Equivalence in the Translation of Tongue Twisters in Bojack Horseman

Matias Jokikokko

ONE SORDID FORTNIGHT WITH THE SHORT-SKIRTED SORCERESS Equivalence in the translation of tongue twisters in BoJack Horseman

Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences Bachelor’s thesis August 2020

ABSTRACT

Matias Jokikokko: ”One Sordid Fortnight with the Short-Skirted Sorceress”: Equivalence in translation of tongue twisters in BoJack Horseman Bachelor’s thesis Tampere University Bachelor’s programme in English Language, Literature and Translation July 2020

The purpose of this thesis is to study the translation strategies used in translation of tongue twisters. Tongue twisters are words, phrases or sentences that are purposefully created to be difficult to say. I use passages from the television series BoJack Horseman to examine the translation of tongue twisters. The examination is guided by Eugene Nida’s theory of equivalence. The topic of this study, tongue twisters, are words, phrases or sentences that utilize the limitations of the human mouth to create difficult utterances. A single tongue twister is commonly constructed by concentrating on one speech sound and alternating between it and other speech sounds. This repetitive nature of tongue twisters can be compared to the same sound patterning tools that are utilized in poetry. In this thesis, due to the small amount of research done on tongue twisters, I examine the sound patterning tools as poetic characteristics. The theoretical framework for this thesis is the equivalence theory by Eugene Nida. Nida’s ideas are functionalist translation theories, which means that translations should focus on the function and purpose of the text, even if that means deviating from the source texts form and meaning. A translation is successful to Nida if the target text causes a similar response in the audience as the source does in its audience. Nida called the prioritized equivalence of function ‘dynamic equivalence’. I studied tongue twisters from the television series BoJack Horseman. The series uses tongue twisters every few episodes as a comedic device by communicating simple thoughts as tongue twisters. There are 31 tongue twisters in the series’ five and a half seasons that had been aired when the material was chosen. I listed the tongue twisters and transcribed their translations. I analyzed them using Nida’s dynamic equivalence and categorized the tongue twisters by the translations’ utilized poetic characteristics. To assist the categorization, I evaluated the tongue twisters and created the main categories for successful, partly successful, and unsuccessful translations utilizing Nida’s idea of successful translations. The results show that the successful translations either utilize the same poetic characteristics as the source text or replace them with other characteristics. The successful translations managed to communicate the messages behind the tongue twisters without many changes. Partly successful translations include the translations that utilized the same poetic characteristics but only in parts of the translations. The messages suffered in some occasions, leading to the categorization of partly successful. In the unsuccessful translations, the translations were omitted altogether, which caused problems in the communication of the message. This thesis only examines the translation in one television series, which limits the generalizability of this study’s data to some degree. On the other hand, the material of the thesis is found over multiple seasons and different episodes, which means that the data is diverse regarding the number of translators. I hope that this thesis could inspire future studies on the translation of tongue twisters, which could benefit from this study’s data.

Keywords: tongue twister, equivalence, dynamic equivalence, audiovisual translation, BoJack Horseman

The originality of this thesis has been checked using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service.

TIIVISTELMÄ

Matias Jokikokko: ”One Sordid Fortnight with the Short-Skirted Sorceress”: Equivalence in translation of tongue twisters in BoJack Horseman Kandidaatintutkielma Tampereen yliopisto Englannin kielen, kirjallisuuden ja kääntämisen kandidaattiohjelma Heinäkuu 2020

Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena on tutkia tongue twistereiden, eli sanahirviöiden, kääntämisstrategioita. Sanahirviöt ovat sanoja, fraaseja ja lauseita, jotka on kirjoitettu tarkoituksenmukaisesti vaikeiksi sanoa. Sanahirviöiden tutkimisessa käytän BoJack Horseman -televisiosarjassa esiintyviä sanahirviöitä. Tutkimuksen pohjana käytän Eugene Nidan ekvivalenssiteoriaa. Sanahirviöiden luomisen apuna käytetään hyväksi ihmisen suun rajallisia ääntömahdollisuuksia. Sanahirviöitä luodaan kirjoittamalla sanoja, fraaseja tai lauseita, joissa jokin äänne toistuu useasti, ja sanahirviöiden vaikeus syntyy toistuvan äänteen ja muiden äänteiden nopeasta vaihtelusta. Toistuvia äänteitä käytetään myös runoudessa, joten sanahirviöihin keskittyvän tutkimuksen vähäisen määrän vuoksi käytän analyysini apuna runontutkimuksen yhteydessä käytettyä teoriaa. Analyysiä ohjaavana teoriana toimii Eugene Nidan ekvivalenssiteoria. Nidan teoria on funktionalistista käännösteoriaa, jossa tekstin funktio ja tarkoitus tulee täyttää. Tekstin funktio voi olla esimerkiksi tiedottaminen tai lukijan tunteisiin vaikuttaminen. Kääntäjän tulee silloin tällöin poiketa lähtötekstistä, jos se tukee tekstin funktion täyttymistä. Nidan mukaan kohdetekstin lukijan tulisi reagoida tekstiin samalla tavalla kuin lähtötekstin lukija, jolloin käännös on Nidan arvion mukaan onnistunut. Tätä funktion tärkeyttä korostavaa ekvivalenssiteoriaa kutsutaan dynaamiseksi ekvivalenssiksi. Tutkielman materiaaliksi valikoituneet sanahirviöt on kerätty BoJack Horseman -televisiosarjasta. Sanahirviöitä käytetään sarjassa komedian välineenä, ja niillä kommunikoidaan myös tarinalle olennaisia asioita. Niitä löytyy 31 kappaletta sarjan ensimmäisen viiden ja puolen kauden mitalta. Kirjoitin sanahirviöt ylös tekstitysten kera ja analysoin ne käyttämällä Nidan dynaamista ekvivalenssiteoriaa sekä runoudelle ja sanahirviöille yhteisiä kielen piirteitä. Analyysissä kategorisoin sanahirviöiden käännökset kolmeen kategoriaan: onnistuneet, osittain onnistuneet ja epäonnistuneet. Jaottelu tulee Nidalta, joka pitää funktionsa täyttäneitä käännöksiä onnistuneina ja funktion vajaaksi jättäviä epäonnistuneina. Tuloksista huomataan, että onnistuneissa käännöksissä on käytetty runouden piirteitä, jotka joissain tapauksissa ovat samoja kuin lähtötekstissä. Joissain tapauksissa ne on korvattu toisilla. Onnistuneet sanahirviöt välittivät myös sanahirviön taustalla olevan viestin onnistuneesti. Osittain onnistuneissa käännöksissä sanahirviöt jäivät nimensä mukaisesti osittaisiksi. Niissä on käytetty runouden piirteitä, mutta piirteet jäävät vähäisiksi tai ne on jätetty pois osasta käännöstä. Osittain onnistuneissa käännöksissä viesti kärsi vain joissain tapauksissa. Epäonnistuneiden käännösten kategoriassa käännöksistä jätettiin sanahirviöt kokonaan pois ja siitä kärsi sekä sanahirviö että viesti. Tutkielma on siinä mielessä rajallinen, että materiaalina toimi vain yhden ohjelman tekstitykset. Toisaalta tutkielmassa käytetty materiaali on kerätty kyseisen ohjelman viideltä eri kaudelta ja useasta jaksosta, minkä ansiosta materiaali on monipuolinen, sillä kääntäjiä on useita useammalta vuodelta. Sanahirviöitä ei ole juurikaan tutkittu käännöstieteen alalla, joten toivonkin tämän tutkielman olevan hyödyksi tuleville käännöstieteen tutkimuksille.

