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Translators and Language Engineering in Nigeria: a Case Study of Nupe Language News Translators H Document généré le 30 sept. 2021 12:24 Meta Journal des traducteurs Translators' Journal Translators and Language Engineering in Nigeria: A Case Study of Nupe Language News Translators H. J. Jacob Volume 44, numéro 2, juin 1999 Résumé de l'article En décrivant certains problèmes de traduction vers la langue nupe du Nigeria, URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/003236ar l'auteur aborde une problématique propre à de nombreuses langues africaines DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/003236ar : doit-on utiliser la description exhaustive ou carrément l'emprunt lorsqu'on traduit des termes inexistants en langue cible pour un public isolé du monde Aller au sommaire du numéro moderne? Éditeur(s) Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal ISSN 0026-0452 (imprimé) 1492-1421 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Jacob, H. J. (1999). Translators and Language Engineering in Nigeria: A Case Study of Nupe Language News Translators. Meta, 44(2), 397–402. https://doi.org/10.7202/003236ar Tous droits réservés © Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1999 Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ blocs-notes 397 REFERENCES toward the rehabilitation and optimal utiliza- Arthur, D. (1991): Recruiting, Interviewing, Select- tion of individual languages. In fact, it is a ing & Orienting New Employees, 2nd Ed., mechanism of language planning that recog- American Management Association. nizes problems and proceeds to ‘engineer’ so- Brennan, J. & P. McGevor (1988): Graduates at lutions to such problems. Work, Jessica Kingsley Publisher. Language engineering, then, is concerned Hackett, P., Schofield, P. & M. Armstrong with the problems of “underdevelopment,” so to (1982): The Daily Telegraph Recruitment speak, that a language may be facing. Its aim is to Handbook, The New Opportunity Press. “update” the language concerned in order to, Herriot, P. (1989): Assessment and Selection in among other things, make it capable of accounting Organizations, John Wiley and Sons Limited. for and communicating “the changing experiences Pearson, R. & K. Walsh (1983): How to Analyse of the speakers as well as all aspects of the human Your Local Labour Market, Gower Publishing legacy called knowledge” (Capo 1990: 2). As Cyffer Company Limited. (1977 cited by Emenanjo 1990: 89) has noted, the Platt, T. E. (1983): In B. Ungerson (Ed.), Recruit- ultimate goal of language engineering is, ment Handbook, Gower Publishing Company Limited. the development of a language and if needed Plumpy, P. (1991): Recruitment and Selection, Insti- be making it suitable for areas in which it has tute of Personnel Management. not been used before, e.g. modern education, Schnider, B. (1976): Staffing Organizations, government, economy and science. Goodyear Publishing Company, Inc. What is immediately obvious is the fact that Ungerson, B. (Ed.) (1983): Recruitment Hand- language engineering is not only a domain in book, Gower Publishing Company Limited. which translators are actively involved, but also Walker, A. (1982): Unqualified and Underem- one in which they have a vital role to play. Since ployed: Handicapped Young People and the translation is an act of communication par excel- Labour Market, The Macmillan Press Limited. lence, it reveals the fact that not all languages are similarly able to express ideas, and highlights the problems a particular language may have in ex- pressing certain things. More important to our dis- Translators and Language Engineering cussion here, though, is the fact that translation in Nigeria: A Case Study of Nupe also contributes to the search for solutions to such Language News Translators problems. The Nigerian translator, for instance, who has to render foreign concepts and notions in RÉSUMÉ his native language often finds that appropriate En décrivant certains problèmes de traduction and adequate terms and expressions are not readily vers la langue nupe du Nigeria, l’auteur aborde available, if at all. He is thus forced to “engineer” une problématique propre à de nombreuses solutions to such problems. langues africaines : doit-on utiliser la description exhaustive ou carrément l’emprunt lorsqu’on But how successful are Nigerian translators in traduit des termes inexistants en langue cible their attempts to overcome the language-related pour un public isolé du monde moderne ? problems they come across? More specifically, to ABSTRACT what extent do translators succeed in carrying out In describing certain translation problems in- their mission when they have to deal with texts curred in translating into the Nupe language of containing