Re: Hi from Ukraine

> Re: Andreas Johansson on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 9:12 AM
-----
> Correct that _Ukraine_ and _Krajina_ are related, or just that _Ukraine_
> means borderland?
'Kra(j)ina' in many Slavic langs (including Ukrainian and Serbian) means
just 'land'. The prefix 'u-' is pretty polysemantic, but in this context
almost surely means 'near', 'next to'. So, 'Ukraine' (or, 'Ukraïna'
[ukra'jina] in Ukr.) may mean 'neighboring land', 'borderland', even
'frontier'. In many
ways it seems synonymous to Russian 'okraina' [V'krain@] -- 'outskirts'
That's why
this explanation bothers some Ukrainian archinationalists.

> As for nobody wanting to be just a borderland, tell the Danes - _Denmark_
> literally means "borderland of the Danes" (presumeably originally refering
> to the border region against Germany in South Jutland). Never heard of
> anybody complaining about it.
Lucky Danes!