THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
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TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: A CASE
STUDY OF ENGLISH-UZBEK ADAPTATIONS
Abdulkhaeva Nodirabegim
Nordic International University
Teacher of Foreign languages department
Email: abdulxayevabegum@gmail.com
Tel: +998995343118
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9988-9626
Toshkent, Uzbekistan
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16742698
Abstract
. This thesis explores the unique challenges and strategies
involved in translating English children's literature into Uzbek. Focusing on two
popular titles —
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
and
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What
Do You See?
— it examines how tone, rhythm, and cultural elements are
preserved or adapted during the translation process. The study uses a
qualitative, analytical approach to identify methods such as adaptation,
substitution, and domestication. Findings suggest that successful translations for
children require not only linguistic accuracy but also cultural sensitivity and
creative flexibility to engage young readers effectively.
Key Words
. Children’s literature, translation strategies, English-Uzbek
translation,
adaptation,
rhythm,
cultural
equivalence,
bilingualism,
domestication, tone.
Children’s books are important in the development of language in the early
years, in fostering imagination and in understanding emotions. For young minds,
stories are not just entertainment — they are often the first introduction to
language, culture, and values. Translating those texts into other languages is not
merely a linguistic exercise; it involves cultural adaptation, and it has to be done
with sensitivity, creativity, and skill.
As an English teacher and the mother of a bilingual child, I have come to
know the importance of supplying children with good, engaging reading
materials in both languages. When in the process of searching for good Uzbek
versions of popular English-language children’s books, I found that such books
were either nonexistent or sorely lacking in the wise humor and the tender
rhythmic flow of the original. This led me to thinking about the difficulties and
techniques of translation in the field of children's literature.
Translating for children is very different from translating for adults.
Children’s books tend to incorporate rhyme, rhythm, wordplay, sound
symbolism, and references to culture — elements that don’t translate easily
THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
84
from one language to another without the reader losing some sparkle of the
story. On the other hand, young readers often struggle to understand cultural
content as well as a beginner, and this puts even more pressure on the translator
to create an accessible and fun text.
This thesis examines the translation of English children’s literature into
Uzbek by examining a few selected texts and by highlighting the translation
techniques used by translators. The focus is on questions about when, how, and
at what cost is meaning, style, and tone maintained or transformed in the
process, and how these decisions influence the textures and the impact of a
translated text.
Translation has moved from a monolingual comparative methodology,
where the source text was seen as superior to owned by the target culture,
towards a more multilayered and multidirectional process, which involved
elements of the source language, but also its culture, ideology, and function. No
doubt, literal and word-for-word translation predominated in earlier models.
Some late-20th-century scholars (Venuti, 2012; Nord, as cited in Oittinen, 2000;
House, as cited in Oittinen, 2000) point to function, audience, and cultural
equivalence as being essential considerations in children’s literature. According
to Reiss and Vermeer’s Skopos Theory (as cited in Oittinen, 2000) the purpose
or aim of a translation determines the translator’s method. In children’s lit, the
aim is to entertain, educate, and tug at heartstrings — not just to provide
information.
Translation in children’s literature is considered a type of translation which
has its unique issues due to:
•
Straightforward language that frequently holds powerful emotional or
symbolic significance
•
Rhyming lines, rhythm, and wordplay are difficult to maintain
•
Onomatopoeia, phonetic terms, and letter change (incl. animal sounds,
baby talk).
•
Culturally ingrained features—food, holidays, jokes, values
As Oittinen (2000) states that translation for children is a creative act —
more a form of rewriting than strict translation. The translator has to remake as
much as they convey.
As discussed by Klingberg, Shavit, and Lathey (as cited in Oittinen, 2000),
Children’s literature strategies including:
•
Adaptation: Altering names, places, or cultural references to make them
more accessible
THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
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•
Omission: What is difficult and/or untranslatable is omitted.
•
Substitution: The words and things are changed into something that is the
same a culturally specific notion or item
•
Explanation: Footnotes or in-text clarification
The paper adopts a qualitative, descriptive, contrastive, and analytical
method in studying the translation of English children’s literature into Uzbek.
