Ukraine/The Ukraine

[Evgeny Steiner]

Venerable  Colleagues,

These unending debates - V vs. NA - reminded me the previous round of,
should I call it, (The) Ukrainian linguistic independency, when some
activists demanded that 'Kiev' in all international maps should be changed
to 'Kyiv.' Can't resist to self-quote my modest (hope not too acrid)
remark. It seems after almost eight years it still has some sense.

Date: Sunday, October 22, 2006 11:39 pm
Subject: [SEELANGS] Is Kiev/Kyiv the new acid test for Russo-centrism?


Dear all,

Does it mean that “grown up” nations can afford hearing their city names
“distorted” in every way (say, ‘Moscow’, ‘Moskau’, or ‘Mosukuwa’), but
the world should be overly accommodating to the sentiments of “newly
liberated” peoples? This interesting application of the Affirmative
Action might soon provoke certain activists in the academy to demand
that Jerusalem should be officially named Al-Quds.

Back to Kiev: if the idea is to eradicate the Russian colonial
linguistic domination, why not to return ad fontes? The first time this
city was mentioned in a written source was in the Hebrew Kievan Letter
(early 10 c.). It’s not our concern here if this “kahal shel Kiyyov”
(“the community of Kiev”) consisted of Khazarian or Judean Jews. They
settled there before the Slavs and called their city in their way.
Omeljan Pritsak who, with Norman Gelb, published this document
transliterated the Hebrew letters exactly in this way: ‘Kiyyov’. And,
after all, two Y together should look even more exclusive!


On Sun, Jun 22, 2014 at 4:18 PM, Josh Wilson <jwilson at sras.org> wrote:

> Dear Seelangers -
>
> I feel like I'm treading into dangerous waters here - but I'm genuinely
> curious...
>
> Does anyone know if there have been studies on v/na usage inside Ukraine?
>
> I've met Ukrainians (on two occasions) that actually use "na." They were
> from Crimea and East Ukraine, and both stated that it was not uncommon in
> their view for Ukrainian citizens to use the construction. Arguments for
> continuing the use of "na" included 1) that's the way it's always been
> (granted, which is a flawed argument) and 2) it recalls Ukraine's "great
> Soviet past."
>
> Obviously these are not the habits and opinions of all Ukrainians, but
> knowing that Soviet nostalgia is fairly common in many places of the former
> USSR, I would be interested to know just how widespread it is in Ukraine
> and
> how this might affect language use there (and how much diversity in this
> remains in Ukraine), should anyone know of such a study....
>
> Miru mir,
>
>
>
> Josh Wilson
> Assistant Director
> The School of Russian and Asian Studies
> Editor in Chief
> Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
> SRAS.org
> jwilson at sras.org
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Paul B. Gallagher
> Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 5:56 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Ukraine/The Ukraine
>
> anne marie devlin wrote:
>
> > Dear Seelangers
> >
> > Would any of you happen to know when 'The Ukraine' officially became
> > known as 'Ukraine' in English?  I presume sometime after 1993, but
> > would be very grateful for precise information on this as I can't seem
> > to find it anywhere.
>
> Since there is no "académie anglaise" or equivalent, everyone pretty much
> does as they please; there is no "official" English.
>
> Of course, you can make up your own definition by setting some organization
> as your standard. E.g., "since xx.xx.xxxx, the U.S. State Department has
> dropped the article." That makes it much easier to do the research.
>
> This article may be of use in that research:
> <http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2006/460614.shtml>
>
> --
> War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
> --
> Paul B. Gallagher
> pbg translations, inc.
> "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
> http://pbg-translations.com
>
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-- 
Professor Evgeny Steiner
Senior Research Associate
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
SOAS, University of London
Brunei Gallery, B401
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
United Kingdom

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