Unofficial Translation Research Articles

Manga scanlation for an international readership: the role of English as a lingua franca

ABSTRACT This article examines translation into English as a lingua franca through the theoretical lens of fan translation. The phenomenon of scanlation is here taken into consideration as a case study of informal translation practices into English for an international readership. This article focuses in particular on the translation of the Japanese graphic narratives known as manga into English, and the negotiations that take place between scanlators and their readers. The article first explains the practice of scanlation and the policies that scanlation groups have adopted with regard to the recruitment of translators and proofreaders. Actual examples of scanlated manga are then analysed, with a focus on the translation of social deixis and honorific suffixes. Finally, the article presents the readers’ point of view through an analysis of the results of an opinion poll on the topic of scanlation.

Fansubbing in Brazil: Fan translation and collaborative production in light of Participatory Culture

Fansubbing in Brazil: Fan translation and collaborative production in light of Participatory Culture

Tailored Translations—Translating and Transporting Cosplay Costumes

Since the early 1980s the popularity of fan made cosplay (costume play) costumes has spread through fan and alternative cultural communities globally. This paper takes for granted the history of the spread of cosplay (as both a practice, and a term) from Japan to Asia, Europe, Australasia, and North and South America. Rather it will focus on treating fan made costumes as a user generated translation or fan translation from a 2 dimensional source material to a real world, functioning garment.

The 2014 Draft Constitutive Agreement of the Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes of the UNASUR

This document contains an unofficial translation in English of the 2014 draft Constitutive Agreement of the Centre for the settlement of investment disputes of the UNASUR being discussed since 2009 by a High-Level Experts Group of the UNASUR.The document is still under negotiations. The twelve member-states of the UNASUR have not yet reached an agreements on the 30 provisions contained in the agreement. The agreement will be opened for signature by member and non-member states of the UNASUR. The initiative of the Centre has been thought as an alternative to the Washington-based ICSID. The original Agreement was prepared in Spanish.

The Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes of the UNASUR: Historical Background and Current Status of the Centre

This is an introduction to the UNASUR, as well as to the historical background of the initiative of the UNASUR to create a Centre for the settlement of investment disputes as an alternative to the ICSID. The article is accompanied by three versions of the Agreement of the Creation of the above-mentioned Centre that will be opened for signature by the member-states of the UNASUR as well as by non-member states. This is a regional South-American initiative that pretends to progressively grow to cover Latin-America as a middle-term goal, and the world-over as a long-term goal. The documents were originally prepared in Spanish, and an unofficial translation of each of them is available in this article.

The 2012 Draft Constitutive Agreement of the Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes of the UNASUR

This document contains an unofficial translation into English of the Draft Constitutive Agreement of the Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes of the UNASUR, originally published in Spanish as an annex to the Final Act of the 7-9 November 2012, IV Meeting of the Working Group of High Level Experts on the Settlement of Investment Disputes at UNASUR.

A Study on Unofficial Chinese Translation of The Korean Webtoons

A Study on Unofficial Chinese Translation of The Korean Webtoons

Portugal's legal regime on marine spatial planning and management of the national maritime space

This article examines the legal regime and overall implications of Portugal's Law n. 17/2014, 10 April, which established the legal basis for Portugal's policy on marine spatial planning and management of the national maritime space. To allow a comprehensive analysis, this article includes an unofficial translation of the law.

Protection of Legitimate Expectations in Brazilian Administrative Law: 80-year-old Widow of a Pensioner

This text is an (unofficial) translation of an opinion issued by Judge Ricardo Perlingeiro in a decision by a panel of judges on the subject of legitimate expectations. The case involved a pensioner who was the widow of a civil servant. She had serious reasons to believe in the stability and legality of the administrative action by which she was granted her pension benefits [although in fact the administrative authority’s decision had been erroneous]. That judgement set an important precedent for the Brazilian Federal Justice system (which mainly exercises jurisdiction over federal administrative law) because it establishes a comparative analysis between the “Berlin Widow” precedent (Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin, Entscheidung, 14/11/1956. DVBl 1957, 503; DOV 1957,753; BVerwG, DVBl. 1958,652), German social legislation (§45 SGB X/Sozialgesetzbuch) and Brazilian legislation (Lei 9.784/99), breaking with the understanding that beneficial legal effects could never be derived from illegal administrative actions. The judgement also deals the distinction between objective legal certainty (mainly based on the expiration of a limitation period) and subjective legal certainty, meaning that the citizen had legitimate expectations because she was demonstrably unable to know that the administrative act that benefitted her was illegal (the notion of subjective legal certainty may be associated with the concept of human dignity). The text also discusses the ex tunc and ex nunc effects of legitimate expectations: the essential issue is whether or not the court should uphold an illegal administrative action awarding benefits to a widow pensioner who believed in the legality of the decision by allowing her to not only to keep the payments received “illegally” (ex tunc effect) but also to continue receiving such payments in the future (ex nunc effect).

