Kozak/Cossack

[Seth Graham]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Francoise Rosset" <frosset at WHEATONMA.EDU>
To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2008 6:29 PM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Kozak/Cossack


> On Sun, 7 Dec 2008 01:01:33 -0500
>  "Paul B. Gallagher" <paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM> wrote:
>> nataliek at UALBERTA.CA wrote:
>
>> This is all very confusing. If the Cossacks were in fact Turkic people as 
>> per the Oxford English Dictionary, what difference does it make to the 
>> Ukrainians how we spell their name in English? If they were Ukrainians, I 
>> could understand the Ukrainians wanting to lionize them as some sort of 
>> national heroes. But if they were an offshoot of the Qazaqs, that's 
>> (forgive me) a horse of a different color.
>
>>This is all very confusing. If the Cossacks were in fact Turkic people as 
>>per the Oxford English Dictionary,
>
> OK, now I'm confused.
> I had learned (mistakenly perhaps, it happens) that Cossacks/Kozaks were 
> not an ethnic group at all, but a group that established itself 
> historically from "outlier" types (runaway serfs, "incorrigibles," various 
> freedom-seekers) and then developed a loosely defined society.
> Is it the appellation that's Turkic, or the actual group?

The original poster (can't remember who now) was pointing out that the OED's 
reference to Cossacks as Turkic was a mistaken conflation of Cossack/Kazakh.

Seth
_____________
Dr Seth Graham
Lecturer in Russian
School of Slavonic and East European Studies
University College London
Gower St
London WC1E 6BT
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7679 8735
s.graham at ssees.ucl.ac.uk 

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