Слово «провинция» в русском языке имеет несколько meanings, and because of this, its meaning to some people is not entirely clear. For example, what is a province in Russia? As a rule, this word has a somewhat derogatory, mocking meaning, and is associated with a small city or an urban-type settlement.
A resident of the capital of the Russian Federation will say thatthe province is “everything that is not Moscow”, and his comrade from St. Petersburg will complement the definition by mentioning his native city. Although Moscow is inhabited mainly by residents of various “provinces”, Muscovites believe that they have “come to their hometown”, and only Muscovites have full right to live in the capital of Russia. Of course, this opinion is too chauvinistic to be considered, therefore, the so-called provincial residents continue to move into a huge city in search of happiness. In other cultures, the question “what is a province” will be answered quite differently, without any either dismissive or arrogant tone or suspicious overtones.
Initially, this word meant territories inAncient Rome, which were administratively subordinate to him and were outside the Apennine peninsula. They were governed by governors and were actually considered foreign. To understand what a province is, you can, if you turn to the Latin language. There is an opinion that this word comes from the Latin verb vincere, which means “to take control over something / someone”, and the particles pro, which means “on behalf of”. The whole Roman Empire was divided into such provinces, but Rome was still considered the central authority of each of them. At the same time, the semantics of a certain scale of a territory was not originally laid down in this word, because it meant a form of control rather than a kind of a territorial unit. Perhaps it is because of this difference between the former and the modern interpretation and not everyone understands what a province is. The definition is a bit blurry and depends on which point of view it is approached from: historical or geopolitical.
В современном мире многие страны делят свои territory in the province. One of the most prominent examples is Canada. Their functioning is very similar to the management of the United States of America: all Canadian provinces are subject to one common constitution, but they have the right to independently form local governments and exist abstracted from a federal government. It is very simple to explain what a province of Canada is: it is a separate small state that obeys the laws common to the whole country, but has a large number of powers within its territory. For example, provinces can create their own laws, but they have no right to ignore those already introduced into the constitution. There are English and French-speaking provinces in Canada, and some residents of the French-speaking regions believe that the French language is oppressed in Canada. This is strange, because Canada has taken both languages as state.
Также на провинции территорию своей страны делят Irish. They existed before, but then they were called Tuats, which in Old Irish meant “people”, “nation” or “tribe”. As we can see, Ireland has preserved its cultural identity to this day, though she chose to pay tribute to fashion and call its Tuats provinces. So what is a province in a country of ethnic Celts and elves? Earlier in Ireland there were only five, but later little Mith was included in Leinster. Thus, already formed four provinces in the territory of modern Ireland. They are not as different as in Canada, but the inhabitants of a particular province can be identified by their characteristic accent or the use of dialect words. The capital of Ireland, Dublin, is located in the province of Leinster, but the province of Munster exceeds its size.
Another good way to uncover the concept“Province” is to explain what a state is. The province is not much different from it, but for some reason a smaller part of the countries prefers to divide their territory into states. The most famous states are, of course, those located in North America. The United States includes 50 states. Also, this administrative unit exists in Australia, India, Brazil, Venezuela and some other countries. At the same time, the largest state is Texas (USA), where almost 27 million people live. In the US, the origin of a person can be determined by his accent, just as in the case of Canada or Ireland. A huge number of jokes about cultural differences between residents of different states are common among Americans, but in general this nation can be called united, since the mentality of its citizens is almost the same.
