Translating Non-Standard Language: An Analysis and Exercise

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the theory and practicality of translating non-standard language. This will be discussed in a number of different ways, firstly by building an under-standing of the theoretical basis underlying the linguistic and cultural translation of non-standard language. Then by analyzing the way in which non-standard linguistic elements (i.e. dialect/sociolect features) of New Orleans English (NOE) in A Confederacy of Dunces (ACoD), a satirical novel written by John Kennedy Toole, have been translated into Dutch in different periods. Finally, these theories will be applied to an exercise of analyzing the use of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in the novel Push by Sapphire and presenting an informed translation of its first four thousand words from English to Dutch.