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Expletives
Sep. 29th, 2007 11:18 pmAs I was growing up in Finland, I was exposed to a number of comic books, many of which were influential both to me and my contemporaries. One is Donald Duck, to which I may return later; others were any number of excellent French and Belgian adventure comics; and finally there were the mainstays of Asterix as well as Tintin, both of which were a bit wooden, but still of interest if nothing more exciting was around.
In Tintin, there is the notable character of Captain Haddock, who is especially adept in spouting out some very creative expletives without actually using any "bad words." These were some of the linguistic gems that made the comic so entertaining, but it wasn't until yesterday that I found out just how much the translators of the comic added to this fun. In the original French, Haddock has a repertoire of close to 200 expressions. By the time the adventures had made it to Finnish, the total was close to 700, some 600 of which have been collected in a dictionary by a university researcher (art history) -- make whatever conclusions about Finnish academia you will from this. Many, if not most, of the expressions are not direct translations either.
I do think that Finnish is an extraordinarily expressive and colorful language, especially considering the small number of native speakers. It sports some wonderful traditions in translation, where the often relatively unrecognized talents who bring original works to those who may not know the original language go well above and beyond what would have been necessary to earn a paycheck. The translators of many of the Disney comics earn a special mention, as do the ones responsible for the Lord of the Rings. They virtually single-handedly created the definitive vocabulary for fantasy in Finnish, all the while enriching the language with words and expressions derived from indigenous roots.
Oh, and how did I find out about this? There is a Finnish radio show about language. While you'd think that a show that's all about grammar and "language maintenance" would be unbearably boring, I find it absolutely brilliant and one of the few things that can really crack me up. How can shows about topics such as medical jargon, the etymology of race horse names and reclassification and -naming of mammals not enthrall you?
In Tintin, there is the notable character of Captain Haddock, who is especially adept in spouting out some very creative expletives without actually using any "bad words." These were some of the linguistic gems that made the comic so entertaining, but it wasn't until yesterday that I found out just how much the translators of the comic added to this fun. In the original French, Haddock has a repertoire of close to 200 expressions. By the time the adventures had made it to Finnish, the total was close to 700, some 600 of which have been collected in a dictionary by a university researcher (art history) -- make whatever conclusions about Finnish academia you will from this. Many, if not most, of the expressions are not direct translations either.
I do think that Finnish is an extraordinarily expressive and colorful language, especially considering the small number of native speakers. It sports some wonderful traditions in translation, where the often relatively unrecognized talents who bring original works to those who may not know the original language go well above and beyond what would have been necessary to earn a paycheck. The translators of many of the Disney comics earn a special mention, as do the ones responsible for the Lord of the Rings. They virtually single-handedly created the definitive vocabulary for fantasy in Finnish, all the while enriching the language with words and expressions derived from indigenous roots.
Oh, and how did I find out about this? There is a Finnish radio show about language. While you'd think that a show that's all about grammar and "language maintenance" would be unbearably boring, I find it absolutely brilliant and one of the few things that can really crack me up. How can shows about topics such as medical jargon, the etymology of race horse names and reclassification and -naming of mammals not enthrall you?
