Loe raamatut: «Historische Translationskulturen», lehekülg 7
The role of translation in the Celtic Revival:
Analysing Celtic translation cultures
Fiona Begley, Hanna Blum
1 Introduction
Translation has always been an integral part of the history of the British Isles and Lower Brittany, a geographic region that has experienced many invasions and periods of colonization over the course of history. The emerging variety of languages spoken in the British Isles made translation a necessary tool for communication and for enforcing political agendas. England as a colonial power used language and thus translation as a means of suppressing their colonies all over the world, including their neighbours in the British Isles. For this paper, Ireland, Scotland and Wales are seen as the first colonies of what later came to be known as the (British/English) Empire.1 The colonies, on the other hand, utilised translation to free themselves from colonial rule and reclaim their own independent identity, to some extent by translating English texts into the respective Celtic tongues but also by transferring their own cultural heritage from Celtic languages into English, which enabled more people from these regions who were not proficient in the Celtic languages to grasp the cultural background of their nation. Especially during the Celtic Revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, there was an increasing eagerness to revive Celtic languages, which was largely only possible through translation. Once dominant languages had almost become extinct by then partly as a result of English being used as a means of colonial oppression in the form of linguistic purity. In Ireland, for example, in addition to the Plantations and the Great Famine, which had drastically reduced the Gaelic-speaking population, the use of Gaelic was forbidden under the Penal Laws. For this reason, Irish children were forced to speak English in order to get access to education (Hickey 2008; Ó Cuív 1966). English became associated with social advancement in many of the regions, for example in Wales, where the Blue Books Report led to the Welsh language being formally removed from the school system. May sees this as “merely a reflection of the wider, long-established hierarchising of English over Welsh, along with the accompanying belief that in the English language lay the route to social and economic mobility” (May 2000: 104). Reviving Celtic culture through translation was a way of overcoming the cultural rule of the British Empire and tracing back one’s own identity for many people in the Celtic regions.
The role of language and especially of translation for the British Isles has not yet been researched thoroughly within Translation Studies and beyond. Scholars have only examined certain aspects of translation of languages spoken in the British Isles and the role it played in certain historical periods, e.g. the history of translation into Scots (Corbett 1999) or the history of translation in Wales (Miguélez-Carballeira et al. 2016a). Several publications have also looked at the mutual influence of language policy and translation policy in order to learn more about recent official endeavours to promote the Celtic languages (see e.g. Kaufmann 2012; González Núñez 2016). Ireland, in this respect, is a special case as the role of translation between Irish Gaelic and English throughout the different periods of Irish history has been researched exhaustively (see e.g. Cronin 1996; Tymoczko 1999; Tymoczko/Ireland 2003). However, this kind of research in Translation Studies but also beyond has almost only used national or imperial borders to narrow its field of research. In encyclopaedic articles, the translation tradition of all languages and cultures in the British Isles has often been subsumed under British translation tradition (see e.g. Ellis/Oakley-Brown 2009; Kittel et al. 2011). Referring to a British translation space does not only ignore the vast diversity of languages in the British Isles (e.g. Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Manx, Welsh, Breton, Cornish, English) but using the term British for all languages and cultures involved supports the (post-)colonial domination of the English colonial power. Moreover, the languages of the British Isles inevitably influenced each other, leaving us with a map of blurred language zones, even within what we know as a country or nation.
Although it is still rather common in historiography to investigate the history of the British Empire as a whole (e.g. Cannon/Crowcroft 2015; Vernon 2017), while focussing mostly on the history of England, there have been attempts to move away from the largely England-centred approach towards a more complex understanding of the history of that geographic region. The Four-Nations-Approach looks at England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as separate nations with their own independent history and allows for a polycentric perception of the history of the British Isles (e.g. Lloyd-Jones/Scull 2018; MacKenzie 2008). Despite this effort to create a more differentiated image of the British Isles, this approach still concentrates on national borders. This might be due to the strong connections between borders and nationalist movements in a number of the regions. Especially in Ireland, after gaining independence, the country was very much seeking their own history detached from the “British history” and thus supported national historiography.
The aim of this paper is to turn this thought around and move away from national borders in order to look at languages and the connection between these languages through translation instead. It does not suffice to remain within today’s or past national borders in order to grasp the complexity of languages and, in that geographical area, of translation which took place on a daily basis due to the richness of languages in the British Isles. This is an important step in moving away from national categories in both Translation Studies and historiography towards a broader understanding of translation processes.
