Comm on Coll and pre-Coll Russian data base

[Max Pyziur]

>Dear Max,
>One thing that particularly fills me with joy is your eternal
>claim that Ukraina is not Russia. People in the West often
>don't see the difference between Russia and the previous Soviet
>Union simply because Russia dominated. While few confuse
>Eastern Europe with Russia, the word 'Cyrillic characters' is always
>confused with modern Russian typeface, which is Latinized though
>not so completely as in Polish. Why not just say 'Russian characters' or
>Ukrainian characters? That will be simpler to understand.
>People say 'English letters', but not 'Latin letters' because they

This is a presumption which I don't share with you.  As a speaker of
American English, generally, I believe that I say "alphabet" before I would
begin to say "English letters", but I can't extrapolate with certainty (to
the degree with which you apparently can) on what is generally said/written
here in the US or the UK -- "alphabet", "English letters", or something else.

>know even the most recent Latin characters that had the lower case as well
>didn't distinguish U,V,W, for example. And in the same vein people don't
>call Latin characters Greek because they know that whatever the origin
>they are different. Therefore, whatever the origin, let us call Russian
>characters Russian and not Cyrillic (let the term 'Cyrillic letters' refer
>to the hand-written script of the Middle Ages).

You can call them whatever you want crafting a justification using logic
more approproiate to higher levels of mathematics; my use of the terms
"Cyrillic letters" and  "Cyrillic alphabet" reflects my usage of the term
"kyrylytsia" when I speak/write/communicate with others in Ukrainian.  Other
terms which I've heard used are:  "azbuka" and "abetka"; nowhere have I
heard or seen the use of "rosij's'ki litery" or "rosij's'ka azbuka".

>Incidentally, most Japanese are not sure whether America is USA or
>North, Central and South Americas.

They also are not sure about their ancestors' roles in the Nanjing massacre
and other unpleasant events in China, along with Korea and the Phillipines;
in both cases this probably reflects the Japanese Ministry of Education's
politics and desire to obfuscate the state of the world and Japan's history.
At this point perhaps I should call on the native Ainu people of Japan to
somehow rise up to which you would probably reply that the Native Americans,
especially the Navajo, should find Kit Carson's grave and exhume his remains
to mark the beginning of a rebellion against some sort of de facto
cultural/economic subjugation.  By our collective (yours and mine) efforts
this would be the beginning of dystopia.

Look Tsuji, it's obvious that you are more than just an aficionado of
Russian language and culture and it appears that you would champion them
over the languages and cultures of other Slavic people.  However, like it or
not, there is such a thing as Ukraina and Ukrainians living there and in the
world.  They see and know themselves as distinct.

Btw Tsuji, being on faculty at Waseda Daigaku with your great allegiance to
Russian culture, how do you feel about the Russian (formerly Soviet)
occupation of the Japanese Kuril Islands?

>Cheers,
>Tsuji

Max
pyz at panix.com