Keywords: sanahirviö, ekvivalenssi, dynaaminen ekvivalenssi, audiovisuaalinen kääntäminen, BoJack Horseman

Tämän tutkielman alkuperäisyys on tarkastettu Turnitin OriginalityCheck -ohjelmalla.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction ...... 1

2 Tongue Twisters, Poetic Characteristics and Translation ...... 2

3 Nida’s Equivalence ...... 5

4 Material and Method ...... 6

5 Analysis and Discussion ...... 7

5.1 Successful translations ...... 7

5.2 Partly successful ...... 13

5.3 Unsuccessful ...... 15

6 Conclusions ...... 16

7 References ...... 18

7.1 Research Data ...... 18

7.2 Literature ...... 18

1 Introduction

Tongue twisters are words, phrases or sentences that use combinations and repetition of speech sounds that are produced in different parts of the mouth and cause the tongue twisters to be difficult to say. Tongue twisters can be used for comedic purposes, for example in conversation to confuse the other person or to challenge the other to say a difficult tongue twister to see if they can say it from start to finish without mistakes. Tongue twisters also have an educational purpose: Speech therapists can use tongue twisters to detect problems in their patients’ speech and take care of the problems by having the patient repeat tongue twisters that target the detected problematic speech sound.

In this thesis, I examine the translation of tongue-twisters in a comedic context. As the material for this thesis, I have chosen the TV series BoJack Horseman, an adult cartoon, and its subtitles on the streaming service Netflix. The study focuses on the language pair English–Finnish. The series is known for its unique comedic style, voice performances and writing. The writers of the series often use tongue twisters in a comedic way, as the characters use tongue twisters to express thoughts that could easily be communicated through normal speech. The tongue twisters are found over the course of the series’ six seasons. The tongue twisters do not happen in every episode, but rather surprise the viewer every few episodes.

To examine the translation of the tongue twisters, I utilize Nida’s theory of equivalence, which highlights the importance of function and purpose, as I consider the comedic purpose of the source text to be in the center of translating the tongue twisters. The function of a text is important in all translation, as translations cannot be considered successful if they do not fulfill their purpose in the target language. To support my analysis of the material, I examine some characteristics of poetry, as poetry and tongue twisters share some characteristics, such as sound patterning. With Nida’s theory and poetic characteristics combined, the analysis provides data about the of the translation process of tongue twisters.

The frequent use of tongue twisters is something I have not seen in other TV shows and interested me enough to properly examine how the translators of BoJack Horseman would react to a comedic device that is rarely seen on TV. The rarity of the phenomenon raises the research questions: How are tongue twisters translated in a comedic setting in the language pair English–Finnish? How do the translators of BoJack Horseman utilize poetic characteristics in the translations? How successful

are the translations in communicating the messages in the tongue twisters? If the tongue twisters are omitted, can the reason for the omission be inferred?

Tongue twisters are a little-researched topic in translation, as I could not find any theses or dissertations on it in the field of translation studies. The studies found on tongue twisters mostly focus on language acquisition and the aforementioned use in speech therapy. The closest theses and dissertations to my topic are related to poetry, more specifically the classics, such as the Finnish Kalevala. This topic could be studied further in the field of translation studies and this thesis aims to do just that.

The structure of the thesis is the following: Section 2 discusses poetic characteristics that are involved in the translation of tongue twisters. Section 3 discusses Eugene Nida’s equivalence theory of formal and dynamic equivalence, which is the base for the quality assessment of the translations. Section 4 describes the material and method of this thesis. Section 5 discusses the analysis via examples in each of the categories created for the results.

2 Tongue Twisters, Poetic Characteristics and Translation

As mentioned in the introduction, tongue twisters share characteristics with poetry. In this section I will discuss these characteristics of poetry and tongue twisters and examine them from the perspective of translation. The key terms discussed include rhymes, alliteration, rhythm, and stressed syllables. These terms are the basis of sound patterning, which assist in the categorization of poetry and in the creative process and translation of both poetry and tongue twisters.

