ABSTRACT
While legal translation studies have traditionally focused on the challenging incongruities between the source and target languages and legal systems, the search for communicative adequacy in translation decision-making often also involves comparative analysis of legal concepts of national systems that share the same language. This chapter examines intralingual variation and intralingual interactions between national and international legal orders, and the extent to which forms of intralingual transfer are involved in legal and institutional translation into “pluricentric languages” or languages that are official in multiple national legal systems. First, several instances of intralingual jurisdictional variation and transfer are presented, including compromise building in the translation of international legal texts into pluricentric languages. The chapter then reviews other scenarios of intralingual translation primarily associated with time and knowledge variations, including intralingual adaptations to diachronic changes and specific target group needs within a jurisdiction. Finally, the implications of intralingual variation are discussed in connection with pluricentric languages, and the increasing relevance of intralingual rewordings is highlighted in the context of promoting accessibility to the law more broadly.
