Tintin Forums

Hi

I'm doing an MSc dissertation on translation theory and Tintin, focussing on the translation of language varieties (accents, dialects, sociolects, idiolects etc.) and wondered whether anybody knows of any studies that have been done into this before? Or even any literature that investigates the language of Tintin in particular, its linguistic creativity etc. I've found lots written about Hergé, his biography etc, and about the history and politics of the individual books, but not so much about the language. I welcome any ideas!

Thanks
Sarah

I have noticed that the Spanish names in Tintin (place names and personal names) tend to be less overtly humurous than in English.
An example of this is the names of the two Bordurian "minders" given to Tintin and Captain Haddock in The Calculus Affair are Kronik and Himmersek (sp?) in Spanish but Kronik and Klumsi (sp?) in English.
Also Pleksy-Gladz (sp?) in Spanish vs. Kurvi-Tasch (sp?)in English and the name of the Indian principality from The Cigars of the Pharaoh in both languages are examples as well

Do you know about the full page on the language of Syldavia by Mark Rosenfelder?
Syldavian is also discussed on on The Linguist List.

Hi and welcome, Sarah. You might also like to check out "Arumbabya Explained" (by Andrew Pilcher) - it's listed in the articles section.

Hello Sarah,

You could try contacting Hugo Frey, who teaches at the University of Chichester. He is a historian and linguist who has written several articles on Tintin:
"History and Memory in the Franco-Belgian Bande Dessinée", Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice 6.3 (2002) (Routledge): 293-304.
"Contagious Colonial Diseases in Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin", Modern and Contemporary France NS 12.2 (2004): 177-188.
"Céline, Hergé et l'Affaire Haddock: The Consequences of a Literary Scandal", Études Franco-phones 20.1 (Spring 2005) "Dossier Thématique: Bande Dessinée Belge" (Université de Louisiane), 59-72.
"Actualités. Tintin: the Extreme Right-Wing and the Seventieth Anniversary Debates", Modern and Contemporary France, NS 7.3 (August 1999), 361-363.
History in the Graphic Novel, a special issue of Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice 6.3 (2002): 255-377 (London: Routledge) [co-editor with B. Noys]. Contains article by Benoît Peeters.
No doubt if you're a linguist you may have come across some of these publications; they might be available online on Ingenta or EBSCO.

Also Chris Owens' interview with the translators Michael Turner and Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper is well worth reading. They do a very occasional public talk about their work called "Tintin and the Translation Affair", and at Greenwich in May 2004 I recall somebody asking for a print copy for their dissertation. Harry Thompson's book Tintin: Hergé and his Creation also contains fairly detailed quotes from Michael Turner.

Makes me wish I was doing the MSc!

Ed

Thanks a lot for your help everyone! I will definitely look into the suggested articles. If anyone has any more ideas, I would be grateful. I will keep you posted on my progress and if any more queries pop up I will post on here, such a good response!

Sarah

No one mentioned that Hergé used the local patois of Brussels (in a slightly disguised version) to represent the "native" languages in several of the books. In French, this patois is called "bruxellois". It would be lost on non-Belgians, so I am sure that is why the translators completely re-wrote it.

See http://www.objectiftintin.com/whatsnew_Tintin_1066.lasso for this quote:

"Hergé a beaucoup utilisé le bruxellois dans ses albums, mais peu de lecteurs s'en aperçoivent encore, rappelle Alain Préaux. En dehors des expressions comme « Potferdekski ! » dans « Tintin au pays des Soviets », que tout le monde comprend en Belgique mais qui échappe déjà totalement au petit Français, la plupart des bulles en bruxellois ne sont compréhensibles des « ekte Brusseleirs »."

which says: Everyone in Belgium understands what Potferdekski means in "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets", but no one else does.

"J'ai découvert chez Hergé quatre familles de langue, inspirées librement du bruxellois : le syldave, le bordure, le bibaro et l'arumbaya"

which says: 4 languages were based on bruxellois..

The rest of this web page gives examples from "Picaros" and even the artists names from "Alph Art" are based on bruxellois!

Bonne chance, Karl

There's plenty on Hergé's use of bruxellois in the book Tintin: ketje de Bruxelles by Daniel Justens. It's available here.

Ed

Another reference on bruxellois:

128 page book (in French):
"Tintin, ketje de Bruxelles" by Daniel Justens and Alain Préaux, Casterman - Collection "L'aventure des aventures", 2004.

ketje = gamin = boy or street kid

See http://www.objectiftintin.com/ouvrages.lasso?-Token.T-Client=Guest&-To ken.T-Recid=4794 where the review mentions that it is not just bruxellois, but a patois based on one specific area of Bruxelles called les Marolles, with "marollien" being the name of the local dialect that Hergé learned from his grand-mère!

Karl

Hi guys,

Thanks again for the help, I'm making progress gradually. Any suggestions as to which Tintin books in particular are particularly interesting as regards the language used? I'm looking through each one in detail, but it will take me a while if I carry on like this!

Sarah