Beyond the Translation of Initial Meaning: The Localization of Yoruba-bound ICT Terminologies

Abstract

Research in translation is often centred on issues that bother on literature, language teaching, style, processes, etc. This study examines the translation of Yoruba-bound ICT terminologies beyond their raw meaning as presented by the English language and culture. It deploys localization, the third in the GILT arrangement of Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, and Translation in modern technology translation. The objectives of this study are to: identify certain ICT terminologies in English, describe adoptable strategies for translating the terminologies for Yoruba end-users, examine how the terminologies are understood in the Yoruba locale as intended by the initial meaning, highlight the difficulties involved in the interpretation of the terminologies into Yoruba, propose cultural and linguistic models for translating ICT terminologies from English into the Yoruba language. The study adopts Bell’s linguistic and psycholinguistic model (1991) to analyze and synthesize the structural organization of linguistic materials of the ICT terminologies and their translation beyond their surface meaning. The study finds out that: the traditional approach of translating Euro-based terminologies by loanwords may yield little result; localizing ICT terminologies will enhance the appreciation of ICT materials by Yoruba end users; difficulties involved in the interpretation of ICT are both linguistic and cultural, and that ICT terminology translators are technical and cultural mediators. The study concludes that the marketing and purchase of ICT products are likely to be more embraced by Yoruba end users with the use of localized expressions to translate them. It recommends that in the world of GILT, translating beyond the initial meaning of the structure of linguistic materials of the ICT terminologies is a snapshot.