Show / Season Blurb:
Taking place in a fictional world, an exiled heir to the Westeros throne (Daenerys Targaryen) is building an army in the hope of recapturing the throne from all of the multiple kings who are trying to claim the throne for themselves.
Translator/Interpreter Bio:
Character: Missandei
Played by: Nathalie Emmanuel
Plot function: Main Character (S3 onwards)
Character bio: Originally a slave who served as an interpreter to the masters of Astapor, Missandei is given to Daenerys Targaryen as a gift when she purchases the Unsullied army. Freed of her slavery, Missandei goes on to become Daenerys’ handmaiden and one of her closest advisors. As part of her Small Council in Meereen, she uses her linguistic and advisory skills to try to keep the peace in Daenerys’ absence. After peace is established in the Slaver’s Bay / Bay of Dragons, Missandei then sails with Daenerys to Westeros in order to reclaim the Iron Throne.
Languages:
Mother tongue: Unknown (likely a Low Valyrian variant or dialect)
Secondary languages: 19 languages in total, including High Valyrian (her favourite), the Low Valyrian dialect of Slaver’s Bay, Dothraki, the Common Tongue of Westeros, and the old language of the Ghiscari Empire.
Translation/Interpreting on Screen:
(1) Astapor – Lookout
Languages: the Common Tongue of Westeros and a Low Valerian dialect
Linguist: Missandei
Format: Consecutive interpreting
Setup: Face-to-face
Delegates: Kraznys mo Nakloz, Daenerys Targaryen and Jorah Mormont
[KGVID]http://www.translationonscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/GameOfThrones_Missandei_IntroductionToTheUnsullied_web.mp4[/KGVID]
(2) Astapor – Throne Room
Languages: the Common Tongue of Westeros and a Low Valerian dialect
Linguist: Missandei
Format: Consecutive interpreting
Setup: Face-to-face
Delegates: Kraznys mo Nakloz and Daenerys Targaryen
[KGVID]http://www.translationonscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/GameOfThrones_Missandei_Negotiation_web.mp4[/KGVID]
(3) Astapor – Entrance
Languages: the Common Tongue of Westeros and a Low Valerian dialect
Linguist: Missandei
Format: Consecutive interpreting
Setup: Face-to-face
Delegates: Kraznys mo Nakloz and Daenerys Targaryen
[KGVID]http://www.translationonscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/GameOfThrones_Missandei_CompletingTheExchange_web.mp4[/KGVID]
(4) Astapor – Street
Languages: the Common Tongue of Westeros and High Valerian
Linguist(s): Missandei & Daenerys Targaryen
Format: Translation of the proverb and greeting “Valar Morghulis”
[KGVID]http://www.translationonscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/GameOfThrones_Missandei_AllMenMustDie_web.mp4[/KGVID]
(5) Astapor – Entrance
Languages: the Common Tongue of Westeros and Old Ghiscari
Linguist: Missandei
Format: Translation of the word “Mhysa”
[KGVID]http://www.translationonscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/GameOfThrones_Missandei_Mother_web.mp4[/KGVID]
Accuracy of Interpreting Shown:
- Removing insults, paraphrasing and inserting extra information
Being a slave interpreter, Missandei has learned what is expected of her when interpreting for her masters. As such, she actively paraphrases and removes all insults spoken by the masters when interpreting their speech for Daenerys into the Common Tongue of Westeros. This is to aid the communication and negotiation, and prevent the potential buyer from being insulted. In addition, Missandei is instructed to explain to Daenerys anything that she wants to know about the Unsullied army – effectively upselling with whatever information she sees fit. In some instances, where the whole phrase from the masters is an insult, she instead provides further information that would be useful and relevant to the sales process.
…
While this practice is not a standard interpreting setup, it can be seen frequently in TV and film where the interpreter is being paid by one of the delegates (or is owned by one of the delegates, as in this case). In standard face-to-face interpreting in real life, even if one delegate has provided the interpreter and pays for them out of their own pocket, it would still be expected of them to relay all information that both delegates are saying, rather than paraphrasing or change the information being spoken.
- Different translations and understandings of “Valar Morghulis”
When being asked if she is comfortable with accompanying Daenerys into war, Missandei replies with the common greeting and proverb “Valar Morghulis”. Daenerys says the literal translation of the words, “all men must die”, and agrees with it. However, Daenerys then claims that “we are not men”, joking that males will die, but the two of them as women may yet survive.
…
This change of meaning for the common phrase uses the possibility of “men” meaning more than one thing in the Common Tongue of Westeros. It is not revealed whether “Valar” can be used to mean both “all men” as in “all humans / everyone” and also “all men” as in “all of the male sex”. As such, it is not known if this interpretation of the Valerian phrase into the Common Tongue of Westeros is completely accurate. The main purpose seems to be a half-joke though, to highlight how different Daenerys is from Missandei’s former (male) masters.
…
Different possible translations for a single word can present problems in real life interpreting assignments, as it may not always be clear which meaning of a source word is meant by a delegate. This joking encounter highlights the related real-world problem that interpreters and translations can regularly face.
Interpreting Challenges:
- Formality
While Missandei has to go above and beyond to paraphrase her masters’ phrases to suit the situation of a sales process, choosing a formality in the Common Tongue of Westeros that would be expected in such a negotiation is a challenge that also exists in the real world.
…
Different languages may have a different standard formality for using in certain contexts, so an interpreter must always be aware that their translation is both correct in terms of content but also suited to the equivalent level of formality in the target language. Utilising the wrong formality in a target language could lead to confusion, feelings of disrespect or even misunderstandings. Even though the formality used in the source language may have been the standard formality for the given context (and would not cause any offense in a monolingual conversation in that source language), copying the formality and wording literally into another language should be conducted with caution.
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Gallery:
[KGVID gallery=”true” gallery_thumb=”150″]
Credits:
Release date: April 2013
Directed by: Daniel Minahan, Alex Graves, Michelle MacLaren, David Nutter, David Benioff and Alik Sakharov (Season 3)
Produced by: David Benioff, Bernadette Caulfield, Frank Doelger, Christopher Newman, Greg Spence, Carolyn Strauss, and D. B. Weiss
Written by: Written for Television by: David Benioff and D. B. Weiss (main), Bryan Cogman, Vanessa Taylor (based on the books by George R. R. Martin)
Production/Distribution: Television 360, Grok! Television, Generator Entertainment, Startling Television, Bighead Littlehead, Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Rent/buy this title: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Game-of-Thrones-Season-3/dp/B00IIFDY98
Translation on Screen 