From Orality to Textuality: A Linguistic Analysis of Moroccan Folktales Translated into English

Translation approaches based on equivalence perceive the source text as a written set of materials characterized by textual features. Their main aim is to convey the linguistic and cultural aspects of the source text to target readers. However, these approaches are challenged when translating orality since translators tend to textualize the oral source material. In this context, the translation process goes beyond the realization of equivalence between source and target texts, but tends to recreate the narrative, cultural, and performative aspects of orality. This article investigates the transmission from orality to textuality through a stylistic analysis of the Moroccan folktale: “ The Pomegranate and the Talking Drum ,” translated into English by Richard Hamilton. The article aims to explore how the translator textualizes the folktale by means of the linguistic means of the target language. Therefore, the article conducts a stylistic analysis of the translated folktale to demonstrate how the narrative, cultural, and performative aspects are recreated within the translation. The analysis shows that Hamilton uses different stylistic strategies to recreate these aspects. At the graphological level, he uses punctuation and paragraphing to reconstruct the narrative structure of the folktale. At the phonological level, he incorporates devices such as assonance and alliteration to recreate musicality within the folktale. Additionally, the translator introduces a set of lexical fields that contextualize the folktale within the Moroccan context. The study informs that the translation of orality involves rewriting and textual reconstruction to evoke the narrative, cultural, and performative aspects in the target text.