E ISSN: 2583-049X
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International Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Research and Studies

Volume 2, Issue 1, 2022

Frequently used translation strategies to translate online news on COVID 19 from English into Bemba



Author(s): Chishiba G, Mutale C

Abstract:

During the process of translating documents from one language to another, trainee as well as professional translators generally encounter different linguistic and non-linguistic difficulties. This article highlights some of the strategies or techniques used by translators in order to effectively convey the message from the source language to the target language in spite of the constraints. In the last two years considerable news items have been published online in major world languages, such as English and French. In Zambia, a need has arisen to translate the online news on Covid 19 into vernacular languages. This paper focuses on a selected number of Covid news items translated from English into Bemba, a leading Lingua franca in the country. The study specifically sought to find out the most frequently used translation strategies to translate online COVID 19 news from English into Bemba. 10 translated online excerpts from English into Bemba were analysed. Findings show that borrowing was at 34%, adaptation 19%, modulation 16%, expansion and literal translation was at 10%, respectively. Other salient strategies were: Omission 5%, Transposition 3%, while transliteration, equivalence, paraphrase and metaphor recorded 1% each. Detailed analysis showed that oblique translation strategies scored 55% while direct translation strategies had 45%. The findings further show that, much as direct translation strategies scored higher percentages in terms of frequency at an individual level, they fail severally to give the translators leeway to negotiate for cultural equivalence. On the other hand, the widespread choice of oblique translation strategies even if the individual percentages are low, in terms of frequency, they effectively aid to bridge the cultural gap between the source language and the target language.


Keywords: Equivalence, Translation strategies, vernacular languages, Bemba, COVID 19

Pages: 170-176

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