Abstract.
THE TRANSLATION PECULIARITIES OF PROPER NAMES IN A VIDEOGAME «DOTA 2»
Tetiana Kushnirova
Germanic Philology and Translation
Department, National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”,
Poltava, Ukraine.
Maksym Domarenko
Germanic Philology and Translation
Department, National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava
Polytechnic”, Poltava, Ukraine.
Abstract
Background:
In our rapidly globalizing world video games require high-quality localization for variety of recipient cultures. Such task may
cause different problems. One of them is a translation of proper names
into various languages. This article gives an insight into this problem through
an analysis of Ukrainian localization of
Dota 2, specifically the translation of proper names of its playable
characters.
Purpose: is
to review and demonstrate methods, which may be used to translate proper names
in video games, as well as to show mistakes made by translators performing such
task and give an evaluation to the quality of an existing localization.
Results: The analysis presented in
this article shows how transcription, transliteration, calquing, transposition and contextual
substitution were used to translate proper names of playable characters in Dota 2.
Alongside with examples of successful translation, it also demonstrates
numerous mistakes such as: loss of important information meant to be conveyed,
examples of proper names that violate the principles of euphony, etc.
Discussion:
Given analysis sheds some light on methods used to translate proper names and
accompanying problems. Nevertheless, more researches should be performed in
order to review numerous existing Ukrainian localizations of other games with
an end goal to provide the knowledge required to improve future ones.
Keywords: Dota 2, localization,
videogame, proper names, transcription, transliteration.
Vitae. Tetiana Kushnirova is a Doctor of Philology,
Professor of Germanic Philology and Translation Department at National
University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”. Her areas of research
interests include literary theory, literary history, literary translation.
Correspondence: kuta2608@gmail.com
Vitae. Maksym Domarenko is a Master’s student
of Germanic Philology and Translation Department at National University “Yuri
Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”. His areas of research interests include
linguocultural studies, translation and interpretation studies.
Correspondence: wigglyfern@gmail.com
