| I think the main question is whether you are trying to come up with a gloss of an English (or other naljbo) word or whether you are describing something in your own words. A translation is probably a bit of both, since you normally want the wording of the xe fanva to be reminiscent of the original text, but you also want the result to understandable and accurate in the target language. In the case of the Emperor of Japan, it may be worth noting that we are not dealing with a word that is originally English anyway, and while the emperors of Austria, China, and Japan may have the same title in English, these are two or three different words in Japanese and Chinese. Regarding "sorgugnai", I've never been very clear on exactly what a gugde or a natmi is, but the gismu glosses natmi as "nation/ethnic group" and in brackets as [people sharing a history/culture], while gugde is a "country" and parenthetically (people/territory relationship). So, it seems like natmi means nation in the more specific sense of a largish imagined community, as opposed to the more colloquial sense of a political regime as found in the name of the United Nations. An empire is arguable a type of gugde, but the whole point of it is that it rules various natmi. So, perhaps an empire would be a sornai gugje'a, while a union like the EU would be a sorgu'e jecta? Note also that being sornai is probably always a matter of degree, i.e. there's probably a certain amount of ethnic diversity in any political territory. Even the Emperor of Japan is ruler not only of Japan proper, but also of the Ryukyu Islands and Ainuistan. mu'e mi'o sen --- On Fri, 12/31/10, A. PIEKARSKI <totus@rogers.com> wrote:
|