Ukraine

[Alina Israeli]

Zenon M. Feszczak wrote:

>With all due respect:
>I would dare to surmise you might feel otherwise if Ukrainian were to
>utilize a condescending name for your land, and, in addition, Ukrainian
>were to become one of the predominant languages of international
>business, law, science, politics . . .

Well, *nemec* was not only condescending but maybe even derogatory. The
same could be said about *tatarin* or *tartar*. (Remember: Nezvanyj gost'
xuzhe tatarina.) I've heard the argument that these reduplicated forms were
uses as derogatory names, they are not self-names (the same for *berber*).
In fact, they lost their derogatory flair. In the case where the process
was reversed, *chuxonec* for Suomi probably was neutral at first and became
derogatory (as it is now) later, then it got replace by a borrowing: Finn.

Alina Israeli