Viisakusvormidest eesti ja venekeelsetes ametlikes paralleeltekstides
About polite forms in official parallel texts in Estonian and Russian

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with polite forms in Estonian and Russian when addressing an unfamiliar person interested in the acquisition of socially important information. The main object of analysis consists in personal pronouns in the function of polite addressing, but other accompanying forms of politeness realization are also considered: forms of verbs-predicates, etiquette nouns-addresses, proper names. Written business language implemented by means of the paper channel of communication served as the source of language material. Printed matter from various agencies, institutions, and companies (booklets, "years, etc.) was considered. The study covers business texts of informative, explanatory, instructional, and (to some extent) promotional character, in parallel in Estonian and Russian. The purpose of comparing original documents in Estonian and Russian translations thereof consists in the identification of the similarities and differences upon realization of the politeness principle in primary and secondary texts. The analyzed language material indicates that both Russian and Estonian business etiquette is currently subject to innovation, for which reason the speech etiquette means turn out to be partly variation. The article systematizes the identified translation concordance options. Comparing of the original documents in Estonian and Russian translations thereof suggests that different translation approaches exist with respect to contemporary socially oriented commercial texts: incl. direct translations of the type Sina – Ты and Teie – Вы, as well as the translation Sina – Вы. In secondary texts, translation of singular verb forms in Estonian using plural verb forms in Russian is also typical.

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