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X:\Ventura8\Muratho\Muratho October 2012\Muratho 2012 December.Vp December 2012 In this issue: SATI Prizes awarded at Triennial Conference The South African Translators’ Institute and its Council Chairperson/Voorsitter Vice-chair/Ondervoorsitter Anne-Marie Beukes Johan Blaauw Tel: 011 559 2694 Tel: 018 299 4890 Fax: 086 667 6100 Fax: 018 299 4462 [email protected] [email protected] Council member/Raadslid Council member/Raadslid Eleanor Cornelius Manzo Khulu Tel: 011 559 2694 Tel: 011 693 7237 [email protected] [email protected] Council member/Raadslid Executive director/Uitvoerende Helena Gavera direkteur Tel: 021 417 1137 Marion Boers [email protected] Tel: 011 803 2681 Fax: 0866 199 133 [email protected] The South African Translators’ Institute SATI Committees Virtual Office Registrar Ethics Committee c/o Marion Boers Tel: 079 492 9359 Wilna Liebenberg (chair) Tel: 011 803 2681 Fax: 086 511 4971 Annette Combrink Fax: 0866 199 133 registrar@translators. Irene Dippenaar office@translators. org.za Manzo Khulu org.za PO Box 1710 Accreditation Committee 2128 Rivonia Wannie Carstens Eleanor Cornelius Chapter Chairpersons/Afdelingsvoorsitters Sonwabile Cotiyana Boland be recognised as a distinct Linda Hodgkinson Gretha Aalbers group on the grounds of their Vuyelwa Miya Tel: 021 461 0486 geographic proximity to one Leonard Moloi Fax: 021 462 6278 another or of a common int- Marietjie Nelson [email protected] erest that is acceptable to Thomas Ntuli the Institute’. Chapters are Michelle Viljoen formal structures of the Insti- Johan Blaauw (SATI Council member) Members who wish to re- tute and operate in terms of a Marion Boers (SATI Executive Director) establish the Gauteng, Kwa- set of regulations approved Beverley Boland (SATI Accreditation Officer) (chair) Zulu-Natal or Interpreters Chap- by the members of the Insti- ters should contact the SATI tute. The intention of chap- Muratho Editorial Board office. The same applies to ters is to offer members Marion Boers (chair) anyone wishing to start a opportunities for networking Ilze Brüggemann new chapter and professional advance- Yvonne Malindi ment, which can often be Sibulelo Msomi The SATI constitution makes more readily achieved at a Grit Naidoo-Goedecke provision for members to local rather than a national Adri Theron form chapters if they wish ‘to level. Lungile Zungu SATI Web-site: http://www.translators.org.za (South African Translators’ Institute) FIT Web-site: http://www.fit-ift.org (International Federation of Translators) Journal of the South African Translators’ Institute Jenale ya Institute ya Bafetoledi ya Afrika-Borwa Volume 12 Number 2 December 2012 IPhephandaba LeNhlangano YabaHumushi BaseNingizimu Afrika CONTENTS Muratho is the Venda term for ‘a bridge’, the symbol of the communicative activity facilitated by language workers TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE / DRIEJAARLIKSE KONFERENSIE Muratho ke lentšu la Sevenda le le hlalošago ‘leporogo’, gomme le 3 New tradition established swantšha kgokagano ye e hlolwago ke bašomi ba polelo 5 What did you like best about the Triennial Conference? Elithi ‘Muratho’ yigama lesiVenda elisho ‘ibhuloho’, okuwuphawu lomsebenzi wokuxhumana owenziwa yizisebenzi zezolimi SATI PRIZES / SAVI-PRYSE Information on the name of the 6 Translators and dictionary-makers honoured journal is given in English plus two other official languages on a 7 Comments from the judges rotational basis (in this issue 9 Voël, perd en bul: Vertaling en die Afrikaanse digkuns Northern Sotho and Zulu). 12 Bird, horse and bull: Translation and Afrikaans poetry Muratho accepts articles in all the 15 Van stories luister tot vertaling South African official languages, 17 Fun and games in the Never-Ever Wood provided they are accompanied by an English summary. Published by the South African IN PRACTICE / IN DIE PRAKTYK Translators’ Institute PO Box 1710 Rivonia 2128 19 Clarity on spelling South Africa 21 Introducing Autshumato [email protected] http://www.translators.org.za 22 Giant technological leap for official SA languages Editor: Marion Boers Tel: 011 803 2681 E-mail: GENERAL / ALGEMEEN [email protected] 2 Editor’s notes This publication is subject to copyright and no material may be 16 Publishing database reproduced without the prior permission of the publisher 23 Preserving languages 25 The missing ingredient Views expressed are those of the authors and are not necessarily supported by the editor or publisher Subscriptions: Contact the editor Cover photos from the SATI Triennial Conference and Prizes Function by Jan Potgieter Other photos in this issue: Jan Potgieter, Centre for Text Technology, Marion Boers ISSN: 1680-1938 Layout: Marion Boers MURATHO DECEMBER 2012 1 Editor’s Notes ATI’s inaugural Triennial Conference and machine translation on board (see the was an exciting event. Translators in article about Autshumato on page 21!) before SSouth Africa are not used