Another Serbian word that gives translators endless problems is domaći.
The word is from dom – “home” – and is an adjective that, loosely speaking, describes things relating to the home (e.g. every kid’s favourite, domaći zadatak – homework). However it also has the meaning of “not foreign”, “local”, and this is where translators frequently fall down (usually, though not always, those non-native English speakers translating from Serbian).
Yes, domaći COULD sometimes be translated as “domestic”:
- bruto domaći proizvod (BDP) – gross domestic product (GDP)
- domaći let – domestic flight (i.e. one within the same country)
- domaća politika (not such a common expression) – domestic policy
- domaće životinje – domestic animals
- domaći terorizam – domestic terrorism
However we unfortunately very often see usages of domaći which cannot be translated “domestic” and where another solution should have been found in English:
- najveća domaća konferencija u oblasti informacionih tehnologija – “the largest locally-held/Serbian/national conference…”, NOT “domestic”. The only time you will find the phrase “domestic conference” if you Google for it is on non-English websites!
- domaća hrana – this one comes up all the time, and the expression in Serbian means “traditional/national/ethnic/home-made food”, something along those lines, and should NEVER be translated “domestic food”. Don’t even think about it!
- domaća serija – Similar to the example above with konferencija, this refers to a television series that was produced in Serbia, and “domestic” would not be the suitable word here. A suitable translation would be “locally-produced”, “Serbian-made” or, more idiomatically, “homegrown” (our preferred solution, provided it’s not overused).
- domaći izdajnik – an expression that became heavily used in the post-Second World War period (and in post-Communist dictatorships all over Eastern Europe) to mean someone who had collaborated with “the enemy”. Well… “domestic traitor” does come up sometimes, but it’s really far more common to say “collaborator” (e.g. “Nazi collaborator”).
It also works the other way – “domestic violence” should never have been translated into Serbian as domaće nasilje. For one thing, domaće when referring to the “home” has a positive connotation, as somewhere warm and pleasant, unfortunately not an appropriate sense here at all. The proper (and legal) term in Serbian is porodično nasilje (“family violence”), although unfortunately the phrase domaće nasilje has made inroads under the influence of English in recent years.
So you can see that although there is some overlap in the meaning of domaći and “domestic”, there is by no means a direct correspondence and at the least one should look more carefully at whether it is appropriate in English or whether a more idiomatic English expression ought to be used.