Republic of Crimea: a Two-Day State

The Crimean situation has put self-determination, secession and accession back at the top of the international law agenda. The article deals with questions of the procedure of Crimea’s self-determination and accession to the Russian Federation from the point of view of international law. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the ICJ Advisory Opinion on the question of the accordance with international law of the unilateral declaration of independence in respect of Kosovo in its interrelation with the Crimea case. The text also includes an unofficial translation of an accession treaty between Russia and the Republic of Crimea. With the Crimean Republic’s declaration of independence, it is the most important document for the legal analysis of the situation.

Explanation of the Report on Temporal Safe Storage of HLW submitted by Technical Examination Subcommittee of Science Council of Japan (unofficial translation)

日本学術会議は，2010年9月に原子力委員会より｢高レベル放射性廃棄物の処分に関する取組みについて｣と題する審議依頼を受け，2012年9月に｢回答 高レベル放射性廃棄物の処分について｣(以下，｢回答｣という)を提出した。この｢回答｣の考え方に立脚してさらに対処の方策を前進させるべく，2013年5月に｢高レベル放射性廃棄物の処分に関するフォローアップ委員会｣(以下，｢フォローアップ委員会｣)と，その分科会として｢暫定保管に関する技術的検討分科会｣(以下，｢技術分科会｣)と｢暫定保管と社会的合意形成に関する分科会｣(以下，｢社会分科会｣)が設置された。2014年9月，2つの分科会より報告が行われた。本稿では，技術分科会で検討された暫定保管の技術的検討内容について解説する。

De fã para fã: as traduções de Chrono Trigger

This paper was written under the umbrella of Translation Studies in general and of fan translation and game translation in particular. Through the analysis of the translation into Brazilian Portguese made by fans of the game Chrono Trigger it was possible to show how fans may get results similar to those achieved by localization professionals. In order to define the object of our analysis we prioritized a cultural approach to translation following authors such as Nord (1994), Newmark (1998), Vermeer (1987) and Fish (1980). We have also used the concept of “transcreation” as employed by Mangiron and O’Hagan (2006). The selection of cultural terms from the game – despite it being a fictional universe – allowed for the investigation of aspects of those translations that highlight the clash of two or more different cultures. With that in mind, an adaptation of Venuti’s translation proposal (1995) on how to translate cultural marked texts was used, along with the translation techniques suggested by Molina and Hurtado (2002). The names of the characters in Chrono Trigger were then analyzed in the translation of two groups of fans: CBT and Ips Center.

Fluidity of modes in the translation of manga: the case of Kishimoto’s Naruto

This article explores the fluidity of modes in manga where the written mode is often treated as a visual and the visual treated as a written entity. The analysis focuses on a particular text, Naruto, by Masashi Kishimoto (2003). In manga, writing is a visual entity and is often governed by the logics of space where position influences value and sequence of reading. This has implications for the relation between onomatopoeia, typography and translation. The authors explore the affordance of writing and image by comparing two English translations of Naruto (a fan translated edition and an official edition). In the fan translation, sound effects conveyed through writing are left untranslated and the reader conjures up the sound from both the context of the situation and the choice of font. The official translation, in contrast, changes sound and layout in order to accommodate the reading practices of the Western audience. This article analyses what is at stake when publishers change the layout of a comics page in the translation from Japanese writing to English, the lettering systems, and the norms and conventions that govern reading path, layout and punctuation.

How bank depositors are protected in Japan

Professor Hironao Kaneko sets out the changes in the burden of proof between banks and their customers, partly because of the changes in technology and the fraud associated with ATMs, and also provides an unofficial translation of the The Depositor Protection Act 2005.

