<Removed on the grounds of good taste>



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2007 05:17PM by SkidMarks.

Whose?

<stalks rabbit>

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

In response to the original query:

I am the proud owner of the Italian and Polish translations of Lost In A Good Book. I don't actually speak either of these languages (or any languages other than English, unfortunately...) but I can flick through and find most sections from the similarities in the sort of shape the text takes and through the use of the names - they're kept, I believe, pretty much identical between books.

With regards to some of the jokes on the names - there aren't all that many, to be fair (mostly the names are just jokes within themselves), but a few: for example, at the start of the book Thursday is appearing on the Adrian Lush show, and he boasts about his high ratings for Monday and Wednesday shows - to which Thursday comments 'So this will be your Thursday show'.

In Italian: <<Questo allora sarà il tuo show del giovedì>>.
In Polish: - Wiec to bedzie "Thursday show"

At another point, a character comments 'I'll see you on Thursday, Thursday. That's quite funny, that. "Thursday...Thursday."'

In Italian: <<Ci vediamo giovedì, Thursday. Buffo, no? On Thursday, Thursday. Molto spiritoso.>>
In Polish: - Spotkamy sie w czwartek, Thursday. To dosc zabawne: w czwartek, Thursday.

(All italics are those of the text; I had to leave out the accents from the Polish translations as the forum turned them into gibberish code).

Anyway, I hope this helps, even if it isn't either of the lanuguages you were asking about originally!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2007 10:04AM by LeonardQuirm.

Oh, thank you so much, LeonardQuirm! You're right, although they're not the languages I'm specifically looking for, it does help in a general sense of showing some of the tactics translators use to maintain jokes (or not).
I actually quite like the way they've done it in Italian... although it does sort of make me wonder "why are the characters all speaking Italian?" ;-) Aaaand now I'm going to stop being a geek and getting excited about translation tactics.

Well, I am already writing my MA thesis about names in The Eyre Affair - the general idea is 'What gets lost in non-translation?' and I focus on the Polish, French and Dutch translations. If you want, you can contact me and we can exchange observations :-).

And hello to everybody! Will I get some pie?

Welcome Szelma! Plentiful selections of pie flying around in various threads, though all I have here at the moment is rhubarb pie - but you're very welcome to have some of that.

Hi! Have a napkin and a custard tart, if you aren't a fan of pie.

They have nutmeg on!

A belated Welcome Szelma.

Plenty of pies here. Today the sweet are on the left and the savoury on the right.

sic

I know I'm late, probably too late, to this discussion, but I do happen to know that Hobbit names (and a few others) are translated in Tolkien's books, especially 'The Lord of the Rings'. The author even wrote guidelines for translators, as he wanted the names to feel homey to the readers in their own language. Drop me a line if you're still interested and I'll direct you to a list...

Sounds interesting. What would your hobbit name be?

I guess I need to clarify - Tolkien wrote guidelines for translating the names of Hobbits in the story. In the German translation, for example, "Baggins" is "Beutlin", since "bag" is "Beutel".

However, if you're looking for a fun name generator (random, not an actual translation) for Middle-earth names, do look here: [www.barrowdowns.com]

Mine were:
Eavesdropping Black Númenorean
Mithbrethiliel
Mithbrethilien
Mithbrethilwen
Rosamunda Sackville from The Far Downs
Nori Sandfeet
Skrazag the Squeaker


and

Creepy Balrog

Primula Goldworthy from Rushy

Avarkrisiel
Avarkrisien
Avarkriswen
Gralin Thunderteeth
Zagnakh the Paunch

I particularly like Gralin Thunderteeth...!

Humm, I managed a few good ones too:

Muddy-booted Elf
Mancairion
Porto Black from The Far Downs
Thrór Poolguard
Sharwakh the Meek
Zôrikhaphur

I quite like Mancairion (sounds like man-carrion, and I thought CannibalRabbit was gruesome!), and Thrór Poolguard sounds like a dwarvish lifeguard.

You do know I am going to have to translate some of those back into English now?

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Be interesting to see how closely they come back to cannibalrabbit!

According to the Red Book of Westmarch,
(well, according to this generator)
My name is Laughing Kin Slayer...

Well, being very amateur at this I get Mancairion to break into:

cair is not in Helge's wordlist. This is the closest I could find:
cairë ("k") vb. "lay" (pa.t. of "lie") (MC:221; this is "Qenya" - in LotR-style Quenya cainë pa.t. of caita?)%
man is either "who" or "what" or both.
-ion is "son" as a patrynomic. "on" is a masculine ending.

Up to you how close that is I guess. :)

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2008 03:38PM by MartinB.

Um, I don't think it's that accurate, dear!