Principles of Foreigners' Chinese Translation

The first principle: name from the owner

The narrow understanding of the "name from the owner" is "the transliteration should be as close to the original pronunciation as much as possible." According to this understanding, the Chinese name of the Chinese Governor Christ Patten, Peng Dingkang, and the Chinese name of the current Consul General in Hong Kong, Yang Suzhen, the Chinese name of the US Consul General Stephen Young, all violated this principle. However, the owners of these two names obviously do not think that their own Chinese names are wrong, and it can even be said that they chose their own Chinese name, which reflects the "name from the owner."

The Chinese names selected by foreigners are divided into two types. One is a Chinese name that is completely different from the pronunciation of his mother tongue. Because this name is originally from its owner, it does not violate the principle of "name from the owner". Another pronunciation that takes into account the native tongue names, such as Matteo Ricci, John King Fairbank, and M.A.K. Halliday; some translations also take into account the meaning of the original name, such as Pearl Buck.

Some foreigners do not understand Chinese, but they obviously have the right to speak or decide to the Han translation of their names. For example, before Chris Patten was appointed as Governor of Hong Kong, his surname was translated as Baito; after accepting the appointment, it was likely that a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed that he used the translation of Pengdingkang, and obviously received his recognition. These translations are determined by the owner of the name. Whether it is translated well or not, we must follow the choice of its owner and cannot be translated into other names according to other principles.

If such translations are not uniform, we have no right to regulate. For example, the same David, the Chinese translation of Chinese historian David McMullen, a Chinese historian at the University of Cambridge is Mai Dawei; while teaching at Beijing Foreign Studies University, David Moser, an American friend of CCTV 4, 9, 10, said that he was Mo Da. Wei, the two did not choose the standardized translation David, nor did they choose David that agreed.

The surname of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has changed. Sarkozy originally translated into Salccic, and later changed to Sarkozy at the French government's request.

The French party demands that Salcoki is changed to Sarkozy, based on the principle of "name from the owner". This "master" is the actual pronunciation of Sarkozy's own surname. The original translation of the "Dictionary" is also based on the principle of "names from the owner", but this "master" is the general pronunciation of the surname Sarkozy in French.

Generally speaking, individuals must follow the surname of the family, as well as the translation of names. Salco is changed to Sarkozy, without substantial changes, the problem is not big. If you can cut off the inheritance relationship between the individual and the family surname because of the renaming, you must treat it carefully. Even if you enjoy the supreme head of state, you can't.

On November 12, 2009, the US Embassy in China released a poster to commemorate the first visit to China to visit China. Obama was translated into Obama in the poster. Shi Wenshan, a spokesman for the US Embassy in China, explained that the U.S. government is now regulating the Chinese translation of President's Chinese translation for the two translations of Obama and Obama, and will use Obama uniformly in the future.

In other words, the United States is trying to regulate the translation of the name in accordance with the principle of "name from the owner". However, in the translation library of Xinhua News Agency, Obama's translation is Obama. It seems that it seems to be a problem to follow the principle of "name from the master". The former Director of the Translation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is that "the discussion can be discussed, but according to the convention, the translation name has been used for a period of time will not be changed casually." "Sounds seem to be the main".

The person in charge of the Xinhua News Agency's translation room gives another reason to not change the translation name, that is, "the surname of Obama in African countries in African countries is common. Although Europe is the first, it is followed by consonants, in Pinyin text, Latin Latin The places outside the text are translated into Olympics, regardless of pro -friendly, so they must not be translated into Europe. And if he has changed, the name of the family will be affected. " The translation room of Xinhua News Agency translated Obama into Obama, which is also based on the principle of "name from the owner". The difference between the United States and Xinhua News Agency is that the United States is standing on the personal standpoint of Barack Obama to see the problem. The translation room of Xinhua News Agency is on the position of the Obama family to see the problem. Of course, if the United States adheres to its own position, through diplomatic channels, we can only accept the translation of Obama, and we can only accept it.

The actual situation is that the United States has not persisted, so Obama is still Obama. I guess that the reason why the United States no longer persists is that they later realized that Obama is not an English name. If you want the first black president in American history to maintain his father's African root, only Obama's translation name is maintained. Essence Once the name Obama is changed, the father and son become a different surname.

The second principle: the name not blame

For a long time, "agreed" has been regarded as an important translation principle. When you look closely, there are some problems with this principle. The meaning of the convention itself means "everyone is like this (do/say), so it becomes custom or common saying." This is just a language phenomenon, not the principle of translation. For the translator, the hidden meaning of "agreed" is "one statement/once the translation name is generally accepted and fixed, it will no longer change", this is a translation principle. This hidden meaning is summarized in four words to "naming no blame."

