Dialect Translation

[Peter A. McGraw]

--On Thu, Dec 9, 1999 5:01 PM -0500 martinezg <martinezg at KENYON.EDU> wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> A student of mine is currently working on translating an early twentieth
> century Mexican text in which the characters use a "campesino" dialect. I
> have told her that the fact that these characters use this dialect is
> crucial to the meaning of the text. However, I am at a loss to suggest
> ways in which she might deal with it. The question that I would like to
> pose is: are dialects translatable? Could she use some vernacular, low
> prestige English dialect to translate the speech of these characters? If
> so which one?

Admittedly this case doesn't correspond with yours in every detail, but
many years ago when the musical My Fair Lady was new, it was translated and
successfully staged in many countries.  In Germany, Eliza Doolittle's
cockney was rendered as working-class Berlin speech; in Holland it was
rendered as the Amsterdam counterpart, and apparently dialects with
comparable social status were found for other countries as well.  Although
I'm sure line-by-line comparisons of each of these with the cockney
rendering of the original would turn up big differences, these efforts seem
to have successfully evoked the way the general population of each country
feels about the working-class dialect of its major urban center, because as
far as I know, the musical was a hit in many parts of the world.

Peter Mc.

****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu