Auf Schwedisch berlinern? : Das Berlinische in Alfred Döblins Berlin Alexanderplatz in schwedischer Übersetzung

Författare

Fredrica Särdquist

Summary, in English

Berlin Dialect in Swedish? : How Berlin Dialect is Represented in the Swedish Translation of Berlin Alexanderplatz

Alfred Döblin’s modern novel Berlin Alexanderplatz, first published in 1929, is strongly characterized by the Berlin dialect and colloquial speech. The first complete Swedish translation of this renown work was conducted by Ulrika Wallenström in 1978. This thesis investigates to what extent and how markers of language varieties are used in the translation to convey the Berlin dialect. It also discusses how the use of markers relates to common tendencies regarding the translation of varieties in literature and whether an initial approach is inferred by the use of language variety markers.
Generally, translations tend to use fewer and less strong markers of language varieties than their originals. These tendencies partly apply for the Swedish translation of Berlin Alexanderplatz. The study shows that the markers of Berlin dialect and colloquial speech are compensated to 88% in the translation, which corresponds to the level of marker restoration in high prestige translations analyzed by Lindqvist (2005:165).
The Berlin dialect is compensated mostly through an extensive use of colloquial spellings. Also, the atmosphere of the big city is imparted by using old Stockholm slang. Overall, the measures to restore the markers of dialect and colloquial speech in Döblin’s novel seem to follow an initial adequance oriented approach.

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