Star Wars Episode 4 To Be Dubbed In Navajo

New submitter Unixnoteunuchs writes "Coming to a theater in Window Rock in the Navajo Nation on July 4, 2013, Star Wars Episode 4 dubbed in the Navajo language. This is the first time a major motion picture has ever been dubbed in a native American language. This effort will help the Navajo nation preserve its cultural heritage in its language, a complex and beautiful Athabaskan tongue heavily reliant on adjectives and compound words. Listen to this article and how 'computer' and 'droid' would translate."

Comments

How about a Siouan language?

[T.E.D.]

It would be interesting to see it dubbed into a Siouan language, cheifly because Lucas' The Force is a nearly identical concept to their own Wakonda, which was the basis for most Siouan tribal religon. If anything, The Force translates better into Siouan languages than into English.

It is diflicult to formulate the native idea expressed in this word ... Wakonda that is the permeating life of visible nature -- an invisible life and power that reaches everywhere and everything and can be appealed to by man to send him help.

You quite often see this translated as "Great Spirit" or "Great Maker", and treated as if it was merely a quaint native term for the Judeo-Christian God.

Re:Preserve Cultural Heritage

[Joce640k]

The problem with translating (eg.) "R2" as "little white metal man who whistles" is that it takes much longer to say.

When you're dubbing a movie the dialog has to keep up with the action.

Re:Preserve Cultural Heritage

[Joce640k]

I live in Spain and see a lot of dubbed movies and sometimes the Spanish/English dialog is completely different.

It took me a while to figure out why, ie. because some Spanish translations have simply too many syllables to fit. When this happens they rewrite the dialog to fit.