3 OCTOBER 1987, Page 19

Glas houses

Sir: Glasnost is derived from glas, an old word for 'voice' which can be found in all but the smallest dictionaries. One of your correspondents (Letters, 26 September) thinks, mistakenly, that glasnost is spelt glaznost. The other, also mistakenly, thinks that the Russian for 'eye' (glaz) is spelt glas. These may sound similar to English ears, but they are completely different words in Russian: confusing glas with glaz is like confusing 'vocal' with `focal'.

Noel Malcolm

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge