Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
bouches indiscrètes
English translation:
loose tongues
Added to glossary by
Helene Tammik
May 14, 2017 15:23
7 yrs ago
French term
United Kingdom
bouches indiscrètes
French to English
Other
Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc.
Document about research into oral tradition with regards to slavery
De nombreuses révoltes et attaques des populations eurent lieu contre les Faber et les Lightburn, selon des « bouches indiscrètes ». C’est pourquoi, il reste beaucoup à découvrir en faisant « l’archéologie des bouches ».
De nombreuses révoltes et attaques des populations eurent lieu contre les Faber et les Lightburn, selon des « bouches indiscrètes ». C’est pourquoi, il reste beaucoup à découvrir en faisant « l’archéologie des bouches ».
Proposed translations
(English)
| 3 +3 | loose tongues |
Helene Tammik
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| 4 +5 | rumour |
Charles Davis
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| 4 +4 | wagging tongues |
Andrew Bramhall
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| 4 | grapevine |
Jennifer Levey
|
Change log
May 15, 2017 02:01: Yolanda Broad changed "Term asked" from "les bouches indiscretes" to "bouches indiscrètes"
May 19, 2017 08:35: Helene Tammik Created KOG entry
Proposed translations
+3
3 mins
Helene Tammik
Native in English
Une belle plume - en anglais
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, Swedish to English
Related KudoZ points
:
8
French term (edited):
les bouches indiscretes
Selected
loose tongues
This is what comes to mind as a translation of the term, but not sure how that could be tied in to 'l'archaeologie des bouches' - something about archaeology of what was said/what was reported/wagging tongues?
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+4
15 mins
Andrew Bramhall
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
United Kingdom
Flair and accuracy tailored to your text
Native in: English 
Works in: Spanish to English, German to English
French term (edited):
les bouches indiscretes
wagging tongues
'wagging' conveys the notion of indiscretion, or talking out of turn;
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Tony M
4 mins
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Thanks Tony;
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| agree |
Verginia Ophof
9 hrs
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Thanks!
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| agree |
Yolanda Broad
10 hrs
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Thanks!
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| agree |
B D Finch
1 day 18 hrs
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Thanks!
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+5
9 hrs
French term (edited):
les bouches indiscretes
rumour
I would like to suggest a different approach here. "Wagging tongues" or "loose tongues" seem to me accurate translations of "bouches indiscrètes" in isolation, but in your context I think they sound a bit strange, and although "rumour" is freer I think it might work better. It is essentially the same idea. You could say "according to rumour", or work it in in others ways: "Rumour had it that...", "were rumoured to have taken place...". An advantage of this, I think, is that it provides a workable solution for "l'archéologie des bouches", retaining the same term, which is desirable; this expression is difficult to render convincingly with "tongues", but "archaeology of rumour" could work quite well, I think.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Tony M
3 hrs
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Thanks, Tony!
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| agree |
Sheila Wilson
7 hrs
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Thanks, Sheila :)
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| agree |
Philippa Smith
: Yes, I think you need rumour to be able to tackle both uses of the "bouches"; maybe something like "investigating/digging into" for "archéologie"? And actually maybe combining rumour and loose tongues could work...over to the discussion.
9 hrs
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Thanks, Philippa. Your suggestions for "archéologie" are probably wise. Lately I've been translating the kind of authors who would be quite capable of referring to "an archaeology of rumour"; one loses touch with how normal people express themselves :)
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| neutral |
Daryo
: agree with your approach, but you ended up equating "oral tradition" with "rumours" ...
10 hrs
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Not all oral tradition, just indiscreet talk. I take "bouches" to be referring to the same kind of oral tradition in the second sentence as in the first.
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| agree |
philgoddard
: Good idea.
12 hrs
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Thanks very much, Phil
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| agree |
Mair A-W (PhD)
: or gossip
13 hrs
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That could be an alternative. Thanks!
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| neutral |
B D Finch
: Rumours are often untrue, while the utterances of "bouches indiscrètes" probably are true.
1 day 9 hrs
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The implications are potentially slightly different, but I think that in practice the difference is insignificant here
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22 hrs
Jennifer Levey
Chile
Chile
Native in English
Chile
Human-scale Globalization
Native in: English (Variant: British)
Works in: Spanish to English, French to English, English to Spanish, and 2 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
16
grapevine
"rumour" as suggested by Charles is good, but I venture to suggest that "grapevine" is a trifle closer to the ST author's intent, which I see as being the "deliberate spreading of supposedly factual information" as distinct from the "random spreading of unverified information", and is perhaps slightly more amenable to archeological study.
Discussion
The reason behind my question is that as your term appears in question marks, I am thinking that it may be, well, a quotation, or something close. It may actually be a recognised expression used by Faber, Lightburn or one of their contemporaries. If so, then searches can be carried out with that in mind. It may even be an EN original expression that has been translated, in which case, that is the term to be used.
Your question is a little tricky because of the two different ways "bouches" is used. I'm thinking a good solution might be to combine the suggestions, e.g. "according to the rumours conveyed by loose/wagging tongues".
The Faber and Lightburn families were major slave traders in West Africa.