The base for the analysis of poetic characteristics is the structure of a syllable (Montgomery 2013, 200). In English, words are divided into syllables, which are divided into three separate parts: an onset, a nucleus, and a coda. One-syllable words are an easy way to examine the different parts. An onset is the beginning of a syllable, which consists of consonants. The number of consonants can vary from zero to three. For example, the word on has no consonant, top has one, step has two and straight has three. While a syllable can have no onset, as the word on, a syllable must have a nucleus. The nucleus consists of vowels or sonorant consonants, the latter of which means consonants such as [r], [l], [m] and [n], which all can act similarly to a vowel in a nucleus. Vowel nuclei can have one to three vowels: The word pit has the vowel [ɪ] as its nucleus, bite has the diphthong [aɪ] and hour has the triphthong [aʊə]. A consonant nucleus can be found in the word example, which is a three-syllable word. The last syllable has the consonant [l] as its nucleus. The

third part, the coda, includes syllable final consonant(s). A coda usually has from zero to two consonants. The word by has zero consonants, top has one and tops has two.

Rhyme is one of the most well-known term used in this thesis, as it is an important part of popular culture. The entertainment business utilizes it constantly, and the TV series analyzed in this thesis, BoJack Horseman, is no different. Rhymes are a basic starting point to learning about poetic characteristics (Montgomery 2013, 200). Rhyming words involves words that have similar sounds in them. For example, bite rhymes with fight, as they have the same nucleus and coda, which are the diphthong [aɪ] and the word-final consonant [t]. This type of rhyme is called a strict rhyme (Montgomery 2013, 201). A rhyme can also only repeat the nucleus and the coda can vary. For example, the words bite and find repeat the diphthong but have different codas. This is called assonance (Montgomery 2013, 201). A different variant, consonance, repeats the consonants of words. The words put and pit are an example of this. Assonance and consonance may seem less like rhymes than a strict rhyme, but they do have a sizable part in tongue twisters, especially when consonance occurs in words such as put and pit. The differing vowels and the repetition of p and t make the words usable in a hypothetical tongue twister.

This type of repetition of the word-initial consonant is called alliteration. The repetition in the beginning of a word can involve either the very first consonant of the word or the entire consonant cluster. Alliteration of the very first letter is the most common English alliteration version, but some stricter versions also require the rest of the onset to be repeated (Montgomery 2013, 202). The version that only focuses on the first letter considers the word play to alliterate with the words put and pit. This version also allows the phrase strange sound to alliterate, whereas the stricter version would not, as the onset in the word strange has three letters and sound only has one. It is easy to understand why the less strict version is the more common one, as the number of possible alliterating words becomes more and more limited with two or more word-initial consonants. A third version of alliteration exists, where the alliteration is found in the first stressed syllable (Montgomery 2013, 203). In this version, the number of possible alliterating words is even higher than in the traditional version. An example of this is be the phrase to record a concert, where the stress in the word record is on the second syllable [re’cord], and therefore record alliterates with the word concert, as they share the same stressed onset, the sound [k]. A fourth version of alliteration involves the repetition of the nucleus in addition to the standard repetition of the onset (Montgomery 2013, 203). This version is less common in English but is still used. An example of this fourth version are the words terrace and tenure. In these words, the onset is the sound [t] and the nucleus is the sound [e]. 3

Rhythm and stress are terms that guide the reader or performer of poetry. In poetry, different syllable counts and differently divided stresses in each line classify a poem in a certain poetry category. For example, if a line has six syllables, or three pairs of syllables, and the stressed syllables are the second syllable of each pair, the pairs of syllables would be called iambic feet (Montgomery 2013, 214). The stress patterns, or metrical patterns, give poems their flow, which as a device for dynamic storytelling conveys emotion together with the message of the text. In a somewhat similar manner, tongue twisters can also utilize stress and rhythm to emphasize the poetic characteristics, such as alliteration and rhyme, that construct the tongue twister. For example, the tongue twister ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppercorns’, the tongue twister is an alliterative tongue twister that is constructed on the sounds [p] and [k], which are created in opposite ends of the mouth (Montgomery 2013, 204). The tongue twister’s alliteration is of the traditional kind (i.e., in the first syllable of a word) and the primary stresses are found in the alliterating syllables. This stress pattern affects the difficulty of the tongue twister, and by experimenting with the level of emphasis on the stresses, the difficulty varies accordingly, which is why stress and rhythm are an important part of tongue twisters. Aside from the difficulty variation, the varying emphasis on the stress patterns can be a conscious choice to draw attention to the tongue twister and the motive behind it.

The translation of tongue twisters could be compared to the translation of poetry, although they differ in some ways. What is similar between poetry and tongue twisters are poetic characteristics, such as rhyme, alliteration, rhythm, and stress defined above. The similar poetic characteristics are found in Finnish and in English. For example, the vocabulary is shared to a great extent, as the English terms iambic, alliteration and rhyme have the Finnish equivalents jambinen, allitteraatio and riimi, respectively. Translating poetry from any language to another presents their own challenges depending on the language pair, for example whether to follow a certain metrical pattern established in the source text. Lahdelma et al (1982) have discussed the translation of Emily Dickinson’s poems into Finnish. In the discussion on Dickinson’s poem Purple – is fashionable twice –, the translator says they have analyzed the poem’s meter and yet uses free verse in the translation (Lahdelma et al. 1982, 53). The usage of free verse instead of a predetermined meter shows that a translator can deviate from the source text’s established meter if it is beneficial to the poems flow and message. With the artistic freedom and the source text’s message in mind, the translator can also utilize different sound patterning devices, such as the beforementioned rhyme and alliteration, by replacing one with the other. The importance of the message is at the core of this thesis, in that the message is the main guide of the tongue twisters in BoJack Horseman. Without

any consideration to the message, a translator could replace a source text’s tongue twister with an unrelated Finnish tongue twister, for example, if a tongue twister does not have any other purpose than to be a tongue twister in some form of entertainment. In a scenario where a character would say the tongue twister ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppercorns’, the message’s relevance to the story could be questioned. If the message is irrelevant, the translator has the option to replace the tongue twister with a Finnish one, such as ‘Vesihiisi sihisi hississä’, as long as the tongue twister is matched with a tongue twister.

