MINORITY LANGUAGE DUBBING FOR CHILDREN by Eithne O’Connell A thesis submitted to the Joint Faculty of Humanities of Dublin City University for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Supervisor Dr Jenny Williams School of Applied Language and intercultural Studies Joint Faculty ot Humanities Dublin C it\ Universm July 2000 DECLARATION I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work Slëned l^lJUiuvJL O' Student ID Number 95971564 Date 16 July 2000 l ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to record formally my appreciation of the support and guidance extended to me by my supervisor and colleague, Dr Jenny Williams, during the preparation of this thesis Her mixture of tact and tenacity were just what were needed to steer me towards the completion of my research project within the desired timeframe and her genuine interest in the topic of screen translation was always most evident and encouraging I am also grateful to Dublin City University for awarding me a sabbatical year in 1998/99 during which I was able to complete my research and write up my findings I would never have undertaken a thesis in the area of screen translation had it not been for the opportunity extended to me while on my first sabbatical from DCU in 1991/92 to work on subtitling and dubbing projects at Telegael, the post- production company located in the Connemara Gaeltacht I am particularly grateful to my fellow Gael, Scotsman Alan Esslemont, formerly of Telegael and now working with TnaG/TG4, who personally has done more than anyone else to alert me to the full potential of screen translation for the development of minority languages I would also like to thank DCU graduate, Maire Nic Niallais, who during her time at Telegael afforded me generous assistance by compiling for me the corpus of Janosch videos and scripts used here It would not be possible for me to name individually each of the colleagues in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies at DCU, who are deserving of my thanks However, I feel I must single out Dr Lynne Bowker, Dr Michael Cronin, Dr Dorothy Kenny and Dr Jennifer Pearson, all of whom went out of their way to pass on to me relevant leading material and/or undertook to read draft copies of chapters and offered most valuable critical feedback I would also like to acknowledge the assistance provided at an early stage m my research in relation to the German Janosch texts by my colleague, Christelle Petite Five stalwarts, colleagues in SALIS at DCU but also friends in their own right, are deserving of particular mention for their kindness and support They are Veronica Crosbie, Carol Lamgan, Dr Brigitte Le Juez, Angela Rickard and Dr Annette Simon Finally, I would like to thank my mother, family, and partner for their love and moral support 11 ABSTRACT Minority Language Dubbing for Children Eithne O’Connell This thesis is an exercise in descriptive translation studies (DTS) which sets out to investigate the much neglected area of screen translation for children The corpus selected for investigation is a collection of six original television programmes from the German Janoschs Traumstunde animation series and the corresponding Irish dubbed versions The aim of this research is to investigate the relative influence of the various constraints imposed on the target texts by a) the major/minority language pair, 1 e German/Irish, b) the translation method, 1 e dubbing and c) the target audience, 1 e children The mam focus of the comparative section of this thesis is the translation of lexis, especially LSP terms The findings show that lexical simplification is a widespread feature of the Irish dubbed translations It is argued that the prevalence of lexical simplification in the target language text cannot be explained, as one might have expected, simply in terms of the typical problems experienced by minority languages in relation to modern specialised terminology, but rather must be seen as also a result of a) technical aspects of the dubbing process and b) the attitude and assumptions of the Irish dubbing translation team with regard to the purpose of the translation and the linguistic needs and capabilities of the children who constitute the primary target audience While the primary purpose of this study is to describe a contemporary example of minority language dubbing for children, it is also hoped that its findings will contribute to changes in aspects of dubbing studio practice and screen translator training and ultimately result in improved standards of screen translation practice and criticism 111 ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations are used in the text CD = Compact disc