the two mirs

[Andrij Hornjatkevyc]

At 11:31 PM 09/22/00 +0200, you wrote:
>Thank you for your very comprehensive answer. Does all this then mean, that
>the Russian language has (had) a word for peace, and a different word for
>world, society; and that all nice efforts to find a philosophical reason why
>the Russian language has one word, that means peace as well as world, are
>meaningless?
>Kind regards,
>
>Nikolaus

We must remember that homonymy is a phenomenon found probably in all human
languages. Depending on the writing system, this can be a major or minor
issue. So the sound(s) [mir] have two different meanings in Russian,
"peace" and "world, society." The context almost always makes it rather
clear which is meant. At some point, probably in post-Petrine times but I
am not sure about that, some wit decided to use different spelling for the
two meanings. Later, that orthographic distinction was obliterated. But
whether one spells it MIPY MUP% (% for back jer), or MUPY MUP, logically it
can only mean peace to the world, and not world to the peace.

I do admit that spelling Vladimir with i-10 made it clear that he was a
ruler of the world and not necessarily a peaceful ruler (i-8). Ask average
Russians today to give the etymology of that name, and I suspect that the
results may be 50% for world, and 50% for peace.


Dr. Andrij Hornjatkevyc
Associate Professor
Canadian Institute of           Modern Languages and
Ukrainian Studies               Cultural Studies
352 Athabasca Hall              200 Arts Building
University of Alberta           University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB T6G 2E8    Edmonton, AB T6G 2E6
phone (780) 492-3765    phone (780) 492-0733
fax (780) 492-4967              fax (780) 492-9106

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