Challenges of Translating Cultural Expressions in Teaching Kiswahili to Foreigners (original) (raw)
Related papers
2015
Some proverbs, idioms, nominal compounds, and slogans duplicate in form and meaning between several languages. An example of these between German and English is Liebe auf den ersten Blick and “love at first sight” (Flippo, 2009), whereas, an example between Kiswahili and English is uchaguzi ulio huru na haki and “free and fair election.” Duplication of these strings of words between languages that are as different in descent and typology as Kiswahili and English is irregular. On this ground, Kiswahili academies and a number of experts of Kiswahili assumed – prior to the present study – that the Kiswahili versions of the expressions are the derivatives from their English congruent counterparts. The assumption nonetheless lacked empirical evidence and also discounted other potential causes of the phenomenon, i.e. analogical extension, nativism and cognitive metaphoricalization (Makkai, 1972; Land, 1974; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980b; Ruhlen, 1987; Lakoff, 1987; Gleitman and Newport, 1995). Out of this background, we assumed an academic obligation of empirically investigating what causes this formal and semantic duplication of strings of words (multiword expressions) between English and Kiswahili to a degree beyond chance expectations. In this endeavour, we employed checklist to 24, interview to 43, online questionnaire to 102, translation test to 47 and translationality test to 8 respondents. Online questionnaire respondents were from 21 regions of Tanzania, whereas, those of the rest of the tools were from Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Pwani, Lindi, Dodoma and Kigoma. Complementarily, we analysed the Chemnitz Corpus of Swahili (CCS), the Helsinki Swahili Corpus (HSC), and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) for clues on the sources and trends of expressions exhibiting this characteristic between Kiswahili and English. Furthermore, we reviewed the Bible, dictionaries, encyclopaedia, books, articles, expressions lists, wikis, and phrase books in pursuit of etymologies, and histories of concepts underlying the focus expressions. Our analysis shows that most of the Kiswahili versions of the focus expressions are the function of loan translation and rendition from English. We found that economic, political and technological changes, mostly induced by liberalization policy of the 1990s in Tanzania, created lexical gaps in Kiswahili that needed to be filled. We discovered that Kiswahili, among other means, fill such gaps through loan translation and loan rendition of English phrases. Prototypical examples of notions whose English labels Kiswahili has translated word for word are such as “human rights”, “free and fair election”, “the World Cup” and “multiparty democracy”. We can conclude that Kiswahili finds it easier and economical to translate the existing English labels for imported notions rather than innovating original labels for the concepts. Even so, our analysis revealed that a few of the Kiswahili duplicate multiword expressions might be a function of nativism, cognitive metaphoricalization and analogy phenomena. We, for instance, observed that formulation of figurative meanings follow more or less similar pattern across human languages – the secondary meanings deriving from source domains. As long as the source domains are common in many human\'s environment, we found it plausible for certain multiword expressions to spontaneously duplicate between several human languages. Academically, our study has demonstrated how multiword expressions, which duplicate between several languages, can be studied using primary data, corpora, documentary review and observation. In particular, the study has designed a framework for studying sources of the expressions and even terminologies for describing the phenomenon. What\'s more, the study has collected a number of expressions that duplicate between Kiswahili and English languages, which other researchers can use in similar studies
Douglas Ondara Orang'i, 2020
