The Intralingual Translation or Rewording of British and American Literary Works on the Basis of Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Abstract

The paper reviews instances of intralingual translation between British and American English. Its main focus is the translation of literary texts aimed and children and young readers which were written in Britain and then altered before being released on the American market. Examples of cases where originally American texts were altered for British readers, a less common trend, are also provided. The text explores typical differences between British and American English, the position of children’s literature and the motivations behind the changes, examples of alteration to titles of books, changes that trigger changes of larger portions of texts, alterations to the style of the books, and areas where the authors of the translations corrected authors’ mistakes. Most of the examples are based on previously published works which analyzed intralingual translation between British and American English in children’s literature, with some taken from unpublished research by the author. The paper was written with the hope that it will help create more awareness of the existence of such translations, especially since in most cases no information that such changes were made is provided within or outside the literary texts discussed in this paper.