NAUTICAL TERMINOLOGY IN DANISH SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article focuses on an understudied phenomenon, Danish idioms and sayings that originate from seafaring and have long since have been adopted into everyday use and have found their way into the language of mass media. Their abundance and existence in contemporary Danish reflect the historical and cultural heritage of Norsemen, a group of people that inhabited Scandinavia, mainly spoke the Old Norse language and were known all over Europe as traders, settlors and warriors and commonly referred to as Vikings. Many of the listed fxed expressions that relate to and have once derived their meaning from specifc nautical terms are most widely used in spoken and written Danish and therefore require adequate understanding and translation. To achieve these goals it has been found necessary to examine the appropriate language material, conducting an overall analysis of the fxed expressions of nautical origin used in a wider context in contemporary Danish means of mass media. Basic expressions retrieved in the study have been provided with and supported by extensive citations. In order to facilitate the analysis, the said fxed expressions have been divided into several groups according to their core subject. These are: 1) seafaring and operation of a sea vessel along with the use of specifc equipment (keel, sail, steer wheel, flag) as main units of meaning; 2) water and ocean as a basic element and natural environment that has to be tamed, ridden and mastered as well as actions that help in achieving those ends; 3) navigation and space orientation; 4) dangers at sea; 5) highly technical expressions with obscure meaning to a wide readership not well-versed in professional nautical terms. The last category, however, poses an ample number of problems as it requires exact understanding coupled with a necessity to provide suitable synonyms in Russian. Providing these expressions with Russian equivalents whenever possible or suggesting more metaphorical translations when the corresponding Russian terms are lacking or cannot be understood by general public is thus a major task. The fndings of the article may be of interest to professional interpreters and translators and to those who teach and study Danish and other Scandinavian languages.