Translation Toolkit

8. Varietal Filter

(Baker 1992: 15-16) Language variety is the level of textual variable that reveals information about the speaker or writer, and can be particularly important in characterization in fictional works. There are two types: information that the speaker intends to convey (tonal register) and things that are not necessarily intentional, such as social or regional affiliation.

Dialect

Dialect is a variety of language that is current among a specific group of speakers. It tends to differ from standard varieties in accent, lexis, syntax, and sentence formation. It refers specifically to:

• Regional affiliation: Scottish dialect; lift versus elevator. For example (Scottish Highland dialect features in bold; my glosses in square brackets):

Oh Morvern have you no been in touch at all, come here, come here, the big white chiefs [=bosses] have got him. Suspended his lump sum and pension on a discipline [abbreviated for disciplinary hearing.]    I looked at Coll. A feeling. A feeling was going across me. We were stood by the engine near the cab door. --Alan Warner, Morvern Callar

• Temporal (different age groups or periods): verily versus really: say Jane Austen's Jane Eyre compared with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale or her Blind Assassin.

Dialect raises three considerations for translators:

• how important is this feature to the ST? In some genres (informative texts) it may not be significant. In others, such as journalism or literary texts, it may be important since it may carry source-culture connotations, or give specific, local colour to the ST.
• if it is important, the translator must decide how to handle it systematically in the TT. The issues that arise are: how does the dialect selected for the TT correlate with that used in the ST in terms of cultural connotations? Should a working-class tower-block dweller from Madrid sound like she is on 'Eastenders', or a Tyrolean diary farmer like an escapee from 'The Archers'?
• And - more to the point - how convincingly can the translator produce dialect him or herself? In many cases, the loss of dialectal information can be rendered through exegetical compensation; for example, 'in his much-loved Auvergne accent...'. Naturally this consideration applies equally to other varietal features.

Sociolect

This is differentiated from social register (see below) by being linked to sociological (rather than narrowly stereotyped) notions of social group or class affiliation. It is often as involuntary as dialect, and carries with it standard usages determined by social class: for example, scent versus perfume; napkin versus serviette; and lunch and dinner, or dinner and tea. Sociolect tends to be linked to vague labels like urban working class, white collar, public school, and so on. As with other varietal features, the translator should determine its function in the ST. It may be incidental, and could be subordinated; but if it plays a larger role then similar considerations as for dialect must apply.

If the translator chooses to use a target-culture language variety, it must be used consistently and appropriately. This does not mean to say that it must be imposed throughout the text, but it should be introduced in a such a way as to avoid awkwardness, and collocative clashes.

Register

Language variety considered appropriate to a specific situation is known as register, and it is determined by the non-linguistic context; such as its role (essay, instructions, wedding speech) and the medium of transmission (oral, written). Social Register gives grounds for inferring detailed stereotypical information about social identity, which is not usually intentionally revealed by the speaker or character but may be deliberately manipulated by the author. It tends to carry information about a character or speaker's educational background, the social role they are fulfilling, their occupational role and professional standing:

The door of the morning-room was open as I went through the hall, and I caught a glimpse of Uncle Tom messing about with his collection of old silver. For a moment I toyed with the idea of pausing to pip-pip and inquire after his digestion, a malady to which he is subject, but wiser counsels prevailed. The uncle is a bird who, sighting a nephew, is apt to buttonhole him and become a bit informative on the subject of sconces and foliation, not to mention scrolls, ribbon wreaths in high relief and gadroon borders, and it seemed to me that silence was best. I whizzed by, accordingly, with sealed lips, and headed for the library, where I have been informed that Aunt Dahlia was at the moment rooting.    'Hullo, ugly,' she said. 'What brings you here?'    'I understood, aged relative, that you wished to confer with me.'    'I didn't want you to come barging in, interrupting my work. A few words on the telephone would have met the cause. But I suppose some instinct told you that today was my busy day.' --P. G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters

In this extract, the narrator, Bertie Wooster, is depicted as an upper-class twit. His good educational background can be discerned in his use of complex sentences (see the one beginning 'The uncle...', in particular), and in his ability to repeat the complex technical vocabulary of silverware, even if he shows no sign of understanding or appreciating it. His social clumsiness is seen in his lack of care for his relatives' interests and of respect for their time. His use of casual colloquial phrasings, drawing on a myriad of influences, including the military, 'pip-pip', and politico-military, 'wiser counsels', show his youthfulness.

Tonal Register carries affective or emotive content, and refers to the tone or attitude intentionally adopted by speaker; it can usefully be thought of as how polite the characters or speakers are intentionally being.

-Sorry, Danny... s only a squirrel. Sorry mate. Ah ken how ye feel aboot animals. Ah jist, like...ye ken whit ah means Danny, it's like ... fuck, ah mean, ah'm fucked up, Danny. Ah dinnae ken. Begbie n that ... , the gear. Ah dinnae ken what ah'm daein wi ma life ... it's aw jist a mess, Danny. Ah dinnae ken whit the fuckin score is. Sorry man. Rents husnae called us 'Danny' for ages, now he cannae stoap callin us it. He looks really upset, likesay. --Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting

Social and tonal register are not always fully distinguishable since some styles of expression may equally be used intentionally as tonal register (being polite, offensive, etc.), or as part the social identity of the speaker or character (is polite, is rude, etc). In this extract Renton's dialect, social and tonal register appear. His dialect is evident particularly in lexical items like 'aboot' (about), 'jist' (just), 'whit' (what), 'ken' (know), and 'dinnae' (don't). His social register is also conveyed in short and hesitant non sequitors, which tend be characteristic of lower social registers. Expletives as intensifiers or as illocutionary particles often mark lower social registers, or are used amongst single-sex groups of men between equals or superior to inferior to show bonding and equality of status. Renton's tonal register is conveyed through repetition in two ways. First, he uses the expletive, 'fuck', as an illocutionary particle to convey equality with Danny but also to express surprise and contrition. Second, he mollifies Danny using his first name rather than his nickname. Renton's language is strongly dialectal, and shows him to be of a lower social register, but he is being polite in his apology.

 

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