Radio-Canada showed the Fellowship on Saturday night, so I watched it. Was curious about the fact that they changed the names that ended in “o” by adding an “n” - so “Bilbo” in French becomes “Bilbon”, “Frodo” becomes “Frodon” and so on.
I’m curious why the translators thought such a slight change necessary? The “n” on the end of a word is a very slight nasal sound, not sounding much different than the original in English. There are nouns in French that end in an “o” sound (“bureau”, “manteau” etc.), so it’s not like there’s an absolute rule that you can’t end a noun with an open vowel sound.
Is it that a name ending in “o” is considered a women’s name, not a man’s name?
I suspect it may have to do with the literary interpretation making allowances for “liaison” which improves the flow. As you may be aware, if words start with a vowell, it’s customary to sort of attach it to the previous word.
E.g./
“Crayons a mangé le chocolat”.
Is linked like “Crayons_a mangé le chocolat”.
Pronounced like “Crayonza mangé le chocolat”.
It’s a bit awkward to have too many words that end in vowells because then you end up with past tense combinations like “Frodo a eu” which sounds like a lot like coughing up a furball, it’s rhythmically unpleasant and might muddle understanding.
It’s just an easier flow to say it “Frodonna eu” rather than “Frodo a eu.”
Yes, there are words that end in vowell sounds, but there’s a difference in frequency. The characters’ names would repeat in the above scenario far, far more often than the words “manteau” and “bateau” would.
That’s a WAG, but it’s often the case with French. We like to modify stuff to make it a little easier to say. Like the “ê” symbol exisits to show you that “es” use to be there but isn’t anymore… “Fenêtre” is easier to say than “fenestre”.
I remember reading the books in french when I was young - before I learned to speak/read english. Indeed, all the characters whose names end in “o” are ended in “on” in the french language version of The Lord of the Rings.
My guess? There are few, if any, names that end in “o” in french. An ending with “eau” or “au” would have worked better, but again, are extremely rare. The “on” ending rolls off the tongue way more easily (at least to a french speaker it does!)…
Another French-Canadian here. Ellie your hypothesis would be valid if the French translation of The Hobbit didn’t use “Bilbo” instead of “Bilbon”. I think they were simply lazy and used the same endings of the litterary translation of LOTR.
:smack: I knew that! just didn’t think of it, of course!
But does that change the tone of the book at all? The hobbit names in the original are meant to sound pretty familiar and non-heroic, by contrast to all the other names. Does having a classic echo in two of the main characters’ names change that? or is it too small a point? (I can’t remember if Merry and Pippin were used in the French version.)
There, I found out that Tolkien actually provided detailed instructions to translators: names in modern English correspond to “common speach” and must be translated. Other names must remain as-is. Bilbo, Frodo, and company, however were not meant to be translated. This is a liberty Ledoux took.
His logic is as follows: Frodo is an actual name with a germanic root, as such Ledoux considered it acceptable to alter the name in the manner matt describes. Since he added an ‘n’ to Frodo, for the sake of consistency, he tacked one onto the names of all other Hobbits.
This is something that, apparently, French fans decry.
Names that were supposed to be translated came out this way:
Baggins: Sacquet
Rivendell: Fondcombe
Samwise: Samsagace
Shire : Comté
Anyway, there’s a whole list on the site above.
Bilbo was called “Bilbon” in Le seigneur des anneaux and “Bilbo” in Bilbo le Hobbit. Fanboys aren’t happy about that one at all.
Checked out that site, Jovan - thanks for the link. Nice to see that Tolkein-geeks (uhh, I mean Tolkein experts) can be just as obsessive in French as in English. I mean, an entire article on whether “Middle-Earth” should translated as plural or singular?.
To address the initial question I asked, it looks like the translator did follow the classic examples that Matt cites for Frodo => Frodon because Frodo was an actual Germanic name, but then added an “n” to all other hobbit names ending in “o” for consistency, turning the exception into the rule:
And man, is he bitter about the addition of a terminal “e” to “Elanor” and “Mallorn”: “L’absurdité de la francisation apparaît ici dans toute sa splendeur!”
Rare to see complaints about excessive “francisation”. I don’t think this guy is going to make it into the Académie française!
I have another question about French translation. According to the appendices, one reason for Beregond telling Pippin that his speech was strange was that he always used the familiar form (which was the only one used in hobbit-speech) rather than the deferential, even when talking to Denethor.
Does the translation use “vous” and “tu” to convey this?
In case anyone was wondering, the following names come out differently in Spanish (at least, on the subtitles on the North American DVD; I can’t speak to the books, since I haven’t read the Spanish translations).
Frodo Baggins: Frodo Bolsòn (bolsillo is Spanish for “pocket.”)
Samwise Gamgee: Samsagasz Gamyì
Treebeard: Bárbol (combination of barba, “beard,” and arbol, “tree.”)
There are, of course, dozens nay hundreds of others, but those are all I remember.
I can’t check because I don’t have a french version of this part of the LOTR, but I’m pretty certain it doesn’t, because, with some exceptions (the hobbits speaking amongst themselves for instance), characters use “vous” when adressing each other (using an informal speech wouldn’t fit well in a medieval-like epic). So, it would be surprising that Pippin, who use “vous” when adressing, for instance, Gandalf, would suddenly revert to “tu” when adressing Beregond.
