INTRODUCTION
One of the methods which is on the rise as far as
transferring information from languages of wider diffusion to those of limited
diffusion or from developed languages to less developed ones is audiovisual
translation. However, one big challenge
is the transfer of culture from one language to the other. Culture from Newmark
viewpoint is “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a
community that uses particular language as its means of expression.” Therefore,
the fact that culture is specific to a particular community makes it sometimes
difficult to be rendered adequately into another community while equally
tranfering the exact message. One of the domains which is rooted into cultures
is the religious domain and the ways it is experienced in different contexts.
Culture words related to ways of greeting, symbolic natural elements, and
deities are generally specific to each community and sometimes specific to
eras. This is the case with Christianity. Most aspects take their source from
Judaism and the Jewish culture. Areas and other cultural aspects described are
mainly related to Israel, ancient Rome, Greece etc. Therefore transferring them
into our era and for the African audience who do not completely share the same
realities can sometimes be a complex task. It is true that the Bible and other
Christian documents as well as christian movies have been translated into
African languages however, the goal of the Jesus Film Project is not only to
translate but to evangelise. This entails convincing hearts, bringing people to
understand and to accept what is being preached. As a result the strategies and
techniques used should be aimed at not merely translating but at attaining
their goal. It is on this basis that we embark on the analysis of the movie A
documentary taken from the Gospel of St. Luke, the life of Jesus and its dubbed version in bulu, The
Story of Jesus—Bulu/Boulou Language.
The following research question was raised;
- To what extent have the translation strategies
and/or procedures serve the evangelization mission of the translated movie?
The above research question led to the following research
hypothesis;
- Faced with geographical, historical and
linguistic gap between the source movie and the bulu context, the translators
faced a number of cultural constraints which they managed by merging both
domestication and foreignisation strategies to achieve their mission.
This research therefore sets out to analyse the different
techniques used by the translators to domesticate and/or foreignise the movie
into the bulu culture.
This article is
limited to two movies. The first movie is The Story of Jesus – Bulu/Boulou
Language. It is a two-hour, one
minute, forty-three second movie. The movie is dubbed into bulu according to
the gospel of Luke and made available by Jesus Film Project. The second movie
is entitled A documentary taken from the Gospel of St. Luke, the life of
Jesus. It is a two-hour, seven-minute and fifty-three-second movie by
Inspirational Films, Inc. and made available by Jesus Film Project. The bulu
version has been dubbed from the English version. Only the portion of the movie
common to both videos will be analysed. This work is focused on the bulu
language.
This research uses
two research instruments: observation and text analysis. In order to analyse
the data, this research will adopt descriptive qualitative research design. Two
sampling techniques will be employed, these are: convenience sampling and
purposive sampling. In addition to this, we will resort to the communicative
theory of translation by Peter Newmark.
This research will help translators
and interpreters delving into community interpreting and translation specially
in dubbing to know challenging areas in working into African languages and
adequate means to adopt when faced with cultural aspects.
CONCEPTUAL REVIEW
Audio-visual
translation
Luyken et al. (1991) in Ayonghe (2014) defines
Audiovisual Translation (AVT) as, “the process by which a film or television
programme is made comprehensible to a target audience that is unfamiliar with
the original’s source language”. Ako (2013) further defines AVT as an
“inter-semiotic translation which operates at either intralingual or
interlingual levels. It is simply the translation of all forms – radio,
television, internet – of audiovisual material”.
AVT can be subdivided into three main
subtypes which are subtitling, dubbing (also known as lip-sync) and voice
over. Voice-over is an audiovisual
technique in which a voice offering a translation in a given target language
(TL) is heard simultaneously on top of the source language (SL) voice. With regard
to the soundtrack of the original program, the volume is reduced to a low level
that can still be heard in the background when the translation is being read.
(Díaz-Cintas and Orero, 2006). According to Valdeon Subtitling (2022) “allows
the viewer to listen to the original soundtrack while reading a written version
in the target language, typically at the bottom of the screen. Subtitling can
also be used for the translation of written elements in the original movie”,
and, in fact, is often used for this purpose”. Dubbing is a creative process of
adapting the source language (SL) text/script/verbalized message to the target
language (TL) script/soundtrack. In the process of adapting, the SL soundtrack
is completely substituted with a TL equivalent. The SL soundtrack is therefore
totally inexistant. Dudding is a complex process, for it to be perfect there
should be it is a synchronization of the translated script, the soundtrack, and
the lip movements of the speakers/characters on the screen; at the same time,
it implies transferring the SL text into another language (TL) (Nicolae, 2018).
