Translating Culturally Marked Words from Serbian into Western World Languages

Translating Culturally Marked Words from Serbian into Western World Languages(e.g. English or German)

Jelena Kostić-TomovićUniversity of Belgrade – Faculty of Philology

German [email protected]

Jelena Kostić-Tomović 2

The core points of the presentation

1. Culturally marked words make up a substantial part of the lexicon.

2. It is harder to find adequate equivalents of culturally marked words when the SL is a minor language and the TL a world language.

3. Overview of the different categories of culturally marked words in Serbian

4. Overview of the translation techniques for culturally marked words

5. Implications for translator training etc.


What are culturally marked words?

Culturally marked words are lexical units which have a cultural referent.

A cultural referent is an object or a phenomenon which is specific to a certain culture - and to the corresponding speech community.

The meaning of culturally marked words is impossible to understand without a certain amount of cultural knowledge.


ExamplesUSA, UK:

homecoming, homecoming queen, Ivy League, college, lord, porridge…

Germany, Austria:Abitur / Matura, Gymnasium, Volksschule, Gugelhupf, Bratwurst,

Oktoberfest…

Spain:la corrida, tapas, chinchon…

Greece:ouzo, syrtaki, tzatziki…


Prototypical Categories of CMW:National cuisine

Gibanica

Sarma

PljeskavicaPrebranac

AjvarKajmak


Prototypical Categories of CMW:National costume

Jelek

OpanciŠajkača

Libade


Prototypical Categories of CMW: Folk tradition (music, dances etc.)

Kolo

Trubači

Frulaš

Guslar

Gusle


Categoriesof Culturally Marked Words

Culturally marked words belong to many different categories, such as:

Arts and culture, pop culture Ways of life, objects of everyday life History Politics, ideology, religion Institutions Geography Economy Famous and important personalities etc.


TranslatingCulturally Marked Words

Translating culturally marked words is never easy…

…particularly when the gap between the cultures and the corresponding languages is huge…

…or when the target culture has a much greater influence on the source culture then vice versa.


Symmetrical vs. asymmetrical relationship

The relationship between countries / cultures / languagescan be:

symmetrical(meaning that they affect each other more or less equally)

or asymmetrical

(meaning that one of them has a much greater impact on the other than vice versa).


Differences in Influencebetween Countries / Cultures / Languages

Capitol Hill –

The United States Congress

The Bundestag

(Reichstagsgebäude)

Skupshtina –

The Serbian Parliament



Barack ObamaAngela Merkel

Boris Tadić



Yellowstone National Park Neuschwanstein

Castle

The Đerdap gorge / Iron Gate



Lord Byron

John Keats

J. W. Goethe

F. Schiller

Ivo Andrić

Meša Selimović



The Rolling Stones

The Ramones

The Scorpions

Rammstein

Partibrejkers

Ekaterina velika



Madonna

Nena

Slađana Milošević


Serbian (SL) →a (Western) World Language (TL)

Segments of culturally marked vocabulary especially prone to difficulties:

Names of institutions and organizations of all types: government agencies, healthcare institutions, cultural institutions, education etc.

Names of important and/or famous personalities: politicians, artists, scientists, entertainers etc.

National history: events, wars, battles, crucial moments, personalities, objects, monuments etc.

Religion: churches, ecclesiastical hierarchy, cult objects, dogmas, beliefs etc. Politics: political parties, political structures, bodies, events, important topics etc. Ideology Law Geography: rivers, mountains, towns, neighbourhoods, parks, streets, various sights

etc. Economy: important companies, well-known products, products of special symbolical

significance etc. Arts and culture, including both cultural history and pop culture: famous books,

poems, songs, films, buildings, clubs, concerts, bands, quotations etc. Ways of life Objects of everyday life, past and present etc.


Some examples Religion:

sabornost, svetosavlje, vladika etc.

Subcultural phenomena:narodnjak, turbo-folk, zabavnjak etc.

Slang and colloquial words referring on phenomena of everyday life:sponzoruša, pevaljka, paradajz-turista, dizelaš

Important and/or famous personalities:Hajduk Veljko, Čučuk Stana, Milan Mladenović, Marko Čelebonović

Geography:Tašmajdan, Karaburma, Kalemegdan, Ub, Zlatibor


Translation techniques(Negro Alousque 2009)


Translation techniques(Duff, Bratanić)

1. The original form of the word is retained, no explanations.2. The original form of the word is retained, but is followed by: a

literal translation, an official translation or a note.3. The original form is not used at all.4. The original form is not used at all, but explanations of

associated meanings are added.5. The word is translated by using several equivalents in the TL.6. The word of the SL is partly translated, as in formulaic speech.7. The word of the TL is in no direct relation to the word of the

SL.


How do we decide which translation strategy to use?

The choice of the best translation strategy depends on:

the text type(e.g. subtitles, scientific article, novel, newspaper article)

as well as on

the potential audience(e.g. experts, well-educated readers, average readers,

children).


An ExampleSerbian (original):

Otvarali su se novi restorani, kafanske bašte, starije mehane su modernizovane i postajale moderni hoteli u kojima su gosti rado sedeli.

German (translation):

Es wurden neue Restaurants, Straßen- und Gartencafés[1] eröffnet, alte Mehanen wurden teils modernisiert teils zu modernen Hotels umgebaut, in welchen die Gäste mit Vergnügen absteigen konnten.

[1] Klimatisch bedingt ist es in Serbien im Frühling, Sommer und Herbst ziemlich angenehm, draußen zu sitzen. Deswegen ist es für Restaurants, Cafés und für alle anderen Gastronomieunternehmen ein Muß, auch Tische draußen vor dem Lokal zu haben. Dieser Teil des Lokals wird unabhängig von seiner Beschaffenheit immer als bašta (dt. Garten) bezeichnet. (A. d. Ü.)


How to train translation students to make the right decisions?

Translator competence:1. Communicative and textual competence2. Subject area competence3. Professional and instrumental competence4. Psycho-physiological or attitudinal competence5. Interpersonal competence6. Strategic competence7. Cultural and intercultural competence

(Kelly 2005, 2009)


What is cultural competence?

Culture encompasses not only “encyclopedic knowledge of history, geography, institutions and so on of the cultures involved … but also and more particularly, values, myths, perceptions, beliefs, behaviours and textual representations of these.”

(Kelly 2005, 2008)


Conclusion

In order to find adequate equivalents of culturally marked words translators and interpreters (and translation students) need to obtain cultural and intercultural competence in all the cultures involved, including the translator’s or student’s own culture.


References Bratanić, M. (1991). Rječnik i kultura. Zagreb: SOL. Duff, A. (1981). The Third Language: Reccurent Problems of

Translation into English. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Kears, J. (Ed.) (2008). Translator and Interpreter Training:

Issues, Methods and Debates. New York: Continuum. Kelly, D. (2005). A Handbook for Translator Trainers: A Guide

to Reflective Practice. Manchester: St Jerome. Negro Alosque, I. (2009). Cultural Domains: Translation

Problems. Revista de Linguistica y Lenguas Aplicadas 4 Trompenaars, F., & Hampden-Turner, C. (1997). Riding the

Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business. London> Nicholas Brealey.


Thank you for your attention!

Contact information:

Jelena Kostić-TomovićUniversity of Belgrade – Faculty of PhilologyGerman Department

E-mail: [email protected]

Translating Culturally Marked Words from Serbian into Western World Languages

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