Better word?

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Hey, I wanted to know if there's a better word for "native" than "аборигенный?" I'm translating for a group of indigenous peoples in Mexico and a delegation from Central Asia, and the only other alternative I find is местный, which feels more like "local" than "indigenous." And аборигенный just sounds... sounds to my ear just like негр does, and I don't feel like insulting any actual indigenous peoples.

Thanks!

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

Абориген is normally applied to first nations of Australia. When speaking about Central Asia, you will probably do better with местные народы, местные жители and all the derivatives thereof. Anyway, аборигенный does not sound too good for me language-wise. I am not even sure it is a word in Russian. You can definitely say жизнь аборигенов, работы аборигенов etc.

[aka-lacerda.livejournal.com]

"Коренной" is probably best in this case. Коренное население.

[oryx_and_crake]

Right, this probably expresses the "aborigen" idea better than местные.

[deepbluefox.livejournal.com]

I think it's коренной

[oryx_and_crake]

Actually, the word негр is perfectly OK for Russian. For example, you can say Дедушка Пушкина был негр.

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

I don't mind saying негр when I'm in Russian company. But when there are actual негры around, such as those who are foreigners studying Russian, I would hesitate to use it. Same thing with абориген.

Anywho, now that I see коренной, can I say коренные традиции? Коренные люди? Или лучше - коренные народы? Или уже понятно со словом "население"?

[oryx_and_crake]

Коренные народы, традиции коренных народов is OK. Коренные традиции sounds slightly off.

[alon_68]

Коренные народы - OK
Коренные люди - no
Коренные традиции - no
Местные обычаи - OK
Традиции коренных народов - OK

There are also two possible words: автохтонный that sounds scientific and is acceptable in the scientific context and титульная нация - the perestroika-time invention intended to be politically correct.

[atapask3.livejournal.com]

Ибрагим Петрович Пушкину прадед

[oryx_and_crake]

Are you sure? His mother's maiden name is Надежда Ганнибал.

[nekotjonok.livejournal.com]

Надежда Осиповна дочь Осипа Ганнибала, сына Ибрагима.

[atapask3.livejournal.com]

? Absolutely
Her father was count Осип (Януарий) Абрамович, a son of Ibragim and his wife, swedish army captain daughter, they lived in Pernov, nowadays Estonia.

[oryx_and_crake]

ОК, my mistake.
For some reason, I always thought Abram Gannibal was Pushkin's grandfather.

[licvidator.livejournal.com]

Местные.

[olga-mukhortova.livejournal.com]

it depends on the text style.
местный, коренной - neutral, political, everyday language
аборигенный - academic writing
also you can use in academic writing - доколумбовое население Америки

[atapask3.livejournal.com]

туземец, туземный
also исконные обитатели - means, that they lived here `искони, иск`онно, threw all the history.

Why do you think word негр should insult anybody? It is good and correct russian word.

[alon_68]

The word негр is not pejorative in Russia but туземец, туземный just are.
I wouldn't recommend to use these words in the writing about people who are able to read Russian, e.g. from Caucasia or Central Asia.

[atapask3.livejournal.com]

It`s very sadly, but you are mistaken twice.
Firstly, the word туземец("this land inhabitant") is opposite to word иноземец("other land inhabitant"), both words are neutral.
Secondly, people from somewhere are not natives (туземцы), but imigrants or foreigners, so we should name them "переселенцы" or "иноземцы".

[alon_68]

I don't speak about its etymology. The roots of the words nigger or жид are not pejorative but the context they used to be said had made them insulting. In the contemporary use туземец sounds as low-level, uneducated person from some faraway country, almost savage. I wouldn't recommend anybody to say туземец in front of a Uzbek or Circassian.

[pzrk.livejournal.com]

Use "местные жители" or "коренное население"

The word "абориген" is sometimes used as (a bit insolent) synonym for "местный житель":
- Ну и где тут %s?
- Сейчас спросим у аборигенов.