Translating and adapting an academic textbook from English to isiZulu: a case of the intellectualisation of a target language

Buthelezi, Zanele

Translating and adapting an academic textbook from English to isiZulu: a case of the intellectualisation of a target language

dc.contributor.author	Buthelezi, Zanele
dc.coverage.conference	issn
dc.date.accessioned	2026-03-12T08:38:42Z
dc.date.available	2026-03-12T08:38:42Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.departmentName	African Language & Culture
dc.description.abstract	This article shares the lived personal and professional experiences of a group of author-translators who wrote, translated and adapted an academic textbook into an African indigenous language, isiZulu. The book, Izisekelo Zokulungisa Okubhaliwe: Izinsizakuhlaziya Nokwenziwayo, is the isiZulu edition of Text Editing: A handbook for students and practitioners, written in English by Van de Poel, Carstens and Linnegar (2012) and the Sesotho translation Metheo ya ditokiso tsa sengolwa by Maleti (2016). Both titles were used to guide the author-translators in determining the form and the content of the isiZulu edition. While most of the source texts could be translated into the target language, aspects that were specific to the target language (e.g. rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation) had to be originated. Besides this challenge, the author-translators had to develop terminology equivalent to that used in the source texts where it did not exist in the TL (e.g. terms specific to the realms of book publishing and text editing). Using Afrocentrism and Steiner’s hermeneutic motion, this study adopted a qualitative research approach from an interpretive perspective. Data derived from semi-structured interviews and praxis essays were analysed through the lens of Interpretative Phenomeno-logical Analysis (IPA). The production of the book highlights the emergence of a new image of the extraction of material from an academic territory, digesting and bringing it home to suit the target language while ensuring that meaning, culture, effect, academic style and register were maintained. The interdisciplinary nature of the work and the nature of the text being academic take the second and the third steps of Steiner’s hermeneutic motion a stride further. This research adds to Steiner’s work by acknowledging the existence of Source Text Exegesis (initial browsing and critical analysis) before hermeneutic motion starts through ‘trust’. The author’s lived experience reveals that it is possible to write, translate and adapt academic books from English into isiZulu, one example of how an African language can be intellectualised. Although the available indigenous equivalents for terms in Text Editing were generally limited, by using strategies such as semotaxis, neologism and transliteration, the author-translators produced a book that has contributed enormously to the development of new isiZulu terms in its field. Indeed, the book presented an opportunity to introduce practitioners to some of the standard terminology used frequently in the context of text editing and proofreading – in their own language. For many years, writing academic books in indigenous languages has been considered impractical and impossible because of the dominance of English and an unprecedented devaluation and marginalisation of African languages on the ill-perceived grounds that they are inferior to the so-called languages of civilisation and enlightenment. This article argues that African intellectuals are able to use translation to contribute to the decolonisation process of the mental realm and the intellectualisation of African languages (Alexander 1990).
dc.faculty	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
dc.identifier.citation	Buthelezi, Z.G. 2021. Translating and adapting an academic textbook from English to isiZulu: a case of the intellectualisation of a target language. Alternation: Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Arts and Humanities in Southern Africa, 38b, pp.602-636.
dc.identifier.issn	2519-5476 (online)
dc.identifier.issn	1023-1757 (print)
dc.identifier.other	https://doi.org/10.29086/2519-5476/2021/sp38a26
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10530/58955
dc.inproceedings	issn
dc.issuenumber	38b Special edition
dc.keynote	issn
dc.language.iso	en
dc.pages	602 - 636
dc.peerreviewed	Yes
dc.publisher	Centre for the Study of Southern African Literature and Languages
dc.subject	African indigenous languages
dc.subject	Decolonisation
dc.subject	Intellectualisation
dc.subject	Hermeneutic motion
dc.subject	Culture
dc.subject	Translation and adaptation
dc.subject	Academic books
dc.subject	Text editing
dc.title	Translating and adapting an academic textbook from English to isiZulu: a case of the intellectualisation of a target language
dc.title.journal	Alternation: Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Arts and Humanities in Southern Africa
dc.type	Journal Article
dspace.entity.type	Publication
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