Diapozitiv 1

Translation of Prežih's dialect lexis
into English
(Prežihov Voranc: Samorastniki –
Irma M. Ožbalt: The Self-Sown)
Anja Benko (The University of Maribor, Faculty of Arts, Maribor)
Zinka Zorko (Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana)
Forlí, Italy, May 2010
LOVRO KUHAR –
PREŽIHOV VORANC
 Preţihov Voranc (pseudonym),
born as Lovro Kuhar.
 1895—1950.
 A self-educated peasant from Slovene
Carinthia (Podgona near Kotlje).
 A short story writer, novelist and
children’s author.
PLACE OF PREŢIH´S BIRTH
PREŽIH´S STYLE
 Literature written in Slovene Standard language.
 The Carinthian dialect features are visible in dialect
lexis, set expressions and metaphors.
 The Meţica local speech, which is one of the
Carinthian subdialects.
 The Kotlje local speech.
Prežih looks at his village Kotlje.
MAP OF SLOVENIANS
DIALECT GROUPS
The Meţica local
speech
THE SELF-SOWN
 Published in 1940.
 A short story collection, 8 short
stories.
 The peak of Voranc´s artistic
achivement.
 The story centers on the universal
problem of unwed motherhood,
exposed and analyzed in the socioeconomic context of a small segment
of 19th century Slovene rural society.
 Translated to English by Irma M.
Ožbalt (born in 1926).
THE COMPOSITION OF THE STORY
 Prologue: Preţih visits estate Karnice.
 The central story: the suffering of an unwed mother
Meta and the fate of her children
Top
Introduction
 Epilogue: Karnice estate decays.
Disentanglement
THE MOVIE, BASED ON THE BOOK
PICTURES FROM THE MOVIE
A FRAGMENT FROM THE MOVIE
ANALYSIS OF THE DIALECT LEXIS
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
 At phonological level: fewer dialect features; at
the word level: the dialect lexis is clearly visible.
 The collections abounds in the local and dialect
words.
 We analyzed certain dialect expressions and
juxtaposed them with their English translational
equivalents with the presupposition that all
translational counterparts are in Standard English.
ANALYSIS OF THE DIALECT LEXIS
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
 personal proper names
 food and clothing items
 geopraphical names
 religion-related expressions
 the names for estates,
 the dialect expressions for




houses, sourrunding
various objects
units of measurement
expressions for customs and
traditions
the dialect variant of
personal names
human
 swear words
 typical dialect vocabulary
items
 translations of epithets,
metaphors, personifications
and dialect expressive verbs
GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
 Place names: Celovec = Celovec; Celovška cesta =
near Celovec; Dobrla ves = Dobrlaves; na Laškem
= somewhere in Italy; Pliberk = Pliberk; Šentvid =
the town of Šentvid; Tinje = Tinje ...
Celovec
Tinje
Maribor, Drava
 Rivers, streams: Drava = the Drava river, the
Drava, the Drava valley; Zablatniško jezero = the
Zablatniško Lake.
GEOGRAPHICAL
NAMES
 Moutains, hills and valleys: Obir = the
Obir mountain range, the Obir;
Karavanke = the Karavanke mountains;
Peca = the Peca mountain, the Peca;
Podjuna = the Podjuna valley, Podjuna;
Rož = the valley of Roţ; Svinja = the
Svinja, the Savinja valley.
 Regions: Koroška dežela = Carinthia
Karavanke
Obir
Carinthia
province, Carinthian land; Koroška =
Carinthia.
Podjuna
PERSONAL NAMES
 Karničnik (estate name and family name) = the family
named Karničnik, Karničnik, the Karničniks, mother and
father Karničnik, Karničnica (a female form).
 Hudabivnik (used in different variations) = Hudabivnik,
the Hudabivniks, Hudabivka, Hudabivnica, Hudabela,
mother Hudabivnik ...
 Gav/Gal (dialect name, ox name) = in tranlator's
comments: “In old times, unusual names were given to
illegitimate children by intolerant priests; in this way
they exposed the child to ridicule and put a stigma on
him forever. »Gav« is later given as »Gal«, the first
variation being the phonetical spelling of the name.”
ESTATE, HOUSE,
SORROUNDINGS
 Bajta = the shack, the wooden
hut, cottage, the house.
 Dimnica = the smoke-room (the
additional description is in the
translator's: “smoke-room: the
main dwelling area in an oldfashioned farmhouse, a smokefilled living room and kitchen
combined”.
 Huba = homestead, the estate,
the heir to the farm.
 Kajža = the shack, home, house,
shanty, a cottage.
FOOD
= wheat bread
 Klobase = sausages.
 Miznik = white bread.
 Stolnik = brown bread.
 Razne druge potice = all kinds of rolled cakes.
RESULTS
TRANSLATIONS
IN THE STANDARD ENGLISH
THE SAME AS
IN THE ORIGINAL TEXT
 proper names
 river names
 names of hills
 regions
The culled data show
how the translator
translated dialect lexis.
 Carinthian names for estates,










houses, surroundings
objects
units of measurement, currencies
expressions for customs and
traditions
religion-related expressions
food items
dialect pejorative names for man
swear words
dialect metaphors
epithets
comparisons and personifications
The reader is often deprived of the rich and colourful
descriptions that a reader of the original text can enjoy.
ǂ
ORIGINAL
TRANSLATION