклу́хо-Макла́й; 1846 – 1888) was a Russian Imperial explorer. He worked as an ethnologist, anthropologist and biologist who became famous as one of ...

(1846–1888). At the turn of the 20th century the term Ukraine became independent and self-sufficient, pushing aside regional self-definitions. In the course of the political struggle between the Little Russian and the Ukrainian identities, it challenged the traditional term Little Russia () and ultimately defeated it in the 1920s during the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

policy of Korenization and

Ukrainization Ukrainization (also spelled Ukrainisation), sometimes referred to as Ukrainianization (or Ukrainianisation) is a policy or practice of increasing the usage and facilitating the development of the Ukrainian language and promoting other elements of ...

. Миллер А. И.br>Дуализм идентичностей на Украине
// Отечественные записки. — № 34 (1) 2007. С. 84-96

Etymology

Interpretation as "region" or "territory"

''Oukraina'' () was initially mentioned in the

in approximately 1187, referring to the name of the territory of the

. The codex was written in the East Slavic version of

Church Slavonic language Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...

. Since then, and almost until the 18th century, in written sources, this word was used in the meaning of "border lands", without reference to any particular region with clear borders, including far beyond the territory of modern Ukraine. The generally "accepted" and frequently used meaning of the word as "borderland" has increasingly been challenged by revision, motivated by self-asserting of identity. In the 16th century, the only specific ''ukraina'' mentioned very often in

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

and Ruthenian texts was the south-eastern region around

, and thus ''ukraina'' came to be synonymous with the Kyïv Voivodeship and later the region around Kyiv. Later this name was adopted as the name of the country. The etymology of the word Ukraine is seen this way in all mainstream etymological dictionaries, see e.g.

Max Vasmer Max Julius Friedrich Vasmer (; russian: Максимилиан Романович Фа́смер, translit=Maksimilian Romanovič Fásmer; 28 February 1886 – 30 November 1962) was a Russo-German linguist. He studied problems of etymology in I ...

's etymological dictionary of Russian; see also

Orest Subtelny Orest Subtelny ( uk, О́рест Субте́льний, 17 May 1941 – 24 July 2016) was a Ukrainian-Canadian historian. Born in Kraków, Poland, he received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1973. From 1982 to 2015, he was a Professor ...

Paul Magocsi Paul Robert Magocsi (born January 26, 1945 in Englewood, New Jersey) is an American professor of history, political science, and Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He has been with the university since 1980, and became a Fe ...

Omeljan Pritsak Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak ( uk, Омелян Йосипович Пріцак; 7 April 1919, Luka, Sambir County, West Ukrainian People's Republic – 29 May 2006, Boston) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Har ...

Mykhailo Hrushevskyi Mykhailo Serhiiovych Hrushevsky ( uk, Михайло Сергійович Грушевський, Chełm, – Kislovodsk, 24 November 1934) was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian and statesman who was one of the most important figure ...

, Ivan Ohiyenko,

Petro Tolochko Petro Petrovych Tolochko (; 21 February 1938) is a Soviet and Ukrainian historian, archaeologist, and political activist. He is one of the leading specialists in history of the Kievan Rus (Old Rus) and one of leading researchers of the NASU Instit ...

Толочко П. П. «От Руси к Украине» («Від Русі до України». 1997 and others. It is supported by

Jaroslav Rudnyckyj Jaroslav Bohdan Antonovych Rudnyckyj ( uk, Яросла́в-Богда́н Рудни́цький, ; November 18, 1910 – October 19, 1995) was a Ukrainian Canadian linguist and lexicographer with a specialty in etymology and onomastics, folkl ...

in the

Encyclopedia of Ukraine The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' ( uk, Енциклопедія українознавства, translit=Entsyklopediia ukrainoznavstva), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies. Development The work was creat ...

and the Etymological dictionary of the

Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state langu ...

(based on already mentioned Vasmer). On a map, published in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

in 1645, the sparsely inhabited region to the north of the Azov sea is called Okraina and is characterized to the proximity to the Dikoia pole (

), posing a constant threat of raids of Turkic nomads (

Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...

and the

Nogai Horde The Nogai Horde was a confederation founded by the Nogais that occupied the Pontic–Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghuds cons ...

