3 ms·
“Turkish devil”, indeed; note the irony, the title of the person who wrote the purported letter is “Kosh otaman”, a title with a Turkic word:-) There’s confusi
by Jun8 7y ago
“Turkish devil”, indeed; note the irony, the title of the person who wrote the purported letter is “Kosh otaman”, a title with a Turkic word:-)
There’s confusion between “Kazakh” and “Cossack”, much was at stake on definitions like this, especially in earlier times when Turanic ideas were en vogue. Tolstoy’s novel is about the people mentioned here, who are Christian.
- sologoub 7y agoTurkic origin is not the only possible root - there is also a Scandinavian theory that ties hetman and otaman together (their meaning is similar and at some point was used interchangeably) and also a Germanic root. Source is in Russian (couldn’t find an English one): https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Атаман https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Атаман
- app4soft 7y ago> (couldn’t find an English one) Here are Wikipedia pages in Ukrainian[1] and English[2] [1] https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B0... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataman
- sologoub 7y agoThanks! Didn’t search hard enough.
- CamperBob2 7y agoThe 'Cossack' Wikipedia page explicitly says that 'Kazakh' isn't to be confused with 'Cossack.' Are they in fact related etymologically?
- smsm42 7y agoYes, most likely. They both come from a word meaning "free folk", and though Cossack and Kazakh communities are very different, they both formed from people that came from an area controlled by a centralized power to a place where they could live independently and rules by their own law. In general, it is no wonder that the word meaning "free folk" ended up being used for different people - it is a popular concept, United States also calls itself "the Land of the Free" - so if we spoke a Turkish language, Americans might be Cossacks too :)