Kozak/Cossack

[nataliek at UALBERTA.CA]

I am not advocating a Ukrainian nationalist point of view.  Rather, I  
am fascinated by the process of trying to change an image through  
language.  And I find the responses I am getting on this site very  
interesting indeed.  And very different from the discussion on the  
various Ukrainian groups.  I expected this and I was looking for a  
different point of view.  The issue of the non-Ukrainian Cossacks was,  
of course, ignored in the Ukrainian discussions.  Should the issue  
resurface in the Ukrainian groups, I will bring it up and see what  
people say.

Natalka K.

Quoting "William Ryan" <wfr at SAS.AC.UK>:

> Of course it is a political matter - your politics, not mine. You  
> have failed to answer my question as to why Ukrainian nationalists  
> have decided not only to claim ownership of all Cossacks but also to  
> dictate how their name should be spelled in latin alphabets,  
> regardless of language (the combinations ko- and -ak in English and  
> French for example are uncommon and ugly, c, ck, and qu- are much  
> more common). And what about the Russian-speaking Don Cossacks who  
> expanded Muscovy eastwards and manned the forts of Siberia, and  
> fought for or rebelled against the Moscow tsar - most of them were  
> never within a thousand miles of the Ukraine. Are we supposed to  
> re-write history and literature as well? Do we have to describe  
> Ermak, Pugachev and Stenka Razin as kozaki, Ukrainian cowboys? Do we  
> have to rewrite Tennyson's  'Charge of the Light Brigade'? (I note,  
> however, that Byron in Don Juan also uses the form Kozack, as well  
> as Cossacque).
> By all means be proud of your cultural heritage, by all means try to  
> re-balance the Great Russian view of history - I applaud all that,  
> but stop trying to bully others into alien linguistic norms for  
> spurious reasons. Your introduction of the notion of purity  
> ('Ukrainian and thus pure') into the argument is really quite  
> alarming. This precisely why 'political correctness' has got a bad  
> name.
> Will Ryan
>
>
>
Natalie Kononenko
Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography
University of Alberta
Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
200 Arts Building
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E6
Phone: 780-492-6810
Web: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/uvp/

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