Abstract:

Documents created in the European Union are abundant in Latin words and expressions, such as ad hoc, de facto, de jure, ex ante, inter alia, mutatis mutandis, ultra vires, pro rata, in situ, etc. Many of them have already become clichés used in the institutional register as well as in other less formal registers. The present study analyses Latin expressions common in EU documents and their versions in other European languages. The aim of the paper is to overview most common Latinisms used in EU documents in English and to determine whether they are also rendered as such in document versions in other languages, i.e. French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latvian and Lithuanian, etc. An assumption is made that some of the Latinisms used in English versions of documents are not retained in corresponding document versions in other languages. Instead, they are translated to the target languages. The study shows that Latin words and phrases tend to be retained in some languages while equvalents or direct translations tend to be given in other languages. The paper draws attention to a problem often dealt with by translators: to retain a Latin phrase or to translate it. Studying the tendencies of translation of Latinisms in EU documents may provide helpful pedagogical implications as to whether and to what extent translation students should be taught legal terminology.

Keywords:

Latinisms, equivalents, EU documents, legal language, simplification.