Re: Uusisuom language (Online lesson)

On Thu, 29 Mar 2001, Frank George Valoczy wrote:

> > >Russian is spoken by
> > >hundreds of millions of people the world over, from Eastern Europe to the
> > >tip of Alaska
> >
> > Yes - but why?  It was taken thither by the Tsarist armies and continued to
> > be used over this vast area in the old Soviet Union.  To many it is, alas,
> > too much identified with a language of imperialism.
> >
> > If Uusisuom is to have any appeal for the international use that you would
> > like it to have, I would suggest forgetting the Russian influence (or at
> > least, minimizing it).
>
> I know for a fact that most Eastern Europeans loathe the Russian language
> and anything to do with Russia with an incredible passion. If anything at
> all, the only thing any Easterner would say to a Russian in Russian would
> be /job' tvoju matj/.
<choke>
Thanks to a Philip Jose Farmer in which what I think is an? analogous
Russian phrase (rendered possibly ebi tvoju mat, but I don't swear to it
since I read the book 8+ years ago), I almost understood that.

But wouldn't it be really difficult to scratch *all* Russian language
influences, especially if your own language is in the same family...?
(I'm not saying it's not possible, I'm just a bit puzzled.)

YHL

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