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- "Kommitténs ordförande"
18 Comments
In the last 30 years or so, in England, it seems to have become accepted that the person "in the chair" will be referred to as "the Chair". This used to get the response from old fogies (like myself), "I am not a piece of furniture", but no one seems to mind the committee being called "the Board" which obviously means "the Table". It's a lot better than using "Chairperson" if you want to be inclusive.
1216
Can it also mean spokesperson?
I'm coming from Dutch, and ordförande is obviously related to Dutch woordvoerder. The Dutch word does mean spokesperson, but not chairman. That would be voorzitter.
1456
There's an exact translation for that: talesperson. Also språkrör or talesman or taleskvinna* if you want a gendered word.
I agree, nor can you in the other Germanic languages I know of (including my native: Dutch). However, "chairman of the committee" is perfectly fine English (they use the genitive -s less than, say in Swedish, German or Dutch), and the translation of that to "kommitténs ordförande" seems right. Or would you translate that in a different way?
1456
Zmrzlina is right. 'chairman of the committee' would be ordförande i/för kommittén in Swedish. Kommitténs ordförande is definite in both places.