The Challenges of Translating Nonstandard English as a Writing Technique in Literary Works: a Case Study of Betrayal in the City and Usaliti Mjini

Abstract

The study investigated the challenges of translating nonstandard English as a writing technique in literary works. To achieve this, the research was guided by three main objectives: To identify instances where nonstandard English in Betrayal in the City has been mistranslated to Kiswahili in Usaliti Mjini; to investigate the causes of the mistranslations identified in the target text that is, Usaliti Mjini and to analyze strategies used by translators in translating nonstandard English in Betrayal in the City to Kiswahili in Usaliti Mjini. The research adopted the qualitative research design with content analysis as the ideal technique of data collection and analysis. Worth noting is that the technique of data collection used was note-taking. The content analysis involved reading the focus books, that is, Francis Imbuga’s Betrayal in the City (1976), and Usaliti Mjini (1994) translated by Josephat Wasyatsa and Adaka Kisia and analyzing them. The data collected was presented in the form of tables. The study showed the various challenges translators faced when translating nonstandard English which were: Syntactic/grammatical problems, challenges of addition, too free or too literal challenges, challenges of faithfulness, challenges of ambiguity, challenges of distortion, pragmatic issues, typographical challenges, challenges of indecision/inconsistency and, challenges of omission. Finally, the study suggested various strategies that can be used when translators are translating nonstandard English to Kiswahili. These were: Stylistic compensation, partial translation, omission, softening or neutralization, literal translation, addition, other nonstandard language words use, and spelling manipulation. This study concluded that translating nonstandard English to Kiswahili is a more difficult task when the author has adopted it as a literary style. This is because a translator places the transference of the author’s message as a priority. In addition, English and Kiswahili have two grammatical structures hence different grammatical rules, this means that a source language written in nonstandard English creates more problems when rendering it to Kiswahili.