I quite like that redrawn family tree, but I don't get some of it- why on Earth are Hortense, Quackmore, and Grandpa Duck's faces not present?
That's actually why the tree had to be redrawn. For the same reason they don't want to show Della Duck or HDL's father, the editors didn't want to show the faces of presumably-deceased-close-relatives Hortense, Quackmore and Humperdink.
I quite like that redrawn family tree, but I don't get some of it- why on Earth are Hortense, Quackmore, and Grandpa Duck's faces not present?
That's actually why the tree had to be redrawn. For the same reason they don't want to show Della Duck or HDL's father, the editors didn't want to show the faces of presumably-deceased-close-relatives Hortense, Quackmore and Humperdink.
Which doesn't seem to make much sense, considering that Dutch editors did print all Rosa's stories with these characters, so what's the point of censoring thier faces in the family tree? The whole thing is also ironic, considering the Della-as-astronaut story and the five (so far) 1-pagers with her are all Dutch productions. Granted, the astronaut story is from 2014 and the 1-pagers from 2017, while the redrawn tree is from 1995, but still...
And if censoring these three faces was really the goal of Dutch editors, I guess they could have done just that without the trouble of redrawing the whole tree from scratch. Anyway, I asked yesterday if the original version has ever been printed in the Netherlands, but I see that I could find the answer myself on Inducks: it has been printed there, but only once, in a 2013 book that printed the extra chapters of Rosa's "Life and Times". In every other instance, Dutch editors printed the redrawn version (which has a separate Inducks page).
Uh, did the Italian version of Lo$ just... not bother to translate half of the names? Why is "Della Duck" the sister of "Paolino Paperino"?
It can't be helped... "Paolino Paperino" has been Donald's Italian name since the 1930's. The idea is that Paolino is his name and Paperino his surname, but after a while everybody started calling him Paperino as if it were his first name, even though the full name is still occasionally used (Paperino means little male duck). As I previously wrote:
Well, the surnames of many Italian characters are a mess. The fact that Paolino is supposed to be the given name and Paperino the surname is kind of "lost in history": the full name is still mentioned sometimes, but most of the times he is just called Paperino by everyone. However, none of his relatives has the surname Paperino: some relatives have no known surname or a different surname, and the "rare" relatives in the family tree (Quackmore, Della etc. ) keep their original surname. Yes, it means that Donald has a different surname from his father and sister, even though it doesn't make sense. Plus, in the family tree, "the Duck family" is translated as "la famiglia Duck", while in the family photo from "Life and Times" part 10, "the Duck family" is translated as "la famiglia Paperi"; in Barks' "Race to the South Seas" the line "you Ducks" became "voi Paperini".
Here is the Italian version of the family tree as originally drawn by Rosa:
And here is the scene of "Life and Times" part 11 in which we are introduced to Della and Donald (the latter referred to as Paolino):
I see. It's a weird mishmash though, even with the characters just invented for the tree: Lulubelle Loon remains but Luke Goose doesn't, for example. And since they "remembered" Donald's Italian first name, why didn't they just roll with it and name the family Paperino instead of Duck? And then name Quackmore Pietro Paperino and Della Pasqualina Paperino or whatever. I see Cornelius Coot was always called that, though.
And since they "remembered" Donald's Italian first name, why didn't they just roll with it and name the family Paperino instead of Duck?
I don't know why they did that, I guess that the name Paperino is so strongly associated with Donald that it would have sounded "wrong" to have Della named "Della Paperino" or Fethry named "Paperoga Paperino".
And then name Quackmore Pietro Paperino and Della Pasqualina Paperino or whatever. I see Cornelius Coot was always called that, though.
While I don't like characters having different surnames compared to their sibiling or father, I like the fact that many first names like Quackmore, Della etc. were not changed.
Anyway, Della was known as Anitra in the first Italian translation of the Taliaferro Sunday page that introduces HDL, but later translations of the same Sunday page kept the name Della, which was also used in Rota's "From Egg to Duck" (1984).
Cornelius Coot was called with his original name in Italy even before they started translating Rosa's stories and family tree, though in the past he had been called Cornelio Ermogene, Cornelius Babn, Cornelio Virgola, Cornelio Coot and Cornelius Paper.
Feel free to ask other questions about translations of character names in Italian.
Last Edit: Mar 3, 2017 15:26:42 GMT by drakeborough
I see. It's a weird mishmash though, even with the characters just invented for the tree: Lulubelle Loon remains but Luke Goose doesn't, for example.
Because the literal translation of Luke Goose can be given as Luca L'Oca or Luca dell'Oca, which by chance makes a perfect rhyme (even more than a rhyme, almost a tongue-twister). How could the translator of the tree not to notice and exploit this funny causality!
And since they "remembered" Donald's Italian first name, why didn't they just roll with it and name the family Paperino instead of Duck?
I don't know why they did that, I guess that the name Paperino is so strongly associated with Donald that it would have sounded "wrong" to have Della named "Della Paperino" or Fethry named "Paperoga Paperino".
Yes, exactly, the usual problem: Paperino was originally a surname, but since almost the very beginning was used as a first name. Actually, to give some sense to the situation one could consider Donald to have two first names, like if he was some Paolino Paperino Duck. But clearly the translator of Rosa's tree did not do that.
In the end it is not a problem: you should realize that every Italian person (even people not interest in Disney stuff) perfectly knows that Paperino's real name is Donald Duck. So we subconsciously accept that he is also someMr. Duck. (Same goes for Topolino: we do not fall from our chair if we see him receiving a letter addressed to "Mr. Mouse".) I hope I was able to give you non-Italians the idea.
Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Mar 4, 2017 20:25:57 GMT
I see.
Interestingly, for a while, it was sort of the other way around: for us, 'Donald' had become the last name. People would clal Donald 'Mr Donald', and no one knew his family name was Duck. Grandma Duck was called 'Grandmother Donald', and the McDuck Clan became the McDonald family. However, all this has since changed.
Occasionally, though, there's also a slip-up where they keep the English name for no reason; for instance, a couple of stories referred to Cornelius Coot as Cornelius Coot rather than 'Cornélius Ecoutum', his established French name. Even more bafflingly, The Heirloom Watch's current official French title is La Montre des McDuck (The McDucks' Watch), when Scrooge McDuck is almost universally called Balthazar Picsou and his clan, the Clan McPicsou.
Post by Monkey_Feyerabend on Mar 4, 2017 20:29:51 GMT
Yeah, well, I know. I still remember that sense of weirdness when starting reading stories in French a few years ago. The first time I read about "grandmère Donald" my mind blew up. The French translators were criminals back in the days! What about "Mickeyville" and "Donaldville"?
On the other side, the French guy who translated captain MacPaperin (Donald's medieval Scottish ancestor created by Rota) as MacDanold is a genius. He/she should be given an Eisner Award, or something.
Yeah, well, I know. I still remember that sense of weirdness when starting reading stories in French a few years ago. The first time I read about "grandmère Donald" my mind blew up. The French translators were criminals back in the days! What about "Mickeyville" and "Donaldville"?
There's little excuse for 'Mickeyville', but within the same context where the 'Duck' in 'Grandma Duck' becomes 'Donald', I suppose it made sense to also translate the 'Duck' in 'Duckburg' to Donald. In a sort of roundabout way.