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The Role of Bible Translation in the Development of Written Zulu: a Corpus-Based Study

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The Role of Bible Translation in the Development of Written Zulu: a Corpus-Based Study THE ROLE OF BIBLE TRANSLATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITTEN ZULU: A CORPUS-BASED STUDY by MTHIKAZI ROSELINA MASUBELELE Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject LINGUISTICS at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: DR A. K. WALLMACH JOINT PROMOTER: DR E.A. HERMANSON NOVEMBER 2007 Declaration Student Number: 444-026-9 I declare that this thesis, entitled THE ROLE OF BIBLE TRANSLATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITTEN ZULU: A CORPUS-BASED STUDY is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. …………………………… ……………………………… M R MASUBELELE DATE i Acknowledgements I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to the following people, without whose help the completion of this thesis would not have been possible: To my promoter Dr Kim Wallmach,for her patience, encouragement, understanding and fruitful guidance always. My co-promoter, Dr E A Hermanson, whose biblical expertise, discussions and invaluable criticism contributed towards the improvement of this study. To Dr Greg Graham-Smith for editing this study. To my colleague Kholiswa Moropa for her support when discouragement set in. To my children, my parents and sisters for their support and encouragement. ii Summary While translation can be studied with a view to throwing light on a number of aspects in life, in this thesis translation has been researched with a view to outlining the development of written Zulu from its earliest stages, using twelve texts of the Book of Matthew. The Book of Matthew has been chosen in this undertaking because it was the first book of the Bible to be translated into Zulu and was thought to be the most apposite instrument with which the development of written Zulu could be measured. The polysystem theory and the descriptive approach to translation studies are the theoretical models that inform the arguments presented in this study. Polysystem theory sees translated literature as a system operating in the larger social, literary and historical systems of the target culture, while with the descriptive approach translations are regarded as facts of the target culture. Against this premise the focus of this study is mainly on the twelve translations of the Book of Matthew and no comparisons between source and target texts are undertaken here. Corpus-based research provided tools such as WordSmith Tools 3.0 for linguistic analysis. Biblical texts were obtained, scanned and presented in electronic format ready to be analysed. From the findings drawn, written Zulu developed all the way through Bible translation, with some translations revealing slight developments and others showing enormous ones. As the findings of this study reveal, Zulu developed gradually, as evidenced by the change to conjunctive writing which occurred over a considerable period, along with the appropriate representation of Zulu speech sounds and grammar conventions. It could also be established at what point during the development of the language, processes such as consonantalisation and palatalisation were introduced into the written language. It is also clear that words of Greek and Hebrew origin were brought into the Zulu language through Bible translation. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that it is feasible to use corpus-based research for analysis in the indigenous languages of South Africa. iii Key terms Polysystem theory; system; target culture; descriptive translation studies; target language; initial norm, concordance, equivalence; target text. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and research problem 1 1.2 Aims and rationale 2 1.3 Method of research 4 1.4 Theoretical framework 8 1.5 Analytical framework 12 1.6 Organisation of the study 12 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON TRANSLATION 2.1 Introduction 14 2.2 The development of translation as a field of scientific study 16 2.3 Prescriptive translation theories 18 2.3.1 On the notion of equivalence 19 2.3.2 Equivalence and Bible translation in the indigenous languages of South Africa 22 2.4 Movement away from equivalent-based approaches to translation 24 2.4.1 Polysystem theory 25 2.4.2 Descriptive translation studies 28 2.4.2.1 Towards a target-oriented approach 30 2.4.2.2 Translation as a norm-governed activity 31 2.4.3 From a descriptive translation approach to a corpus-based approach 37 2.4.3.1 Corpus creation and corpus–processing tools 38 2.4.3.2 Corpus types 40 2.4.4 Universal features of translation 43 2.4.4.1 Explicitation 44 2.4.4.2 Simplification 45 2.4.4.3 Normalisation 46 v 2.4.5 Research on translation using the corpus-based approach 48 2.5 Conclusion 50 CHAPTER 3: THE ZULU