Translating Identity?

The main purpose of language, the one that is obvious constantly, on every single day of our lives, is communication. With different nations, with different people – well, and some would probably add the communication with themselves (sometimes quite an underestimated branch). While we as translators do our best to enable communication among cultures and to decipher produced texts and speeches for the ones who do not know the source language, how much of „identity“ are we translating? Or maybe not even translating, but taking away, adding and changing?

Language can unite people and it can divide people. This is the case not only due to different vocabularies and ways of expressing our thoughts, but it can also be the purposeful and conscious emphasis of one’s identity or distinctiveness from others through language.

According to Joanna Thornborrow there are four kinds of identity:

• Master identities (stable and unchanging: gender, ethnicity, age, …)
• Interactional identities (roles taken on in communicational contexts with specific other people)
• Personal identities (characteristic ways of behaviour: hotheaded, honest, forthright,…)
• Relational identities (kind of relationship enacted with a particular conversational partner or in a specific situation)

If we take a closer look, all of these identities produce a different use of language, as well as we can knowingly choose a use of language incongruent with our identity in order to hide our true self.

Imagine a middle-aged average citizen from central Europe. He is shy and not very sociable. His parents taught him to speak in a noble manner, never curse and always speak politely and in a calm, firm tone. In a new surrounding, he decides to start his life all over again. And he starts to use a language full of the newest expressions, swearwords, and to speak his mind – no matter what the sound of that might be. And – just to be a bit more exotic, he adds an African accent. He might still wear his woolen pullover with a red-nosed reindeer, but probably you would rather think his clothes to be a disguise than his language. So, if you are translating – be it a text or a spoken word – where is the dictionary that gives you a sense of that identity, of the true image you should be delivering? Usually we have our routine vocabularies, words and phrases we use with our own identity in our own life. As a translator there are cases, when we need to have the ability to put ourselves in the position of someone else – be it a function, a character in a play, or a real person. For interpreters that might sometimes even come close to acting – using a language and ways of behavior we usually do not, and maybe even cannot, identify with.

What can a translator support or mess up if he or she does not possess the necessary sensitivity for the nuances of human behaviour and, thus, language? Certainly, the character in a book or film can become a completely different person – maybe even loose its purpose – if the language use is changed. If Eliza Doolittle in „My Fair Lady“ would speak standard language, or make only slightly less mistakes in grammar and pronunciation, the whole story would loose its purpose and wit. Mr. Higgins would not even have to be in it. The identity of characters, thus, is a huge aspect of language use and its translation. 

The correct delivery of the identity of a speaker mirrored in his/her language use is an important factor in business meetings as well. A business man speaking using very elevated language emphasizing his elevated position cannot be taken as serious when his speech is translated with simple and unidimensional expressions. That is, his intended image of an appreciated intellectual will not be as clear when the translation misses out aspects of identity. An uneducated person at a court trial, on the other hand, might get a different treatment and the case might be considered differently than if an elevated, or at least very correct and precise language would be used.

After all, the question is whether a translator should have his own translating identity or whether he should be translating identity. Should translators pick one type of language use he always goes for, or should he be able to change his/her own language use in dependency of the identity of the speaker/charakter? 

Translators need to be flexible speakers. Whichever language use they are translating, they need to assume part of the identity in question and to stick to it throughout their translation. Doing a bit of research on the different types of language use in advance wouldn´t hurt. Sometimes it might cost quite an effort to withhold one’s own identity during the translation process.

In the end, this is one of the fascinating aspects of translating. In no other professional field you get the chance to dip into so many different areas of life, circumstances people find themselves in, ways of interaction than you do when observing others in order to translate their language – their identity.