). There is, however, also a specialised map published in 1648 of the Lower Dnieper region by

Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan (c. 1600 – 6 December 1673) or William le Vasseur de Beauplan was a French-Polish cartographer, engineer and architect. Beauplan served as artillery captain for the army of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland b ...

called "General illustration of desert plains, in common speech Ukraine" (), attesting to the fact that the term Ukraina was also in use. File:Ukraina-1556.jpg, Excerpt from

Peresopnytsia Gospel The Peresopnytsia Gospel ( uk, Пересопницьке Євангеліє, ''Peresopnytske Yevanheliie''), dating from the 16th century, is one of the most intricate surviving East Slavic manuscripts. It was made between 15 August 1556 and 29 ...

(Matthew 19:1) (1556) where the word ''ukrainy'' () corresponds to 'coasts' ( KJV Bible) or 'region' ( NIV Bible). File:Delineatio generalis Camporum Desertorum vulgo Ukraina (1648).jpg, A 1648 map by

called ''Delineatio Generalis Camporum Desertorum vulgo Ukraina'' (General illustration of desert plains, in common speech Ukraine) File:Kiovia Palatinatus. Beauplan 1664.jpg, Title of the 1648 map of Beauplan "Ukrainae pars"

Interpretation as "region, country"

Ukrainian scholars, beginning in the 1930s, have interpreted the term ''ukraina'' in the sense of "region, principality, country", "province", or "the land around" or "the land pertaining to" a given centre. Linguist Hryhoriy Pivtorak (2001) argues that there is a difference between the two terms ''oukraina'' україна "territory" and окраїна ''okraina'' "borderland". Both are derived from ''krai'' "division, border, land parcel, territory" but with a difference in preposition, ''ou'' (у) meaning "in" vs. ''o'' ( о) meaning "about, around"; *''ukrai'' and *''ukraina'' would then mean "a ''separated'' land parcel, a ''separate'' part of a tribe's territory". Lands that became part of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...

( Chernihiv Principality, Siversk Principality, Kyiv Principality, Pereyaslavl Principality and most of Volyn Principality) were sometimes called Lithuanian Ukraina, while lands that became part of Poland ( Halych Principality and part of Volyn Principality) were called Polish Ukraina. Pivtorak argues that ''Ukraine'' had been used as a term for their own territory by the

Ukrainian Cossacks The Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack Army, Zaporozhian Host, (, or uk, Військо Запорізьке, translit=Viisko Zaporizke, translit-std=ungegn, label=none) or simply Zaporozhians ( uk, Запорожці, translit=Zaporoz ...

of the

Zaporozhian Sich The Zaporozhian Sich ( ua, Запорозька Січ, ; also uk, Вольностi Вiйська Запорозького Низового, ; Free lands of the Zaporozhian Host the Lower) was a semi-autonomous polity and proto-state of Co ...

since the 16th century, and that the conflation with ''okraina'' "borderlands" was a creation of tsarist Russia. which has been countered by other historical sources of Russia.

Official names

Below are the names of the Ukrainian states throughout the 20th century: * 1917–1920:

; controlled most of Ukraine, with the exception of

West Ukraine Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian ...

* April–December 1918:

(Українська Держава) or "Second Hetmanate", after the (Гетьманський переворот) * 1918–1919:

West Ukrainian People's Republic The West Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) or West Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR), known for part of its existence as the Western Oblast of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was a short-lived polity that controlled most of Eastern Gali ...

within West Ukraine; the

Unification Act The Unification Act ( uk, Акт Злуки, translit=Akt Zluky, , "Act Zluky" or uk, Велика Злука, translit=Velyka Zluka, label=none, ) was an agreement signed on 22 January 1919, by the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukr ...

with UPR failed to be implemented * 1919–1936:

Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

* 1936–1941:

* 1941–1944: There was no Ukrainian state under Nazi occupation ( though one was declared); the territory was governed as

Reichskommissariat Ukraine During World War II, (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime () of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic). It was governed by the Reich Min ...

(RKU) * 1941–1991:

* 1991–present:

English definite article

Ukraine is one of a few English country names traditionally used with the

definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...