CD-ROM = Compact Disc Read Only Memory CLAR = Committee on Irish Language Attitudes Research CPID = Collins Pocket Irish Dictionary DIN = Deutsche Industrie-Norm DTS = Descriptive Translation Studies EC = European Community EID = English Irish Dictionary EU = European Union FGB = Focloir Gaeilge Bearla (Irish/English Dictionary) i LGP = Language for general purposes j LSP = Language for specialised/specific purposes ,j RTE = Radio Teihfis Eireann (The Republic of Ireland’s National Broadcasting * Organisation) SL = Source language ST = Source text TG4 = TnaG’s new name (since September 1999) TL = Target language TnaG = Teihfis na Gaeilge (Irish language television station founded in 1996) TT = Target text TV = Television UK = United Kingdom US = United States of America WDR =West Deutsche Rundfunk (German regional television station) WDW =Wahrig Deutsches Worterbuch IV TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 8 0 I BACKGROUND 8 0 2 CONSTRAINED TRANSLATION ^ 9 0 3 T he corpus ' 10 0 4 THESIS STRUCTURE 11 0 5 T heoretical fram ew ork D escriptive T ranslation Studies (DTS) 14 0 5 1 Po lysystem Theory and T ranslation Studies 14 0 5 2 N orms 16 0 5 3 Universals 17 0 5 4 The Third Code 18 0 5 5 Som e characteristic features of translation 19 0 5 5 1 E xplication 19 0 5 5 1 1 Explication a nd dubbing 20 0 5 5 2 N ormalisation 21 0 5 5 2 1 N ormalisation and dubbing 22 0 5 5 3 Levelling out 22 0 5 5 3 1 Levelling o u t and dubbing 23 0 5 5 4 Simplification 23 0 5 4 4 1 Lexical Simplification 24 0 5 5 Conclusion 26 CHAPTER ONE IRISH AS A MINORITY LANGUAGE 27 1 0 Introduction 27 1 l W hat are m inority lang ua ges'? 28 1 1 1 T he tim e factor 29 1 1 2 T he geographical factor 31 1 2 E uropean U nion status of m inority languages 3 1 1 3 M inority languages and bilingualism /diglossia 32 1 4 A ttitudes to m inority languages 35 l 5 M inority languages and translation 36 1 6 T he Irish language and translation 41 1 6 1 Irish literary and textbook translation 46 l 7 Irish and terminology 47 l 7 1 O ld and n ew terminology in Irish 48 1 7 2 T he use of En glish terminology in Irish 50 l 8 Translation for Ir ish -speaking children 53 1 9 Conclusion 55 CHAPTER TWO DUBBING 56 2 0 Introduction 56 2 l T erminological considerations 56 2 2 Types or Revoicing 57 2 2 l V oice-over 58 2 2 2 N a r r a iio n 58 2 2 3 Tree com m entary 59 2 2 4 LlP-SYNC DUBBING 59 2 3 DUBBING VERSUS SUBTITLING 60 2 3 l C onstraints affecting dubbing and subtitling 60 2 3 2 R elative st atus o r dubbing and subtitling 62 2 3 3 1 HE NATIONAL DIMENSION 62 2 3 4 Fac tors influencing choice 63 2 3 4 1 T hl m inority language factor 64 V 2 3 4 2 THLAGLlACTOR 66 2 3 4 3 TllLSEXFAClOR 66 2 3 4 4 THL LI ILRACY TAC TOR 67 2 4 THE MECHANICS OF DUBBING 68 2 5 Dubbing Janoschs Traumstunde inio Irish 71 2 5 1 Linguistic aspects 71 2 5 2 T echnical aspects 72 2 6 Janoschs Traumstunde Corpus Selection 74 2 7 C onclusion 75 CHAPTER THREE SYNCHRONY 76 3 0 Introduction 76 3 1 Theoretical approaches to synchrony 76 3 2 W hitm an-L in sen’s m odel of dubbing synchrony 78 3 3 V isual synchrony 79 3 3 1 Lip synchrony 79 3 3 2 Syllable syn chrony/isochrony 81 3 3 3 Kinetic synchrony 82 3 4 Factors facilitating visual synchrony 83 3 5 Variables affecting visual synchrony 85 3 6 A udio synchrony 86 3 6 l v o ic e synchrony 86 3 6 2 Prosody syn chrony 87 3 6 3 A ccent/dialect synchrony 88 3 7 Content synchrony 89 3 8 H erbst’s pragm atic a pproach to screen translation 91 3 9 Cartoon dubbing for children 96 3 10 C onclusion 98 CHAPTER FOUR TRANSLATING FOR CHILDREN 100 4 o Introduction 100 4 l Translating texts for children 100 4 2 T he n eglect of c h ild r en ’s literature 102 4 3 Perceptions of children, childhood a n d children’s literature 104 4 4 C haracteristics o f th e genre 107 4 4 1 Two AUDIENCES 108 4 4 2 A m bivalent c on ten t 109 4 4 3 A u th o rs’ n on-m em bership of target group 109 4 4 4 Text multifunctionality 111 4 5 C ultural marginalization 112 4 6 D eviation from literary norm s 113 4 7 O th er narra tiv e g enres for children 114 4 7 1 Anim ation and com ics as new n arratives 116 A 8 The translation of children’s texts 117 4 8 1 N o n t e x t u a l factors 118 4 8 11 Low status of translations 118 4 8 12 Poor w orking conditions 118 4 8 13 Pressures on translators 119 4 8 2 Tl XTUAL I AC TORS 120 4 8 2 1 ASYMMETRY OF TRANSLATION FOR CHILDREN 120 4 8 2 2 A d u lts as ti ie de fa c i o primary audience 120 4 8 2 3 C h ild ren ’s know ledge deficit 121 4 8 3 T he im portance of language and play for children 122 4 8 4 Descriptive approaches i o research on translating for children 123 4 8 5 Screen transla h on tor children 125 4 8 6 Major ro minority language