Translation Strategies for 18th–Century Kalmyk Official Texts: a Case Study of Khan Ayuka’s Letters and Russian Translations of 1714

Among the scientific publications that research the features of the language of Kalmyk business letters and their translations, there are currently no works that analyze in detail the principles and strategies for translating Kalmyk business texts. The purpose of this article is to identify the main strategies for translating official letters of Khan Ayuka from Kalmyk language into Russian. Materials and methods. This work was based on material from the letters of the Kalmyk Khan Ayuka of 1714 and Russian translations of these letters, also dated 1714. All materials are preserved in the National Archives of the Republic of Kalmykia. Transliteration, transcription into modern Kalmyk graphics and literal translation of the original texts into Russian were made by D. B. Gedeeva. Both synchronous and diachronic translations are used to identify translation strategies. The main research methods are descriptive, contextual analysis method, and comparative method. Results and conclusions. A comparison of the original and translated texts of Ayuka Khan letters shows that in Russian translations kept the general structure and content components of the original letter, genre and style features of the original text, although the texts of the translations are not verbatim. Authors of translations adhere to the strategy of transferring essential information while preserving the semantic message dominants, Russian translations are characterized by substitutions and repetitions of lexical units, a lexical addendum reflecting the extra-linguistic features of the communicative situation. Russian translations of letters from Khan Ayuka are made in compliance with the rules for processing business documents that were formed by the beginning of the 18th century.

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