''the''. Use of the article was standard before Ukrainian independence, but has decreased since the 1990s. For example, the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

dropped the article "the" on 3 December 1991. Use of the definite article was criticised as suggesting a non-sovereign territory, much like " the Lebanon" referred to the region before its independence, or as one might refer to "

the Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

", a region of the United States. In 1993, the Ukrainian government explicitly requested that, in linguistic agreement with countries and not regions, the Russian

preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

, be used instead of , and in 2012, the Ukrainian embassy in London further stated that it is politically and grammatically incorrect to use a definite article with ''Ukraine''. Use of ''Ukraine'' without the definite article has since become commonplace in journalism and diplomacy (examples are the style guides of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'').

Preposition usage in Slavic

Vel'vyslanectvo Slovenskej republiky na Ukrajine

In the

both ''v Ukraini'' (with the preposition ''v'' - "in") and ''na Ukraini'' (with the preposition ''na'' - "on") have been used, although the preposition ''v'' is used officially and is more frequent in everyday speech. Linguistic prescription in

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

dictates usage of ''na''. Similar to the definite article issue in English usage, use of ''na'' rather than ''v'' has been seen as suggesting non-sovereignty. While ''v'' expresses "in" with a connotation of "into, in the interior", ''na'' expresses "in" with the connotation of "on, onto" a boundary (Pivtorak cites ''v misti'' "in the city" vs. ''na seli'' "in the village", viewed as "outside the city"). Pivtorak notes that both Ukrainian literature and folk song uses both prepositions with the name ''Ukraina'' (''na Ukraini'' and ''v Ukraini''), but that only ''v Ukraini'' should be used to refer to the sovereign state established in 1991. The insistence on ''v'' appears to be a modern sensibility, as even authors foundational to Ukrainian national identity used both prepositions interchangeably, e.g. T. Shevchenko within the single poem ''V Kazemati'' (1847). The preposition ''na'' continues to be used with Ukraine in the

West Slavic languages The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic language group. They include Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian. The languages have traditionally been spoken across a mostly continuous region encom ...

(

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

, Slovak), while the

South Slavic languages The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West and East) ...

(

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...

, Slovene) use ''v'' exclusively.

Phonetics and orthography

Among the western European languages, there is inter-language variation (and even sometimes intra-language variation) in the phonetic vowel quality of the ''ai'' of ''Ukraine'', and its written expression. It is variously: * Treated as a diphthong (for example, English ''Ukraine'' ) * Treated as a pure vowel (for example, French ''Ukraine'' ) * Transformed in other ways (for example, Spanish ''Ucrania'' , or Portuguese "Ucrânia" ) * Treated as two juxtaposed vowel sounds, with some phonetic degree of an approximant between that may or may not be recognized phonemically: German ''Ukraine'' (although the realisation with the diphthong is also possible: ). This pronunciation is represented orthographically with a dieresis, or ''tréma'', in Dutch ''Oekraïne'' . This version most closely resembles the vowel quality of the Ukrainian word. In Ukrainian itself, there is a "

euphony Phonaesthetics (also spelled phonesthetics in North America) is the study of beauty and pleasantness associated with the sounds of certain words or parts of words. The term was first used in this sense, perhaps by during the mid-20th century and ...

rule" sometimes used in poetry and music which changes the letter У (''U'') to В (''V'') at the beginning of a word when the preceding word ends with a vowel or a diphthong. When applied to the name Україна (''Ukraina''), this can produce the form Вкраїна (''Vkrayina''), as in song lyric Най Вкраїна вся радіє (''Nai Vkraina vsia radiie'', "Let all Ukraine rejoice!").See for example, Rudnyc'kyj, J. B., Матеріали до українсько -канадійської фольклористики й діялектології / Ukrainian-Canadian Folklore and Dialectological Texts, Winnipeg, 1956

Explanatory notes

Citations

General and cited sources

* * * * * * * * . * * Rudnyt͡s′kyĭ, I͡a. B. (1951), ''Slovo ĭ nazva Ukraïna'' in ''Onomastica'', v 1, Winnipeg: UVAN. * * * * Russian translation:

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Name Of Ukraine

History of Ukraine Ukrainian words and phrases