If you want to say “a Ukrainian woman”, do you say “una mujer ucraniana” or “una mujer ucrania”?
And if you say “Ukrainian people”, is it “ucranianos” or “ucranios”?
I always say “ucranianos” but El Pais says “ucranios” on every page. I hate this new-fangled “ucranios” like I can’t tell you. Where did it come from?
Both? But I prefer ucraniano.
Ambivalence may be the sign of blurred image of Ukraine in the Spanish world.
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It seems to be a tragic consequence of the second law of thermodynamics that beautiful, sensible, constructions in any language will decay into oversimplified gibberish. Examples abound. In English, the hearing condition ‘tintinnitis’ has been shortened in common usage to the offensive and illiterate-seeming ‘tinnitis’ and ‘dilatation’ has been similarly rendered disgusting as ‘dilation’.
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“aluminium baseball bat” …
What, did I spell something incorrectly? Oh, wait, IUPAC says I spelled the first word correctly, as does most of the English-speaking world …
C’mon, you Yanks can say it with me …
OWL-YOU-MINNIE-UM …
See, that wasn’t difficult, was it?
[dodges the baseballs that will soon be flying my way] 🙂
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I also say aluminum the British way. And I was forced to stop saying things like, “Care to share a fag back at my flat?” because people were not reacting very well.
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I’ve always said “ucraniano” but I haven’t said it that much because I’m usually not talking about that.
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One day I’ll have to regale you with a long rant about the evils of something called “house style” …
BUT TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY. 🙂
I think I mentioned before that house style guides are generally an indicator of how risible the editing department’s staff happen to be on a number of issues, so you can perhaps take that as a short version of my full rant.
Also, might I remind you of the reprehensible “ognon” in the latest French orthography? If I must be forced to cry over “oignons”, they should not be spelled so shabbily! 🙂
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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