The richness of dialects in The adventures of Huckleberry Finn: translation possibilities and the use of regionalisms of Pernambuco as a valid translation tool

Abstract

The presence of dialectal variety in literary works is a tool that enriches the narrative, highlighting the oral element of the text and imprinting local color to the story, as seen in Mark Twain’s classic “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. The challenging translation of this book demands choices that contemplate the dialects found in the original. To this end, the translator can use countless combinations of strategies and procedures, including the replacement of terms and expressions by others, connected to a specific region, which does not imply any damage to the essence of the original. In this sense, the presence of the dialect of Pernambuco in the translation of “Huck Finn” to Brazilian Portuguese neither disagrees with Mark Twain’s purposes nor mischaracterizes the work, being a valid and rich proposal that leads to a creative innovative and interesting result from the perspective of translation.