Translation of "Alice in Wonderland"



Alice in a World of Wonderlands is the most extensive analysis ever done of the translations of one English language novel in so many languages. That novel is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, one of the most quoted books in the world. On October 4, 1866 Lewis Carroll wrote his publisher Macmillan stating "Friends here [in Oxford] seem to think that the book is untranslatable." But his friends were wrong, as this book shows with translations in 174 languages. The translations into nine different dialects of Scots language are, we believe, the most of any novel in any language. The book is also published in Mongolia, Lao, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. Editions exist in Maori of New Zealand and Pitjantjatjara, an Aboriginal language of Australia. Five Pacific Island languages are represented. There is even one in Brazilian Sign Language. The first translations were German and French in 1869, just a few years after the first English edition in 1865. Translations into virtually every European language followed including all six Celtic languages and six languages of Spain. The Indian sub-continent is represented by twelve languages and Africa by eight including Zulu, Seychelles Creole, and Swahili. There are translations in three Jewish languages and a                                                                number from the Middle East.

Comments