Analysis of the translation strategies used for non-equivalent Grade 4 geography concepts

Abstract

Adoption of a multilingual educational system in South Africa necessitates translation services, as the diverse official languages that are spoken in South Africa and their attendant cultures rarely have conceptual equivalents. The paucity of conceptual equivalents in natural sciences like geography calls for strategies on how to equate concepts ideologically and semantically between languages such as English and Tshivenḓa. Hence, this article analyses the translation strategies applied when translating Grade 4 geography concepts from English into Tshivenḓa. A qualitative phenomenology inquiry is used. The data were examined using inductive thematic analysis. Skopos and the Scan and Balance theories served as the theoretical framework. It was found that the translators used paraphrasing, more general words, related words, transliteration and omission as strategies to attain equivalence. This article provides translators with relevant and applicable translation strategies to address the non-equivalence between English and Tshivenḓa Grade 4 geography terminologies. It prompts the Department of Education to implement the Language-in-Education Policy and translate subjects such as Grade 4 geography from English into Tshivenḓa by demonstrating the feasibility of the suggested translation strategies. The findings may also contribute to the development of Tshivenḓa, one of South Africa’s minority languages.