(Don’t) Know the Conjugation Categories of your Language, Translate With(out) Accuracy

Most languages of ongoing or intended Bible translations lack a notable grammar description, leaving translators with a considerable amount of guesswork. Their expertise, based on intuition and introspection, is essential for the process. But when dealing with highly language-specific grammatical categories, like verb conjugation (tense, aspect, mood, negation), they need an unbiased understanding of how their language works. To discover the conjugations a language offers is a challenge far beyond intuition and largely masked by the (European) metalanguage in use. Participatory linguistics draws on the power of mother tongue intuition, supplemented by analysis, serving to uncover the conjugation categories that enable translators to express biblical source texts in their language, making conscious and accurate use of its grammar. An example from Worodugukakan (CI) shows a distinction in the Past Tense unknown in the metalanguage French: A büo ka kiɛ.’He broke his arm.’ (inference: healed now> dissociated from the present) versus A büo yiɛ kiɛ. ‘He has broken his arm.’ (inference: not healed yet> still relevant). The two conjugational forms ka versus yiɛ offer a choice similar to English Past and Perfect. The choice between 3-5 different Past forms is very common in African languages, the contrast illustrated above being subtle, but important. It is when translators are given the opportunity to investigate the grammar of their language that they are empowered to excel in their highly responsible task. This is shown by examples from different African languages. Neglecting this area is a recipe for poor translation quality.