Word of the Day

Saturday, November 8, 2008

nonstandard word endings in Czech

In this article the translation into Czech of something that Obama's daughter said has a nonstandard ending of adjectives typical of Prague (no wonder, most media are based in Prague): Stejně jako jejich matka, jsou Sasha i Malia otevřené a spontánní dívky. V rozhovoru, který rodina poskytla stanici CNN, například Malia na svého otce prozradila, že je občas "trapnej". (translation: Like their mom, Sasha and Malia are open and spontaneous girls. In the interview that the family gave to CNN, Malia declared about her father, that he's sometimes embarrassing.) The standard word is trapný.

But later in the same article, where it's Obama, an articulate, well-educated and President-elect of the United States, who makes a statement, the standard ending crops up: "Občas jí skutečně přijdu trapný, když mi dává podobné tipy, hlavně pak v okolí jejích přátel," přiznal Obama. (translation: Sometimes I seem embarrassing to her, as she gives me such tips, especially around her friends).

With such a translation, the writer/translator unequivocally assumes that's how kids talk, with nonstandard endings in Czech, but that's a little bit egocentric, since kids in other regions of the country don't employ such desinences. It's also discriminatory in a sense by attributing such inflections to children and/or poorly educated people by making the President of the United States sound in Czech, a language he doesn't speak, the most standard possible, since there's no way he could speak like one of the commoners.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mmm... é vero... a menos que houvesse uma terminação tipicamente infantil, que não sei se existe.