Underpinned by the premise that any text can be studied as a translation provided it is identified as such, this study theoretically uses Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) to investigate English-Swahili healthcare texts. The aim of the study was to: identify, describe and analyse linguistic and cultural aspects in the texts; identify, describe, and analyse translation strategies used in the texts; and describe and analyse the use of illustrations in the texts. The study made use of Kruger and Wallmach’s (1997) analytical framework. The Tertium Comparationis of the study was descriptive terms, cohesive devices, translation strategies, division of texts, illustrations, text titles, and taboo words. On the linguistic aspects, the study’s main findings were: that the English texts use more descriptive terms than the Swahili texts; Swahili texts have a higher frequency use of references because it contains a number of derivational and inflectional morphemes; substitution is sparingly used whereas ellipsis is almost non-existent in Swahili texts in spite of its presence in the source texts; additive and causal conjunctions were the most prevalent in the texts; and inasmuch as there were no significant differences in the use of lexical cohesion in the ST and TT, Swahili texts were found to be more cohesive due to the slightly higher number of lexical items. Regarding the cultural aspects, it was found that translators use euphemism in the translation of words considered taboo and this informed the conclusion that there reigns the euphemism norm in Swahili texts. It equally emerged that strategies used to overcome non-lexicalisation include: use of pure loan words, use of pure loan words preceded by explanation, use of indigenised loan words, use of omission and translation by a more general word. On the other hand, translators used strategies of substitution, use of general words, paraphrasing and cultural substitution to translate words considered taboo. In addition, the study found that illustrations are used in more or less the same way both in the ST and TT save for some slight modifications that are done in order to align them with the target culture expectations. Furthermore, the study theoretically effectuated four norms: explicitation norm, explicitness norm, euphemism norm, and illustration norm.
Developing Bantu Language Descriptions in Swahili
Tanzania's 1997 language and culture policy makes it possible to use minority languages, potentially even in education. A necessary step for producing educational material in these languages is their linguistic description. So far, such descriptions have been written using European languages, thus making them inaccessible to most Tanzanians. Previous research has shown, however, that "one of the most important considerations in the success or failure of bilingual programmes is the extent to which marginal language communities participate in the design and implementation of their own language provisions" (Stroud 2001:339). In this paper, a project will be introduced which aims at developing linguistic descriptions of Tanzanian languages in Swahili, thus both laying the foundation for education in minority languages and strengthening Swahili as language of academic research. Achievements so far include a template covering the main grammatical features, the teaching of this template to and data elicitation by speakers of ten Tanzanian languages (April 2004), and draft write-ups of the data (until March 2005). In particular, the paper will discuss problems of transferring linguistic terminology into Swahili, of introducing the template into the workshop setting, and of integrating the elicited data into a publication. The paper concludes with an outlook on future activities.
The Role of Indigenous Languages in Understanding
2016
This paper endeavours to show how Kiswahili students can be able to conceptualize and understand the uses and meanings of proverbs by drawing on the similarities of the meanings and uses of the proverbs found in their indigenous languages. An indigenous language carries a person‟s identity and world view. The world view is formed by the norms, culture and beliefs associated with the language. In Kenya the official languages are English and Kiswahili, with Kiswahili carrying a second function of a national language. Together with English, Kiswahili is a compulsory examinable subject in primary and secondary schools in spite of its being an indigenous language only to a small percentage of the population. Most of the students learn it as a second or third language. Part of the Kiswahili syllabus entails learning aspects associated with Kiswahili culture. One of these entails the uses and meanings of proverbs. Students learning Kiswahili as a second language often have difficulties und...
