Localisation of bird sounds in the German and English versions of Lars Svensson's Swedish ornithological field guide Fågelguiden

Abstract

It is often argued that localisation is exclusively used for software development in the computer industry. This study has, however, tested the application of the concept of localisation in a new area, in the bird sound descriptions of an ornithological field guide. The analysis is based on the content of bird sound descriptions in three versions of the revised second edition of the ornithological field guide Fågelguiden, the original in Swedish and the German and English translations. The main focus lies on the Swedish original and the German translation, Der neue Kosmos Vogelführer, while the English version, Collins Bird Guide, is used as an additional reference to check features of localisation. Besides 'normal' text, the bird profiles make use of transcriptions of bird sounds, analogies and mnemonics to describe bird vocalisation. The quality of these features, i.e. the degree of localisation, is analysed based on concepts related to onomatopoeia and phonetics and based on concepts of Translation Studies related to cultural transfer. Based on this analysis linguistic, cultural and content issues as well as technical aspects that are typical for localisation can be identified, such as the English text as intermediate, strategies to culturally adapt the text, rearrangement of text, or partial localisation. The study provides an example for the applicability of localisation in an area other than software and a pioneer approach for dealing with the translation of bird vocalisation by applying localisation criteria.