In the British Isles, translation was closely connected to the changes in the use of language; over the course of the nineteenth century English became the dominant language in the British Isles due to the colonial endeavours of the English Empire, mainly aimed at enforcing “Englishness” in all regions of the British Isles, in terms of language, religion, and many other facets of daily life. As a result of post-colonial movements by the colonies in the sense of resistance against the colonial rule of the Empire, different movements formed in the Celtic regions of the British Isles to revive the Celtic languages and culture(s) at the end of the nineteenth century, which were later summarized under the term Celtic Revival. These efforts comprised translations of different texts and led to different translation cultures across the Isles.
The concept of translation culture is understood as defined by the Translation Studies scholar Erich Prunč as the “gesellschaftliche Konsens und Dissens über unzulässige, zulässige, empfohlene und obligatorische Formen der Translation”2 (Prunč 2008: 25) at a certain time and within a certain space. It reflects the prevailing power relations and values of a given society and shapes the values and characteristics of a given receiving culture (Prunč 2000: 65). However, the term culture within the concept of translation culture has been the subject of discussion due to the tendency to associate culture with nation (Pym 2006: 23; Wolf 2010: 23). Prunč himself relativised his concept of culture and pointed out that there can be several translation cultures within one single culture or language area (Prunč 2008: 25). In this paper, which investigates such a geographical area, this concept will serve as an object of research which, according to Prunč, can be the subject of a descriptive analysis (Prunč 2005: 176). Understanding translation culture as an object of research rather than a theoretical concept allows the identification of parallel developments between different translation cultures, which will add a new field of application to this concept.
In order to analyse the translation culture(s) in the British Isles during the Celtic Revival, to show how potentially separate translation cultures were interwoven, and to define the actual role of translation for the Celtic Revival, this paper will discuss several aspects which constitute a translation culture using secondary sources. This will be done by examining which texts were translated as well as the different translation strategies employed for translating primarily literary texts and the actors involved. This paper will also try to identify parallel developments in the translation traditions of languages across the British Isles to see whether there was a Celtic translation culture during the Celtic Revival rather than individual national translation cultures. Furthermore, by investigating different Celtic translation cultures, this article claims that language policy as practised by the people rather than prescribed by the government, and the translation policy related to this are an integral part of a so-called translation culture of Celtic languages.
An overview will be given of the history of the British Isles surrounding the period under investigation before describing the role of translation for the language reviving efforts during the Celtic Revival, as language and translation policy can never be investigated without considering the socio-political circumstances at the time.
2 Historical Overview: Celtic Revival
2.1 Celtic languages policies in the early and mid-nineteenth century
In the early 1800s, Insular Celtic languages were spoken in large parts of the British Isles and north-western France. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) was governed from a common seat of government in Westminster. The early nineteenth century was “a period of economic upheaval, in which Britain shifted from being a predominantly agricultural and commercial society to being the world’s first industrial nation” (Hilton 1985: 249). While English was the language spoken throughout the majority of England, and French in France, the languages of Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Manx (the Goidelic languages), and Welsh, Cornish and Breton (the Brythonic languages) were still present. However, these languages had started to experience decline to varying degrees, with Cornish having not been used as a means of communication since before 1800. The decline in these languages was strongly influenced by the mid-nineteenth century “onset of literacy in English” (Kearney 2014: 17), and it continued throughout the remainder of the century, as described by Henry Jenner:
Most Cornishmen habitually speak English, and few, very few, could hold five minutes’ conversation in the old Celtic speech. Yet the memory of it lingers on, and no one can talk about the country itself, and mention the places in it, without using a wealth of true Cornish words. But a similar thing may be said of a very large proportion of Welshmen, Highlanders, Irishmen, Manxmen, and Bretons. (Jenner 1904/2016)
The following sections provide more detail on this decline of the Insular Celtic languages in the period before the Celtic Revival.