Translating
culture
Nida (1964) characterizes translation as a procedural
means of constructing meaning that a target language reader can comprehend.
However, In the context of translation projects, various challenges confront
translators, and one notable obstacle is the translation of cultural terms.
This difficulty arises from the inherent disparities between the source text
(ST) and the target text (TT) due to cultural distinctions. Cultural words
demand special attention to ensure that the translator preserves their meaning
while making them comprehensible to TT readers. Cultural translation, as
discussed by Maitland, involves the challenge of transferring the full scope of
meaning from the source text to the translation, considering shifts in time,
place, and culture. According to Newmark, cultural words can be categorized
into five groups, these are: ecology, material culture, social culture, social
organization, gestures. Ecology pertains to geographical features unique to a
particular culture's homeland, encompassing elements like plants, animals,
winds, plains, and hills. These ecological terms are distinguishable from other
cultural terms as they are generally devoid of political or commercial
connotations. Material culture encompasses the everyday objects that people use
in their country of origin, which can significantly influence communication
within their culture. These includes foods, clothing, elements of houses and
towns and means of transportation. Social culture covers aspects like types of
work, leisure, various forms of music. Social organization, as a cultural
category, pertains to how things or individuals are addressed and the
appropriate level of formality in the target culture. Political,
administrative, religious, and artistic terms, as well as hierarchical ranks
found in some countries. In the realm of gestures and habits, Newmark suggests
that they should be categorized as cultural words when there's a distinction
between their description and function, especially in cases where ambiguity
exists in the target culture.
Huo Guy comes in to completes in a way
Newmark’s list. His paper was geared towards the sociocultural context, which
for him encompasses historical, local, customary, and religious cultural
dimensions. As different historical developments have given rise to diverse
cultures, communication challenges often arise between nations and countries.
According to him, English allusions, for instance, frequently draw from the
vast reservoir of English literature, notably from Shakespeare, making them
familiar to native speakers who employ these allusions unknowingly in everyday
discourse. The development of local culture is profoundly influenced by a
combination of geographical factors, the natural environment, and social
customs, among other elements. Within this context, local cultural disparities
are notably characterized by the absence of shared cultural connotations for
equivalent terms in two languages. Customary culture comprises a spectrum of
aspects such as greetings, compliments, apologies, forms of address,
euphemisms, and taboos. Religion, as an inherent facet of human culture,
manifests through various dimensions, encompassing religious beliefs, values,
rituals, taboos, and more.
Domestication
and Foreignization
Two distinctive translation strategies can be employed in
translation: domestication and foreignization. Domestication seeks to create a
translation that adopts a clear and fluid style to minimize the foreignness of
the text for the target language reader. It aligns the text with the linguistic
and cultural values of the target culture, effectively making the reader feel
as if they have entered the foreign text. Conversely, foreignization involves
strategies that retain the foreign flavor of the original text. This approach
is embraced as it allows the reader to experience the distinctiveness of a
foreign text, preserving significant traces of the original text's foreignness.
(Wenfen, 2010).
Some
translation techniques or procedures
Transference:
Transference involves transferring a word or
phrase directly from the source language into the target language without with
minimal or no modification.
Transference, as described by Vinay and Darbelnet, is also known as loan
words, transcription, or borrowing.
Shifts or
transpositions: Shifts or transpositions
refer to altering the grammatical structure, word order, or sentence structure
in translation to convey the intended meaning.
Modulation: Modulation involves changing the point of view, tone, or
expression of a text while preserving its overall meaning.
Recognised
translation: A recognised translation is using an
established, accepted translation for specific terms or phrases, especially
when there's a recognized equivalent.
Reduction
and expansion: Reduction and expansion
involve simplifying or elaborating upon the source text in the target language,
often to achieve a smoother, more natural translation.
Combining
Translation Procedures: Couplets, Triplets, and Quadruplets: In translation, according to Newmark,
"couplets" involve the fusion of two procedures to address a single
problem. In practice, a translator can use two or more procedures
simultaneously to tackle a particular challenge. "Triplets" refer to
the combination of three procedures, and "quadruplets" involve
integrating four procedures to resolve a single issue.
Adaptation: Replacing a cultural element from the source text with
one from the target culture.
Calque: Literally translating a foreign word or phrase.
Generalization:
Employing a broader or neutral term.
Multimodality and intratextuality in translation
Multimodality, as
defined by van Leeuwen (2005 cited in Jewitt, 2009), signifies the amalgamation
of diverse semiotic modes within a communicative construct or event. It entails
an approach that recognizes communication and representation as extending
beyond language, emphasizing a broad spectrum of communicational forms people
employ, such as images, gestures, gazes, postures, and more, and the intricate
relationships between these modalities (Jewitt, 2009). Jones (2021) further
comes in with the notion of multimodal discourse analysis which represents an
approach to examining communication that shifts the focus from solely
linguistic elements to the utilization of various modes of expression in
shaping meaning. Thi is useful as it completes the understanding of some
elements which might not have being adequately translated.
According
to Sharrock (2019) Intratextuality is a critical term used to explore the
relationship between the parts and the whole in texts, including issues of
unity (and disunity), the relationship between digressions and their
surroundings, interactions between disparate parts of texts (such as ring
composition), juxtapositions that may reflect surprisingly on their neighbours,
or any structural issue within a single work of literature.
(Shamim & Riaz, 2023; Farrell,
Sharrock & Morales, 2002.)
THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
Wallmach and kruger's work
Wallmach and Kruger suggest a
detailed translation study methodology. They recommend selecting a corpus and
gathering initial details on the source and target texts to establish the
research problem and hypothesis. Then, defining the basis of comparison
(tertium comparationis), a set of variables for the comparative analysis, the
translator proceeds to analyze at both micro and macro textual levels. This
comprehensive analysis enables the researcher to assess the translation's
quality upon completion. This was used to bring out background information
related to the movies - information necessary in our analysis.
The
communicative theory
The Communicative theory of translation is one of the two
translation concepts proposed by Peter Newmark. He was an English professor of
translation at the University of Surrey. He was one of the main figures in
founding translation studies in the English-speaking world since 1980s. For
him, translation should have the same effect on the target language readers as
the original text has on the source language readers (Newmark, 1982 in Zu, 2015). Therefore, in transmitting a content from a SL to a
TL, the translator should take into consideration the “culture, language and
pragmatic way of target language, rather than a faithful reproduction of the
original text.” It is in line with this that during the translation process,
the translator has to an extent a free license during a translation process “to
explain the original text, adjust the form and style, eliminate the ambiguity,
even to amend the original mistake”. Having in mind the need to communicate to
particular group of people, the translator might sometimes be compelled to
break the limitation of the original context. That is what could not be said in
the original context may be needed in the target context for correct
understanding. Communicative translation is usually applied to the translation
of news reports, textbooks, public notices and many other non- literary works.
The purpose in communicative translation is to communicate
and to effectively communicate, one needs to use the means that is appropriate
to the audience they want to get to no matter the price this might call for.
Likewise in choosing which subtype is suitable for the bulu community, if the
aim is to communicate, then the mode that best facilitates the message to be
passed across should be adopted.
The Skopos Theory
The Skopos Theory, developed by Hans J. Vermeer,
emphasizes that the purpose or "skopos" of a translation should guide
the strategies used. Originating in the 1980s and refined in the 1990s, it
advocates tailoring translations to meet the specific communicative needs of
the target audience rather than replicating the source text verbatim. Pioneered
by scholars like Nord, the theory asserts that the translation's purpose is
paramount, formalizing the entire translation process. It underscores the
central role of the target audience, emphasizing the dynamic and context-bound
nature of translation. Overall, the Skopos Theory has significantly influenced
contemporary translation studies by highlighting the importance of purpose and
audience consideration in the translation process.
Overview of
empirical works
In the realm of film, Merz (2021) asserts that visual
components often hold greater significance than spoken language as the primary
mode of communication. However, when examining the Jesus film, a peculiar
situation emerges; while spoken language is translated into various local
languages, the visual elements remain consistent with the original. This
underscores the vital role of visual language in communication and highlights
the potential for miscommunication when the film is presented to audiences
beyond its intended viewership. This visual challenge forms the central issue
in cross-cultural film ministry. Merz further emphasizes that the Jesus film is
a widely recognized tool for evangelization but is susceptible to
miscommunication, particularly when presented to audiences unfamiliar with
Western culture. The complexity arises from the task of enabling the audience
to understand and connect with the film and its narrative. A culturally
contextualized film, adapted for the target audience, can act as a bridge
between African culture and transnational Christianity.
While this to an extent is true, it
has however some limitations. The goal of the translated version is not to
completely erase the original version, instead, it aims at bringing the target
audience, understand the origin of what they are watching, the visible
differences and embracing it. That is the role of translation; bridging gaps
between cultures not erasing one culture totally. Changing the cinematographic
culture would mean changing many other cultural elements which would produce
another story. This therefore further shows the challenge faced by the Jesus
Film Project Translators who had to maintain the original cinematographic
setting and still find a way to communicate the message to different cultural
audience. Changing the whole movie would eventually defeat one of the purpose
of dubbing which according to Ni Putu et al. (2022), is to create the illusion
that the characters are truly speaking the target language.
Another researcher who worked on the
domain of cultural translation is Dick (2019). He mainly brings out Maitland's
perspective on cultural translation as being grounded in the premise that
diverse cultures possess distinct characteristics that render their meanings
inaccessible to outsiders. This assumption underscores the challenge of
transferring the full scope of meaning from the source text to the translation,
as the source text is akin to a foreign land, its meanings transformed by
shifts in time, place, and culture.
In her viewpoint, the translation
process is not a mere transfer of meaning from one language to another. Rather,
it involves the “reader-translator” actively engaging with the
text-for-translation. In face of any translation, an aspect of the translator
will be felt. This based on his understanding of the source text and culture
and equally his understanding of the target text and culture coupled with the
various decisions he will deem right before any cultural element.
She continues by highlighting that
translation’s objective is to bridge the gap, conquer the remoteness between
languages and cultures, but they never truly obliterate the gap. Nevertheless,
Dick (2019) offers a nuanced perspective that somewhat challenges Maitland's
viewpoint. On one hand, he acknowledges the validity of Maitland's emphasis on
the distinctiveness of foreign texts and the limitations faced by
readers-translators when dealing with texts from ancient, culturally distant
societies. There will always be dimensions of meaning that elude our full
understanding. Nevertheless, he points out that texts themselves contain various
clues, some more explicit than others, revealing the intended meanings.
Intelligent readers theoretically have the capacity to discern these meanings
and intentions, but our human limitations constrain us from comprehending them
entirely. To honor the "otherness" of these texts and to mitigate the
influence of our ideological biases, it is crucial to resist the temptation to
overly domesticate the content of these texts during reading, interpretation,
translation, and application to our lives.
METHODOLOGY
This article analysis the rendition of cultural word from
English into bulu, from foreign judo-christian culture to an two main concepts
which are: cultural word and translation techni. Following the research
questions, objectives and hypotheses, two approaches were used: the empirical
approach and the comparative approach. The empirical approach enables us carry
out a textual analysis of both transcriptions with the aim of identifying different cultural words in the
English movie A documentary taken from the Gospel of St. Luke, the life of
Jesus and their translation in the Bulu movie The Story of Jesus –
Bulu/Boulou Language. In order to achieve this, Newmark’s categorization of
cultural words and his communicative theory were used to analyse the cultural
areas that could stand as contraints and the procedures adopted by the
translators to render them into the
target language.
After analysing the various areas of
cultural contraints, the results enabled us to adopt a comparative approach.
Through this approach, some excerpts of both movies were examined. The results
were then interpreted in order to answer the research questions and eventually
validate or invalidate the research hypothesis.
Below are a purposive selection of
some cultural elements analysed in the movies. These were chosen as they
adequately help in representing the other elements and therefore can be used as
a sample.
the source text are
translated as employed. The “tate” means both “father” and “Lord” and the word
“ngule” equally has different meaning depending on the context. It can mean
“strength” “might” “authority”. They thus both fit into the context.
DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION
From the above
analysis, we see that the translators made use of domestication more. However,
though we have several instances of domestication, some are in the form of
couplets either by using both foreignisation and domestication strategies, or
by relying on multimodal and/ or intratextual elements to bring the target
audience appropriate the source culture.
The goal as
seen above being to evangelise, to convince, to touch the hearts of an audience
foreign to the present culture, the use of domestication is appropriate. This
enables the audience not to be completely alienated to what they have in front
of them. They feel concerned; they recognise themselves inside the movie in a
way. The inclusion of foreignisation is mainly due to the fact that, the source
culture cannot completely be wiped off. Though the target audience needs to
feel involved in the story before them, there are equally some aspects they
need to incorporate, learn, and appropriate from the source culture. That is
why there are many instances of complete borrowing and partial borrowing. This
blend of both strategies in the some utterances can act as a way of bringing
the target audience to embrace something new. For example, using borrowing and
explicitation at the same time would give room for a strange word to be heard
and the explanation to be got. And most words are borrowed from French which is
the target audience first language. So despite the disparity between both, they
are however both used.
This blend is
further extended with the help of multimodality and intratextuality which act
as foreignisation. The appearance of some animals accompanied by a borrowed
word leads to the learning of a new term and of course of a new aspect of the
new culture. Likewise some borrowed or calqued terms find their meaning later
in the movie when reused. This therefore validates our hypothesis.
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