Scotland can look back on a very long tradition of translation into dialect. Scots has an ambiguous status today, existing in thirteen or so regional varieties (Brown & Sherlock 1998: 34) but, like Swiss German,16 has not developed a standard, the main prerequisite for its linguistic definition as language. Today three languages are spoken in Scotland: Scots in its varieties in the Scottish Lowlands and the Northern Isles, Scottish Gaelic – a Celtic language - in the Highlands and the Western Isles, and Scottish Standard English throughout Scotland.
Like English, Scots emerged from Anglo-Saxon, and in both a written standard started to emerge between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries (Corbett
35 1999: 75). Scotland was an independent kingdom then with its own court language and written register. The unification of the Scottish and English crowns (1603) and parliaments (1707) brought the development of Scots to a stop as the middle classes turned south to England for their standards in language use, and elements of English came to be incorporated into Scots (Findlay 1996a: 201). Historical events had a decisive impact on the development of Scots and the translation of literature into Scots. Translation is important for the development of most national literatures. Scottish literature was founded on translation and adaptation into Scots which have been consistent elements in literary production since the fifteenth century (Corbett 2007: 35; 1999: 2). This section focuses on the translation of drama into Scots, referring to prose and poetry as background.
Up to the twentieth century, the main genre to be translated into Scots was poetry. However, the late sixteenth century saw the first translation of a play: John Burel’s Pamphilus speakand of Lufe from the Latin (Findlay 2004a: 66) – which also proved to be the last for 300 years. As English slowly became the standard of polite written and oral conversation and its use became a marker of social status, so Scots lost its status and function in literary production and translation. However, the use of Scots “as a means of expressing national character and identity” (Corbett 1999: 99) was not lost completely. During the eighteenth century a Scots literary revival started that would focus attention on the translation of classical authors such as Horace’s
Odes by Ramsay, and, later on in the nineteenth century, on that of Scandinavian ballads and German songs, languages considered the closest relatives to Scots (112, 118). Scots translation during this period was rather marginal but kept the tradition alive (111-2).
The twentieth century saw a general revival of translation into Scots with two main strands: into Lallans, or synthetic Scots, a synthesis of different contemporary dialects, Scots archaisms and neologisms, i.e. an artificial language not spoken anywhere in Scotland; and into vernacular, relying on the representation of Scots as it is spoken in different regions of the country (Corbett 1999: 126). Synthetic Scots is not one single variety but a spectrum from relatively plain Lallans based on different forms spoken today to a highly experimental style incorporating a large number of neologisms (158). Lallans writers, at first mainly poets, aim at modernising Scots, raising it to the status of national language, and building a national literature, not least through translation.
36 The two most active centres of vernacular writing (outside the Central Belt) are the north-east around Aberdeen and the northern islands of Shetland and Orkney whose literature is written in Doric Scots and Insular Scots respectively. Vernacular writers reject Lallans for several reasons: Lallans is artificial and aims at serving as a national language, whereas vernacular varieties are spoken in the writers’ communities (Corbett 1999: 164-8). Vernacular writers of the Central Belt, and in particular Glasgow, reject Lallans for the same reasons but, above all, because of its association with middle class Scotland (171). They use a variety similar to working- class Scots in original writing and in translations, mainly drama. Vernacular localises speakers regionally and socially, lending itself to the presentation of social and political issues in drama rather than historical drama, the preferred subject matter of Lallans translation.
The suppression of Scottish theatre by the Presbyterian Church from the Reformation to the eighteenth century resulted in few translations into Scots up to the twentieth century (Corbett 1999: 151). In the wake of the Scottish Renaissance which is closely linked to the Lallans Movement and its founder, poet Hugh MacDiarmid, plays with historical themes became popular, followed by translations of similar plays, e.g. Molière’s L’École des Femmes (1662, The School of Wives) and L’Avare (1668, The Miser) by Robert Kemp as Let Wives Tak Tent (1948) and The Laird o’
Grippy (1958) respectively, followed by Douglas Young’s translations of
Aristophanes – The Puddocks (1957) and The Burdies (1966). Translation of classics such as Sophocles, Racine, Goldoni, Kleist, Ibsen, Chekhov or Brecht became the mainstay of translated drama in Scots.
