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Rada

Term in various Slavic languages

Rada is the term for "parliament" or "assembly" or some other "council" in several Slavic languages. Normally, it is translated as "council". Sometimes it corresponds to "parliament", It also carries a meaning of advice, as in the English word "counsel".

01Etymology

Old High German rāt (from Proto-Germanic *rēdaz) passed (possibly through Polish) into the Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian languages. Although some researches like K. P. Stanley et al. argued that contrary to the above stated hypothesis that the Germanic languages borrowed the words for council and related terms from Slavic languages.

Alternately the source was the Gothic language radan - 𐍂𐌰𐌳𐌰𐌽 - to council, to deliberate, that passed to West Slavic in the Iron Age during the Wielbark and Chernyakhov cultures presence along Vistula river and in Western Ukraine, as the term "rada" may be present in such first millennium CE names as Slavic Radogoszcz, Radgoszcz, Radhošť, Radegost, Radagast, Ardagast - Radogost, and Gothic Radagaisus. The dispersal to East Slavic Languages, could have happened later, possibly through Polish.

Råd in Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish, Rat in German, neuvosto or raati in Finnish and nõukogu or raad in Estonia/Dutch mean "council" or "assembly", but also "advice", as it does in East Slavic (except Russian) and West Slavic, but not South Slavic, languages.

In Swedish the verb råda (to counsel or recommend is one meaning, the other is to rule) is based on the substantive råd. This is similar to Danish råd (noun) and råde (verb).

02Examples

In Belarus

In the Czech Republic

In Poland

In Russia

In Slovakia

In Ukraine

Historically, the Verkhovna Rada was also the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian: Українська Радянська Соціалістична Республіка, УРСР, romanized: Ukrayins'ka Radyans'ka Sotsialistychna Respublika, URSR), which was itself part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Ukrainian: Союз Радянських Соціалістичних Республік, СРСР), the word rada replacing the Russian word soviet in both cases. See official names of the Soviet Union.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Rada, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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