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Target
Vol. 3:2 (1991) ► pp.175–206

Names and Their Substitutes

Onomastic Observations on Astérix and Its Translations [1] 1

| York University, Toronto

The Astérix comic-book series, originally in French, is well-known and widely translated. Each book relates an adventurous episode in which the principal character is Astérix, a small, witty warrior from a fictional Gaulish village, the only village to have successfully resisted the Roman occupation. The series relies on many humorous techniques, but word-play and puns form an integral part. Much humour derives from the names used, combining various comic effects, particularly puns and double entendres. Thus the translator faces not only the usual problems in translating literary names, but also the problem of retaining these comic effects. This paper examines these problems and their solutions, based on a complete collection of name data from all 30 books in 4 languages (French original; English, German, Finnish translations), with numerous references to translations into other languages.

Article outline
  • 0.Introduction
  • 1.Personal Names
    • 1.0.Background
    • 1.1.Non-Fictional Names
    • 1.2.Fictional Names
      • 1.2.1.Gaulish Characters
      • 1.2.2.Other Celtic Characters
      • 1.2.3.Characters of Other Ethnicities
        • a.Roman Characters
        • b.Gothic Characters
        • c.Greek Characters
        • d.Egyptian Characters
        • e.Spanish Characters
        • f.Nordic Characters
        • g.Norman Characters
        • h.Indic Characters
        • i.Hebrew Characters
  • 2.Place Names
    • 2.1.Non-fictional Names
    • 2.2.Fictional Names
  • 3.Other Names
  • 4.Conclusions and General Remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 January 1991
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.3.2.04emb
References

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