Latin in the Names of Canadian towns

Canada, as Belgium, has more than one official language. In most cases, the names of Canadian towns are simply transferred, not translated. This is the case of Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Regina, amongst others. This, however, does not always hold true in the eastern part of Canada, particularly in the Maritime provinces. The island of Newfoundland is known in French as Terre Neuve. It could be expected that in Spanish the translation would be Tierra Nueva, but it is not to be. Why make things easy if they can be made difficult? In Spanish, the name of the island is Terranova or Terra Nova as recorded in the early geography books. This is rather surprising, as Spanish is not a language keen on borrowing Latin names without adapting them. For example, Latin medical terms frequently undergo changes in Spanish (e.g., post partum=posparto), but not in English. Well, for Newfoundland it is the other way around. It seems that places in the Canadian Maritime provinces that have English and French names keep the Latin names when rendered into Spanish. In the Maritimes we also find the province of Nova Scotia, and this Latin term is the official name in English— New Scotland being rarely, if ever, used. In French, as can be expected, the province’s name is Nouvelle Ecosse. As it is widely known, French speakers, especially in Canada, are particularly sensitive to the use of English words, even if they are, in fact, in Latin. The reader can realize this immediately by visiting the official Canadian websites, as the Provincial and Federal Governments are always attentive not to make any gaffes when translating the names of geographical entities. In Spanish, unlike the case of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia’s name is translated as Nueva Escocia. The term Nova Scotia is sometimes used, but is considerably less frequent. A Google search for web pages in Spanish for Nueva Escocia yields 70,200 hits. The same search using Nova Scotia yields only 21,500 results.

16.9. Names Including the Word “New”: Gender and Translation Issues

Determining gender in geographical entities is most difficult. When colonizing America, the English, French, and Spanish frequently named the new territories after cities, regions, or provinces in their home countries—adding the word “new” to the original name. This is the origin of New York, Nouvelle Orléans, and Nuevo México. The name New York corresponds to both, a state and a city. Unlike in English, where place names seldom have gender, French and Spanish are languages in which geographical names do have it. Translators should be extremely careful not to make mistakes. The word state translates as état and estado in French and Spanish, respectively; being masculine in both cases. On the other hand, city translates to ville and ciudad, both feminine. For New York, the name does not change in French. Thus, we have l’état de New York and la ville de New York. Since the wording New York has no gender designation, using the same name for the city and the state in the language of Molière is not problematic. This is not the case in the language of Cervantes. In Spanish, New York is translated as Nueva York. When Nueva York refers to the city, there is agreement in gender and things go smoothly; when we refer to Nueva York as an ‘estado,’ however, since the noun estado is masculine and the adjective Nueva is feminine, we most certainly have a problem.

In French, as previously mentioned, New York is simply transferred. On the other hand, New Orleans is translated as Nouvelle Orléans. This seems logical, as this city was founded by the French and hence this is its original name. Because of this, it could be argued that the French prefer to leave the names of the “New” towns in their original tongue. Well, once again there is no room for generalization. Let’s take, for example, New Mexico. New Mexico was founded by the Spaniards and then became part of Mexico. As a result, its original name is Nuevo México. After the Mexican War, it became a territory and later a state of the U.S.A., having its spelling changed to the anglicized New Mexico. Unlike New York, New Mexico changes its English name in French to Nouveau Mexique. So, once again, beware of generalizing.

As can be seen, there is considerable room for mistakes when translating or adapting the names of geographical entities. Although some of the potential mistakes can seem quite banal, such as changing the name of a baseball team, translators cannot afford to ignore even the tiniest diacritical mark, prefix, or suffix. Furthermore, translators working with proper names are never working with just two languages. Proper names often require knowing many different languages, even dead languages like Latin and Classical Greek, as well as a considerable amount of history, in order to know how to work with them.

A bad translation of geographical terms can hurt some sensibilities. It can also destroy the credibility of a given document, or even make it unintelligible. Hence, the translator should not only rely on printed or electronic sources of information, but must have significant experience on the subject. If this is not the case, the translator should seek an experienced advisor. As the skipper navigating in treacherous waters, if he knows where the rocks are and how the currents flow, he will arrive safe to port. If he does not, he’d better find an experienced pilot.

It will serve to demonstrate, that the art of translation
is of more dignity and importance than has generally
been imagined.

Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler

LECTURE 17: REPLACEMENTS AS A TYPE
OF TRANSLATIONAL TRANSFORMATIONS

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