ETHNIC AND CULTURAL NATURE OF HISTORICAL – TERMINOLOGY: THE COMPARATIVE AND TRANSLATION ASPECTS (based on historical terms of antiquity and Old Rus period)

Abstract

The article looks into the comparative and translational aspects of historical terms as a group of special professional words used by historians in both English and Ukrainian academic texts to describe one particular period in Ukrainian history, that of antiquity and Old Rus. Different groups of historical terminology were identified in original Ukrainian and English texts on this period, such as proper names, names to denote items of material culture, social and military status, rank at the royal court, social and religious processes and phenomena. Particular attention was given to those names that denote culture- and period-specific concepts of the described time-period in Ukrainian history. English translations of Ukrainian historical terminology were studied based on non-numerous existing translations from Ukrainian, which were then compared to the approaches used by native English-speaking academics. For those concepts where no equivalents could be found, the authors have offered their own translations. Conclusions were made about the prevailing methods of rendering different classes of historical terms into English, including culture-specific terms which were found in each terminological group. Such culture-specific Ukrainian terminology is rendered into English redominantly via combined renomination, which combines phonological and/or orthographic adaptation and description or via description only. Other methods have been discussed, such as translation by equivalent, loan translation and analogous translation, which were applied to both non-culture specific and culture-specific terminology. Identifying a lexical unit as belonging to one of those groups helps with determining its translation method. Conclusions have been drawn about the general nature of historical terminology, which from the translation point of view can be divided into two big groups: terms denoting universal historical notions and culture-specific historical terms.