LINGUIST List 17.135
Mon Jan 16 2006
Diss: Translation: Garrett: 'Translating Papiamentu'
Editor for this issue: Meredith Valant
<meredithlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Hélène
Garrett,
Translating Papiamentu
Message 1: Translating Papiamentu
Date: 15-Jan-2006
From: Hélène Garrett <hag2shaw.ca>
Subject: Translating Papiamentu
Institution: University of Alberta
Program: Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2004
Author: Hélène Astrid Garrett
Dissertation Title: Translating Papiamentu
Linguistic Field(s):
Translation
Dissertation Director:
George Lang
Morris Maduro
Anne Malena
Leendert P. Mos
Dissertation Abstract:
Translation has a natural association with migration since it transportswords, ideas and cultures and has as effect an immediate awareness of theother languages that abound. In the Caribbean Sea lie Aruba, Bonaire andCuraçao, three little islands bathed in the tropical sun, filled withsmells and sounds that whisper of long lost ties to another continent. HerePapiamentu was born to become the mother tongue of those who called theislands home. The dissertation will briefly introduce the reader to someof the issues of colonization, identity formation and prestige or the lackthereof in minority languages. Chapter one addresses some of the morewell-known theories of pidgin and creole genesis. Several translationtheories are presented in Chapter two while Chapter three focuses on theoral tradition. Chapter four gives various samples of Papiamentu workswritten through the years by authors who use the Papiamentu language, whileChapter five highlights some of the writings by women. Through the sensesand expressions of these Antillean authors one quickly learns thatPapiamentu and its literature have virtually the same features that arefound in other languages and literatures. These authors think of Papiamentuas their natural instrument to present the distinctive Afro-Caribbeantimbre of their language. The dissertation offers in translation thedynamic presence of Papiamentu on the ABC islands and the evolution ofPapiamentu literary production. Chapter six contains a poem by GuillermoRosario in which he describes the formation of the Papiamentu languagemetaphorically. A concluding chapter follows. In this work I imagine myselfon a journey through the various examples of Papiamentu writing as abutterfly, alighting briefly on rock that might represent the oraltradition, then moving on to settle for a brief interval on a cactussavoring the flavor of a national anthem, only to fly on, bathed in therays of the setting sun, and finally, having skimmed and hovered around allthese high points of Papiamentu writing, tired and sated I fold my wings.
|