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auto-afirmação étnica

English translation: (right to) assert their own ethnic identity

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Portuguese term or phrase:auto-afirmação étnica
English translation:(right to) assert their own ethnic identity
Entered by: zabrowa

15:50 May 20, 2007
Portuguese to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Anthropology / Indigenous peoples
Portuguese term or phrase: auto-afirmação étnica
Além disso, na observância dos diferentes fatos lingüísticos encontrados entre essas línguas, no olhar sobre a real situação e as necessidades desses povos e no reconhecimento de seu direito de auto-afirmação étnica, alterou-se a estrutura classificatória da família Nambikwára

== Needs work ==

Furthermore, in observance of the different linguistic facts found in these languages, in looking at the real situation and the necessities of these people and in the recognition of their right to X, changes the classificatory structure of the Nambikwara family.
zabrowa
Local time: 22:05
(right to) assert their own ethnic identity
Explanation:
To me, "ethnic self-assertion" is clear enough but I'll try to explain what I think is meant here: presumably this is about where you draw the lines between dialects and languages. Take Arabic, for example: a speaker of Arabic from, say, Iraq would have a certain amount of difficulty understanding the Arabic spoken by someone from Algeria, yet both would tell you that they speak "Arabic". The two "dialects" probably have a lower degree of mutual intelligibility than, say, Swedish and Norwegian, which are officially two different languages (and for an extreme case, try Romanian and "Moldovan"). It's basically a question of politics. Chinese is another example where regional dialects aren't necessarily mutually intelligible; a friend of mine from Hunan province once told me that he would have difficulty understanding the dialects spoken in Shanghai or Fujian, for example, even though officially they're all "Chinese".

So here we have the Nambikwara family of languages, and presumably the question has arisen of how you classify them: are they dialects of a single language, for example, or should we say that they are distinct languages? And this is where people's ethnic identity plays a part. If some groups see themselves as being ethnically different from others, presumably they will want their dialect/language to be recognised as a separate language. We're told that there are differences between the dialects/languages, and this is why the question of classification has arisen.

Hope that makes sense.

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Note added at 5 hrs (2007-05-20 20:55:56 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"...assert their own ethnic *identities*", in fact, since there is more than one group (povos = peopleS)

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2007-05-20 21:29:59 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

and "alterou-se" is in the past, not the present - you'll have to reorder that bit (i.e. "the classification structure... was changed").
Selected response from:

Peter Shortall
United Kingdom
Grading comment
Thanks Peter. Yes, you certainly hit the nail on the head with this answer.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3etnic self-assertion
Susy Ordaz
3(right to) assert their own ethnic identity
Peter Shortall


  

Answers


4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
etnic self-assertion


Explanation:
etnic self-assertion

Matt, I found 1.200,000 hits for ethnic self-assertion and due to your context it even makes sense.

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Note added at 4 hrs (2007-05-20 20:33:01 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

sorry ethnic


    Reference: http://www.angelfire.com/id/multicultural/ethno.html
Susy Ordaz
Local time: 21:05
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in PortuguesePortuguese
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
(right to) assert their own ethnic identity


Explanation:
To me, "ethnic self-assertion" is clear enough but I'll try to explain what I think is meant here: presumably this is about where you draw the lines between dialects and languages. Take Arabic, for example: a speaker of Arabic from, say, Iraq would have a certain amount of difficulty understanding the Arabic spoken by someone from Algeria, yet both would tell you that they speak "Arabic". The two "dialects" probably have a lower degree of mutual intelligibility than, say, Swedish and Norwegian, which are officially two different languages (and for an extreme case, try Romanian and "Moldovan"). It's basically a question of politics. Chinese is another example where regional dialects aren't necessarily mutually intelligible; a friend of mine from Hunan province once told me that he would have difficulty understanding the dialects spoken in Shanghai or Fujian, for example, even though officially they're all "Chinese".

So here we have the Nambikwara family of languages, and presumably the question has arisen of how you classify them: are they dialects of a single language, for example, or should we say that they are distinct languages? And this is where people's ethnic identity plays a part. If some groups see themselves as being ethnically different from others, presumably they will want their dialect/language to be recognised as a separate language. We're told that there are differences between the dialects/languages, and this is why the question of classification has arisen.

Hope that makes sense.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2007-05-20 20:55:56 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"...assert their own ethnic *identities*", in fact, since there is more than one group (povos = peopleS)

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2007-05-20 21:29:59 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

and "alterou-se" is in the past, not the present - you'll have to reorder that bit (i.e. "the classification structure... was changed").

Peter Shortall
United Kingdom
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 8
Grading comment
Thanks Peter. Yes, you certainly hit the nail on the head with this answer.
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



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