earticle

영어

In this paper I explore the principles for translating Russian place names into Korean, especially keeping in mind the names of the federal subjects of Russia (republics, oblast’s, krajs, autonomous okrugs) and federal districts (FO). There are three problematic types: (1) the place names such that ends with -skij/skaja/skoje; (2) complex or multiple-word toponyms; and (3) “meaningful” ones. For a -skij/skaja/skoje type, the entire stem should be transliterated if there exists a city name with the suffix -sk: for example, Tomskaja oblast’ into Tomsk Oblast. Otherwise, only the root should be transliterated: Sakhalinskaja oblast’ into Sakhalin Oblast. In the case of complex toponyms, it is transliterated as a whole or restored into independent words. For example, Nizhegorodskaja oblast’ is translated into Nizhny Novogorod Oblast because Nizhegorodsk does not exist. Although it is determined whether to translate by meaning principally in accordance with the stylistic norms, there is a convention translating semantically the names of the federal districts (Juzhnyj FO into Southern FO) but transliterating phonetically the city names (Vostochnyj ‘Eastern’). The names of federal subjects and their translation is listed up at the end of the article.