Reasons to study Russian, or English for that matter!

[Paul B. Gallagher]

John Dunn wrote:

> Two comments on recent discussions.
> 
> 1. Nationalistic/national.  I suppose that the haka, the alleged
> Maori war dance now performed by New Zealand rugby union players
> before international matches, is an example of 'a nationalistic
> dance'.  It is possible that other peformances answering to this
> description may be found in some of the video-clips that accompany
> the oeuvre of Oleg Gazmanov.   But am I the only person who thinks
> that 'national' in the original context doesn't sound right either?
> I would assume that this a is a reference to what are normally known
> in English as 'folk dances'.

Perhaps, but I think "folk dances" is probably too narrow.

If the original was национальный, that reminds me of the famous question 
on passports and similar documents: "национальность?" -- which of course 
is not "nationality" (гражданство) but "ethnicity." And an "ethnic 
dance" need not be a "folk dance" (танец народный) -- to my ear, the 
latter implies a certain level of, oh, shall we say "informality," 
"unofficialness," or something, verging toward deprecation. Not that I 
myself have anything against folk dances, or indeed any form of folk 
art. But they don't generally enjoy the status that some other forms do.

Here's a very Eurocentric treatment:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_dance>

You may also like the discussion here (scroll past the chaff at the top):
<http://www.folkdancing.org/folk_vs_ethnic.html>

Speaking of entrenched translations, in the arms-control context we have 
the stock phrase "national technical means," which denotes anything 
(hardware, software, etc.) a signatory can use /other than/ human assets 
to perform a particular task of interest (e.g., detecting an incoming 
bogie). Here, "national" does refer to the nation, and of course these 
tasks are performed officially if surreptitiously by the government.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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