What is "name" needs to be defined. The translation of William Shakespeare has been widely accepted, and no one has raised objections, which is a name. Romeo (Romeo /`RU MIU /) is not a name, there are two reasons: 1. There are other translations. Cao Yu's translation is Roumio, and Sun Dayu's translation is Rowomei; Second, even if Cao He Sun's translation is not accepted by everyone, it does not mean that Romeo's translation is perfect and unshakable. Accurate, you can also discuss.

Peter is not a name, because according to the Chinese character conversion specifications of PE and Ter, it can be translated into Pete. Based on this, when a translation appears, if there are no other influential translations or no one can give more accurate translation, such a translation is the name.

For "naming no blame", it also needs to be further defined. It is necessary to distinguish the standards or standardized translations of the general foreigner names provided by a specific foreigner (especially historical figures) that have been universally accepted and fixed. "Naming does not blame" is only applicable to the former, such as David, Peter, Matthew, and William Shakespeare in history in the Bible, which is not suitable for the latter, such as people called David, Peter, Matthew, and Shakespeare today. Today, the names of these people have no reason to translate them into David, Peter, Matthew, and Shakespeare.

Third Principles: Together with Yinyi

The name of a person is generally composed of surnames and names. Due to its different functions, it should be treated differently during translation. The surname is usually not chosen by himself or parents, but the ancestor passed down. The ancestor has no longer existed because of the characteristics of the name or reason, so the surname generally does not actually convey any significance, but it is used as a differential symbol.

In view of this, the Chinese translation of the last name should be fully adopted by transliteration (that is, voice conversion), and try to use neutral Chinese characters to transfer, such as translating short and Swift into Schott and Swift to avoid translating to what they translate. The surname is added in the original surname that does not exist. The names are usually from parents or other elders, and some are changed by their own owners when they grow up.

In any case, the choice of names is usually not purposeless, unreasonable or random; it conveys a certain meaning. In view of this, the famous Chinese translation should be based on voice conversion, and properly considering meaning.

In terms of sound meaning, the biggest problem is that the translation is regardless of men and women. Many foreign languages, including Indo -European language, have the grammatical category of nature (Gender). When parents name them, they generally distinguish between male and female names. Otherwise, when people are named for a third person in the future, they will not know that the child should use the positive HIM/HIS or the negative She/HER/HERS.

Sex is not a category of explicit grammar in Chinese (the difference between him and her, not a language difference). Therefore, from the perspective of grammar, the Chinese name does not need to distinguish between men and women. In actual life, the name of Chinese people often does not distinguish between men and women. The Chinese translation of foreigners in the past did not pay much attention to men and women, and now noticed this issue.

In the Chinese translation of foreigners, people generally follow the rules of "defamation with words". At that time, Matthew Ridgway /`RWE /, the commander -in -chief of the" United Nations Army "of the Korean War, was originally translated by Li Qiwei. In order to reduce him, we changed the Wei to micro.

If we accept the first or fundamental principle of "name from the owner" is the first or fundamental principle of a foreigner, then the real taboo of the translation should only be obviously derogatory words, rather than a word of righteousness, because there is no owner of any name. I don't want my name to mean better. Therefore, when we transfer the names of foreigners, we should be in the spirit of "do not do what we do not do", and try to use words that we don't want to use when we name them.

Fourth principle: transliteration follow -up

If the transliteration method is used to translate the name of the foreigner, if the principle of "name from the owner" is implemented, you must use the real pronunciation of the original name, and use the Chinese characters that are close to the pronunciation as much as possible to transfer it. This is the transliteration. At present, the transliteration of foreigners' names is often transferred according to the pronunciation rules or translation rules. This approach violates the principle of "transliteration".

An example of the translation of the translation of the "transliteration follow -up" is the translation of the name of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck. Yingluck has been translated into Yinglu in the past. On July 3, 2011, Xinhua News Agency was translated into British in the press release of her participation in the presidential election. Wu Di in the translation room of Xinhua News Agency explained: "According to the standard translation table in Thailand, LU posting 'Lu' sounds in LUCK, according to the convention of Thai language, the sub -sounds behind the vowel Seeing yingluck was translated as "Yinglu". Later, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called and said that the Thai people pronounced Luck as 'pull'. At that time, considering that she was not elected as the Prime Minister, the impact was not great. So it was corrected to "Yingla".

