File spoon-archives/phillitcrit.archive/phillitcrit_1997/phillitcrit.9709, message 204


Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 13:58:49 +0200
From: Paul Mathias <pmat-AT-ext.jussieu.fr>
Subject: Re: PLC: French Translation Query


Reg Lilly wrote:

> I'm translating a book by Reiner Schurmann (written in French) in
> which he makes
> a great deal out of a term (borrowed from Hannah Arendt) --
> "natalite."
> Schurmann 'apologizes,' saying that this term sound rather barbaric in
> French.
> Could anyone tell me how the translators of Hannah Arendt have
> rendered this?
> It's in _Robert_ and doesn't seem a weirder use in French than
> "natality" does
> in English.
>
> Thanks,
> Reg Lilly

   What sounds very odd is that Schurmann should feel compelled to
"apologize" for using the term "natalite". For it is very common, at
least maybe as a technical term for sociologists and geographers. But
really: why apologize?There is nothing "barbaric" about it...

pM




   

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