3 Nida’s Equivalence

Formal and dynamic equivalence were developed by Eugene Nida to approach translating from a functional perspective. Formal equivalence describes the equivalence of form, meaning that formal equivalence is achieved when the target text follows the form of the source text, most often seen in the academic world (Nida and Taber 1974, 22–28). Dynamic equivalence describes the equivalence of function, which is achieved when a target text causes a similar reaction in the receptor as the source text in the original audience. These definitions of equivalence mean that texts translated with formal equivalence in mind will be more word-for-word, and texts translated with dynamic equivalence in mind will focus on achieving the function of the source text.

Nida’s idea of dynamic equivalence is based on the function of a text. The function is divided into three parts: the informative function, the expressive function and the imperative function (Nida and Taber 1974, 24–27). The informative function describes the equivalence of information communicated in the text. The reader of the target text should receive the same information from the text as the reader of the source text. In the material used in this thesis, the tongue twisters are created around the messages communicated with them, which corresponds with the informative function, as the message is as important as the tongue twister. The expressive function highlights the importance of similarity in the expression. In tongue twisters, this means that their poetic characteristics should be replicated or replaced to create a similar expressive form that has the characteristics of a tongue twister. The expressive function is the function required to achieve a similar response in the reader of the target text. The third function, the imperative function, is an idea that the source and target texts should affect the reader’s actions. The view comes from Nida’s analysis of the Bible, which as a religious text differs substantially from the tongue twisters analyzed in this thesis, so the third function is not needed. The first two, informative and expressive function or the message and poetic characteristics of the tongue twister, are the focus of the present analysis.

To Nida, the success of a translation to depends on similar response (Nida 1964, quoted in Munday 2012, 67), which is achieved when a translation fulfills the required functions described in the paragraph above. The function and purpose of the analyzed tongue twisters are defined in Section 4. Nida’s idea of successful and unsuccessful translations has also guided the creation of the categories for the results, explained more closely also in Section 4.

4 Material and Method

The material I have chosen for this thesis is the tongue twisters in the comedy-drama BoJack Horseman, an adult cartoon. The series premiered in August 2014 and ended in January 2020 on the online streaming service Netflix. The series’ events occur mostly in Los Angeles in a world filled with anthropomorphic animals and humans. The series follows the character of BoJack Horseman, who rose to fame in the 1990’s by starring in a fictional sitcom called “Horsin’ Around”. Eighteen years after the cancellation of Horsin’ Around, BoJack is now a depressed, alcoholic horse who lives in Hollywood Hills in a mansion with Todd, a human, who sleeps on BoJack’s couch. Other main characters of the series include Princess Carolyn, a cat and BoJack’s agent; Mr. Peanutbutter, a dog and BoJack’s former rival; and Diane Nguyen, a human and a writer, who ghostwrites BoJack’s autobiography.

BoJack Horseman has been regarded as one of the best animated TV series of all time (BBC 2019). The series has been praised for its storylines involving dark themes, such as depression and its byproducts, such as alcoholism and self-destructive behavior. The series is a blend between lighthearted and serious tones. The writers have experimented with the norms of television with an episode with no dialogue, which is one of the highest-rated episodes of the series, and an Emmy- nominated episode, in which the titular character delivers a 25-minute monologue.

I began the research by finding a list of the series’ tongue twisters created by the series’ dedicated fanbase found on a wiki-page (Fandom n.d.). The list included the tongue twisters from the beginning of the series to the first half of the two-part final season. Next, I went through the list, watched the listed parts of the episodes to check the list’s legitimacy. As no problems arose, I transcribed the translations of the tongue twisters.

Next, I defined the function and purpose of the source text in order to establish parameters for my analysis. The source text uses tongue twisters in a comedic way, which can be understood from the fact that the thoughts that the characters express could easily be expressed with no tongue twister characteristics. It is important to acknowledge the comedic purpose of the tongue twister and to 6

remember that the utterances also carry meaning. With these two elements, Nida’s informative and expressive functions are met, which further fulfill the translations’ dynamic equivalence.

Then, by Nida’s definition of successful translation, I categorized the tongue twisters first into categories of successful, partly successful and unsuccessful translations. The successful translations have little to no omission of the tongue twisters or messages behind them. Further categorization involved the poetic characteristics used in the target text. Partly successful translations are those that have omitted parts of the tongue twister but still have poetic characteristics. Unsuccessful translations are, as the name suggests, the translations that omit the tongue twister entirely. Further explanations for the categories and subcategories can be found in Section 5 under each category.

5 Analysis and Discussion

In this section, the results of the analysis are presented with the help of tables and examples. In Table 1 below, I have listed the numbers of successful, partly successful and unsuccessful translations. After the table, each main category is discussed with the help of example. In each example, I begin with a short explanation of the context so that the messages in the tongue twisters are clear. In the translations, I have included the slash symbol (/) to mark the place where a line is split to two or more text frames.

Table 1. Translation categories Category Number of examples Successful 16 Partly successful 10 Unsuccessful 5 Total 31

5.1 Successful Translations

In the category of successful translations, I found 16 examples. The 16 examples can be categorized further into successes by different translation strategies. The translation strategies for successful translations of tongue twisters in this thesis include proper nouns, alliteration, rhyme and mixed, and the number of tongue twisters in each category can be seen in Table 2 below. In total, 16 of the 31 tongue twisters were successful. Four of those 16 tongue twisters are in the category of proper nouns, 5 in alliteration, 3 in rhyme and 4 in mixed.

