Posted by John Sydorenko on March 21, 2000 at 17:29:31:
In Reply to: Language Debate posted by Dirk on March 20, 2000 at 05:16:32:
:This is a reply to Dirk from Germany.
Dirk, you must have heard of language Esparanto. My sister took some courses to learn that language while we lived in post-war Germany. It was suppose to be an international language, specifically created to be accepted by the international communities. What happened to it? English became an international language.I have no quarrel to which language should be an international one, but when it comes to a domestic language, it is the soul of the people. Ukrainians were denied the use of their language by the empires that ruled them for centuries. Valuev ukaz of Russia in 1863 prohibited teaching Ukrainan in schools and Elm's ukaz three years latter prohibited importation from abroad of Ukrainian literature to Ukraine.Even the use of word Ukraine was prohibited by Russia untill 1917 and the Red Russia used other tactics to continue same policy. Now the Ukrainians have to catch-up what they missed - to find their soul and their language.