Abstract
The article deals with Finnish translations of varieties of spoken language in fiction from the late 19th century to the beginning of the 2000s. It presents the central findings of a comprehensive study on the changes and developments of translational norms in Finnish literature. The study is based on a corpus consisting of 200 literary works (the original and its translations are counted as one work), representing various genres: literary fiction, young-adult fiction, as well as genre fiction (romance and crime). During this 100-year period, the use of colloquial variants in translations has strongly increased, influenced by the changing literary and linguistic norms of original Finnish literature. The norms of different literary genres, however, vary, and rich, non-standard variation can be found in translated works from different periods.
Highlights
In this article, we examine Finnish translations of varieties of spoken language in fiction from the late 19th century to the beginning of the 2000s
In the statements examined in this study, we found competing norms: translation prizes were often given to works in which the rich variation in the source texts was retained, whereas the interviews with publishing editors provided a more heterogeneous picture, as most of them tended to limit the use of spoken language, while others saw no problems in its use
When rendering spoken language varieties into the target language, the translator can opt for different strategies
Summary
We examine Finnish translations of varieties of spoken language in fiction from the late 19th century to the beginning of the 2000s. Our aim is to present and discuss the results of a comprehensive study on the changes and developments of translational norms over time in one national literary system consisting of several subsystems, in this case that in Finland. Such studies have typically concentrated on analysing a few works by comparing the source texts and their translations in respect to spoken language variation In these instances, it is rarely considered that norms and conventions regarding the representation of speech vary in domestic literature across cultures, literary systems and time. We outline general tendencies and discuss the concept of a norm in connection with translation
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