In the 1980s translators turned their attention to contemporary European and world drama by playwrights like Fo, Tremblay, Cormann or Kohout (Findlay 2004b: 6). The change of subject matter coincided with the choice of Scots vernacular as translation medium in drama reflecting the division between classical and contemporary poetry translation. After an absence of more than 300 years, drama is now the main contributor to translations into Scots (6). This may be because an oral genre lends itself more easily to translation into dialect than prose. Overall, the period since the Scottish Renaissance in the 1920s has been “the richest in Scotland’s literary and theatre histories for translation into Scots in terms of quantity, variety of source languages and literary genres translated” (7).
37 There are two reasons for translations into Scots associated with the impact of the play overall rather than particular characters. Linguistic considerations play an important role for translators like Bill Findlay (amongst others 1995) and Martin Bowman (2007), or Ian Brown (1998) who see Scots, in combination or contrast with English, as a more effective medium for rendering the meanings and functions of ST dialect in the TT; the wide range of varieties allows for better differentiation of characters. A second reason, keeping the language alive as well as developing and modernising it, straddles linguistic and political considerations (see amongst others Robert Kemp and Victor Carin, as discussed by Findlay 2004a and 2001 respectively). Two further considerations, closely linked to the above and having unambiguous political or ideological implications are, first, the raising of the status of Scots as a national language by its use in a sphere normally reserved for standard English; and, second, the contribution to the development of a distinctive Scottish literary and drama tradition (Kemp and Carin). In fact, Corbett maintains that translation into Scots has always been politically motivated:
Significantly, through all these changes [in Scottish history], translation into Scots has consistently served to mark some degree of cultural independence, usually in implicit or explicit opposition to England and the English (1999: 6-7).
In conclusion, establishing, maintaining and expanding the Scots literary polysystem has, relied to differing extents on translation as a means of introducing new ideas, genres and styles, and of addressing weaknesses in the home literary system.
Two examples will give an insight in the complex motivations of translators choosing dialect translation. One of the most important figures of the Scots drama translation tradition is actor, director, playwright and translator Victor Carin (1933- 1981). Following the example of Robert Kemp, he contributed to the then still young tradition with works such as Molière’s Le Malade imaginaire as Hypochondriack
(translated from the original, staged 1963), Goldoni’s Il servitore di due padroni as
The Servant of Twa Maisters (translated from the original, 1965) or Kleist’s Der zerbrochne Krug (The Broken Jug) as The Chippit Chantie (on the basis of a literal translation, 1974) (Findlay 2001: 123). Whereas in the first only the names were changed into Scottish ones, the other two have been relocated to Scotland with Scottish names, place names and cultural references.
38 Carin had acted in and written Scots plays himself and was committed to “the ‘restoration and preservation’ of Scots speech, and to the Scottish theatre […]” (Findlay 2001: 123). His translations into Scots would be a valuable contribution to his goal. In addition, Scottish theatre of the 1960s faced a similar problem as that described by Frank Grupe (see quote in Chapter 1.3.2.) for the Ohnsorg-Theater in Hamburg: not enough new and good original Scots plays were being written. Through translation, the Gateway Theatre in Edinburgh, which saw as its distinctive task to produce drama in Scots, hoped to be able to meet the demands of its audiences (124). Carin created a stage language that drew on Scots varieties as spoken at the time but also included older words and “incidences of reproduction-antique Scots” (128) representing the Lallans tradition, albeit at the plain end of the spectrum. He wanted to make sure that his Scots would be intelligible, which would have been hindered by a more experimental Lallans (130).
Representative of vernacular translation are Bowman and Findlay (1947- 2005), who have been the most prolific Scots drama translators in the last three decades. Focussing on Québécois playwright Michel Tremblay,17 they translated eight of his plays staged in Scotland between 1989 and 2003, with additional productions in London, the USA and Canada (Bowman & Findlay 2004: 67). By 2003, Tremblay had become one of the most performed contemporary playwrights in Scotland and, like “MacMolière,” is now regarded as a Scottish playwright (Hicks 2003: 146). The translators’ main contribution to Scots drama translation is that for the first time they translated contemporary plays into Scots urban and rural vernacular varieties without cultural relocation.18 In addition, they provide insights into their work through the publication of academic articles, many discussed in this thesis.
