Translation of dialect in Kipling's Stalky & Co.
As this paper tries to show how dialect can be treated in a particular piece of text, let us move to some problems connected with the translation of Irish English and the Devon dialect in Kipling's book Stalky and Co. IRISH ENGLISH Before we start to analyse the function of this dialect, it is convenient to classify it according to the dimensions discussed earlier in the text. Dimension: geographical - Irish English social - upper social classes temporal - contemporary In Stalky and Co. we can find two characters who speak Irish English - Colonel Dabney and M'Turk (who speaks Irish only ocassionally). When we look closely to the form and function of this dialect we find out that it is almost impossible to render it in the Czech translation. Why it is so? The basic function of Irish English in Stalky and Co. is to indicate local cultural features9 or, in other words, to stress the origin of the speakers. As both of them belong to upper social clas and their speech differs only slightly from Standard English, the Czech translator finds himself/herself in a difficult situation. Irish English cannot be replaced by any target language dialect, as no Czech dialect can preserve the function of the source language dialect - Irish English.