Translation Techniques in the English-Kiswahili Translation of Agro-Pesticide Texts in Tanzania: Relevance to the Farmers

Abstract

This qualitative study investigated the translation techniques used in the English-Kiswahili translation of agro-texts in Maswa District of Simiyu Region-Tanzania. The subjects for this study were translators, cotton farmers, farm input vendors, and agricultural extension officers. Through text analysis and interviews, the study revealed that transference, naturalization, descriptive equivalence and reduction are used as translation techniques. Other techniques include expansion, compensation, modulation, paraphrase, transposition and calques. The information translated through transference, calques, reduction and expansion could not easily be understood by the farmers. The rest of the techniques convey information in a manner that suits the farmers’ common understanding. The Kiswahili equivalent formation processes such as compounding and borrowing produced words that could easily be understood by the farmers. However, the equivalents formed through compression and coinage did not satisfy the needs of the farmers. To some extent, the translation techniques used in the sampled texts seemed relevant to the farmers. It is recommended that the impact of loan words or transferred words from the source language to the message in the target language and the way the readership perceives them should be examined.