Table 2. Successful translations Category Number of examples

Proper nouns 2

Alliteration 5

Rhyme 3

Mixed 6

Total 16

The category proper nouns include the tongue twisters that are successful by preserving the tongue twister characteristics with the help of proper nouns. In Example 1, Todd is at lunch with a representative from the Better Business Bureau. They have discovered that their collaborative effort to improve Todd’s business has led to a group of dentists to live in the woods and catch rabies. Todd and the representative discuss the discovery and how to solve the situation. Then, Todd utters the following:

(1) EN: If people find out the Better Business Bureau is behind this, you don't think you'll be getting a buzz from the Business Branch of the Board of Better Bureaus? FI: Jos käy ilmi, että Better Business Bureau on tämän takana, / saat pian postia Board of Better Bureausin business-osastolta. (Season 4, episode 12)

The tongue twister of the source text is built around alliteration of the letter b. The alliteration of the letter b first appears in the proper noun Better Business Bureau, and continues throughout the line, in the common noun buzz, and also in the comically long name of Business Branch of the Board of Better Bureaus.

I categorized the example in the category of proper noun. What categorizes it as such and makes the translation successful is the fact that the proper nouns are the words that contain the majority of the tongue twister and other words of the line use the same sounds as the proper nouns to create the tongue twister. As the majority of the tongue twister characteristics are in the proper nouns, the translator has been able to transfer the tongue twister into the translation with lower effort. The only part of the proper nouns that has been translated is the word Branch, which is translated correctly as osasto. Finnish has many loan words from English in the world of business, but the word branch is not one of them, which is why the translation is justified.

In addition to the proper nouns, the source text has the word buzz as a part of the tongue twister. The rarity of the letter b in the Finnish language causes it to be difficult to replicate in the translation, which is why I analyzed other phrases and words of the line with the intention of finding similarities between them and the proper nouns. The tongue twister is built around the letter b, which as a sound is a plosive consonant. This phonetic quality of b and the fact that the tongue twister is mainly based on alliteration is enough information to help analyze the other phrases and words. The phrases in the translation that could be considered parts of the tongue twister are tämän takana and saat pian postia. Alliteration of plosive consonants can be found in both of these phrases, which, together with the rarity of b in Finnish, is why I would consider them to be part of the tongue twister and guided by the alliteration of the proper nouns. The successful tongue twister is combined with the successfully translated message. Therefore, the translation fulfills the informative and expressive functions and is the dynamic equivalent of the original.

The category alliteration includes tongue twisters that were translated to have alliteration as the tongue twister characteristic. In Example 2, Princess Carolyn, a Hollywood manager, is talking on the phone with Diane, who works at an entertainment news company. Princess Carolyn tries to raise her client, fictional movie star Courtney Portnoy, into the spotlight with an article about her. The following conversation ensues:

(2) EN: PRINCESS CAROLYN: You know Courtney Portnoy. You probably recall when she soared as the thorny horticulturist in One Sordid Fortnight with the Short-Skirted Sorceress. DIANE NGUYEN: Uhh... PRINCESS CAROLYN: How would you enjoy joining Portnoy for a scorched soy porterhouse pork four-courser at Koi? DIANE NGUYEN: Wait, what? PRINCESS CAROLYN: Glorify your source, but don't make it feel forced, of course. And try the borscht! Smooches!

FI: PRINCESS CAROLYN: Tunnethan Courtney Portnoyn? Hän puuhaili puutarhanhoitajana / elokuvassa Puiseva punanuttu puhisee puskissa. / Lähdepä Portnoyn kanssa porvarilliselle Porterhouse- porsaankyljykselle. DIANE NGUYEN: Niin mitä? PRINCESS CAROLYN: Poraudu Portnoyhin, mutta älä kornisti. / Ja hörpi borssia. Pusuja! (Season 4, episode 5)

The tongue twister of the original is constructed around the sound [o] and the alternation between it and other sounds. This makes the rhyme in the original an assonant rhyme. The sound [o] is repeated 32 times in the conversation, and 29 of them are stressed. In the performance, some of

them are stressed even in positions that are normally not stressed, and it could be argued that the exaggerated stresses are a conscious choice, given the nature of the tongue twisters. Additionally, [o] appears most with [r], [s] or a combination of the two. For example, in Princess Carolyn’s first line alone, [o] appears 13 times, of which 10 are next to an [r] sound, 3 are next to an [s] sound and it precedes an [rs] sound once.

The dominating characteristic in the translation is the alliteration of the letter p. This means that the translator has opted to match the source text’s tongue twister with alliteration. The alliteration is most likely formed around the letter p because of the words Portnoy and puutarhanhoitaja, as Portnoy and her character’s profession as a horticulturist are the key words of the sentence. Other words and phrases, such as the fictional movie title One Sordid Fortnight with the Short-Skirted Sorceress, have allowed the translator to continue the alliteration throughout the conversation. For example, the movie title is presumably created for the purpose of the tongue twister, so the source text encourages the translator to experiment with tongue twister characteristics.

The fictional movie title assists the tongue twister in fulfilling the informative function. Puiseva punanuttu puhisee puskissa is derives from One Sordid Fortnight with the Short-Skirted Sorceress semantically, but the creative use of the tongue twister makes it the dynamic equivalent of the original. The successful communication of the message together with the alliterative tongue twister makes the translation an excellent example of the use of alliteration in the translation of a tongue twister.