Translation of the Cypriot law on electronic signatures

The unofficial translation of Law No. 188(I)/2004 entitled Framework Law Providing for the Legal Framework for Electronic Signatures and Associated Matters of 2004‚ which was enacted by the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus on 30 April 2004, is by Olga Georgiades of Lellos P. Demetriades Law Office. In translating the Cypriot law, Olga compared the English version of the EU Directive with the Greek text of the Law. Due to the fact that the EU Directive was largely transposed into Cypriot law, Olga used the official English version of the EU Directive to provide the English translation of the Cypriot law.

Is a Router an Automated Work in the Sense of the Law or Not?

An unofficial translation of some interesting case law from The Netherlands. The Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal ruled the suspect could not be judged for “hacking” because a (Wifi) router could not be counted as an automated work in the sense of the law.

The Macau Penal Code and Other Penal Laws in English Unofficial Translation

This is a partial English translation of the criminal laws of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.The main focus is the Penal Code, approved by Decree-Law no. 58/95/M, of November 14. The Code is the basis of criminal law in Macau, although it is not the only relevant source.In terms of genealogy, the 1995 Code is in essence an updated, improved and ‘localized’ version of the 1982 Portuguese Penal Code, as revised in 1995, which in turn is heavily influenced by the German Penal Code (StGB).One feature of the legal tradition in which the Penal Code fits is the extensive use of very abstract and technical concepts, which are intended to be precise, logical and consistent, almost ‘scientific’. This conceptual refinement is typical of civil law legal systems and flows from the German tradition that produced the StGB. An attempt was made to produce an accurate and consistent translation, employing a modern and elegant style of English writing, consistent with the translations of the Commercial Code (completed) and Civil Code (now underway). This is obviously a rather difficult task, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. More than a translation, it is, in fact, a highly specialized work of legal research, given that the search for the appropriate equivalent terms and expressions involves considerable comparative law research. There are a number of other laws besides the Code that are devoted totally or partly to criminal law provisions. A table is included of the many laws that have criminal law provisions. Of these, the translation also includes some provisions of:a) Law 8/96/M, of July 22, on unlawful gaming;b) Law 6/97/M, of July 30, on organized crime;c) Law 2/2006, of April 3, which is now the legal basis of the crime of money laundering;d) Law 2/2009, of March 2, on the protection of State security, giving execution to article 23 of the Macau Basic Law.

§ 50d (3) EStG – Entitlement to Tax Relief Available to Foreign Companies – Unofficial Translation of the Federal Ministry of Finance Circular Dated 24 January 2012 and Explanatory Note

With reference to the results of the discussions with the representatives of the supreme tax authorities of the German Länder, the following applies to the application of § 50d (3) of the German Income Tax Act (EStG) as amended by the Act for the Implementation of the Tax Recovery Directive and for the Amendment of Tax Provisions (Gesetz zur Umsetzung der Beitreibungsrichtlinie sowie zur Änderung steuerlicher Vorschriften) of 7 December 2011, Federal Law Gazette 2011 Part I p. 2592:

Ethnicity, Federalism and Development: Constitutional Solutions for Ethiopia?

In 1994, Ethiopia adopted a new Constitution, thus establishing the 'Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia'. This latest branch to the large world-wide family of federal states has received much attention and criticism since, criticism both on the underlying political system and on specific features of the new Constitution. These features will be focused on in this paper. The authors of the present paper specialize in constitutional law. They will therefore focus their attention on constitutional anomalies in the present Ethiopian federal system. This paper is therefore written from a mere constitutional point of view, disregarding daily politics. Point of departure of the discussion is the unofficial English translation of the text of the Constitution of 1994 as provided by the Ethiopian Consulate in The Hague. Hardly any other legal text or general information on the Ethiopian legal system was available. It also has to be notes that the authors are of Dutch (and therefore Western European) origin. They are aware of the existence of clear differences between the structures of Western European and African society. Still, they want to make some critical remarks to the Ethiopian constitution from a point of view from the outside.

Abridged series and fandom remix culture

The "abridged series" is one of the more recent genres to come out of the fan culture of anime fan subs. An abridged series is a form of fan parody in which some of the peculiarities of fan subs are mixed with the more general conventions of Internet parodies to produce a shortened version of an anime series with edited video and original dubbed-in dialogue. The abridged series is not just a form of fan translation or a humorous recap of an existing work; rather, because they are engaged in significant textual criticism, construction of independent narratives, and interaction with greater fan communities, they should be considered a unique creative genre of transformative work.