Bowman is French-Canadian of Scottish descent, a Québécois native speaker who provides expertise of the ST language, whereas Findlay was a Scot with expertise in urban and rural Scots vernacular. First, Bowman produced a literal translation from the original, not using any English idiomatic expressions and accompanied by copious explanations of language usage, cultural references, humour, etc. Then the co- translators discussed questions and clarified meanings before Findlay produced his
17 In addition to Tremblay, the co-translators have translated a play by Québécoise Jeanne-Mance
Delisle. Findlay has also translated Cousse, Goldoni and Hauptmann, all on the basis of literal translations.
18 Their first translation of Tremblay’s Les Belles-Sœurs as The Guid Sisters was already finished in
39 first Scots draft. The draft was then proofread by both, if possible face to face, and examined with close attention to the original. Further changes may then occur during rehearsals (Bowman & Findlay 2004: 66).
Their motivation for the translation into Scots vernacular without cultural relocation concerned the functions of dialect on the micro-level (characterisation) and the macro-level, and the use of Scots as literary language. The co-translators wanted to challenge and extend the capacities of Scots as a literary language, suggesting new ways in which vernacular could be employed in Scottish literature, both translated and original (Findlay 1995: 152; Bowman & Findlay 2004: 68). Also, they were well- aware of the linguistic and socio-linguistic similarities between the two languages in relation to standard French and standard English respectively, a fact that they exploit in their choice of language for different characters (Findlay 1996a: 208; Bowman & Findlay 2004: 68). Findlay acknowledged that the more Scots translations are staged the more they promote the “public assertion of national identity through language” (2006: 47).
The co-translators were aware of Tremblay’s political motivation in using
joual in Les Belles-Sœurs, but they also considered characterisation through language use. The use of urban vernacular by younger generation characters and rural vernacular by those of an older generation reflects the urbanisation between generations (Findlay 1996a: 210). But it also serves to contrast the more traditional conservative and almost naïve views of the rural characters in relation to the urban ones. In addition, there is the contrast between the majority of characters who speak Québécois and Lisette, a socially aspiring woman, who attempts to speak a French she assumes is spoken in Paris, but is interlaced with elements of Québécois, thus revealing her pretentiousness (Findlay 1995: 154). Through the use of working-class Scots and a less urban variety of Scots as well as English interlaced with Scotticisms the co-translators ensured that the functions of this particular SL use are reflected in the translation.
In The House among the Stars (La Maison Suspendue), Bowman and Findlay were similarly concerned with preserving the functions of the language use by the characters. Three sets of characters from three different periods in time and three social groups use three registers, and for each the co-translators found Scottish equivalents: The 1910 characters live in the countryside and speak rural Québécois/Scots; the 1950 characters are working-class Montréalers who speak urban
40 Québécois/Scots; and the 1990 characters are middle-class Montréalers who speak relatively standard French/English with certain distinctive Québécois/Scots features.
The translators analysed in detail the functions the language use by single characters or groups of characters fulfils in the original and, by finding varieties with similar meanings, they were able to reproduce these functions in the TT. In addition, they proved the capacity of Scots as a literary language and its superiority over standard. As Findlay points out,
[…] the long-standing predominance of standard English translation in British (and to a degree, Scottish) theatres – more often than not delivered in the class-associated accent of received pronunciation, with the ‘mechanicals’ sporting regional accents – has misrepresented both the ‘non-standard’ linguistic nature of much Western drama and its rootedness in the texture of a particular national or regional culture […]. Wonderful though the English language is, as a translation medium it can have homogenising effect on foreign work translated, which can in turn disfigure the original work. To take the German tradition, for example, one would not know from existing English-medium translations that such seminal plays in Western Drama as Buchner’s Woyzeck and Hauptmann’s The Weavers were written in dialect. (1996a: 204)
The diversity of language varieties available to the Scots translator – standard English, Scottish standard English, varieties of Scots (urban, rural, regional and standardised, historical and contemporary, literary and experimental, colloquial and stylised) – enables translations to reflect the meanings of the original play much better than those written in standard English alone (Findlay 2000: 35).
