Cercle

English translation: Cercle

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:Cercle
English translation:Cercle
Entered by: Bokani Hart

08:15 Sep 29, 2020
French to English translations [PRO]
Certificates, Diplomas, Licenses, CVs / Birth certificate
French term or phrase: Cercle
Bonjour,

Dans le contexte de découpage administratif au Mali, comment traduiriez-vous "cercle"?

Acte de naissance no....

Région....
Cercle...
Commune...


Merci de votre aide
mimi 254
Local time: 17:59
Cercle
Explanation:
It is a term that is rarely translated from French into English so I would leave it in its original French form.
Selected response from:

Bokani Hart
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:59
Grading comment
Thank you very much!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +5Cercle
Bokani Hart
3 +1district
Thomas Miles
4 -1Administrative division
Manoj Chauhan
4 -1Circle
Cyril Tollari
3Sub-region
Mpoma
Summary of reference entries provided
Cercles
Rachel Fell

  

Answers


8 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): -1
Administrative division


Explanation:
Administrative division is a term for an administrative region within a country that is created for the purposes of managing of land and the affairs of people. The area typically has a local government with a certain degree of autonomy, and is on a level below that of the sovereign state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_division


Manoj Chauhan
India
Local time: 17:59
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks Manoj. Definitely, it's an administrative division, but how can it be translated? There are three administrative divisions: Regions "Cercle" Councils


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Daryo: any level of subdivision of the national territory is an "Administrative division" - so is a "region" / a "district" / a "borough" / a "parish" / a "town" etc etc - too vague.
2 hrs
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19 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
Cercle


Explanation:
It is a term that is rarely translated from French into English so I would leave it in its original French form.

Bokani Hart
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:59
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thank you very much!
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks Bokani


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Cécile Gaultier: Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cercles_of_Mali
6 mins
  -> Thanks Cécile

agree  EirTranslations
36 mins
  -> Thank you

agree  Daryo
2 hrs
  -> Thanks Daryo

neutral  Lara Barnett: But is it "rarely translated" in the context of UK (or US bureaucracy? That is more relevant here I would say. It could be that there has not previously been much need for a translation.
2 hrs
  -> This particular term when used in the context of Mali's administrative divisions is rarely translated into English. For example, see article dated 27 Nov 18 at https://www.interpeace.org/2018/11/conflict-and-resilience-d...

agree  AllegroTrans
15 hrs
  -> Thanks!

agree  Julie Barber: I recently worked on a project related to Mali for a large international aid agency and this type of description did often stay in French (as per agency's glossary)
23 hrs
  -> Thanks Julie
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39 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): -1
Circle


Explanation:
Wikipedia's suggestion to leave it in FR is one option. We can also use circle since it means "a territorial or administrative division or district"

Circle
7: a territorial or administrative division or district
The province is divided into nine circles.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/circle

Lower Saxon Circle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Saxon_Circle



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Note added at 1 day 1 hr (2020-09-30 09:38:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Circle is currently used in other countries that have English as their official language (India).
https://wokha.nagaland.gov.in/admin_hq.htm

and is translated by cercle in FR (despite cercle not being used in France)
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_de_Tawang


Cyril Tollari
France
Local time: 17:59
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 4
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks Cyril


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Gordon Matthews: "Circle" is not commonly used in this sense in British English, so I would either leave it untranslated or, in this context, translate as "district".
23 hrs
  -> That's the thing, "cercle" is not commonly used in the sense of administrative district in France. Did you think it was? You get the same effect with the readership by using circle in English.

neutral  AllegroTrans: Whilst this a translation, the fact that it makes no snese in English as an admin district makes me want to stay with the French specific to Mali
1 day 3 hrs
  -> To be honest, cercle doesn't make any sense in French either. Does it in the case of India?
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1 day 2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Sub-region


Explanation:
Personally I'm ambivalent about leaving this untranslated. I'm not even particularly keen about not translating the term Département, but I do it because it's the widely imposed convention, and English-language readers are expected (supposedly) to know what this is in a French document about France.

You can't have that expectation here. After referring to Wikipedia we see that a Cercle is an area which is one step smaller than a Région, which translates fairly uncontroversially as "Region", with a bit of luck.

Leaving it in the French (and in italics? and with an explanation in square brackets the first time it is mentioned?) seems to me to give the reader too much to puzzle over. A "sub-region" does what it says on the tin. It's very prosaic and boring, of course, unlike Cercle, which is rather groovy and idiosyncratic. A groovy translation might be "Shire", "Bailiwick" or "Canton".

However, I doubt whether this my answer will find much favour.

Mpoma
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:59
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 12
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks Mpoma

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10 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
district


Explanation:
Territorial unit widely understood to be between a region and a municipality/parish/commune/etc.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2020-09-29 18:30:47 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"cercle" is itself a translation of the Arabic "daa'irah", which the new Oxford Arabic-English dictionary translates as "area/district" generally and "constituency" or "jurisdiction" in specific contexts.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 7 days (2020-10-06 20:13:01 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Have been wondering whether the Arabic "daa'irah" is not in fact a translation of the French "arrondissement" that seeks to capture the "rond" part. On the other hand, why would Morocco have then translated this Arabic translation back as "cercle"?

Thomas Miles
France
Local time: 17:59
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks Thomas


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Gordon Matthews: For the purpose of a birth certificate, which is likely to be read by people with no knowledge of French or Mali, better to translate as "district".
14 hrs
  -> Exactly.

neutral  Cyril Tollari: I can see an issue here, if Mali decided to create "des districts" in addition to "cercles", how would you translate French "district" then?
14 hrs
  -> And if they actually did not?
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Reference comments


8 hrs peer agreement (net): +4
Reference: Cercles

Reference information:
Since 2016, Mali has been divided into ten regions and one capital district. A reorganization of the country from eight to nineteen regions was passed into law in 2012,[1] but of the new regions, only Taoudénit (partitioned from Tombouctou Region) and Ménaka (formerly Ménaka Cercle in Gao Region) have begun to be implemented.[2][3] Each of the regions bears the name of its capital. The regions are divided into 56 cercles. The cercles and the capital district are divided into 703 communes.[4]

A cercle is the second level administrative unit in Mali. Mali is divided into eight régions and one capital district (Bamako); the régions are subdivided into 49 cercles. These subdivisions bear the name of their principal city.

During French colonial rule in Mali, a cercle was the smallest unit of French political administration that was headed by a European officer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cercles_of_Mali


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_Mali

Rachel Fell
United Kingdom
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
Note to reference poster
Asker: Thanks Rachel


Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  AllegroTrans
7 hrs
agree  Bokani Hart
15 hrs
agree  Julie Barber
15 hrs
agree  Cyril Tollari
16 hrs
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