# All Slavic languages: astronauts, cosmonauts & taikonauts



## Miliu

Hello foreros,

I'd like to know if in your language austronauts are sent by the NASA and cosmonautas are sent by the RKS.

 Which one of these two words is used in your language to speak about a person sent to the outer space by the European Agency or by the Chinese Government?

 Does anybody use the neologism "taikonaut" (from Chinese "taikong"-space and ... Greek "nauta" -voyager-) ?

Cosmic thanks!


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## Duya

In Serbian at least, _astronauti_ and _kosmonauti_ are used interchangeably, without particular preference, and _tajkonauti_ is rather obscure. Incidentaly, that same question was recently raised on a Serbian language forum. The results of the survey was that none of the participants (except for few astronautic geeks) knew that terms _astronaut_ and _cosmonaut_ came from different countries (and even those who did know, did not particularly care).


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## ilocas2

In Czech *astronaut* and *kosmonaut* can be used interchangeably, *tchajkonaut* is used for Chinese astronauts. Kosmonaut is used more than astronaut by ordinary people. The word tchajkonaut is for many people unknown.


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## itreius

_Kozmonaut_ is used almost exclusively in the context of Soviet/Russian astronauts. _Taikonaut_ is very rare and, again, used specifically for the Chinese. _Astronaut_ is considered to be the most neutral term and can be used for all astronauts, including the previous two groups.

Example:



> Četiri dana prije od planiranoga povratka iz Međunarodne svemirske postaje (MVP) na Zemlju je jutros uspješno pristala svemirska kapsula Sojuz. U njoj su se iz svemira vratili _kozmonaut_ Fjodor Jurčihin i _astronauti_ Shannon Walker i Douglas Wheelock.


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## swintok

Traditionally the Ukrainian communities in the west would exclusively use the term астронавт as космонавт was considered a Russianism.  In Ukraine, however, they would favour the term космонавт and only use астронавт when talking about American astronauts.  Because of the influence of recent immigrants and mass media from Ukraine, however, the term космонавт is becoming more common in the Ukrainian communities in North and South America.  It also seems to be slowly replacing астронавт as the generic term for astronauts.  For example, in the news reports about the death of Neil Armstrong, one was just as likely to hear him referred to as an американський космонавт as an американський астронавт.

I've never heard the term тайконавт used, but a Google search shows that it does exist.  I doubt most people would understand what it means, however.


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## rusita preciosa

I'd say, In Russian the generic name for a person in space is *космонавт */kosmonavt/; space exploration is *космонавтика* /kosmonavtika/.

*Aстронавт */astronavt/ is reserved for Americans.

*Tайконавт* /taikonavt/ (a rare word) for the Chinese, but I think most of the time the Chinese space explorers would still be cosmonauts.. 

What was the group name for the whole crew of Soiuz-Appolo (yes, that's what it was called in Soviet Union), where both the Soviets and the Americans participated, I do not know... They probably tried to rephrase to avoid a single name.


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## Azori

*Kozmonaut* and *astronaut* are used interchangeably in Slovak. Don't know about "taikonaut".


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## TriglavNationalPark

_Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika_ makes no distinction between *astronavt* and *kozmonavt* in Slovenian, but in practice, *kozmonavt* is used almost exclusively for Russians. *Astronavt* is used primarily for American astronauts, but may be used for others as well. It's as close to a generic term for space travelers as any, and is routinely applied to the Chinese, although *tajkonavt* is also occasionally used in the media. The Slovenian version of Wikipedia also mentions the term *spationavt* for a French astronaut, but this appears to be obsolete (if it was ever widely used), with no recorded use in recent media sources.


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## sesperxes

> the term *spationavt* for a French astronaut, but this appears to be obsolete



"Espacenaute" or "espace-naute" is the official French version of astronaut (of whatever nationality) and we must put this word in the same 100%-French sack where we find "logiciel" (software), ordinateur (computer), en tête de ventes (best-seller)  or... remue-méninges (brainstorming). Anyway, you can rarely hear it.


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## Ben Jamin

In Poland "kosmonauta” was the most used word until 1989. After 1989 “astronauta” became increasingly popular. It seems to me that both are used, with older people preferring “kosmonauta”. “Taikonauta” is almost completely unknown.


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