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FYI, in America and most English speaking part of the world, they consider the former Warsaw Pact nations like Czech Republic Eastern Europe, and insisting that
by rsj_hn 5y ago
FYI, in America and most English speaking part of the world, they consider the former Warsaw Pact nations like Czech Republic Eastern Europe, and insisting that no, it's "central europe" will make them a bit confused and, frankly, sounds very small.
So if your goal is to communicate with English speakers, I'd stick to "Eastern Europe".
(Please don't respond with some argument about balancing a cutout of Europe on a needle, etc., I'm talking about using words instrumentally.)
- jhgb 5y agoWhat is it about "balancing a cutout of Europe on a needle"? That has nothing to do with anything. The Warsaw Pact existed for four decades. The Holy Roman Empire existed for a millennium. Guess which one shaped the country more. The important thing is that it used to have one of the communist governments that GGP talked about.
- rsj_hn 5y agoYour attempt to try to change a widely used label because of the Holy Roman Empire reveals either a charming belief that labels must preserve some long term historical truth, or it's a strident attempt to force people to change their own language. In either case, you are tilting at windmills.
- jhgb 5y agoNo, they have windmills in the Netherlands. I'm in the Czech Republic. BTW if you're concerned about "not preserving historical truths", a major contemporary truth is that Central Europe is part of the common EU market and Schengen Area, while Eastern Europe isn't. So that's quite relevant for the market situation.
- def_true_false 5y agoThis is hopeless )) East == bad Central == better Therefore Central Europe always extends far enough to encompass the speakers' country. Similar thing happens with Europe and countries beyond the Black Sea.
- jhgb 5y agoActually, no. This would mean that there would be a dozen different accepted boundaries, which is simply not true. Instead, the eastern boundary of Catholicism/Western Church, the eastern boundary of Latin script, the eastern boundary of Germanized cultures etc. etc. etc. basically coincide.
- def_true_false 5y agoBut they don't really coincide... Seeing as Germany itself has a Protestant-Catholic split, nevermind the rest of Central Europe, Catholicism is probably not it. Neither Latin script, nor the extent of the historical German population, unless you consider the Baltics Central Europe. It seems there is indeed more than one way to look at it. For some, it is about not being in the same category with Russia, for some it's their Austro-Hungarian history. For some it's Germanic languages. Is the German North Sea coast any more Central than, say, Belgium? How about Slovenia? Is Südtirol Central Europe? Where exactly the line is tends to depend on the context. In my experience, people from the region don't care much about the Iron Curtain line, unlike Anglos or the French.