Central to the African Storybook Project's strategy for providing sufficient stories in African languages for early reading, is translation and versioning. In order to provide a critical mass of stories we are in the process of translating or versioning 50 of our stories into the main languages of the pilot sites. The contexts and issues are different in each of the pilot countries.
Juliet Tembe, Dorcas Wepukhulu, Lorato Trok and Tessa Welch share their initial experiences.
Juliet Tembe describes the translation process and challenges in Uganda
In Uganda, there is a strong network of community-based language associations whose objective is to promote the local language, work with partners to develop an orthography and a dictionary, to nurture literacy in the local language, as well as to produce reading material for adults and children in that language.
Where there are standard orthographies used in schools, our translators are guided by these, so that school-going children reading both curriculum-linked material and our stories will not be confused. However, the National Curriculum Development Centre is tackling only 12 of the 50 languages in Uganda, so there are many languages which fall outside their ambit.
We work with the people from the pilot sites who speak, and are, in most cases, experts in the languages to translate the stories. Usually the people come together as a group, but each individual is given a story to translate. This could be the same story, or each works on a different story in order to save on time. Then, later they get to work in pairs and read to each other the translated story in order for them to agree on the form as well as the accuracy.
The people who have engaged in this process so far have found it interesting, but time-consuming. Translation is needed both from local language Ugandan stories into English (to make these stories accessible to people who do not understand the local language), and from English versions of stories from the other pilot countries into local Ugandan languages. The translation into English has proved the most challenging for our translators. In cases where people are not proficient in English, we have tended to emphasise the general accuracy of the translated text.
A second issue relates to dialects. For example, Lumasaaba in Uganda has several dialects, and so the translators, some of whom are members of the Language Association, have had to agree not only on the appropriate word, but also on which variant of the word to use. Working with members of the community from different dialects helps to resolve any disagreements that could arise.
Dorcas Wepukhulu describes the translation and versioning process in Kenya
In Kenya, there is not the same structure of language associations for the varieties of local languages that exist in Uganda, and beyond Kiswahili, languages are not standardised, and certain varieties are privileged over others.
The following points outline the process being followed in Kenya:
- It means first and foremost, identifying all the spoken languages of a particular community;
- Giving priority to those languages that may not have much written as a way of recognizing the importance of their languages;
- Finding out what orthographies there are that are used (if there are any) and following them;
- Where none exists, it means getting speakers of that language to do the translation during which they agree on what words, dialects and expressions they would like to use in the translations.
Translation can mean telling the stories that were originally written in a different language in a way that another community can identify with and use it with their children, i.e. versioning, rather than merely translating. Versioning can involve changing names, places, characters, activities in the original story to suit another context, and thus come up with a story that retains the plot.
It can also mean adjusting the original language to suit a different level and community perceptions; borrowing an idea from an existing story to write another story similar to that one and thus producing a totally different story; or taking an existing story and introducing illustrations that speak to children from different communities.
Translators have found that it is easier translating a story from mother-tongue (or Kiswahili) to English rather than the other way round (this is different from the experience in Uganda). This is because there are words in English that are not found in a local language, so to insist on using the same word leads to losing meaning; in such cases we have to resort to translating with the aim of retaining the main idea, or sometimes, getting the nearest word to the original one.
As in Uganda, it helps for people who speak the same language to work in a group to agree on which words (or dialect in the case where there are variants) to use. Finally, translation into a local language is done based on the spoken language that the speakers are familiar with not so much what might be in the official orthography (if one exists) – Kikuyu or Gikuyu, Kiluyia or Luyia etc. In Kenya it is difficult even to decide on the precise name given to the language or dialect. For example, variants such as Luhya/Luyia/Kiluyia, and whether to use the prefix for the language Kikamba, Egekusii, Kimaasai or simply Kamba, Kisii, and Maasai.
Lorato Trok comments on the experience of translation in South Africa
In South Africa, there is a policy of additive bilingualism, and commitment to provision of materials in all official languages for the Foundation Phase. There is official standardisation of the languages through the Pan South African Language Board. Hence, although there are many disputes about orthography, there are authoritative sources at a national level which can be consulted (and have to be in the case of educational material for schools). An approach that allows the community to decide how to translate is therefore more problematic than in the other two pilot countries.
In South Africa, most African language stories are produced through translation or versioning from English or another European language into an African language. This is less than ideal, according to the Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy. Molteno’s view is that in the production of stories for early reading, translation doesn’t really work: you have to start and end with the language you are aiming to teach children to read. The majority of readers in African languages are direct translations of English books. The effect of this is difficult phonics, long words, lengthy sentences and paragraphs for sentences which in English are simple and appropriate.
In addition, African languages are unique in that they use a lot of idioms and proverbs to express words and feelings. So when an attempt is made to translate from African languages into English, often idioms and proverbs are not translatable.
But there is a further challenge. Because of the degree of standardisation of the languages, the audience is much more critical. This means that translating from English to an African language in the South African context is not an easy task and it needs a seasoned translator who understands the language well.
However, an advantage of the fact that ASP stories will be digital is that users of our website will be able to change words. In this way we hope that good stories will not be rejected simply because there is a disagreement on a word or the spelling of a word. Users will easily be able to insert their preferred words or spellings. |