terms and expressions for which corre- Nigeria, the author raises a question that is perti- sponding items are not available in their own lan- nent to a number of African languages: When guage? In this study, an attempt is made to find translating for an audience that is far removed answers to these questions using the translation of from the modern world, should one resort to ex- English language news bulletins into Nupe, a lan- haustive description or to loan words for terms that are nonexistent in the target languages? guage spoken in Nigeria. INTRODUCTION 1. THE SITUATION OF NUPE AND THE NEED FOR LANGUAGE ENGINEERING Language engineering has been defined by Capo (1990: 1) as: Nupe is a “minority” language in Nigeria, so called because of the relatively small number of people that domain of applied linguistics concerned who speak it. The Nupes numbered 650,000 in with the design and implementation of strat- 1963, growing by 1986 to a population of 1,314,000. egies (i.e. the conscious and deliberate steps) These figures can be compared to those for the 398 Meta, XLIV, 2, 1999 Hausas (the largest linguistic group in Nigeria), who Igbo and Yoruba (the “majority” languages in numbered 11,653,000 and 23,233,000 in 1963 and Nigeria). 1986 respectively. It is interesting to note, however, Indeed, when listening to the radio news, for that Nupe is the eleventh most important language instance, one is struck by the number of items re- in Nigeria (Jibril 1990: 114), a country with about quiring language engineering, as translators are 394 different languages (Hansford et al. 1976). forced to continually improvise solutions to prob- Nupe is thus not such a small language after all and lems posed by the absence of appropriate terms. A is the “majority” language spoken by the largest good example would be the Gulf War, when trans- linguistic group in Niger State. lators had to use their own initiative to find ways What is more, Nupe, unlike the majority of of expressing terms like the Gulf, missiles, the allied Nigerian languages, has had a written form and forces, etc. But how likely was it that the Nupe been thoroughly described for more than a cen- people understood what was being reported? To tury. The first recorded collection of Nupe words what extent did translators succeed in informing dates back to 1828-54 when vocabularies were the Nupe-speaking public about the war? This noted in written texts. Since then, a lot of work has study will assess the performance of Nupe lan- been done on the language (Madugu 1985: 25), guage translators in rendering foreign concepts most recently by the Nupe Language Project Com- and notions, and examine their contribution to the mittee set up in 1978 by the Niger State govern- development of the Nupe language. ment. It is probably not surprising, then, that Nupe is one of 12 “large” written languages in Nigeria, a 3. EVALUATION OF THE WORK OF THE nation containing 117 or so written languages NUPE LANGUAGE NEWS TRANSLATORS (Williamson 1990: 142). But Nupe remains an “underdeveloped” lan- The investigation and evaluation are based on tape guage, even by Nigerian standards. The language recordings and transcriptions of news aired by Ra- was discriminated against during the colonial era dio Nigeria Kaduna, the most powerful station to and continues to have marginal status today. No broadcast programmes in Nupe. Items were also technical terminology has been produced in Nupe taken from the news broadcasts of other radio sta- for use in primary schools,1 despite the fact that it tions (Radio Niger Minna, Radio Niger Bida and is one of the 27 languages approved by the Federal Radio Kwara Ilorin) to illustrate some of the points Government of Nigeria for its mother tongue edu- made. 2 cation policy. 3.1. Examples of “engineered” solutions In the face of such official neglect, the re- sponsibility of Nupe speakers is obvious. The onus The study uses examples from a variety of subject is on them to keep their language alive by using it areas as news translators deal with a range of dif- all the time and to also get involved in language ferent issues all the time, unlike translators of other engineering with the aim of making Nupe acquire types of texts who often deal with only one domain the property of “intellectualisation”3 needed for at a time. communicating efficiently in today’s rapidly 3.1.1. Government, administration, politics changing world. As a result, Nupe language trans- lators occupy a particularly important place in the Ministry of External Affairs: gwalagi alhamari kin scheme of things. dezhi Democracy: muliki nya ‘za kanma Apartheid: muliki ‘ba yiba 2. NUPE LANGUAGE NEWS TRANSLATORS Opposition party: egi tsudo nya enan siyasa AND LANGUAGE ENGINEERING U.S.
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