Any discussion of minority languages and translation must begin with a suitable definition of “minority language”. Since Translation Studies has not provided a definition of its own, we must rely on definitions forged in other fields. A quite operative definition, sociolinguistic in origin, is the one enshrined in the single international treaty devoted to the protection of minority languages, namely the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. According to the Charter, “regional or minority languages” means languages that are both (i) traditionally used within a given territory of a state by nationals of that state who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the state’s population and (ii) different from the official language(s) of that state, on the understanding that such definition (iii) does not include either dialects of the official language(s) of the state or the languages of migrants. According to this definition, the term “minority language” is not to be confused with “minor language”, as it is used (for instance) in the journal MTM. Minor Translating Major – Major Translating Minor – Minor Translating Minor.

References

Branchadell, Albert & West, Lovell M

(eds) 2005 Less Translated Languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.  BoP

Cronin, Michael

1995 “Altered States: Translation and Minority Languages.” TTR 8: 85–103.  TSB

Cronin, Michael

1996 Translating Ireland: Translation, Languages, Cultures. Cork: Cork University Press.  TSB

Cronin, Michael

1998 “The Cracked Looking Glass of Servants. Translation and Minority Languages in a Global Age.” In Translation and Minority, Lawrence Venuti (ed.), 145–62. Special issue of The Translator 4 (2). Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.  TSB

González-Millán, X

1996 “Towards a Theory of Translation for ‘Marginal’ Literary Systems. The Galician Situation.” In The Knowledges of the Translator, M. Coulthard & P. Odber de Baubeta (eds), 279–90. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press.

Jones, George

2001 “Linguistic Minorities and Audiovisual Translation.” http://​www​.aber​.ac​.uk​/cgi​-bin​/mercator​/images​/linguistic​_minorities​_and​_audiov​.pdf [Accessed 7 June 2011]

Millán-Varela, Carmen

2003 “‘Minor’ Needs or The Ambiguous Power of Translation.” In Minority Languages in Europe. Frameworks, Status, Prospects, Gabrielle Hogan-Brun & Stefan Wolff (eds), 155–72. Houndmills/New York: Palgrave MacMillan..

Millán-Varela, Carmen

2004 “Hearing voices: James Joyce, narrative voice and minority translation.” Language and Literature 13: 37–54.

Toury, Gideon

1985 “Aspects of translating into minority languages from the point of view of Translation Studies.” Multilingua – Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 4: 3–10.

Venuti, Lawrence

(ed.) 1998 Translation and Minority. Special issue of The Translator 4 (2). Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.  TSB

Further reading

Millán-Varela, Carmen

2000 “Translation, Normalisation and Identity in Galicia(n).” Target 12 (2): 267–82.

O’Connell, Eithne

2000 Minority Language Dubbing for Children. Unpublished doctoral thesis Dublin: DCU = O’Connell, Eithne 2003 Minority Language Dubbing for Children: Screen Translation from German into Irish. Berlin: Peter Lang.  TSB

O’Connell, Eithne

2007 “Translation and Minority Language Media – Potential and Problems: An Irish Perspective.” In Minority Language Media. Concepts, Critiques and Case Studies, Mike Cormack & Niamh Hourigan (eds), 212–28. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Pattanaik, Diptiranjan

2000 “The Power of Translation: A Survey of Translation in Orissa.” In Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era, Sherry Simon & Paul St-Pierre (eds), 71–86. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.  TSB

Zabaleta, Jesus M

1991 “Hedadura txiki eta ertalneko hizkuntzetako itzulpena aztertzeko zenbait aldagai bakantzeko saloa.” Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria 12: 17–37. English version: 2002. “To Find Variables for the Analysis of Translation between Lesser-diffused and Medium-diffused Languages.” Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria 24: 193–206.