2.1.1 Irish
In Ireland, Irish Gaelic, or Irish, was a majority language in 1800. It was spoken throughout Ireland by the Irish but was less common in north-eastern and eastern parts of the country, where English and/or Scots were spoken by settlers. Throughout the nineteenth century, various factors contributed to its decline, making it a minority language by 1900. The language of education and the legal system, for example, was English, and Irish was not part of the school curriculum until 1878 (Ó Buachalla 1984). The Great Famine (1845–1852) and the laissez faire approach of Westminster during the famine led to at least one million deaths and many more emigrating (Kinealy 1997). The worst affected areas were in rural Ireland, where Irish was still widely spoken, which heavily impacted the number of speakers of Irish. A further result of the Great Famine was widespread discontent with Westminster and a somewhat intensified feeling of nationalism. In the years following the famine, a number of important nationalist movements were founded, such as the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1858 (see Lee 2014) and the Home Rule League in 1873. Language decline continued over the following decades, with the percentage of the population who could speak Irish falling from 23.3 % in 1851 to 18.2 % in 1881 (Akenson 2012: 378–379).
2.1.2 Scottish Gaelic
Until the eighteenth century Scottish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, was widely spoken in the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides, while Scots was more commonly spoken in the Lowlands of Scotland, the northernmost tip of the Highlands, the Orkney Islands and parts of the northeast of Ireland. For 290,000 Scots (23 %), Scottish Gaelic was their first and only tongue (MacAulay 2008: 141), but in the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745/46, many elements of Highland culture were banned, and the use of the Gaelic language was discouraged. From the middle of the eighteenth century to approximately 1860, Scottish Highlanders were evicted from their lands in the Highland Clearances (Richards 2008) to make way for sheep, for example, which offered a more profitable way of using the land. Apart from emigration from the Highlands caused by government policy, social and economic change during the period led to many Highlanders emigrating and/or becoming more reliant on English (Devine 2002). Parts of Scotland, primarily the area around Glasgow, became more industrialised and started to experience growth, causing the population of Scotland to triple from 1755 to 1881, though many of those who immigrated to the area spoke English as their first language. The Highlands and, as a result, Highland culture and Scottish Gaelic became less important (Kearney 2014: 151). By 1891, the number of Scottish Gaelic monolinguals had fallen to 43,738, just 1 % of the total population (MacAulay 2008: 141).
2.1.3 Manx
Unlike the other Celtic languages, Manx, was mostly protected from outside influence due to the island’s isolation until approximately 1700. This changed over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with the arrival of smuggling, an increase in migration and tourism, and the influence of the English school system (Broderick 2015: 355). During the nineteenth century, islanders began raising their children in English with the view that it would be more useful than Manx. Henry Jenner’s 1874 survey of the language showed that only 0.05 % of the population were Manx monoglots at the time but that 30 % still habitually spoke Manx (Jenner 1876). According to official census figures, in 1921 the percentage of the population who claimed to speak Manx was 1.52 % (Broderick 1991: 102).
2.1.4 Welsh
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, it is thought that 70 % of the population in Wales spoke only Welsh, 20 % only English, and 10 % were bilingual. Welsh was spoken throughout Wales, though English was more common along the Welsh-English border, in Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire in the southeast, and around the rapidly expanding port towns of Swansea, Cardiff, and Newport (Kearney 2014: 241). In 1891, the first census concerned with language distribution was conducted. It showed drastic change in the numbers of Welsh-speakers; a total of 54.4 % of those surveyed spoke Welsh, with 32.1 % of the population over the age of two speaking Welsh only, though this dropped further to 7.3 % in 1901 (Davies 2014: 81–82). Apart from industrialisation, many see the 1847 Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales as having a major influence on the Welsh language in the nineteenth century. The reports, or the Treachery of the Blue Books as they were also known, portrayed the Welsh as immoral and uneducated:
[T]he Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales, and a manifold barrier to the moral progress and commercial prosperity of the people. […] It dissevers the people from intercourse which would greatly advance their civilisation, and bars the access of improving knowledge to their minds. (Johnson et al. 1847: 66)
The reports had a detrimental effect on the language as Welsh-speakers began to believe that Welsh was an inferior language which could not offer them the same opportunities as English would, and English became the language of education.
2.1.5 Breton
In the nineteenth century, Breton was still widely spoken in Lower Brittany, particularly in the west (Timm 2015: 715). However, reliable figures for the number of speakers are difficult to find. Foy (2002: 29) refers to census statistics from 1886 which indicate that 51 % (1,320,000) of the population of Lower Brittany were monoglot Breton. Referring to Broudic (1999), she proposes that that the corresponding figures for 1905 show a decline in the number of speakers by 32 %. The education system played a major role in this decrease; 1882 saw the Jules Ferry school laws introduce mandatory French-medium education which made no mention of any other language. School children were often punished if they were caught speaking Breton (Prémel 1995: 53), which Prémel sees as the main reason for the stark decline in the language in the twentieth century (ibid.: 54). While Favereau (2007: 130) observes a Breton Revival, particularly in terms of literature, at the turn of the century, it is not generally considered to have played a major role in the Celtic Revival as Breton had flourished in Lower Brittany until that time and, unlike Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx and Welsh, was only starting to experience a period of pressure from another language.
