Is DayZ really set in fictional Ukraine?

pilgrim* · January 7, 2014

The encyclopedia britannica thread of the forums, please type more must read.

Regards,

Steak.

well - here's a contrib to the Encyclopedia

ok I'm not a language expert and I apologise up front if I offend anyone by mistake, especially the Welsh, but also - everybody - because people have strong opinions on these subjects.

In the 1700s German was the main language in Bohemia, not Russian, not Turkish,etc, and for good reason. At the least, German had replaced the West Slavic language (regionally "Old Czech") which was "fading away" and German was the most important, the 'official' and 'cultivated/educated' language.

You could perhaps compare that situation to contemporary Wales, where English is/was the single universal Welsh spoken language for a long period, however great and ancient the Welsh-language tradition was and is. Welsh was still always spoken "in the hills".. but in our modern times roadsigns are in Welsh (and English), my own driving licence is in both languages, and Welsh is again an official (call it a 'national') language. But the majority of the population will not claim Welsh as their first language.

There was a Czech national revival in18th and 19th centuries, strongly including the Czech language, among intellectuals and political/ethnic nationalists and writers/poets (getting close to our own time period, historically). I think this was a reaction against the Hapsburgs, the same thing happened in many places across Europe.. for similar reasons ('even' in the Germanic states, where this radical idea of 'nationalism' started off a whole load of stuff).

Interestingly (IMO) at the present day we are going through another wave of 'regionalism', where many people are more interested in their own local or regional culture/literature/tradition/'nationality' than the values for a long time imposed on them by the "big" powers that previously overwhelmed those languages and cultures..

Until recently Czech and Slovak were considered to be (completely) mutually intelligible languages. The differences between the two are increasing, especially among young people (I'm told). I think this means that since they established their seperate countries and identities the populations are going their seperate ways (starting with the younger folk, natch.). Slang becomes normal language, ways of thought become ways of speech,and then ways of speech become ways of thought.. ya know..

Language differences and changes (I swear there IS a point to all this - more or less): For instance, many western folk do not realise that "Arabic" can be very (extremely) different from one country to the next - so that different nationals can not understand at all, or hardly understand with difficulty, each others speech - this is way stronger than just different "dialects" I think. But people in each of these countries can understand the same written Arabic, because it is a classic and universal written language (maybe like Latin was in Europe in the middle ages?)

*

So.. as for RUSSIAN in DayZ.. My take is that it is a kind of "safe joke". Russian is a standard well-known language like English or Arabic (it's the largest country in the world). So if you write the road signs in Russian you are deliberately pointing out that this is NOT any central European state. Plus there is also good chance players anywhere can find translations if they really want to look. In reality Czech is seriously more similar to Polish, than to Russian ...[ but Polish, for me.. is just all greek written backwards (or maybe upside down?). I REALLY can't suss it at ALL, sorry people, I'm fairly dumb ]

Therefore - GOOD idea to put the roadsigns in Russian, its a "safe bet".. And as for the names.. well.. maybe there's a kind of joke in that too: due to Soviet history plenty of 20th century Russian towns have Big Heroic Industrial names, while on the other hand some little places still keep the name they were stuck with in the 10th century when they were the only group of houses you could find in a long day across the steppes (see the photo of Kazakhstan just below, for example) and in western Russia also, from Poland to the Volga the whole place is pretty FLAT, and it's a long long way everyway, so villages tend to have very.. 'not complicated' .. names.

yes ?

I think "Electro" - Electrozavodsk - is a GREAT name (that's got to be a slight sense of humor in there, right?).

There is a Ukrainian ultra-modern rapid transit underground station called Electrozavodska (no relation?). Central socialist urban planning in the 1960s chose that city (Kryvyi Rih) and Volgograd as the two test locations for new experimental futuristic urban techno-development.

The Ukrainian language is much closer to Russian and Belarusian, with an extent of mutual intelligibility. Not similar to Czech, which is closer to Polish (but I said already)

There is a town called Chernogorsk in the middle of Siberia (same comments?). I like these names !

[end of lecture.. ya know, almost]

A note in support of the Ukraine: - The Ukraine (once Kievan Rus' the core from which the Moscow-centered Russia eventually emerged) has been declaring and fighting for, loosing and winning back, its independance repeatedly since before year 1000.. early on was arguing with the (Turkish?) nomadic Khans, then the Vikings (Varengians), then the Mongols, the Muslim Caliphates, the Poles,then.. really lots of folk, and the Russian Tzars

(p.s. - Tzar is just a pronunciation of "Caesar" which was the private family name of a well-known Roman guy who became an Emperor, so it's been used as a claim to fame all over the place, had to say that)

AND Ukraine centered on Kiev then fought against the Soviets, was absorbed..

BUT across 1000 years of this history, the fact of 60 years (total - one lifetime) as a soviet state, is not ENORMOUS..

And - as anywhere - there are different people of different ethnicities there today - AND different opinions just inside one family, who do not agree with each other for small or large reasons, are more idealistic or more practical, more dramatic or more slow-and-long-term, and there are different backgrounds, different songs, different memories.

You could compare this in some way to the American Civil War (sometimes even father against son, for many economic, political or philosophical reasons)... but to link the Ukraine strongly with today's Russia is only a very small part of it's long history.

In 10 years this will ALL be different, and let's hope it goes as smoothly as possible... whichever direction.

xx ('scuse me.. also I know I squashed up a lot of stuff and said it badly or inaccurately.. please see what I intend rather than the mess I make of saying it)

Czech National Revival (the first)

Czech Language

Kievan Rus'

xx pilgrim

Edited October 10, 2014 by pilgrim