Back-Translation as a Tool for Identifying Language Change

Abstract

This study concerns the use of back-translation as a tool for identifying language change. This research is based on theories of back-translation (Baker, 1992) and language change (Campbell, 1998), focusing the use of this tool to identify shifts in language usage from lexical, morphological, and syntactical points of view. The original texts used for this study are the Indonesian novels Sitti Nurbaya (Rusli, 1922, ed. 2010), Sukreni Gadis Bali (Tisna, 1936, ed. 2013), and Salah Asuhan (Moeis, 1928, ed. 2013). The language used in these literary works is known as old Indonesian. All three novels have been translated into English: the first keeping its original title, Sitti Nurbaya (Fowler, 2009), Sukreni Gadis Bali as The Rape of Sukreni (Quinn, 2012), and Salah Asuhan as Never the Twain (Susanto, 2010). These English translations have in turn been translated back into Indonesian. The language used in these back-translated texts is present-day Indonesian, as used by speakers today. When the old Indonesian and contemporary Indonesian versions are compared, discrepancies may arise, even though the meanings of both texts are the same. These differences are considered to signify changes in the language. Our findings show that this back-translation method can be applied to understand changes in Indonesian usage. These include lexical changes, such as the word sebagai being replaced by seperti, or sekalian replaced by semua or seluruh; morphological changes, such as diobat changing into diobati, or menghinakan into menghina; and syntactical changes, such as the term suka kepada being replaced by suka.