Rendering Ukrainian Historical Terminology of the Old Rus’ Period into English

Abstract

The article presents a study that focuses on approaches to rendering Ukrainian historical terminology related to the Old Rus' period into English selected en masse from Ukrainian and English academic texts on history, with a special focus on culture-specific terminology. Historical terms for translation purposes are categorised into non-culture-specific historical terminology reflecting universal concepts of historical science, and culture-specific historical terminology. The purpose of the article is to determine specific methods for Ukrainian-English translation of historical terminology of the Old Rus' period. The paper discusses approaches and methods used by English-speaking academics to secondary term formation, taking place when rendering concepts denoting Ukrainian original culture-specific terminology into English. Different groups of historical terms are described with a special focus on onomastic terminology. It is demonstrated that the historical context should be taken into account for the correct designation of a historical concept. Non-culture-specific historical terminology is predominantly rendered by existing equivalents, which were formed through phonological adaptation and/or calque translation. The most appropriate technique for rendering culture-specific Ukrainian historical terminology is shown to be combined renomination, the method that uses both a transcription and a description of a historical concept.