The work of Carin and Bowman & Findlay illustrates that there is usually a combination of linguistic, political/ideological as well as character-related and play- related motivations involved in the decision to translate drama into Scots. In addition, the overwhelming success of drama translated into Scots has to be regarded as an important factor in its continued practice. Carin worked in an environment that was conducive to the use of Scots. He acted in and wrote original plays in Scots, and the
Gateway Theatre in Edinburgh which commissioned some of his translations had traditionally staged popular productions in Scots. He continued a recent but growing tradition of Lallans translations of classic plays. Bowman and Findlay started a new
41 tradition, daring to use Scots vernacular to represent the speech of Québécois characters. Bowman admits that, initially, critics of The Guid Sisters described the use of Scots with French names and Canadian references as “jarring, incongruous” (Bowman 2003: 41) not because of language use but because it did not coincide with the cultural relocation Scottish audiences had got used to. The implication was that the association of Scots with Scotland was too strong to allow for the discussion of non-Scottish subject matters on stage – a disadvantage of this particular strategy often cited by translation scholars (see Chapter 1.2.). However, as the number of productions in Scots without cultural relocation has grown, so have confidence of translators and popularity with audiences. Audiences now accept that foreign plays can be performed in the vernacular rather than standard English. This development has to be placed in the wider context of literary production in Scotland. Whereas in England works in dialect stand outside the literary mainstream, probably mainly due to the association of dialect and standard with class and education, Scotland can look back on a long tradition of celebrated original dialect writers, such as Robert Burns for poetry and Walter Scott for prose (Findlay 1996a: 200).
English is now the language spoken by a majority of people living in Scotland, but it also co-exists with various Scots vernacular varieties. In Scotland too, there is a certain stigmatisation of different vernaculars; however, the status of Scots is much higher than that of English dialects, reflected in the more common use of Scots in domains that are usually, and especially in the English context, associated with the standard, amongst others literature and drama (Findlay 1996a: 202). Corbett emphasises that it is, indeed, the absence of a Scots standard variety that promotes the acceptance of Scots as a literary (and translation) medium:
The relatively high status accorded to vernacular translations into Scots, as compared with varieties of non-standard English, is perhaps due to there being no single widely accepted standard Scots available. […] One of the functions of a standard variety of language is to suppress variation, to edit out forms distinctive to particular localities, - to establish ‘correct’ norms for written grammar, vocabulary and spelling, and, to a certain extent, to promote ‘polite’ ways of speaking. Given that the establishment of these linguistic norms inevitably disadvantages those who do not subscribe to them, there has been a long history of resistance to the standardisation of Scots […]. (1999: 180)
42 Ultimately, it is the audience that decides on the validity and acceptability of language variation on stage, be it in original or translated drama, especially if there is no cultural relocation. Taking into account the prestige Scots enjoys with its speakers, it is likely that audiences identify more closely with the characters who speak it; that Scots “invite[s] communal identification and ownership” (Corbett 2007: 44). This chimes with the experience of Swiss theatre practitioners discussed in Chapter 1.3.1., who maintain that their use of Swiss German facilitates identification with the characters, and more immediate access to the subject matter (Wilkinson 2005: 78).
It is often suggested that the function of Scots translations has always been political:
For all Scottish translators down the centuries, the use of Scots has been a political act – as Gentzler (1996: 118-19) says of Québécois, translation in the vernacular is ‘less a way of introducing a foreign text and more a way of legitimising a distinct ethnological and political entity’. Translations have given a stylistic range and a sense of authority to Scottish literature, and they have validated the identity of the Scots language and, by implication, the Scottish people. (Corbett 1999: 183)
However, translators discussed were at least equally concerned with preserving the meaning (regional, social and individual characterisation as well as overall effect on