EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The small Alpine Republic of Slovenia took over the onerous task of running the EU for six months on 1 January - but since then has had to contend with a lime-light stealing France and an agenda that must not upset the EU's treaty ratification process. As the first of the member states to join the EU in 2004 to assume the six-month rotating presidency and having already been the first of these countries to adopt the euro, Ljubljana was proud of its fast-track European credentials. But although it has some major issues to deal with, including settling the final status of the breakaway province of Kosovo, the thorniest foreign policy issue to face the bloc in years, it risks been upstaged by France and high-octane president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Diplomats say it is telling that on the days that EU journalists travelled to Slovenia for the traditional get-to-know-the-new-EU-presidency trip, two major announcements emerged from France overshadowing the news coming from Ljubljana.
PARIS -- What have white horses got to do with the future of Europe?In 2008, plenty. For the first six months of this year, Slovenia -- whose town of Lipica is stud-farm home of those dancing Lipizzaner steeds of Vienna's Spanish Riding School -- holds the rotating European presidency. In the second half, the presidency falls to France, home of cowboy-favoured Camargue stallions that gallop wildly through waves on Mediterranean beaches.Two white horses, two styles. And each horse portrays perfectly its homeland's diplomatic approach. Tiny Slovenia, with barely two million people and a delightful, unspellable capital (Ljubljana), has launched its presidency with elegant restraint. It hopes to go with the flow of events -- the scariest being, for this fellow-remnant of disintegrated Yugoslavia, Kosovo. Likely within the current half-year, the 90-per-cent Albanian majority of this Serbian province will declare its independence. This will enrage Serbs and raise tensions between Russia and the West.
PARIS -- What have white horses got to do with the future of Europe?
In 2008, plenty. For the first six months of this year, Slovenia -- whose town of Lipica is stud-farm home of those dancing Lipizzaner steeds of Vienna's Spanish Riding School -- holds the rotating European presidency. In the second half, the presidency falls to France, home of cowboy-favoured Camargue stallions that gallop wildly through waves on Mediterranean beaches.
Two white horses, two styles. And each horse portrays perfectly its homeland's diplomatic approach. Tiny Slovenia, with barely two million people and a delightful, unspellable capital (Ljubljana), has launched its presidency with elegant restraint. It hopes to go with the flow of events -- the scariest being, for this fellow-remnant of disintegrated Yugoslavia, Kosovo.
Likely within the current half-year, the 90-per-cent Albanian majority of this Serbian province will declare its independence. This will enrage Serbs and raise tensions between Russia and the West.
The j is often used in combination with another vowel to make a dipthong. For instance, ja ~ Я
Now, these "hard vowels" or dipthings will palatalize a preciding "soft consonant".
So I presume Ljubljana (you have one i too many, BTW) would be transcribed as Любляна and the L's are pronounced palatalised as lj (the same sound as Spanish ll, Italian gli, or or French ill). We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo
And Я isn't a diphtong ; in isolation it represent yod+a ; after a consonant it represents a soft consonant (except after ь or ъ). From my russian phonetics courses the 'hard vowels' actually indicate a phonetically different consonant, and it is a bit wrong to think that the vowel modifies the consonant ; consonants are inherently 'soft', or 'hard', and modify the way the vowel is pronounced and written. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
The cyrillic transcription is correct, though.
Certain consonants such as l are ambiguous in that they take both hard and soft vowels and their pronunciation changes accordingly.
The phoneme to grapheme mapping is far from perfect in this case. We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo
Ya (Я, я) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, representing either the combination ja (a so-called iotated vowel) or a after a palatalized consonant.
This must be a huge headache for Western students of Slavic languages who don't know anything about phonology. We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo
One diplomat summed up the attitude of France towards Slovenia as being "You can do your dance but it will be up to us to make the real decisions," suggesting that on two topics in particular - the liberalisation of the EU's energy giants and picking the names for the top EU posts that are coming up next year - are being tacitly left to Paris. <...> "For us, he [Mr. Sarkozy] is a kind of a showman," said a diplomat from a small member state. "We are waiting to see what he will produce of substance."
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"For us, he [Mr. Sarkozy] is a kind of a showman," said a diplomat from a small member state. "We are waiting to see what he will produce of substance."
Y'know that suggestion a couple of days ago that Sarko might have some sort of manic condition begins to make increasing sense. keep to the Fen Causeway