Instead of limiting itself to linguistic orientedness of the target language text, it
investigates how the translation decisions are made according to meaning, tone,
rhythm, culture, and other features targeted to the young Uzbek readership.
The case study approach enables a detailed look at selected texts and
provides an understanding of the translator’s decisions and the possible
influence on the child reader. Since no Uzbek translations are published yet, the
researcher supplies mock translations as a means to test the potential pseudo-
translation strategies. The analysis is relatively limited given the small number
of high-quality available published translations in the Uzbek context. The
findings, however, can potentially provide some useful information about what
is done and what is still left to be done in children’s literary translation in
Uzbekistan.
Selected examples from two popular English children’s books are analyzed
in this section:
1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle, 1994/1969)
2. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Martin & Carle,
1992/1967)
These books were chosen not only because they have a rhythmic format
and repetitive text but also because they are books that are directed at very
young children, and are therefore particularly difficult to translate.
Example 1: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Original: “On Monday he ate through one apple, but he was still hungry.”
Possible Uzbek translation: Dushanba kuni u bitta olmani yedi lekin u hanuz
och edi.
As a strategy, translation was literal with little adaptation. The structure
and term used by the translator are noted closely here. The repetition effect in
the story is maintained if “hanuz och edi” is used. Although the word “hanuz” is
formal, it could be taught to parents reading aloud. But something like “hali ham
och edi” would probably be more child-appropriate, as it could make it clearer
for the kids. This tension between translational formality and naturalness was
also found in our children’s translation.
THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
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Example 2: Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
Original: ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?”
Possible Uzbek Version: Jigarrang ayiq, jigarrang ayiq, nima ko’ryapsan?
The Uzbek version retains the repetition and rhythm of the original, which
is so essential for pleasing very young ears. The phrase “nima ko‘ryapsan?” is
colloquial and natural. The translator domesticates the rhythm but preserves
the function and emotional tone. This is holding on to sound patterns, not just
meaning — which is also key to texts for young children.
What the analysis demonstrates is that it is essential for children’s
literature to balance clarity, creativity, and culture. The spirit of the author gets
lost in the literal translation, particularly for rhythmic or poetic material. On the
other hand, excessive adaptation can rob the text of its exoticness. For the Uzbek
situation, translators often have an absence of a unicentric lexic-semantic
equivalent to some animal, or sound, or fantasy character. This is particularly
pertinent for descriptive substitution or creative invention.
This case study indicates that what’s pivotal in considering how to translate
for children is indeed not only meaning — not only playful meaning, that is —
but also tone and rhythm, and that a successful translation requires the
translator’s sensitivity to both linguistic systems of languages as well as to the
emotional world of the audience. The translation of children’s literature involves
more than transferring one set of words from one language to another: It’s a
creative and cultural act of mediation.
This thesis analyzed the translation of annual children’s books, originally
written in English, into Uzbek, concentrating on the retention or distortion of
tone, rhythm, and cultural context in translation. After an examination of a few
passages, it emerged that for this type of text, a word-by-word translation is
scarcely ever enough. Rather, effective children’s literature translations often
depend on adaptation, substitution, domestication, and the judicious treatment
of sound and rhythm.
References
Byers-Heinlein, K., & Werker, J. F. (2009). Monolingual, bilingual, trilingual:
Infants’ language experience influences the development of a word-learning
heuristic.
Developmental
Science,
12(5),
815–823.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00902.x
Carle, E. (1994). The very hungry caterpillar. Philomel Books. (Original work
published 1969)
De Houwer, A. (2009). An introduction to bilingual development. Multilingual
Matters.
THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
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Genesee, F. (2006). Bilingual first language acquisition in perspective. In P.
McCardle & E. Hoff (Eds.), Childhood bilingualism: Research on infancy through
school age (pp. 45–67). Multilingual Matters.
Martin, B., Jr., & Carle, E. (1992). Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?
Henry Holt and Co. (Original work published 1967)
Oittinen, R. (2000). Translating for children. Garland Publishing.
Venuti, L. (2012). The translator’s invisibility: A history of translation (2nd ed.).
Routledge.
