more taboo avoidance

[Victor Steinbok]

Agreed... Which is why I only chose two sources that both had .es in the
URL. There are others.

Incidentally, the Russian reference, if anyone knows or cares, is
"ubliudok"--shown as "u---ok". It's a rough equivalent of "stupid jerk",
with emphasis on "stupid" (a.k.a. "retard" in some dialects ;-) ). One
thing it is not is "bastard". One interesting thing about it is that the
Russian is taken from the Daily Mirror article, not from the original
(presumably) Polish.

I just noticed that the best/worst avoidance shows up in German, from BILD:

http://goo.gl/LgZbE
> "Ich wollte mich zuerst professionell verhalten. Doch dann kam es über
> mich ..."

It basically omits the entire clause.

The shocker is in one of Czech sources--it actually uses the word
"bastard". Not a translation. Perhaps Czech has "bastard" that's not a
recent borrowing, but I wouldn't know the difference.

http://goo.gl/bwQpw
> "Snažila jsem se chovat jako profesionálka a odpoutat se od svých
> emocí. Ale když jsem ho uviděla ležet, prostě jsem si řekla: ‚Ten
> bastard!‘ A rozhodla se mu vytrhat všechny zuby," přiznala
> Mackowiaková u výslechu.

I guess, it's better to use a borrowed insult if you want to avoid a
native one.

The same thing happened in a Slovak source.

> "Chcela som byť nad vecou, no keď som ho tam videla ležať, pomyslela
> som si -- to je ale bastard", opisuje motiváciu k činu mladá žena.

I finally tracked down a Polish quote. The problem is, the Daily Mail
may well be the original (not sure in what language the two participants
were interviewed).

http://goo.gl/Q1LaU
> Chciałam być profesjonalistką, starałam się odsunąć na bok moje
> emocje. Ale kiedy zobaczyłam go na fotelu dentystycznym, pomyślałam
> sobie tylko: co za bydlak -- cytuje Maćkowiak „Daily Mail”.

If Polish "bydlak" is anything like Russian "bydlo", the meaning is
similar to "ubliudok", so that Russian translation was close. The rough
English meaning I would assign would be something of a hybrid of "dumb
ass" and "Redneck" (dumb brute? beefcake?), but without ethnic
connotations. But the emphasis is clearly on "dumb", which is absent
from "bastard". In any case, the Polish source give a full quote . [The
site is the US portal for a Polish tabloid Super Express.]

To make this more interesting, another Polish source renders the quote
differently--and with elision.

http://goo.gl/Dqlpu
> Anna całą sytuację opisuje prosto: "Chciałam zachować się bardzo
> profesjonalnie, ale jak zobaczyłam tego d****a , to nie wytrzymałam".

First, this certainly confirms the suspicion that the Daily Mail is the
original source. Second, I have absolutely no idea what d****a stands
for. A couple of other sources used "bydlak", without elision. So it's
probably safe to assume that "bastard" really was the original
expression. I still don't understand why it has to be avoided.

VS-)

On 4/30/2012 3:52 PM, Michael Newman wrote:
> Spanish is probably the most treacherous language from the perspective of taboo avoidance in translation. What's horribly offensive in one dialect can be mild or even normal in another, the most famous case being coger which is pick up or get in some dialects and fuck in others. Cabr=C3=B3n is always somewhat offensive, but it's much milder in Mexican Spanish than Peninsular Spanish. I have no idea about other dialects.
>
>
>
> Michael Newman
>
>
> On Apr 30, 2012, at 7:28 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
> http://goo.gl/6q6dT
>>> "Trat=C3=A9 de ser profesional y alejarme de mis emociones, perocuando lovi, pens=C3=A9, =C2=A1menudo cabr=C3=B3n!", asegura Anna.
>> http://goo.gl/WDSoR
>>> "Pero cuando lo vi ah=C3=AD tumbado pens=C3=A9 'qu=C3=A9 cabr=C3=B3n'", admiti=C3=B3.
>

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