2016
Tuia te rangi e tū nei! Tuia te papa e takoto nei! Tuia rātou kua wehea atu ki te Pō-uriuri; te Pō-tangotango; te Pō i oti atu-He kura i tangihia; he maimai aroha Nā te Kīngi Māori Te takahi nei i te nuku o te whenua E ea ai te karangatanga, ko ia te Pouaru o Mate. Rātou ki a rātou; tātou te hunga ora ki a tātou There are so many people to acknowledge, these mihi could almost be another chapter in the thesis! The processes of beginning, of following through, and of ending in this research project owe more than words can express to the tenacity, fortitude, patience, and understanding of the Supervisory Panel of Associate Professor Dr. Winfred Crombie and Dr. Hēmi Whaanga. Winnie, Hēmi, along with our colleague from the Linguistics Department, Dr. Diane Johnson, without you this thesis could have floated as a castle-in-the-sky in need of landing gear. Thank you for providing the right impetus, at the right times, in the right places. Kei te whāia te ara o Tāwhaki-following the pathway of Tāwhaki (in pursuit of the Baskets of Knowledge). Many thanks to staff of the University of Waikato and the School of Māori and Pacific Development in particular. Academic and general staff colleagues and students all showed forbearance, provided assistance, gave space, physically and otherwise, contributing to the shape the thesis finally took. In particular, I would like to thank the student participants who gave willingly of their time, especially by contributing to the Two-Day Workshop. Their involvement was critical. I would like to acknowledge, with sincere gratitude, receipt of a Postgraduate Research excellence Award from the School of Māori and Pacific Development and a Doctoral Scholarship from the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Lands Trust. Nā te huruhuru te manu ka rere-.with feathers the bird is able to fly.-iv-Those from the wider community who commissioned translations and through that commissioning gave an opportunity for the further testing of the thesis, I thank you, along with those who assisted in those translations: Jon Lindseth and
Influences of English and Kiswahili on Kibena Meaning Extension Through Language Contact
2018
Language contact deals with how and why different languages came into contact and its effects on each language. This article presents the influences of language contact and meaning extensions in Kibena. It further explains how Kibena creates words with new meanings as a way of filling up the semantic gap in their language. The study employed qualitative research approach of data collection and analysis. The descriptive research design was employed for the sake of explaining how Kibena words have extended its meaning during language contact. The interview method was used to collect data from Kibena native speakers. The study consisted of fifty Bena native speakers and twenty five texts book written in Kibena. The results show that English and Kiswahili being in contact with Kibena have made Kibena to expand its word's meanings during contact. Bena has managed to create homonym and polysemy for the meanings of words which do not exist in Kibena instead of depending on semantic borrowing from English and Kiswahil.The findings also show that the Bena native speakers were innovative and creative on using their knowledge and environment to conceptualize new meaning so as to relate with meaning used in the language which they are in contact with rather than basing only on semantic loans during interaction in different aspect. Furthermore, it is recommended that further study should be done on the role of phonological process on meaning extension or narrowing during Kibena contact with English and Kiswahili.
A PRAGMATIC TREATMENT OF BUKAVU MEDIA KISWAHILI by Muzigirwa Munganga Bonaventure
This paper is an attempt at Discourse Analysis of a Kiswahili discourse. It aims at analyzing the discourse from a pragmatic approach and focuses on the study of pragmatic notions such as reference, presupposition, implicature, and inference. Résumé: Cet article est un essaie de faire l'analyse d'un discours en Kiswahili. Il cherche à analyser le discours dans l'approche pragmatique et met exergue les notions pragmatiques telles que la référence, la présupposition, l'implicature, et l'inférence.
KELVIN D TOBIAS , 2014
As students, from our innermost feelings we thank our almighty God for his joy and grace of being with us since the beginning of our studies up to date where we are graduating in our degree program. We would like to appreciate spiritual and financial support from our parents since we started our studies up to now. May Almighty God bless them and give them long life. Furthermore, we would like to recognize and appreciate our supervisor Mr. Mpalanzi, Jacob Stephan, for his academic support to us since we started working for research proposal and report writing. Fairly, he used his golden time in advising us concerning our study. For real he made us competent in this field of research. We would like to thank Regional Administrative Officer of Iringa and Iringa Municipality for giving us permission to collect data concerning our study in schools. We also thank the Head Teachers, English Language Teachers and their pupils from these primary schools; Ngome, Tumaini, Mkimbizi and Highland also parents for their positive contribution to our study as they made us to obtain concrete data to produce this report. Additionally, we thank the University of Iringa members especially Department of Education for their advices to us. Also we thank our sister in law Mama John Chacha (Kichere’s wife), our maids Anna and Ivon Mweya for their delicious meals they prepared for us all the time when preparing this report.