2.1.6 Cornish
In stark contrast to Breton, Cornish was no longer used as a means of communication by 1800 (George 2015: 491), and though there were still a number of individuals who could speak the language, it is believed that the majority of these had died by 1900. Jenner (1904/2016: 12) suggests that the Reformation was particularly detrimental to the language, as the Book of Common Prayer, which was translated into all of the other Celtic languages of the British Isles, was never translated into Cornish.
2.2 The Celtic Revival: Language, culture and autonomy
The late nineteenth century and early twentieth century saw a vast increase in interest in both ancient and modern Celtic culture throughout Celtic regions in the British Isles and Lower Brittany. While much of the research conducted focuses on the idea of a Gaelic Revival, particularly in Irish culture and language, other Celtic cultures were also experiencing revival at the time. These revivals took place in a number of arenas, both within and between individual regions, and included the foundation of organisations to promote Celtic cultures, the publication of journals in the Celtic languages and the organisation of international Celtic Congresses. One particular journal of note published during the period of the Celtic Revival is the Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge (The Gaelic Journal), which was founded in Ireland in 1882. The focus of this “bilingual” (Irish and English) periodical was to preserve and cultivate the Irish language, but it also published pieces about developments in other Celtic regions in Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and French.
A key role in the revival was played by the organisations set up to promote Celtic languages and culture. In 1891, An Comunn Gàidhealach (The Gaelic Association) was founded in Scotland to support and promote Scottish Gaelic language and culture. Conradh na Gaeilge (The Gaelic League), founded in 1893, promoted Irish language and culture, and was followed in 1894 by the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association, set up to govern and standardise Irish Gaelic sports such as hurling and Gaelic football. The Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society), which envisaged a bilingual Wales, was established in 1885 at the National Eisteddfod, a festival celebrating Welsh literature and music. On the Isle of Man, Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh (The Manx Gaelic Society) was established in 1897 for “the preservation of everything that is distinctively Manx, and, above all, to the cultivation of a national spirit” (Morrison 1914: 132). Cowethas Kelto-Kernuak (The Celtic Cornish Society) was founded in 1902 for “the study and preservation of the Celtic remains in the Duchy of Cornwall, the revival of national customs and sports, [and] the Cornish language as a spoken tongue” (N.N. 1902). The clear parallels here in the five Celtic regions of the British Isles can be seen to illustrate the prevailing sentiment of pride in language and culture at the time, which led to increased communication and exchange between the regions.
The long-running Welsh Eisteddfod tradition had made a comeback in the wake of the Blue Books, with the first national Eisteddfod held in 1861. This inspired similar national events in both Scotland, with An Comunn Gàidhealach organising the first Mòd in 1892, and in Ireland, with Conradh na Gaeilge holding the Oireachtas from 1897. Similar events on the Isle of Man and in Brittany were also held but not until considerably later, in 1924 and 1971 respectively. Representatives and performers from each of the three regions regularly attended these festivals (O’Leary 1986: 103), which became a platform for intercultural discourse. At the 1898 Eisteddfod, the idea of forming a pan-Celtic association was discussed (ibid.), and this was then founded in 1900 as the Dublin-based Celtic Association (Stewart 2018: 148).
Though Celtic organisations and events throughout these regions were officially non-political, many contributed to a sense of identity and, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, a feeling of nationalism, and it was not uncommon for members to be involved in local or national politics. Hechter (2017: 167) uses Ireland as an example to illustrate the role a revival can play in nationalism: “the revival of ‘ancient’ cultural forms – such as Gaelic speaking in Ireland […] – is a frequent characteristic of contemporary nationalist movements”. In 1886, the first Irish Home Rule Bill was brought before parliament but was defeated. The Scottish Home Rule Association was founded in the same year but failed to gain much support. The north-south divide in Wales prevented a united front on the topic of Home Rule from being established, although a bill was eventually introduced in 1914. After three more attempts, the Irish Free State was declared in 1921, the year also seen as the end of the Gaelic Revival there.
