Owain Davies
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Masterarbeit . am Institut für Angewandte Linguistik und Translatologie der Universität Leipzig über das Thema The Translation of Culture-specific Material in Children's Literature with particular reference to the German translation of the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett . vorgelegt von Owain Davies Matrikelnummer 3708164 MA Translatologie . Referent: Herr Timothy Jones Korreferent: Frau Dr. Beate Herting Leipzig 15.05.2018 Acknowledgements I would like to offer many thanks to Tim Jones for his readiness to supervise this thesis and his encouragement and occasionally timely advice during the M.A. course, and also to Beate Herting for agreeing to take on the role of second examiner. To my parents I owe an exceptional debt of gratitude for their unwavering and generous support, both practical and moral, over recent years. Thank you very, very much. To Susi, Cynan and Mabon it only remains for me to say that I doubt I’d have got as far as typing this were it not for your patience, good humour and general dedication to keeping my spirits up when things weren’t looking so rosy. You might even get to see a bit more of me now! Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Children’s Literature .......................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Translation of Children’s Literature ................................................................................... 6 1.2.1 Interplay of picture and words in picture books ......................................................... 8 1.2.2 Playful use of language .............................................................................................. 8 1.2.3 The possibility of double address (of child and adult) ............................................... 8 1.3 Culture-specific Material in Translation ............................................................................ 9 1.3.1 Göte Klingberg ......................................................................................................... 10 1.3.2 Eirlys E. Davies ........................................................................................................ 13 1.4 Terry Pratchett .................................................................................................................. 15 1.4.1 The Discworld and Writing for Children ................................................................. 16 1.4.2 The Tiffany Aching series ........................................................................................ 19 2 Setting and Tradition ............................................................................................................... 22 2.1 The Cultural Setting and Not Especially Culture-specific Material ................................. 24 2.2 Natural Environment ........................................................................................................ 25 2.2.1 Flora and Fauna ........................................................................................................ 25 2.2.2 Geographical Setting ................................................................................................ 28 2.3 References to Popular Belief ............................................................................................ 30 2.3.1 Jenny Greenteeth ...................................................................................................... 30 2.3.2 Grimhounds .............................................................................................................. 32 2.3.3 Fairies ....................................................................................................................... 33 3 Language Variation ................................................................................................................. 42 3.1 Language Variation in Children’s Literature ................................................................... 43 3.2 General Language Variation in the Tiffany Aching series ................................................ 47 3.3 The Language of the Nac Mac Feegle ............................................................................. 52 3.3.1 Elements of Feegle speech ....................................................................................... 53 3.3.2 Feegle speech in use ................................................................................................. 55 3.3.3 Feegle speech in translation ..................................................................................... 56 4 Names ...................................................................................................................................... 63 4.1 Proper Nouns in Translation ............................................................................................ 63 4.1.1 Preservation .............................................................................................................. 66 4.1.2 Addition ................................................................................................................... 67 4.1.3 Omission .................................................................................................................. 68 4.1.4 Globalization ............................................................................................................ 68 4.1.5 Localization .............................................................................................................. 69 4.1.6 Transformation ......................................................................................................... 69 4.1.7 Creation .................................................................................................................... 70 4.2 Personal Names in the Tiffany Aching books ................................................................... 70 4.2.1 Human Names .......................................................................................................... 71 4.2.2 Feegle Names ........................................................................................................... 72 4.3 The Translation of Personal Names in the Tiffany Aching books .................................... 73 4.3.1 Human Names in Translation ................................................................................... 73 4.3.2 Feegle Names in Translation .................................................................................... 74 4.3.3 Individual Names in Translation .............................................................................. 74 5 Intertextuality .......................................................................................................................... 80 5.1 Intertextuality in Translation ............................................................................................ 80 5.1.1 ‘Intertextuality Proper’ ............................................................................................. 81 5.1.2 ‘Facultative Intertextuality’ ...................................................................................... 82 6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 87 Appendix A – Flora and Fauna in translation .................................................................................. 90 Appendix B – Personal names in translation ................................................................................... 94 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................. 101 References ...................................................................................................................................... 101 1 Foreword One can hardly imagine a history of children’s literature, not even conceived from a national point of view, without mentioning translations. (Ghesquiere, 2006: 20) Even in a country as traditionally unreceptive to translated literature as Great Britain1, stories originating in other languages are a familiar part of the literary fare readily available to children. European fairy tales, Japanese manga and characters as diverse and memorable as Asterix, Mrs Pepperpot, Pippi Longstocking and the Moomins have an established place on domestic bookshelves alongside works created closer to home. Nevertheless, despite UK- based efforts to recognize and promote the translation of children’s literature into English2, the current output is notable more for its quality than its quantity or popularity with the reading public. Translator and editor Daniel Hahn, writing recently for The Guardian (Hahn, 2016), goes so far as to question whether there are any contemporary children’s authors, besides Cornelia Funke, whose work is widely translated into English. In Germany, of course, the situation is markedly different3. Even without taking into account the astoundingly popular Harry Potter books, which have sold over 30 million copies in German translation4, a brief look at the children’s section in a high street bookshop is enough to get a good impression of the significance of translation for the German-language children’s book market. The displays