Loss of Dialect in English-Arabic Translation of Literary Texts: A critical discourse analysis
Maan Mohammed Aubed
Tikrit University, College of Arts, Dept. of English
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.5.4.2.1
Keywords: dialect loss, literary translation, English-Arabic translation
Abstract
This paper addresses the issue of translatability of dialect in the translation of literary texts. It tackles dialect as a means of depicting the identity of the characters in literature. And it sheds light on the relationship between identity and language because using dialect is manifested and related significantly to the social stand of the characters in literary works. The translator of the text under study faces the problem of the existence of a linguistic variety in the original text, which depicts the close connection between the addressee, the means and the context in which it is employed. Hence, the difficulty in translating dialects in literary works is a linguistic problem, as well as a pragmatic and semiotic one, that is the presence of dialect in the text provides meanings and connotations far further than the linguistic level. That is why, in translating and tackling this variety of language, used by the author as a means of characterization or as a social class marker, this variety was standardized and flattened by the translator. The researcher concludes that the presence of dialects in Wuthering Heights adds communicative, stratificational, cultural, and semiotic value to the text. As far as translation is concerned, this forms extra challenges for the translator.
