Reflections on African languages and technical translation theory

Abstract

Although translation into and out of the African languages has been common practice for some years, very few efforts to develop a proper theory of translating into and out of these languages exist. In this article the domain of technical translation into the African languages is investigated from a broad theoretical perspective. A basic distinction between common language (normal grammar and lexicon) and technical language (including its terminology) is maintained, and some observations with regard to difficulties encountered in the treatment of both forms of language are presented.