to having we find we are being left behind, we need to events organised around them, and judging know about the latest theories and diction- by the reaction and the buzz on the day they aries and handbooks, we need to learn the enjoyed the profession being the focus of software tricks to make us more efficient. attention. The world is becoming a harder place to work Since becoming president of the International in. Translation rates have dropped sharply Federation of Translators (FIT) a little over over the past five years, and we all need to four years ago, I have attended a number of learn how to work smarter in order to keep international conferences and find them afloat. Let’s do that together, and support one extremely stimulating. As a non-academic another in our efforts. language practitioner, I was before that not The 2012 SATI Prizes for Outstanding exposed to such events at all, and I find that a Translation and Dictionaries were great pity. Meeting your peers – whether from awarded at the Triennial Conference and it a different part of the country or of the world – was pleasing to see entries of such high is a tremendously enriching experience. standing this year. Awards like this help to Whether the meetings serve merely to highlight our profession. Most of us are not confirm that you are still at the top of your fortunate enough to work on literary trans- game or bring a realisation that you need to lation, and it would be nice to see more clean up your act and perhaps work with a entries in the service translation category of mentor for while, whether they result in new the competition. This is where the heart of the contacts and new clients or allow you to catch profession beats and the importance of what up with old colleagues, whether the subject we do in the daily lives of so many becomes matter is directly related to your line of work apparent. Please remember the SATI Prizes or not is almost beside the point: the energy when you are working on that special job and created by so many enthusiastic practitioners enter it for the next round! coming together, the spirit of sharing and learning and the opportunity to hear experts FIT also awards prizes for outstanding will leave you refreshed and revived and translation and it would be extremely satisfy- raring to go long after the last tea break or ing to have another winner at the next FIT plenary session. Congress in 2014, like we did last year. The difficulty is that we can only nominate SATI We need more events like this in South members, and so many of our literary trans- Africa. We need language practitioners to lators are not members of SATI. I hope that realise that conferences are not the domain of we will have a rash of new members in the academics only. They should be an integral next six months, so that when we call for part every translator, terminologist, interp- nominations for the FIT prizes at the end of reter and editor’s professional life. We need 2013, we will have the cream of the crop to them to keep fresh and up-to-date, to stay in select from! touch with what is happening in our pro- fession, to share our own expertise and put something back into the profession that has Until next time nurtured us. We don’t yet have a continuing profes- sional development component in the translation profession in South Africa, but we Marion will in due course. In the same way that doctors, accountants and lawyers are expected to prove they are keeping up with new techniques and technologies and continuously honing their skills, we language experts also need to take the new CAT tools 2 MURATHO DECEMBER 2012 SATI CONFERENCE New tradition established ATI’s inaugural Triennial Conference on 29 September 2012 saw over 120 SATI’s inaugural Triennial Conference was a Slanguage practitioners, academics, great success and heralds a new tradition for researchers and linguists gather at the Uni- versity of Johannesburg for a day of consider- the Institute ation, discussion and exchange. On opening the proceedings, SATI chairperson Prof. Anne-Marie Beukes called on UJ Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Human Resources, Operat- ions and Information & Communication Systems, Prof. Derek van der Merwe, to say a few words. He welcomed the delegates warmly, emphasising the importance of lan- guage to the university and wishing everyone a fruitful day. The theme of the conference was The Role of Translation and Interpreting in Language Development. The morning was devoted to the keynote and plenary speeches, and in the afternoon three parallel sessions accom- modated 14 presentations on a range of topics. While the language of the conference was English, two speakers elected to use another language – one Afrikaans and one language technologies and the status of their Delegates agreed Zulu – and whispered interpreting was implementation in South Africa, and con- that the day was provided.
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