From: thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet,soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: nemnogo o Stepane (bylo: "Enigmatic
Date: 1 Oct 92 08:38:56 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

In article <9209302353.AA19563@feds66.Prime.COM>, dleschin@FEDS66.PRIME.COM 
("", Dmitri Leschiner) writes:
>> From: thietaniemi@CC.HELSINKI.FI

I'll split my answer and update the citizenship data a little later...

>> A Finnish mini-lesson: "Tapani" is a name with Christian origin:
>> Stefanus -> Stephen -> Steven (-> Istvan) -> Staffan -> Tapani.
>                                     ^^^^^^
>                                     Or, that name is an important one,
>                                     for Hungarians!
 
Indeed! I am deeply conscious of that: my idea was to demostrate that
even Finnish belongs to the great European (Christian) tradition, although
the words and names might not be transparent to the Indoeuropean
native speakers (which I am not).

> In Russian: Stephanos --> Stepan (just almost like Tapani!).
> [Is Tapani in fact Ta"pa"ni in Finnish?]

A good guess! Still, close, but no cigar :) It could in principle be written
that way, but the Finns write it simply *Tapani*. In the Karelian language
they even have the name Teppana, which represents a compromise between
Tapani and Stepan. 

Finns pronounce Tapani tah-pah-nih, with the emphasis
on the first syllable (one should resist the temptation to pronounce
my name as Trapani in Italy).
 
> There was a number of memorable Stephans in Russian history;
> one of the most honoured was Stephan Permskij of XVI century,
> the baptiser and enlightener of Permians (Komi), relatives of
> Finns (not so closed as Estonians though). He created the
> original Permian alphabet and translated Gospels and worship books
> into Permian. Unfortunately, his work was abandoned by Permians
> in less than 100 years, and they switched to using Slavic language
> in church services. As of now, only few fragments of texts written
> in original Stephan's alphabet, in XVI and XVII centuries, have
> been preserved till modern times. Books edition in Permian resumed
> only in XIX century, when Gospels and other books were printed, using
> Cyrillic graphics now. 

Might he be the same person as Stepan svjatij (who lived in the XIV
century), the apostle of the people called syrja"a"nit in Finnish,
which live around Perm and Kama? Or were there more Stepans around?

I don't know much about Perm and it's people - the only Permians
I (try to avoid to) meet are those slightly aggressive young men in Tallin 
old town wearing sunglasses and black leather jackets that are rumoured 
to represent "the Permian mafia". I wouldn't ask them anything about 
Stepan svjatij.

> But Permians are still a large nation now, and
> they have two republics within Russia: Komi Republic and Komi-Permian
> Republic (or is the latter still an autonomous region, as it used to
> be in Soviet times? - I'm not sure in it).

In the XUSSR, anything that slightly resembles of a state, has already
declared itself "sovereign", whatever it means. This applies even to Komi 
republic. And, I suppose even to the other republic (which was unknown to
me).

> Dmitry

privet

nabljudatel'
Stepan
Universitas Helsingiensis
urbs fennorum
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet