Linguistic Patterns and Devices in American Jewish Humorous Discourse

Ornstein-Galicia, Jacob L.

doi:10.7202/002787ar

“…Yiddish is spoken by some four million people around the world. It is nowadays well established in North America, to the point that a compound variety, Yinglish, is commonly recognized and spoken by American (Ornstein-Galicia, 1989) and Canadian (Gold, 2002) people. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines it as "English marked by numerous borrowings from Yiddish" and dates the first registered use of the word back to 1951.…”

Section: Yinglish For Schmucksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Yinglish in Woody Allen’s films: A dubbing issue

Brisset

¹

2013

LANS-TTS

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A prominent representative of the Jewish-American population, Woody Allen often refers to his Ashkenazi origins in his films in a self-derisive way. His dialogues are interspersed with Yinglish, a feature which offers a serious challenge to French translators, especially for the dubbed versions of the films. Dubbing remains the prevalent mode of audiovisual translation in France and provides many opportunities to manipulate and alter the original film soundtrack. This article presents a comparative analysis of examples from Allen's dialogues and the French dubbed versions, in an attempt to unearth the strategies used by translators in view of adapting to the diverging abilities of the target audience. Two semantic fields are under scrutiny: the religious Jewish technolect and Yiddish slang, a humorous device which serves the needs of protagonist characterization and is widely assimilated by American English. The examples are taken from eight comedies by Allen, covering a thirty-four-year time span in the director's extensive career.

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« L’Autre » juif américain : l’emprunt lexical au yiddish dans l’anglais américain des films de Woody Allen, un enjeu pour le doublage

Brisset¹

2009

lexis

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RésuméSi Allen est considéré comme l'héritier des grands burlesques américains, dont les Marx Brothers, il est comme ces derniers l'incarnation d'une tradition d'humour juif. Sa judéité, certes plus culturelle que religieuse, se traduit notamment par l'autodérision appliquée à ses alter ego, qui renvoient le plus souvent à la tradition du Schlemiel, et implique l'utilisation récurrente d'emprunts lexicaux au yiddish. Ceux-ci sont majoritairement intégrés par les locuteurs américains car l'apport linguistique du yiddish à l'anglo-américain et son influence dépassent largement le cercle de la communauté juive des États-Unis. Cet impact est dû à une présence massive dans le monde du spectacle et des media et à la facilité d'intégration lexicale et syntaxique du yiddish dans la langue américaine de par leur filiation germanique commune. Au-delà des motivations technique et sociolinguistique habituelles de l'emprunt, une motivation expressive spécifique se dégage de leur usage, car nombre d'entre eux connu une extension sémantique en intégrant le lexique anglo-américain. Cette donnée, ainsi que la charge culturelle qu'ils portent impliquent des problèmes spécifiques lors de leur transfert dans une tierce langue, comme on peut le voir dans les versions doublées en français des films de Woody Allen.Mots-clés : emprunt -Anglais américain -Yiddish -cinéma -Woody Allen -traductiondoublage *** Abstract Woody Allen is considered the heir to the greatest American burlesque artists, first of all the Marx Brothers, for he embodies a Jewish humor tradition, as they also do. His Jewishness is more cultural than religious, as can be seen in the self-derision applied to his own alter egos, clear references to the traditional Schlemiel character. It also implies the repeated borrowing of Yiddish words. Those loan words are largely assimilated by American speakers, since the linguistic contribution from Yiddish to American English and its influence widely outgrows the Jewish American circle. This impact can be ascribed to a massive Jewish presence in the media and entertainment industries, and to the easy transfer process from Yiddish to American English due to their common German origin. But far beyond the usual technical or cultural reasons for borrowing, Yiddishisms often have an affective aim in speech, due to specific lexical shifts which occur while these loan words are integrating the American language. This and the cultural connotations they bear imply special difficulties when translated into a third language, as can be seen in the French dubbed versions of Allen's films.

show abstract

Yinglish in Woody Allen’s films: A dubbing issue

Brisset

¹

2013

LANS-TTS

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A prominent representative of the Jewish-American population, Woody Allen often refers to his Ashkenazi origins in his films in a self-derisive way. His dialogues are interspersed with Yinglish, a feature which offers a serious challenge to French translators, especially for the dubbed versions of the films. Dubbing remains the prevalent mode of audiovisual translation in France and provides many opportunities to manipulate and alter the original film soundtrack. This article presents a comparative analysis of examples from Allen's dialogues and the French dubbed versions, in an attempt to unearth the strategies used by translators in view of adapting to the diverging abilities of the target audience. Two semantic fields are under scrutiny: the religious Jewish technolect and Yiddish slang, a humorous device which serves the needs of protagonist characterization and is widely assimilated by American English. The examples are taken from eight comedies by Allen, covering a thirty-four-year time span in the director's extensive career.

show abstract

Linguistic Patterns and Devices in American Jewish Humorous Discourse

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Yinglish in Woody Allen’s films: A dubbing issue

Yinglish in Woody Allen’s films: A dubbing issue

« L’Autre » juif américain : l’emprunt lexical au yiddish dans l’anglais américain des films de Woody Allen, un enjeu pour le doublage

Yinglish in Woody Allen’s films: A dubbing issue

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