The Subtleties of Language. Why Should We Say “В Украине” Instead of “На Украине”?

“Language is power, life and the instrument of culture; the instrument of domination and liberation.” — Angela Carter

Language and perception

Learning a new language is a journey. When you begin on a quest to speak in another tongue, a whole new world starts opening up for you. It’s not just words and grammar that are ingrained in a language. It’s also the people’s mentality, psychology, and ways of perception.

There are many types of interesting languages out there. Some of them do not have words for color or numbers (the Pirahã language), while other languages have more words for grading tones of color than you could count on your toes and fingers. Of course, there are some even more exotic language differences out there, such as the Aymara people describing “the past” as “known” and putting it in front of them, while describing “the future” as being something unseeable, thus behind them.

As mentioned by Joe Scott in his video about “5 Of The Weirdest Languages In The World,” the Aymaran people might say that they will “look ahead in their memories”, or that they have some “big plan behind them.” So yeah… Every language is different.

Needless to say, language is a living thing. It evolves over time and changes with the people. Thus, if you want to understand people better, you should learn to speak their language.

Know your grammar: the difference between the East Slavic prepositions “в” and “на”

Knowing or learning a language thus does not mean being “pro-something.” For example, for the past 3 years, I have been learning the Russian language, but it doesn’t mean that I am pro-Russian. What it means is that I want to understand their language to make sense of their ways of thinking, perceiving, making judgements and passing claims. Here is something interesting that I learnt about this language from Yale professor Timothy Snyder in his lecture series on the history of Ukraine:

In the Russian language, two prepositions are used to describe the place of an object in space. These prepositions are “на” and “в”. In English, both or of them would be translated as the word “in,” although, on some rare occasions it might mean “at”.

While (“в” = ”in”) explains that a person is in a specific and clearly bounded location, the preposition (“на” — “on, at”) describes a location that doesn’t have strict or clear boundaries.

For example, an English person would never say that he is “at Ukraine.” Rather he would say that he is “in Ukraine.” On the other hand, a Russian speaker might say that he is either “в Украине” or “на Украине”. What’s the difference?

Well, in the first scenario (в Украине) the speaker believes that he is in a clearly bounded and thus “real” place, while in the other situation (на Украине) the speaker puts the countries boundaries (and maybe even its statehood) in question.

These small differences in the use of grammar show us that the way we phrase sentences has a huge impact on how we perceive things to be. For example, when back on the 12th of July, 2021 the current president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, wrote an essay called “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians”, he used the preposition “on” with a purpose. The phrasing matters. If an essay is “on” something, that means the topics or the thing about which an essay has been written should already exist, right? Wrong. It’s just a way of speech that manipulates people’s perceptions, tilting them to one’s agenda and intentions.

Language and Magic

Language it’s tricky. It has a world of its own, separated from the material, observable world. This was once beautifully illustrated by Alan Watts, when he asked his audience:

“What happens to my fist when I open the hand?”

Does the “fist” magically disappear and gets replaced by some new, different, and unique object called “the hand”? From a linguistic point of view — yes; from the material side of things — no. It’s still the same limb, simply performing a different action.

Even though wordplay can be fun, it is no joke. It shapes our minds and guides our actions. It rationalizes and legitimizes some behaviors while describing others as false, unjust, or illusory. By providing motives, making assumptions and exerting claims, it shapes the ways how human minds perceive the tangible, observable, physical, and indeed real world. Hence the saying:

“The pen is mightier than the sword.”

It can make anything come true even if it was not there in the first place.

Just like a magic wand, language can twist and bend the fabric of reality, adjusting it to people’s needs and will. If those needs are mischievous, it would be wise to have the capacity to see the language tricks for what they are and not to fall prey to the other person’s spells.

By the way, it is no coincidence that when we dissect a word into letters we call this action “spelling.” We cast spells all the time, just not with magic wands. We do it with words. So be wary! People can curse you as much as they wish, but they can’t do so physically unless you let them to. You are immune to spells and curses if you can see them for what they are — a way of speech.

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