In order to find out whether having a domain name with an apostrophe is technically possible, the Ukrainian experts created three such Domain names.
The first domain name ‘.ua, which was registered but at the time of going to press did not open, was created by Dmitry Kohmanyuk, Ukraine’s .ua manager.
Two other domains - мʼясо.kh.ua and звʼязок-є.kh.ua are operating with no technical difficulties. They were created by experts working for Hostmaster, operator of the Ukrainian .ua Domain, and the Eastern Ukrainian Internet Coordination Center (EUICC), which handles regional domains in eastern Ukraine.
The apostrophe is part of the Ukrainian alphabet and is frequently used to indicate that the consonant preceding a soft vowel is not palatalized.
Hostmaster is ready to cooperate with Domain registrars and introduce new rules making it possible for everyone to register domain names containing an apostrophe.
A few representatives from Ukraine who are members of ICANN’s Cyrillic Domain working group are trying to get ICANN’s green light for the creation of such domain names. Some members are however skeptical because of the possible technical difficulties.