Mairi-Claire Hamill (asker) Oct 17, 2016:

Barbara - I have, in fact, just asked the client if I can do precisely that - leaving the term schiavoni in Italian - it crops up so many times and as it is a fairly well known term, I think that it could well be left as it is with an explanation.

Barbara Carrara Oct 17, 2016:

Mairi-Claire Why not retain the Italian term in brackets and then translate the individual terms as they appear in the original text?

Fiona Grace Peterson Oct 17, 2016:

Sorry, my mistake Wrote without thinking!

Mairi-Claire Hamill (asker) Oct 17, 2016:

No it's not about slaves - I think maybe Fiona wrote slaves by mistake "Schiavoni" as I wrote above is an old Italian term for Slavs.

toasty Oct 17, 2016:

I don't think this is about slaves - note the "e" changes the meaning in english.
The surname Schiavone means "Slavic", see Treccani's entry on this: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/schiavoni/, but it also refers to Slavic soldiers who were present in the Republic of Venice: http://www.garzantilinguistica.it/ricerca/?q=schiavone

Perhaps you could go with "A special group of Slavic soldiers - specifically from Dalmatia, Istria and Slovenia" or "Slavs, specifically those from present day Dalmatia, Istria and Slovenia" depending on if the sentence refers to the soldiers or simply to an ethnic group.

BrigitteHilgner Oct 17, 2016:

I agree with Fiona Grace Peterson http://www.schiavonmj.com/en_etymo.html
But maybe one should write: ... other Slavic countries.

Fiona Grace Peterson Oct 17, 2016:

Maybe this would work? "Slaves from Dalmatia, Istria and Slavic countries."