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GR: JA's language
Written by Cheryl
(4/24/2003 1:46 a.m.)
in consequence of the missive, GR: Translations: nice, d__ etc., penned by Helka Maria
Sorry to hear that! I would imagine it would be hard to translate a pun into another language. Especially if the word used in the translation doesn't have the same two meanings! ;-) ] What do the native speaker's of English say about the language of NA? Do you find it stiff and unlikely? JA's language is different from modern English, the rhythms and sentence structure can be hard for some people to get. Not us, of course, that's partly why we love it. ;-) But I have found NA to be the most modern sounding, and yet at the same time, most archaic of JA's books. This sounds very modern to me: "She never could learn or understand anything before she was taught; and sometimes not even then." And then there is a quirk in this book that I don't believe is seen in her other books as much. It is the tendancy to have sentences like: "Did not she?" "Was not he?", etc. A more "normal" way to say it would be: "Did she not?" "Was he not?" Nowadays we would say "Didn't she?" "Wasn't he?" "Did not she?" sounds awkward, but is part of the charm of this book, I think. |
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