Oct 16, 2005 17:45
18 yrs ago
16 viewers *
Arabic term

الثوابت

Arabic to English Other Government / Politics
علينا التعاضد و التكاثف حول الثوابت الوطتية و القومية المتزهة عت كل المصالح با ستثناء مصلحة الوطن حصرا، علما بان هذه الثوابت تستدعي ضرورة التعبير على مستوى الأقتناعات الراسخة و تجاوز الأعتبارات الشخصية و ذلك لحتمية بلورة موقف جامع لكل الأرادات الطيبة و الوطنية و مانع لأي خطر ناجم عن التحديات الداهمه.

Discussion

sithanem (asker) Oct 16, 2005:
context Thank you Fouad for your prompt reply. I checked the term but somehow it doesn't seem to apply in this context.
Fuad Yahya Oct 16, 2005:
Please check previous postings of the same term:

http://www.proz.com/kudoz/1095158

Proposed translations

+8
13 mins
Arabic term (edited): �������
Selected

principles/fundamentals

You could translate using one of the above terms or translation by transliteration - thawabit - and then use a fairly literal translation in brackets, e.g. fixed elements/constants, depending on your wider context and which country you're talking about.
Peer comment(s):

agree Alexander Yeltsov : or foundations
47 mins
yes, thank you
agree ahmadwadan.com
1 hr
thank you
agree A Nabil Bouitieh
2 hrs
thank you
agree Sam Berner
3 hrs
thank you
agree Mariam Osmann
10 hrs
thank you
agree Nancy Eweiss
1 day 22 hrs
thank you
agree Mohamed Elsayed
1 day 23 hrs
thank you
agree Arabella K-
7 days
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you and I apologize for the delay.I had problems with my computer"
36 mins
Arabic term (edited): �������

National Symbols

I think this is the best translation, please check:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_symbols
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+2
1 hr
Arabic term (edited): �������

constants

الثوابت الوطنية والقومية
national and pan-Arab constants

Realize that the word قومية is context dependent in Arab countries, but the cue here is that قومية and وطنية must be different, so قومية must refer to pan Arab nationalism.

For usage examples, you can google for "moral constants".

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Note added at 6 hrs 17 mins (2005-10-17 00:02:14 GMT)
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A comment on Aisha's remark:

Terms like الثوابت القومية , ثوابت الأمة , and ثوابت الدين are also new in Arabic discourse. Like many new terms, they emerged out of necessity. When used, the word ثوابت is often deliberately chosen instead of مبادئ or أصول, but the average reader or listener does not realize the subtlety of the choice. In most cases these terms -which are increasing in popularity in the Arab world- are used in two situations:

- By a party that advocates that everything is subject to change in the name of progress, but they qualify their statements by excluding ثوابت الأمة to protect their backs. They will never be caught defining precisely what those ثوابت are, but by waving this term, they avoid alienating the public.

- By a party that advocates adherence to traditional principles but have taken the other party's bait and instead of talking about adhering to مبادئ الأمة or أصول الدين , etc., they talk about adhering to ثوابت الأمة and ثوابت الدين. They do not realize that by adopting this terminology, they have concurred with their adversaries.

The debate about political, social, and religious change in the Arab world has been as live as it is today. Vocabulary is being used extremely effectively in this debate, and in the most subtle of ways, by intellectuals and politicians who grew up having to learn how to walk through minefields before learning to crawl.

The best way to reflect the distinction between these different terms in English is to translate the new coinage.



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Note added at 6 hrs 19 mins (2005-10-17 00:04:01 GMT)
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I meand "has never been as live as it is today".
Peer comment(s):

agree Dina Abdo
56 mins
neutral Aisha Maniar : "moral constants" is used in philosophy, not politics, and there's no such thing as a "national constant" in English/note: hence I suggest transliteration and literal translation above as a way of getting around the peculiarity of this concept in the SL
1 hr
There also ethical constants, historic constants, universal constants of justice, and other similar formulations. Constancy aside, I think the word is more malleable than you suggest.
agree Mona Helal
8 hrs
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