The category rhyme includes the tongue twisters that are translated with rhyme as the poetic characteristic. Example 3 is spoken by a police officer who has a couple in the backseat of his police car. The couple was speeding because of an ovulation tracker application on their smartwatch told them that to fertilize her egg in time, they must hurry. The couple speed through traffic and are caught by the police officer. The couple decide to engage in sexual activities in the backseat, which prompts the police officer to say the following:

(3) EN: I'll write you up for lewd conduct—Lewd, crude and partially nude! Not to mention the rude 'tude of you two dudes, while this prude—Hey, listen to me! FI: Saatte sakot rietastelusta. Rietastelusta ja painiskelusta. / Tuo nautiskelu ja nuoleskelu ei käy, kun alkaa tutkiskelu… Kuunnelkaa! (Season 4, episode 4)

The original tongue twister is based on a rhyme. The words that rhyme are lewd, crude, nude, rude, ‘tude, two, dudes and prude. All of the words are one syllable words. The rhyme begins as a strict 10

rhyme, as the rhyme involves the nucleus and the coda in the words lewd, crude, nude, rude and ‘tude. The words have [u:] as the nucleus and [d] as the coda. The words two and dudes break the patterning by having no coda in two and different coda [dz] in dudes. The rhyme returns to the strict rhyme in the last rhyming word prude. Due to the alternating codas, the rhyme is an example of assonance.

The translator has opted to use rhyme in the translation as well. The rhyme involves the words rietastelu, painiskelu, nautiskelu, nuoleskelu and tutkiskelu. In the core syllable structure, the words have four syllables in the form CVC-CVC-CV-CV. In the first half of the translation, the translator has added the suffix -sta to the ends of the words, but the core syllable structure is the same in all of the words. By having different word-final sounds, the two halves form two separate types of strict rhyme, the first ending in -sta and the second ending in -elu.

The main message behind the tongue twister is the ticket the police officer is planning to give the couple due to indecency. The ticket is mentioned in the first sentence in both the source text and the translation. After the main message, as the tongue twister ensues and does not communicate crucial information, the translation is able to deviate slightly from the semantic equivalence to preserve the tongue twister of the source text. With the interrupted “while this prude”, the police officer is presumably about to continue to explain the procedure of police work. For example, this could include discussion about an upcoming investigation, which the translation anticipates and communicates with the word tutkiskelu. The anticipation of upcoming words justifies the use of the word tutkiskelu, even when it does not have an equivalent in the source text. Ultimately, the translation is successful by meeting the requirements of both expressive function with a rhyming tongue twister and informative function by including the message in the tongue twister.

The category mixed includes the tongue twisters that have been translated with combinations of the translation strategies of the successful translations. The examples of the previous categories have utilized, for example, only alliteration or rhyme. In the category mixed, Example 4 combines the two. The conversation is between Princess Carolyn and Todd who discuss Courtney Portnoy and her career.

(4) EN: PRINCESS CAROLYN: You know the actress Courtney Portnoy? TODD: I think so. She portrayed the formerly portly consort in The Seaport Resort? PRINCESS CAROLYN: Courtly roles like the formerly portly consort are Courtney Portnoy's forte, but she's got a new action movie that's supposed to change her image: Ms. Taken. You know Mr. Taken from the Taken movies? This is his niece. TODD: Nice!

PRINCESS CAROLYN: This was supposed to be Courtney's crossover coronation, but that's sort of been thwarted, unfortunately, 'cause Courtney's purportedly falling short of shoring up four-quadrant support.

FI: PRINCESS CAROLYN: Tiedätkö Courtney Portnoyn? TODD: Vissiin. Esittikö hän tanakkaa akkaa elokuvassa Rivakka majakka? PRINCESS CAROLYN: Napakat osat, kuten tanakka akka, ovat Portnoyn paras urakka. / Uusi toimintaelokuva muuttaa hänen imagonsa: Miss Taken. / Hän on Taken-elokuvien herra Takenin siskontyttö. / Tämän piti olla Courtneyn crossoverkruunaus / mutta se on kroonisesti krempassa kriisiytyneen kropan vuoksi. (Season 4, episode 3)

The tongue twister in the source text is built similarly as Example 2 and the two also share the same topic, Courtney Portnoy. The tongue twister is, again, based on the assonant rhyming of the sound [o] and the alternation between it and the sounds [r] and [s]. In addition to the [o] sound, the tongue twister also utilizes alliteration in the last line, where Princess Carolyn uses alliteration of the sound [k] in the phrases Courtney’s crossover coronation and ‘cause Courtney. In the latter, the intentional use of alliteration can be seen in the abbreviated ‘cause.

In the translation, what categorizes the translation strategy as mixed is the mixture of rhyme and alliteration. The translation begins the tongue twister with the rhyming of the word final -akka in the words tanakka, akka, rivakka, majakka, napakka and urakka. Some of the words are, as they should be, inflected differently to fit the Finnish grammar, but the root words end in -akka. Additionally, the words, apart from the word akka, are all three syllable words, which creates a new dimension to the tongue twister with the rhythm created with the Finnish word-initial stress.

After the rhyme, when the source text introduces alliteration into the tongue twister, the translation does so as well. The source text returns to the rhyme after two phrases with alliteration, but the translation’s alliteration continues to the end of the line. The alliteration begins with the phrase Courtneyn crossoverkruunaus, which matches the source text’s alliteration, and continues with kroonisesti krempassa kriisiytyneen kropan vuoksi, which acts as substitute for the source text’s rhyme and works well with the alliteration in the beginning of the sentence.

Regarding the message of the source text’s tongue twister, the translation does not necessarily carry the same semantic meaning. The parts that carry the same semantic meaning include formerly portly and tanakka, Portnoy’s forte and Portnoyn paras urakka and Courtney’s crossover coronation and Courtneyn crossoverkruunaus. What helps the translation as a carrier of message is that Portnoy’s discussed role of a formerly portly consort in The Seaport Resort is fictional and it is mentioned at

the beginning of the tongue twister. The fictional role and movie have allowed the translator to create their own tongue twister with less semantic equivalence and to concentrate more on the tongue twister. The differences in the message become the clearest towards the end of the tongue twister. The source text gives the viewers’ lack of interest in Portnoy’s work as the reason for the movie’s probable failure to become Portnoy’s crossover coronation. The translation substitutes the reason for concern regarding Portnoy’s physique. Because of this substitution, the message of the target text diverts from the source text, but the reason is believable and realistic regarding Hollywood and its obsession with physique. The substitution is an example of dynamic equivalence, as the translator has changed the meaning to provoke a similar response as the source text in the original audience. In conclusion, the tongue twister is translated successfully, as the message is communicated as a tongue twister.

