Thursday, April 17, 2014

Query to linguists re "публичной дипломатии" (Russian translation of public diplomacy)

Query to linguists, inspired by a noteworthy comment by MC on Facebook. Here's the query:

The translation of "public diplomacy," rendered in some Russian texts as "публичной дипломатии," suggests in Russian (I stand to be corrected) an association with a brothel -- a brothel in Russian being referred to as "publichniy dom," according to the Oxford Russian Dictionary (revised edition, 1997).


Is this a speculation worth speculating about? Or, to make things clearer and easier to translate, why not simply call it (PD) "pubic diplomacy"? :)

Image from

No comments: