On The Retranslation of the Igbo Missal

Abstract

This study looks at the translation and the retranslation of the Igbo missal in line with Newmark’s (2001) semantic and communicative theory of translation. The aim is to highlight the factors that necessitated the retranslation, looking at the loopholes of the first translation in comparison with the Latin and English source texts. This study adopts the Newmark’s translation theory which sees translation from language and equivalence perspectives. The data were gathered from both old and new Igbo missals, the Latin missal and from the old English missal. Some persons were also interviewed to see the level of acceptability of the new translation. The study finds out that the first translation of the missal, hinges on communicative translation which focuses on the target language users. The retranslated version, hinges on the semantic translation which focuses on the source text language as requested by the Church authority. The study shows that many have accepted the translation while few are of the opinion that the new translation is not suitable. The paper concludes that the retranslated version is faithful to the source text and that the dangers of loss of meaning and possible incomprehensibility are not visible.