Novyj god

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Margarita Orlova wrote:

[responding to me without attribution:]
>>> The rule is more general: a nominative proper phrase has only the 
>>> first  noun capitalized, e. g., Novyj god, zhural "Novyj mir", 
>>> Oktiabr'skaja revoliucia, gazeta "Za nashu Sovetskuju Rodinu" (both 
>>> last nouns were capitalized  as a result of atheism;0
>>
>> OK, that makes sense.
>>
>> But how do you explain Российская Федерация with capital Ф? I don't 
>> remember the last time I saw it with a small ф...
>>
>> And how about «Государственная Дума Федерального Собрания РФ» 
>> <http://www.duma.gov.ru/> and «Совет Безопасности РФ» 
>> <http://www.scrf.gov.ru/>, but «Счетная палата РФ» 
>> <http://www.ach.gov.ru/> and «Центральная избирательная комиссия РФ» 
>> <http://www.cikrf.ru/>?
>>
>> How about «Парламентская Ассамблея Совета Европы»?
>>
>> And what rule governs «День Конституции РФ»?
> 
> Those are the rules of "atheism", basically. What I mean supporting the 
> "atheism" joke is the search of some sacredness in the civil life as 
> well as in the notion of human, featured by the French and Russian 
> successful revolutions to replace for God. So, capitalization of some 
> nouns may be seen as a sign of veneration to the point of sacredness.
> 
> But it is just a tendency; there are no rules about what should be 
> considered as sacred. Nowadays  the tendency is broadening: maybe people 
> want more sacredness, at least, in the orthographic area... Or Putin's 
> government wants them to be more respectful.
> 
> Your instances may be explained this way:
> 
>> «Государственная Дума Федерального Собрания РФ»
> 
> Государственная - all coming from the state is sacred;

And of course it's the first word of the phrase.

> Дума -  historically sacred, probably from the times of Ivan the Terrible;
> Федерального - recently "верхи" forced the feelings of awe on people;
> Собрания - historically sacred (taken in this particular sense).

OK, so it's this /particular/ Собрание, not all собрания generally. Cf. 
"the U.S. Congress" vs. "engaged in congress"... ;-)

>> «День Конституции РФ»
> 
> День - the first noun of the proper noun phrase
> Конституции - sacred from the Stalin times; when Googling, "Конституция 
> 1905" and alike gets about 50% -50% capitalized - non-capitalized 
> responses, depending on the attitude of the writers toward the thing.

Fascinating. So I suppose «День независимости США» would not be 
capitalized throughout if the writer did not hold a deep admiration for 
our Independence.

> РСФСР / РФ - the capitalization is supported by frequent abbreviating: 
> it is not desirable to have mixt letters in an abbreviation. But the 
> sacredness can be felt, too. In 1930-s, and in Russian emigree 
> publications you can still encounter ф-;
> 
>> Совет Безопасности РФ
> 
> Совет - the first word
> Безопасности - recently "верхи" forced the feelings of awe on people.

Hmph.

> Other your examples have fewer sacred words, evidently.
> 
> In my opinion, «Парламентская Ассамблея Совета Европы» should be 
> «Парламентская ассамблея Совета Европы». Though i may feel this way 
> because i do not have that specific emotion of awe of the assembly. 
> However, the analogy with the sacred Собрание and respect to Europeans 
> ("низкопоклонство перед Западом" :) can play some role, too. Probably, 
> that is why they have capitalized Ассамблею.

OK.

-- 
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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