Arabic Huck: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Vernacular Arabic

Abstract

This article focuses on the first translation of Mark Twain’s 1884 masterpiece, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , into vernacular Arabic and reflects briefly on a few translations of the novel into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. 1 My translation into vernacular Arabic, which is the first of its type in the Arab world, is an independent project I am currently undertaking. Titled Arabic Huck: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Vernacular Arabic (hereafter Arabic Huck ), it chooses to exclusively employ a colloquial regional dialect spoken in Damascus and the countryside surrounding the Syrian capital. 2 All previous Arabic translations of Twain’s novel, which started to appear in 1958 in Egypt, used Modern Standard Arabic (hereafter MSA) and Classical (Quranic) Arabic. The latter versions of Arabic can be used interchangeably nowadays despite slight and occasionally major differences between them in terms of syntax, spelling, punctuation, and pronunciation. While Classical Arabic originated from medieval dialects of Arabic tribes and was used in writing the Quran, MSA is the most widely used version of Arabic today. MSA is consistently used in all media outlets and publications and understood by all speakers and readers in Arabic-speaking countries. 3