5.2 Partly Successful

The category of partly successful tongue twisters includes, as the name suggests, tongue twisters that are not fully translated as tongue twisters. There were 10 instances of partly successful translations among the 31 tongue twisters. Six of these are categorized as proper nouns + omitted. The category is for those translations that are successful by including proper nouns which are a part of the tongue twister in the source text, but the translator has omitted the tongue twister characteristics outside of the proper nouns. The category may seem the same as the categories proper nouns and mixed of successful translations, but these examples differ from the successful translations because of the omission of the poetic characteristics.

Four out of the 10 examples in the category of partly successful are categorized as partly translated. These translations are only partly translated as tongue twisters. The tongue twisters may begin with some tongue twister characteristics, but do not continue throughout the translation. For example, some instances have been translated with deliberate alliteration, but the alliteration stops in the middle of the line. These examples suggest that the translators have omitted parts of the tongue twisters.

Table 3. Partly successful translations Category Number of examples Proper nouns + omitted 6 Partly translated 4 Total 10

First, I examine the category proper nouns + omitted. Example 5 is a part of Princess Carolyn’s story about a past encounter with Mr. Peanutbutter.

(5) EN: Let me tell you a story. The year was 2003, and for some reason, everybody was playing poker all of a sudden. A then-relevant Wilmer Valderrama used to host a weekly how-do-you-do and all the stars came out to show off their tricks. There was Lucy Lawless, Lucy Liu, Lori Laughlin, Lisa Loeb, the dog from Frasier, and at the head of the table? Big money himself, Mr. Peanutbutter. I thought, "Here's a rube." But Lady Luck had other plans. FI: Kerron pienen tarinan. / Vuosi oli 2003, ja jostain syytä pokerista oli tullut äkkiä supersuosittua. / Silloin kuuluisa Wilmer Valderrama piti viikoittaisia kutsuja / ja kaikki tähdet tulivat näyttämään taitonsa: / Lucy Lawless, Lucy Liu, Lori Laughlin, Lisa Loeb, / Frasierin koira ja pöydän päässä / herra isoherra, Mr. Peanutbutter. / Luulin voittavani helposti, / mutta onnetar ei ollut puolellani. (Season 2, episode 8)

In the source text, the tongue twister is the list of celebrities whose first and last names begin with the letter l. The tongue twister is thereby created with alliteration. To add another layer of poetic characteristics, the names are listed in a way that creates an interesting rhythm into the line. In the group of Lucy Lawless, Lucy Liu, Lori Laughlin and Lisa Loeb, all of the first names are two syllables long. In addition to this, Lucy Lawless and Lori Laughlin both have two syllable last names, in which both syllables begin with l, and Lucy Liu and Lisa Loeb have one syllable last names.

The translation succeeds in the communication of the message behind the tongue twister. The tongue twister is also successful, as the words forming the tongue twister are proper nouns. The tongue twister has been categorized into proper nouns + omitted because the original has one more proper noun after the list: Lady Luck. The translation fails to continue the alliteration of l beyond the list of celebrities. The translation, onnetar, is the direct translation and semantically correct, but the lack of alliteration causes it to be only partly successful.

In an example for the category partly translated (Example 6), Rutabaga, Princess Carolyn’s colleague, tries to convince Princess Carolyn to leave her current agency and form a new one with him.

(6) EN: Carolyn, you are my gritty, witty city kitty. I want you with me, fifty-fifty. FI: Carolyn, olet sirpakka citykissani. Haluan sinut kumppanikseni. (Season 2, episode 9)

The tongue twister is based on a rhyme. Rutabaga rhymes the words gritty, witty, city, kitty and fifty-fifty. The rhyme is based on the American pronunciation, in which the letter t is pronounced as

a flap sound [ɾ]. Rutabaga pronounces the word fifty-fifty with a slang pronunciation fiddy-fiddy so it follows the rhyme.

The translation is partly successful because it alliterates in the first sentence but does not in the second one. The alliteration of the translation is based on the sound [s] in the words sirpakka and citykissa. The alliteration is successful but does not continue into the second sentence. The translator has omitted it presumably to prioritize the message behind the tongue twister. Another cause for the omission could be the non-standard pronunciation of fifty-fifty, which the translator could have missed because of its normal spelling. Because of the partly omitted tongue twister but a successful communication of the message, the translation belongs in the category of partly successful.

5.3 Unsuccessful

The category of unsuccessful translations has 5 instances. The unsuccessful translations do manage to communicate the message behind the tongue twisters, but they do not have poetic characteristics to make them tongue twisters. I will analyze one of these in Example 7 below.

In this tongue twister, Princess Carolyn tells BoJack about an acting job in a commercial for a liquor brand when she finds him after a night of drinking:

(7) EN: PRINCESS CAROLYN: You're the new face of Guten Bourbon! BOJACK: What's Guten Bourbon? PRINCESS CAROLYN: It's an urban German bourbon. BOJACK: Am I just hungover or are you talking like a Muppet?

FI: PRINCESS CAROLYN: Olet Guten Bourbonin uudet kasvot. BOJACK: Mikä se on? PRINCESS CAROLYN: Saksalaista bourbonia. BOJACK: Olenko krapulassa, vai puhutko sekavia? (Season 1, episode 7)

In the original, the tongue twister is said by Princess Carolyn. The tongue twister is based on the repetition of three two syllable words that rhyme the same vowels and have the stress in the first syllable. As the vowels rhyme, the rhyme in this example is assonant. The words rhyme the vowel sound [ɜ] in the first and stressed syllable (ur-ban, Ger-man, bour-bon) and the unstressed schwa [ə] in the second (ur-ban, Ger-man, bour-bon).