As a reference book with standardized functions, the dictionary is different from general books. The reader's expectations of the accuracy of the dictionary content are extremely high. The same is true for the translation manual. Those Chinese translations that do not meet the actual pronunciation of the original name according to the rules of the translation name are not accurate translations. If they are not agreed, they should not enter the dictionary. Once the translation is found, it must be corrected in time.

Fifth Principles: Audio Correspondence

The voice system without any language corresponds to the voice system of any other language, such as English phonetic level/v/v/, //, //,/e/, // in Chinese without corresponding correspondence in Chinese. Audius; but it seems that no language does not correspond to another language in the phonetic system. The actual situation is that there are generally more sound sites between the two languages ​​are generally more than the corresponding sound space.

Strictly speaking, the transliteration is to systematically transfer the phonetic position or syllables of another language with a phonetic position or syllable. In order to make the transliteration accurate, the entire correspondence position and syllables of the translation language need to be made to make the translation name as close to the pronunciation of the original name as much as possible.

The audio system first means the sound position corresponds. Due to the influence of the early translator's mother tongue dialect and the convention caused by preconceived, the Chinese translation of foreigners' names did not make full use of the entire response level of Chinese.

One of the most prominent problems is that it is not in Mandarin with tongue rolling pitch // (Chinese Pinyin Writing R) as a Chinese character to switch to English or other languages ​​with gingival gum tremor/R/as a consonant. The gums look like sound/L/are the Chinese characters of the mother.

Of course, if there is no Chinese character corresponding to a syllable with/r/as a consonant, it can only be transferred to the Chinese characters of/L/as the mother. For example, there are three syllables of/RA/,/RA/,/RAN//RAN//RALF/, Fulbright/'FLBRAT/and Brown/Bra, which encounters the three names of Ralph/Ralf/, Fulbright. And Brown.

However, the pronunciation of the words in Chinese Mandarin is very close to the syllables of gingival trembling/R/as the tinner in English, compared: if the/r/,/r/; Ruihe/R/R/R/R/ ；润和/rn/；阮和/rn/；冉和/r/；饶和/r/、/r:/；儒和/ru/、荣和/run/、/ru:n/；柔和/ R/et al.

The phonetic response also means that the number of Chinese translations should be as close to the number of syllables of foreigners. Some bisodium in English is combined with some vowels. The pronunciation is similar to some characters in Chinese, such as Patricia/P'TR/and Patrick/'PTRK/mi. Instead of translating Patricia and Patrick, which translates into four syllables, it is better to translate into the three syllables of Pacuria and Potak. Similarly, translating Hamlet's mother Gertrude into Gart Ruder is not as good as Ge Chu or Ge Chuta.

The corresponding requirements of the voice system must be systematically standardized for the transliteration of phonetic and syllables, so as to translate and translate the same translation, and different sound translations. It may be because the relationship between early translators did not know the relationship between air delivery and no gas, clear sound, and dull sound./P/p/p/p/b/,/t/,/d//often did not distinguish. Writing foreign languages ​​with P as the first consonant syllable, or use the word of D voice to transfer the syllables of/t/custody in foreign languages, such as Peter translated into Peter.

If the same translation and different translations of the same sound, the famous Danish linguist OTTO JESPERSEN /`JSPS () N /per /PER should be transferred as a Per, not Pei, cypress or berth; Essence PETER's conversion is more troublesome, because the syllable of Chinese, except for special use, has no other good use of characters, and has to translate it into Pitt; if you need to distinguish Peter from pitt /pt / Peter is transferred to Pid, ​​and pitch is translated into Pitt.

The chaos in the Chinese translation of foreigners is mainly caused by two reasons. First, in principle, the relevant parties have not reached a consensus and did not formulate specific detailed rules; the second is that the translator's actual pronunciation and meaning of the foreign name is not clear.

In response to the first reason, this article demonstrates that "names from the owner" are the fundamental principles of translations of foreigners and Chinese, which means that we must not only respect the Chinese names selected by foreigners, but also follow their names.Principles and specifications, consider the significance of the name, and make the orderly corresponding correspondence between the foreign phonetic system system during the transliteration, fully reflect the difference between the original foreign language, so as to avoid the confusion of the translation.The "agreed" can only be understood as not to change the fixed translation of a certain historical figure that has been generally accepted. It cannot be used as a sanctuary of the past inappropriate or improper translations in the past to regulate the translation of foreigners today;The names of foreigners shall not be transferred according to the spelling rules, but should be transliterated according to the actual pronunciation of the original foreign language.

Reproduced from: Wo -Wo Domain Translation

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