Lexical and grammatical traits of Altai translations of A. Chekhov's ward No. 6

The article offers a review of two Altai translations of A. Chekhov’s Ward No. 6 made in different years. The first translation was published in 1959, in an anthology of Chekov’s short stories Куучындар edited by a then-beginning Altai writer and poet L. V. Kokyshev. The translator was not named. The second translator (2014) S. S. Torbokov (Tokshyn Torbokov) is a writer and a journalist, as well as the only professional translator in Altai. His translation is based on the earlier one; however, he reworked the earlier version taking into account the modern state of the literary Altai language. We analyze the two translations to show some lexical and grammatical shifts that have occurred in the Alta language during the last 55 years. We study the means of expression of new concepts, as well as ideas not typical for Altai culture. We reveal that the abstract concepts and facts of Russian life in XIX century, as well as words related to spiritual culture, provide the greatest difficulties in translation, which is explained by differences in cultural and religious traditions. To convey the meaning of these words, translators use the following means: 1) preservation of Russian words in adapted or non-adapted forms; 2) selection of appropriate Altai equivalents; 3) creation of new words on the basis of existent linguistic means; 4) omission of problematic lexemes. Translators also used lexical addition, generalization, calques, changes in grammatical and syntactic structures, etc. Some difficulties were caused by certain types of syntactic relations that haven’t yet been assimilated by the Altai language (for example, relations with the meaning of correspondence expressed by complex sentences with ‘чем … тем’ in Russian). Both translations tried to preserve the original traits of the text. The 1959 translation is characterized by preservation of Russian words, often in non-adapted forms, preservation of Russian syntactic constructions not typical for the Altai language, which sometimes make the text sound artificial and hard to understand for the Altai readers. The 2014 translation is more suited to the needs of Altai readers. It shows the translator’s creative work and his striving to express as much as possible by the means of his native language.