In the translation, on the other hand, there are no poetic characteristics to classify it as a tongue twister. The line with a tongue twister in the original was “It’s an urban German bourbon”, which is translated as “Saksalaista boubonia.” The translation therefore lacks the tongue twister characteristics completely, but the message behind the tongue twister is communicated efficiently in two words. The word urban is omitted in the translation, which could be deemed unnecessary in the translation, as the focus of the description of the bourbon is on German, due to the name Guten Bourbon.

The problem in the omission of the tongue twister in this example rises from the last line, spoken by BoJack: “Am I just hungover or are you talking like a Muppet?” The line is translated correctly as “Olenko krapulassa, vai puhutko sekavia?” but the line does not match the omitted tongue twister. For the last line to work, the tongue twister should have been translated with some poetic characteristics. Now, without the characteristics, the last line does not cohere with the previous one and understanding that the tongue twister even happened relies on hearing. This means that to understand the humorous intent of the tongue twister, the Finnish viewer must connect the last line’s message to the heard English tongue twister. The omission categorizes the translation as unsuccessful because only the informative function is achieved, and the expressive function is not.

6 Conclusions

In this thesis, I have studied the translation of tongue twisters in the television series BoJack Horseman. The aim of the thesis was to examine the ways the translators have approached the task from the perspective of Eugene Nida’s functionalist equivalence theory. The theory highlights the importance of similar response, which is achieved when the reader of the target text reacts to the translation in a similar way as the reader of the source text. This idea of similar response assisted me in analyzing the material and creating the categories for the results. Inspired by Nida’s idea of successful and unsuccessful translations, I created the categories successful and unsuccessful with the extra category partly successful. The extra category allows some degree of omission of the tongue twister instead of immediately deeming a partly omitted tongue twister translation unsuccessful. This also allowed me to analyze the examples in this category from a more positive perspective. Initially, I had anticipated that the number of examples in the successful category would be much lower than it ultimately was, which is part of the reason for the creation of the extra category.

The results show that the translators have succeeded in translating the tongue twisters by using poetic characteristics similarly as the writers of the source text, which is the creative process for tongue twisters. In some of the examples, the success came from the use of proper nouns as a part of the tongue twisters, but the analysis also shows replication of poetic characteristics or replacement of them with other characteristics, so the translators seem to have considered the comedic value of the tongue twisters and have translated them accordingly.

Why is the successful translation of the tongue twisters important? As established early in this thesis, the tongue twisters are written into BoJack Horseman for comedic purposes. If the tongue twisters are omitted in the translation, the Finnish viewer might miss the joke depending on their language skills or ability to hear the original. Then, the omission becomes an accessibility issue, as a person with hearing loss automatically misses the joke because of it. Accessibility is therefore an important factor to consider in the discussion on the quality of translations.

It can be said that the quality of the translations analyzed here is already high, as 16 out of the 31 instances were successful and 10 were partly successful, but the number of successful translations could be higher. While this thesis concentrated on how the tongue twisters were translated, it would be interesting to study, for example, why the translators chose to alliterate in some examples and to rhyme in others. For now, studies on how tongue twisters are translated are more important to increase the theory surrounding the subject, and perhaps these studies could assist in bringing the numbers of successful translations of tongue twisters much higher in the future. Future studies could benefit from this thesis, as the material is found over the course of multiple seasons and episodes and is produced by multiple translators.

One of the biggest problems with this study is that the quality of the translations is a somewhat subjective issue. The categorization of the translations in this thesis highlights this well, specifically the category partly successful. For someone, the translations in the category should belong in the category of successful translations and for someone else, they should belong in the category of unsuccessful translations. Due to the subjectivity of the quality assessment of the translations, the analysis in this thesis poses a limitation for the future use of the data present in this thesis.

7 References

7.1 Research Data

BoJack Horseman. Season 1, episode 7, “Say Anything.” Produced by Tornante Television. Aired August 22, 2014, on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800/. BoJack Horseman. Season 2, episode 8, “Let’s Find Out.” Produced by Tornante Television. Aired July 17, 2015, on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800/. BoJack Horseman. Season 2, episode 9, “The Shot.” Produced by Tornante Television. Aired July 17, 2015, on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800/. BoJack Horseman. Season 4, episode 3, “Hooray! Todd Episode!.” Produced by Tornante Television. Aired September 8, 2017, on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800/. BoJack Horseman. Season 4, episode 4, “Commence Fracking.” Produced by Tornante Television. Aired September 8, 2017, on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800/. BoJack Horseman. Season 4, episode 5, “Thoughts and Prayers.” Produced by Tornante Television. Aired September 8, 2017, on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800/. BoJack Horseman. Season 4, episode 12, “What Time Is It Right Now.” Produced by Tornante Television. Aired September 8, 2017, on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800/.

7.2 Literature

Fandom. 2020. “Word Avalanches.” Accessed January 28, 2020. https://bojackhorseman.fandom.com/wiki/Word_Avalanches Lahdelma, Tuomo, Pirkko Kainulainen, and Urpo Kovala. 1982. Lyriikan kääntämisestä. Kääntäjäseminaari Jyväskylässä 26.6. - 27.6.1981. Jyväskylä: Jyväskylän yliopisto. Mandle, Chris. 2019. “How BoJack Horseman became the 21st Century’s best animation.” Accessed February 3, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191024-how- bojack-horseman-became-the-21st-centurys-best-animation. Montgomery, Martin. 2012. Ways of Reading. New York: Routledge. Munday, Jeremy. 2012. Introducing Translation Studies. New York: Routledge. Nida, Eugene, and Charles Taber. 1974. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leider: The United Bible Societies.