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From: alan@dragon.acadiau.ca (Alan McKay)
Subject: Re: U-krayna?
Message-ID: <1995Feb13.204423.12229@relay.acadiau.ca>
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References: <3h87fh$id3@mordred.cc.jyu.fi> <D3oGuE.38@actrix.gen.nz>
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 20:44:23 GMT
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"Paul J. Kriha" <kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz> writes:

>Jorma Kyppo <jorma@jytko.jyu.fi> wrote:
>>
>> I would like to ask if anybody knows about the origins
>> of name Ukrayna.
>> Could it have something to do with the word 'krajina' = district.

>"Kraj" or "Krajina" have several meanings in Slavic languages:
>(1) Region
>(2) Countryside
>(3) End, Edge, Border, Extremity
>(4) Margin

My Russian-language teacher in Odessa, Ukraine, told us that it came
from "at the edge" (3rd definition, from above).  That is, it was at
the edge of the Slavic empire.

-- 
       "Sometimes at night I like to punch out the headlights
             and just rocket blindly into the dark."
                              - James Hurley
                                Twin Peaks, Episode 19
