Translation of Folktales from Runyankore-Rukiga into English:

This study aims at translation of Runyankore-Rukiga folktales into English, identifying cultural and linguistic challenges and suggesting strategies to aid cross-cultural translation. Five folktales have been translated with explanatory footnotes about the hard-to-translate and/ or untranslatable wo...

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Main Author: Tumuhairwe, Kizito.
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Kabale University 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12493/2878
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author Tumuhairwe, Kizito.
author_facet Tumuhairwe, Kizito.
author_sort Tumuhairwe, Kizito.
collection KAB-DR
description This study aims at translation of Runyankore-Rukiga folktales into English, identifying cultural and linguistic challenges and suggesting strategies to aid cross-cultural translation. Five folktales have been translated with explanatory footnotes about the hard-to-translate and/ or untranslatable words and expressions. The researcher back-translated two of them to verify the validity of the translation. The study was qualitative in nature. It relied on data from both primary and secondary sources. The study showed that translation faces culture related challenges, given that the languages are culturally distinct. It also showed that meaningful, “speaking” personal names and literary devices such as euphemisms, proverbs and proverbial expressions, idioms and idiomatic expressions, ideophones and onomatopoeia, similes and metaphors are sources of problems in translation. Some strategies to resolve these challenges have also been suggested: firstly, employing footnotes to explain the hard-to-translate and untranslatable culture-bound and linguistic items and expressions; secondly, using the three proverb and proverbial translation principles proposed by Beekman & Callow (1974, p. 139); and adopting the principle that some devices remain untranslated and are retained in the target language (Kaindl, 1999, p. 275). In addition, the researcher used the methods: literal translation and free translation for euphemisms, as proposed by Wang (2020, pp. 1176 -1177); plus Baker’s (1992) taxonomy of four idiom translation strategies. Lastly, the five simile and metaphor translation strategies proposed by Larson (1984, p. 254) were applied. The study recommended, firstly, that the government invests in and puts more emphasis on translation work and studies of this nature; secondly, that translators ensure they fully understand the source and the target languages and cultures; lastly, that translation be introduced into the language syllabus at secondary school level.
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spelling oai:idr.kab.ac.ug:20.500.12493-28782025-02-06T15:07:09Z Translation of Folktales from Runyankore-Rukiga into English: a Case Study of Challenges and Strategies. Tumuhairwe, Kizito. Translation idiomatic translation functional equivalence hard-to-translate untranslatability This study aims at translation of Runyankore-Rukiga folktales into English, identifying cultural and linguistic challenges and suggesting strategies to aid cross-cultural translation. Five folktales have been translated with explanatory footnotes about the hard-to-translate and/ or untranslatable words and expressions. The researcher back-translated two of them to verify the validity of the translation. The study was qualitative in nature. It relied on data from both primary and secondary sources. The study showed that translation faces culture related challenges, given that the languages are culturally distinct. It also showed that meaningful, “speaking” personal names and literary devices such as euphemisms, proverbs and proverbial expressions, idioms and idiomatic expressions, ideophones and onomatopoeia, similes and metaphors are sources of problems in translation. Some strategies to resolve these challenges have also been suggested: firstly, employing footnotes to explain the hard-to-translate and untranslatable culture-bound and linguistic items and expressions; secondly, using the three proverb and proverbial translation principles proposed by Beekman & Callow (1974, p. 139); and adopting the principle that some devices remain untranslated and are retained in the target language (Kaindl, 1999, p. 275). In addition, the researcher used the methods: literal translation and free translation for euphemisms, as proposed by Wang (2020, pp. 1176 -1177); plus Baker’s (1992) taxonomy of four idiom translation strategies. Lastly, the five simile and metaphor translation strategies proposed by Larson (1984, p. 254) were applied. The study recommended, firstly, that the government invests in and puts more emphasis on translation work and studies of this nature; secondly, that translators ensure they fully understand the source and the target languages and cultures; lastly, that translation be introduced into the language syllabus at secondary school level. 2025-02-06T14:44:21Z 2025-02-06T14:44:21Z 2024 Thesis Tumuhairwe, Kizito (2024). Translation of Folktales from Runyankore-Rukiga into English: A Case Study of Challenges and Strategies. Kabale: Kabale University. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12493/2878 en Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ application/pdf Kabale University
spellingShingle Translation
idiomatic translation
functional equivalence
hard-to-translate
untranslatability
Tumuhairwe, Kizito.
Translation of Folktales from Runyankore-Rukiga into English:
title Translation of Folktales from Runyankore-Rukiga into English:
title_full Translation of Folktales from Runyankore-Rukiga into English:
title_fullStr Translation of Folktales from Runyankore-Rukiga into English:
title_full_unstemmed Translation of Folktales from Runyankore-Rukiga into English:
title_short Translation of Folktales from Runyankore-Rukiga into English:
title_sort translation of folktales from runyankore rukiga into english
topic Translation
idiomatic translation
functional equivalence
hard-to-translate
untranslatability
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12493/2878
work_keys_str_mv AT tumuhairwekizito translationoffolktalesfromrunyankorerukigaintoenglish
AT tumuhairwekizito acasestudyofchallengesandstrategies