LANGUAGE AND LITERARY SYSTEM 3.1 Introduction 51 3.2 Historical background to the development and expansion of the Zulu Language 52 3.3 Zulu oral traditions 58 3.3.1 Prose narratives 60 3.3.2 Traditional poetry 65 3.4 First contacts between the Zulu people and Europeans 68 3.5 The missionary period amongst the Zulu people 71 3.5.1 The American Board Missionaries 73 3.5.2 Other missionary societies and churches that undertook to evangelise the Zulu people 79 3.5.3 Further contributions to the development of written Zulu and literature 80 2.5.3.1 Colenso 80 2.5.3.2 Callaway 81 2.5.3.3 Bryant 81 3.5.4 Language planning policies during the missionary period 81 3.6 The history of Bible translation in Zulu 82 3.7 The Zulu literary system 87 3.7.1 The origins of the Zulu literary system 87 3.7.2 Literary works that emerged from the 1920s – 1940s 91 3.7.3 Literary works that emerged from the 1950s – 1990s 92 3.7.4 Translated works 96 3.8 Language planning policies in South Africa 97 3.8.1 Language planning policies during the Union of South Africa 99 3.8.2 Language planning policies during the Nationalist period 99 3.8.3 South African language planning policies and their vi effects on the indigenous languages of South Africa 103 3.8.4 Language planning policies in the new dispensation 106 3.9 Conclusion 108 CHAPTER 4: ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH PROCEDURES 4.1 Introduction 109 4.2 The significance of polysystem theory and descriptive translation for this study 110 4.3 Corpus-based research for this study 112 4.3.1 Corpus compilation 113 4.3.2 Text conversion 118 4.3.3 Corpus-processing tools and procedures 119 4.3.3.1 Concordance 119 4.3.3.2 Wordlists 124 4.4 Micro-level analysis 125 4.4.1 The tertium comparationis 126 4.4.2 On orthographic shifts 128 4.4.2.1 Foreign sounds 128 4.4.2.2 On disjunctive and conjunctive methods of writing 130 4.4.2.3 On the use of capital letters in the Zulu Bible 135 4.4.3 On morphological shifts 136 4.4.4 On lexical shifts 138 4.4.4.1 Borrowing 139 4.4.4.2 Derivation 142 4.4.4.3 Semantic shift 142 4.4.4.4 On the transliteration of Greek and Hebrew names 143 4.5 Macro-level analysis 145 4.6 Conclusion 146 vii CHAPTER 5: A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF TWELVE ZULU TRANSLATIONS OF THE BOOK OF MATTHEW 5.1 Introduction 147 5.2 Disjunctive versus conjunctive writing 150 5.3 Capitalisation problems in the Zulu Bible 157 5.4 Phonological shifts 161 5.4.1 The /u/ and /a/ combination 161 5.4.2 The /u/ and /e/ combination 163 5.4.3 The /u/ and /i/ combination 165 5.4.4 The /u/ and /o/ combination 166 5.4.5 The /a/ and /u/ combination 168 5.4.6 Aspirated sounds; the implosive /ɓ/ and the plosive /b/ 169 5.4.7 The phonemes /hl/; /dhl/ and /dl/ 173 5.4.8 The use of /y/ and /j/ in the corpus 174 5.4.9 The use of /g/ in places where /ng/ should be used 175 5.4.10 The influence of Xhosa speech sounds 176 5.4.10.1 The use of /ty/ and /J/ 176 5.4.10.2 The use of the glottal /r/ 178 5.5 Morphological shifts 179 5.5.1 The possessive construction 180 5.5.2 The locative construction 182 5.5.3 The vocative 187 5.5.4 The object concord and negative of the passive 188 5.6 Lexical shifts 190 5.6.1 Borrowing 191 5.6.1.1 Spiritual and religious titles 193 5.6.1.2 Religious festivals 199 5.6.1.3 Religious practices 200 5.6.1.4 Words of Xhosa and Khoi origin in the Zulu Bible 202 5.6.1.5 Zulu terms for the Supreme Being 204 viii 5.6.2 Derivation 207 5.6.3 Semantic shifts 210 5.7 The transliteration of Greek and Hebrew names 216 5.8 Standardisation 222 5.9 Conclusion 223 CHAPTER 6: FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATION 6.1 Introduction 224 6.2 The translations of the American Board Mission: The 1848 translation of the Book of Matthew: the 1865 translation of the New Testament and the 1924 translation of the Bible 225 6.3 Colenso’s translations: The 1855 adaptation and the 1897 translation of the New Testament 242 6.4 Döhne’s translation of the Gospels 246 6.5 The 1924 translation of the New Testament by the Hermannsburg Mission 247 6.6 The 1959 translation of the Bible by the British and Foreign Bible Society 248 6.7 The 1966 Roman Catholic Mission translation of the New Testament 251 6.8 The 1986 translation of the Bible Society of South Africa based on the principle of dynamic equivalence 252 6.8.1 Use of cultural substitutions 253 6.8.2 Use of idioms 253 6.8.3 Use of synonyms 253 6.8.4 Domesticating foreign concepts 254 6.9 The 1994 New World Translation of the New Testament 254 6.10 The 1997 revised edition of the Bible by the Bible Society of South Africa 255 6.11 Conclusion 256 ix CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION 7.1 Introduction 257 7.2 Synopsis of the chapters 257 7.3 Limitations of current study 261 7.4 Contribution of current study 262 7.5 Implications for further research 263 x List of Tables Pages Table 1.1: The corpus of the study 5 Table 3.1: Translations by
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