Revision as of 10:35, 13 September 2007

Guidelines for Formatting Translations of LRO

Footnotes

From Charles Girard

1. Footnotes: there are 3 series of footnotes in the French:

(1) critical apparatus notes (a, b, c...)

(2) your humble editor’s notes: explanations, identifications, cross references. (1, 2, 3...)

(3) the letter writer’s own marginal notes or footnotes (#, *, +, or whatever he uses).

Because most word-processing programs can deal with only one set of footnotes (and not the 3 sets admitted by NotaBene), I offer these suggestions as to how to deal with these various notes:

(1) the apparatus notes are part of the French, a critical edition; they do not have a place in a translation and so should not be incorporated into the English translation. (Simply omit them.)

(2) the footnotes of explanation, identification, cross references, etc. remain valid in the translation, and so should be kept (as footnotes).

(3) for the letter writer’s own notes – most of which are not too long, 10 lines or less – I suggest that they be incorporated into the text in this way: (a) use curley brackets {} at the beginning and end; (b) put the sign which appears in the French text, such as #, *, + (superscripted and in bold); (c) next, write [author’s note] (words in italics, within square brackets); (d) the translation of the letter writer’s note; (e) thewhole could be set in a type size one point smaller than the regular text. (Only Bataillon on Wallis Island has some very long footnotes: Be inventive.)

2. Spelling of names: (a) Accents: If possible, generally retain the accents found in the French; although Épalle might be spelled Epalle and Élie-Régis might be Elie-Regis, names like Aimé, Macé and Françon would look funny (strange) if spelled Aime, Mace and Francon.

The breve accent (ă ŏ ŭ) used by Pezant for many Māori words/names (e.g. Tŏngăpŏrŭtu) might be omitted, but I leave this question to the Māori experts among the translators.

(b) Consistency in spelling of names: Sometimes, a writer will spell a name the way he hears it (e.g. Rosée for Rozet, Dubreuil for Dubreul). It would probably be better for the English translation to use the standard form (see list in vol. 10, pp. 19-21, "Noms des missionnaires").

Please note (and retain) the hyphen in names such as Petit-Jean and Elie-Regis.

For New Zealand Māori proper names, it might be well to use the accepted spelling throughout: some of our letter writers write "Wangaroa" for Whangaroa. The latter should perhaps be used throughout.

3. Capitalization: Follow English-language rules (different from the French). For example, Bay of Islands for Baie des îles. Capitalize proper adjectives (where French has lower case): English missionaries for missionnaires anglais.

4. Other problems may surface, and I will be happy to answer translators’ questions as they arise.

5. Nineteenth-century idiomatic expressions may be difficult to translate; I will try to help if you ask.

I can be reached by e-mail at this address: othenin@comcast.net

Charley (Charles Girard, SM)

To learn how to put footnotes in a letter read the Editing help page

Paragraph Numbering

[1] Number paragraphs of the original document with square brackets

[2] Like this. With two returns before the number