Documentation and Translation of Some Igbo Riddles into English and French Languages

Abstract

Riddles known as “gwam gwam gwam” and “les devinettes” in Igbo and French languages respectively, form part of the wealthy heritage embedded in Igbo oral literature. Unfortunately, igbo riddles are presently going into extinction in the face of modern technology and globalization. The aim of this work is to document and translate some Igbo riddles into two international languages namely English and French. In order to effectively attend to this work, we searched for and documented some of the already existing Igbo riddles, and translated them through the process of reading, deverbalization and re-expression (translation) of the riddles after which we judged our translation. The entire process is based on Eugene Nida' theory of Principles of Correspondence. The study reveals that the translation of an Igbo literary text is dominantly a cultural translation both in figures of speech and anthroponyms. The research recommends that translators of Igbo literary texts must be competent in Igbo language, linguistic culture of Igbo and all figures of speech as well as other forms of usage of the Igbo language.