Web Translation Projects/Polish Translations of Proper Names in The Lord of the Rings/LOTR in Maria Skibniewska's vs Maria and Cezary Frąc's Translation

Lord of the Rings in Maria Skibniewska's vs Maria and Cezary Frąc's Translation
The aim of this project is to compare the translation strategies concerning proper names which were used by Maria Skibniewska (1961-1963) and M. and C. Frąc (2001). Various difficulties arising in the process of translating proper names, particularly those of them that involve a meaning, have been noted in many papers on translation linguistics. The appropriate rendition of character names, place names and events rooted in a completely fictional reality is definitely a challenge for any translator whose effort concentrates on preserving the meaning laying behind each proper name in the original text. The Lord of the Rings saga provides the inexhaustible source of material for analyzing the translation strategies of proper names due to the extensiveness of Tolkien's universe alive with multilingual and multicultural elements.

Definition
Proper names (or nouns) are very specific area in literature and translation studies. According to The Oxford Concise English Dictionary a proper name is a name for an individual person, place, or organization having an initial capital letter. A proper name refers to an extralinguistic and specific object which is differentiated from other objects that belong to the same kind by means of its name. It cannot be confused with a common name by which a particular object is commonly known and whose nature is not directory unlike the nature of proper name. However, some scholars do not distinguish between proper and common names based on the conviction that proper names are meaningless and are prone to evolve into common names once they absorb some properties of their bearers in virtue of their association. A point in case is Adidas which drifted into a common name after losing its character.

One of the prominent scholars who contributed to the development of proper name studies is Zabeeh. He had some interesting observations regarding the functions of proper names to which he assigned mystical role in literature. He wrote: "Poets, magicians, linguistics and logicians have often been fascinated and angered by the protean functions of proper names, The interest of poets was mostly concerned with the connotations which the phonemes and the morphemes of personal or place-names carry with themselves and may awaken the memory of sundry bits of information about the bearers of the names. Even a bare mentioning, a mere echo of the name of some significant person or place – not to speak of the significant use of such a name – may occasion the floating of forgotten images. As if the name which supposes to be a mere label for a thing tries to tell us that it can do many other things besides its supposed proper role – it can tell us tall tales about its bearer."John Stuart Mill held an opposite view, claiming that proper names were actually devoid of meaning and had no distinguishing features setting them apart from common nouns. This approach is shared by Peter Newmark who claimed: "(...) names of single persons or objects are outside languages; belong, if at all, to the encyclopaedia, not the dictionary; have, as Mill stated, no meaning or connotations, and are, therefore, both untranslatable and not to be translated."However, it is worth stressing that P. Newmark admitted that certain proper names may involve assorted meanings and in such case he opted for explaining the connotations attached to proper names in a glossary while preserving the proper names in their original spelling.

Classification of Proper Names
Hejwowski distinguishes the following groups of proper names:


 * anthroponyms (names, surnames, nicknames, names of families and clans, as well as names of teams and groups of people)
 * toponyms (proper names that define the elements that make up the landscape of a given place)
 * zoononyms (proper names given to animals)
 * phytonyms (consist of names given to plants)

Proper Names in Translation
A plethora of various translation strategies have been proposed by translation theorists: Javier Franco Aixela, Peter Newmark, Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet, Lincoln Fernandes and Eirlys E. Davies, Christine Schaffner and Use Weisemann. In this research Davie's translation strategies have been chosen as she lists her own translation strategies which take into consideration translation of culture-specific items including proper names. She lists the following strategies:

Preservation
Preservation happens when the term is directly translated into the target language without any explanations. There are two types of preservation: formal and semantic. The former refers to preserving the form of a culture-specific item in the target language. The source item is either unchanged or transliterated in the target language. The latter refers to preserving the literal meaning. The source target item is literally translated into the target language.

Addition
Addition occurs when a translator considers it necessary to keep the original item but supplements it with some explanation regarding its meaning. Additional information is inserted within the text or added as a footnote.

Omission
Omission is the deletion of a problematic item so that no trace of it is preserved in the target text. Even though omission results in a complete loss of the original reference, it provides smooth reading for the target audience. A given item can be omitted for a couple of reasons e.g. lack of native equivalent in the target language or predicted inability to interpret the meaning of a given culture-specific item.

Globalization
Globalization is a form of domestication and occurs when a translator decides to replace a culture-specific items with the ones which are more general, neutral and widely accessible. In the process of globalization an item may lose its cultural associations but its essential meaning is kept.

Localization
Localization means adapting a cultural-specific item to a specific country or region. This strategy also includes phonological and grammatical adaptation of names and the use of gender endings.

Creation
Creation occurs when a translator decides to create a culture specific item that is totally different from the one used in the source text.

Tolkien's Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings
The Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings (also known as Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings or simply Nomenclature) is a collection of guidelines for translators compiled by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1960s. after his disappointment in the Dutch and Swedish translations. After the above-mentioned translations came out, Tolkien wrote: "when any further translations are negotiated, [...] I should be consulted at an early stage. [...] After all, I charge nothing, and can save a translator a good deal of time and puzzling; and if consulted at an early stage my remarks will appear far less in the light of peevish criticisms."Tolkien divides the group of proper names including into the following categories:


 * 1) those that should be translated into native equivalents (e.g. Appledore - an old name for an apple tree)
 * 2) those that should include a certain word in TL (e.g. Baggins - which according to Tolkien's guide should contain an element meaning 'sack, bag' in the TL).
 * 3) those that should be retained with any spelling changes that may seem necessary to fit them to the style of the language of translation (e.g. Gamgee - a surname found in England
 * 4) those that should be let unchanged (e.g. Gambling, Shadowfax, Wormtongue - surnames found in Rohan).
 * 5) those translated by sense (e.g. Goldberry).