TRANSLATION FEATURES OF CHINESE LANGUAGE GAMES PROPER NAMES AND REALITIES INTO THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

Abstract

Ukrainian localization when translating games takes place only in a small part of currently popular games on the market, and mainly in the form of subtitles. The currently available Ukrainian-language translations from the Chinese language are mainly performed by volunteer amateurs on their own initiative and usually through the English language. Therefore, the problem of direct professional translation of Chinese-language games is urgent. The article considers the problem of translation transformations when translating proper names and realities, specific items in the process of localization of the mobile game Wild Frontier for Android / iOS users from the Chinese developer company «37games». The translation had specific technical and stylistic requirements for the translation of the names and item names of the internal texts of the game Wild Frontier from the developer. When translating the internal narratives of video games, the most difficult task is to reproduce the game of words and fixed expressions, to identify cultural markers, to accurately convey emotional connotations, to reproduce the accent, to translate neologisms, names of objects, proper names, etc. We should also not forget about differences in linguistic and cultural concepts, such as colors and images at the national level. When translating subject names, we used many lexical transformations, including literal translation, modulation, omission + specification, omission, modulation + specification, contextual substitution. A total of 256 subject names were translated. Modulation, modulation + concretization, and omission + concretization account for the largest share. Of course, this is due to the need to shorten the translation text, specify it as much as possible, so as not to exceed the allowed number of characters. When translating the names of the characters, the most effective was the mixed transformation by transcription and tracing, while the transcription method was found much less often. That is, the strategy of domestication is dominant. This trend can be explained by the fact that the developer from the beginning planned to promote the game on the international market, therefore significantly limited the number of specific images and figures that are understandable only to the Chinese recipient.