the Russian gaze

[Peter Morley]

With regard to the Ukrainian spellings, could it simply be the case that the
players themselves were asked how they wanted their names rendered on the
shirts? In any case, while purists and probably Viktor Yushchenko would like
all names to be Ukrainianised and consistent, the national team reflects the
current reality, namely that some speak Ukrainian and some Russian as their
first language. To me, the mix of transliterations is therefore a non-issue.


On 27/06/06, John Dunn <J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> The ironic/pejorative use of Ukrainisms is a
> characteristic feature of a certain type of
> Russian writing on Ukrainian topics (as is, some
> might say, the affected cynicism and the mixture
> of Schadenfreude and paranoia).  But I wonder if
> the Ukrainians do all that they could to promote
> their language.  In a somewhat desultory fashion
> I have been noting the various transliterations
> used for the names of Ukrainian football players
> participating in the current World Cup (it helps
> to pass the time during tedious 0-0 draws).
> These are bewilderingly mixed (Gusev, but Husin;
> often a forename transliterated from Ukrainian is
> combined with a surname transliterated from
> Russian), and I have no idea  where they are
> taken from, but the versions on the players' own
> shirts, which might be thought to have some
> official status, are mostly, though not
> consistently derived from Russian: Gusiev [sic],
> Gusin, though Shovkovskyi and Tymoschuk [sic].
> It is not as if no linguistic expertise was
> applied, as the mark to indicate the soft sign in
> the name of Rotan' indicates. The whole thing is
> decidedly odd.
>
> John Dunn.
>

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