10.02.2008 5:40 pm
Call them what they are: tykonauts (seriously)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
In reference to China’s first spacewalk: Why does the U.S. media keep referring to Chinese spacemen as “astronauts?” The correct term — at least from my reading — is supposed to be “tykonaut.” We don’t call a Russian cosmonaut a Russian “astronaut,” do we? The U.S. media should extend to the Chinese the same courtesy by using their chosen term.
EJ Rotert
Pacific
This dude gets a letter published every couple of days. Are you getting paid by the word, EJ?
EJ,
There are tens of thousands of words in the English language (and probably in the Russian and Chinese languages as well). So why stop with just one? Nyet is the Russian word for no. So why don’t we start using nyet every time we refer to a Russian saying no? And why not use the Chinese word for no when a Chinese person says no? And how about doing the same thing for the words chair, house, water, table, happiness, cockroach, etc.? Shouldn’t we show respect to people of other languages by using all their words, not just one or a few?
Actually, I like `nyet,’ so I vote we use it. I was just pointing out that we don’t call Russian cosmonauts `astronauts.’