Until recently the Anglophone director of SIL’s i-DELTA training program in Nairobi, Martin Schroeder now serves as translation consultant for the Toposa translation project (South Sudan) and is doctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam with a study on how to translate unknown ideas.
Variation in Translation: What’s Acceptable and What Isn’t?
Abstract
Variation in translation happens at different levels: from fluctuations in the spelling to a range of changes in wording, both for key terms and other recurring terminology. Some of this variation may be introduced inadvertently, some of it may be intentional but might be seen as unacceptable by the translation consultant or the target audience, or both. Other variation may be seen as acceptable or even desirable by all parties involved. Most standard textbooks on Bible translation remain completely quiet on this topic, yet there is a real need to establish what are acceptable or even advisable forms of variation, and what would constitute unacceptable practice.
I begin with presenting different types of variation which I encountered in one Bible translation project (Toposa in South Sudan). I then explore factors that seem to have motivated the translators. First there are stylistic aspects, then there is the need to refer to unknown concepts in a relevant way (i.e. balancing sufficient cognitive benefits with a reasonable amount of processing effort), and thirdly – and most importantly – there are contextual factors that guided the translators which variant fits best in a particular instance.
In closing we shall consider what can be recommended from a linguistic-pragmatic perspective, as a first attempt to establish some guidelines, and in order to stimulate further discussion among translation theoreticians, Bible translation consultants and translators.