My Dad is fluent french. He has told me that OTAN is actually roughly translated NATO in french. Just thought I would share that - does this make more sense of his lyrics? It might do for me, if I were to actually be bothered enough to find out more about the function of NATO!!

Therapy said:

How funny - one of my friends is Brazilian and told me that they use OTAN instead of NATO down there... she's fluent in Portuguese.

Anybody else got any info on this?

No big mystery. OTAN stands for "Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord" which is exactly what NATO is in English - "North Atlantic Treaty Organisation".

Spanish: Organizacion del Tratado del Atlantico Norte.

It seems that English is the only language to place adjectives before nouns. So who's right and who's wrong, if any?

OTAN also stands for "Organización del Tratado del Atlántico Norte". In Spanish, of course

>>It seems that English is the only language to place
>>adjectives before nouns. So who's right and who's wrong, >>if any?


Just a little correction: English belongs to another family of languages (Germanic languages) than French, Spanish,...

All germanic languages (English, Dutch, German, Swedish,...) place adjectives before nouns. In Dutch it's Noord Atlantische VerdragsOrganisatie (NAVO) BTW...

uuugh that'd be OTAN in ALL the like 100+ roman languages dudes...(FR, POR, ESP, ...)

no effence but there's more than 1 language in the world boyz+gurls, you know, it might be interesting to learn some...there is a world outside the US

PANDURITO said:

It seems that you don't know much about languages.

i believe that is exactly what he is trying to say especially in the context of xenophobia. we are all saying the same thing in different ways.


nato otan


same thing but seems strange to the other.


different countries and cultures.

let me add that Slavic languages also place adjectives before nouns... I know because I know two of them

partyup said:

Just a little correction on the correction. English does indeed share Germanic roots, but only about 1/5 of English is derived from Germanic. The rest borrowed from Nordic and Romance languages, roughly.

But, yes, OTAN are the call letters of NATO in several different countries. To answer the question about their function, they were originally founded as a Anglo-American alliance with western Europe to counter the advance of USSR borne communism throughout eastern Europe. They(USSR) countered with the WARSAW Pact and then, later SEATO was formed at the behest of the US/UK. I think they are still trying to figure out their exact role now as communism's threat disappeared over a decade ago.
[This message was edited Mon Jul 15 9:07:15 PDT 2002 by Bibleteacher89]

Oh great thanks for the history lesson...

What, are you all idiots? Who here doesn't know what NATO is?

yes NATO spelled backwards is OTAN (which is how the acronymn breaks down in French and other languages), but that does not mean opposite in meaning! It's the same thing!!!

ah yes. as i was saying.

?
[This message was edited Wed Feb 26 1:41:59 PST 2003 by IstenSzek]

NuPwrSoul has explained this in great detail.

I think it should go on the FAQ page!

Q.WTF is OTAN?

A. Whatever NwPwrSoul's answer was...

IstenSzek said:

Translation: I have absolutely no idea how to prove what I'm saying.

ian said:

Yeah, know what it is, however, I have to admit that this is the kind of thing that I learnt in history at school and things like this just don't interest me. Sorry, they just don't. Im interested to know if anyone can share their opinion of what Prince means by these lyrics.

So, what you're saying is that NATO/OTAN is the modern equivalent of that line in Bob George. "Spell that shit backwards, same mf shit".

This was covered before and I'm still not convinced. I feel that Prince has some agenda against NATO and tries to put it down in some way. Just very poorly...

OH LAWD. How many times. He's already said in some performances, "The opposite of OTAN is monotheism." We've already had threads that show that Otan phonetically is "Aten"--symbolic of the monotheistic deity of Anciet Kemet.

The line basically means don't seek protection in man-made government, but in the One God.

NuPwrSoul said:

Sorry, there are so many threads, I obviously dont spend enough time on here checking them all out, or make sure someone else hasn't already done it before.

Thanks for telling it again...

Therapy said:

Well now that's another day's discussion I reckon Who knows what goes on in that busy little mind of his? To misquote Billy Sparks, his "music makes sense to no one but himself".

To be honest, I've been listening to Prince's music so long and heard these weird little nuggest of Princely "wisdom" I've just learned to let it pass and enjoy the music as best I can

ian said:

I kinda dig this concept of education: Anything you never understood before,
turn to Prince for clarification.


Aside to NuPowr. NATO is technically not a government , but merely
a military alliance of soverign nations. Or is that splitting a hair as far as a
Prince-ly view of world politics goes?

In the CONtext of "Xenophobia" it makes the most sense that Prince is saying that NATO and OTAN are the same thing, even though to us it's NATO, to them it's OTAN...the human condition is the same no matter who you are.

Race in this space I mark human...

i think at the celebration he said 'the opposite of nato is no i don't think so..' hehe..i wonder if he regrets that line..considering he changes it ev'rytime he plays it live?

Quite a lot of genuine artists write in a style that is personal to them, a bit like poetry really. Full of feeling and open to interpretation. I'd just like to meet him so he could clarify the meanings of all of his music (honest, that's the only reason why I want to meet Prince).

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

thats what i think too.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Now is that CON prefix meant to be the definition meaning to swindle or to argue against or to be included or as in a conclusion or a connection or consulted or consulate or as a concession or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

Could be a JW reference:

The "Otan" Party is the ruling party of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

In Kazakhstan, Religious organizations, including churches, must register with the Ministry of Justice in order to receive legal status. Without registration, religious organizations cannot buy or rent real property, hire employees, obtain visas for foreign missionaries, or engage in any other legal transactions.

Some religious groups out of favor with the Government have encountered difficulties registering in certain jurisdictions. These groups include Jehovah's Witnesses and some Korean Protestant groups, as well as Muslim groups independent of the Mufti (the national leader of Islam). Apparently, some practicing Kazakhstani JW's have been subject to fines and imprisonment for their failure to register. Or maybe he just thought it was a cool thing to say, WTF do I know?

obligatoryeditstatementgoeshere:
[This message was edited Wed Jul 17 11:45:02 PDT 2002 by Universaluv]

After all that strenuous mental exertion I'm quite sure you can feel smoke coming out of your ears, Universaluv.