You are on page 1of 2

Etymology of Translation

Etymology – is the study of the origins of a Rosetta Stone, bearing the first known bilingual
word text.

Translation – is the comprehension of the - Widely recognized icon for the


meaning of a text and the subsequent practice of historic role of
production of an equivalent text , likewise translation.
called a “translation”, that communicates
the same message in another language. A BRIEF HISTORY OF TRANSLATION

Source Text - the text that is translated • In Atinquity

Target Language – the language that is – The translation of the Hebrew


translated into Bible into Greek in the 3rd
century BCE is regarded as the
“The product is sometimes called first major translation in the
the target text” Western world.

- Etymologically, translation is “ “Septuagint”- a name refers to


carrying across” or “bringing seventy scholars
across”
- The Latin translatio derives from – Cicero - a translator from Greek
the perfect passive participle to Latin, cautioned against
translatum, of transfero (”I transfer translating “word for word”
“-from trans, “across”+ fero, “I (“verbum pro verbo”)
carry” or “I bring”).
– St. Jerome - “sense for sense” -
- The modern Romance languages
“Vulgate”
use words for translation derived
from that source or from the  In the Middle Ages
alternative Latin traduco ("to lead
across"). The Germanic (except – Latin was the lingua franca of
Dutch) and Slavic languages the Western world throughout
likewise use calques of these Latin the Middle Ages.
sources.
- Additionally, the Ancient Greek – The first “fine” translations into
term for “translation”, μετάφρασις English were produced by
(metaphrasis, “ a speaking across”), Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th
has supplied English with century.
metaphrase ( a literal translation”,
– The “finest” religious
or “word-for-word” translation) – as
translation was the “Wycliffe’s
contrasted with paraphrase (“a
Bible” (1382-84), from Latin to
saying in other words”, from the
English.
Greek παράφρασις, paraprhasis”
 In the 15th century
Metaphrase =“formal equivalence”
– A “fine” work of English prose
Paraphrase = “dynamic equivalence” was Thomas Malory’s “Le
Morte d’Arthur” (1485), a free
translation of Arthurian
romances on the legendary King and idiom. A “transparent” translation
Arthur and his literary is often qualified as “idiomatic” (source:
companions Guinevere, Wikipedia).
Lancelot, Merlin and the
Knights of the Round Table.  In the 18th century
 In the 16th century
– Johann Gottfried Herder said that a
– The “Tyndale New Testament” (1525) translator should translate towards
was regarded as the first great Tudor (and not from) his own language
translation (William Tyndale)
– Throughout the 18th century, the
– Martin Luther “Luther Bible” translated watchword of translators was ease of
reading.
the Bible into German in his later life
(1522-34)  In the 19th century

– Jakub Wujek Bible” (“Biblia Jakuba – For accuracy, the policy became “the
Wujka”) in Polish (1535) and the “King text, the whole text, and nothing but
James Bible” in English (1604-11) the text (except for bawdy passages)

– Yan Fu – faithfulness, expressiveness,


– The Bible was also translated into
elegance
Dutch, French, Spanish, Czech and
Slovene  In 20th Century
- Other translators still consciously
 In the 17th century produced literal translations
- A new discipline named “Translation
– Miguel de Cervantes, a Spanish novelist Studies” appeared
known all over Europe for his novel - Coined by James S. Holmes
“Don Quixote” (1605-15) - from Translation Studies to concentrate
on the practical and pedagogical aspect
– “Faithfulness” and “transparency” were of interpreting
better defined as dual ideals in
In 21st Century
translation
- Translation Studies have become an
– “Faithfulness” was the extent to which academic interdiscipline
a translation accurately renders the - The internet has fostered a
meaning of the source text, without worldwide market for translation
distortion, by taking into account the and localization services, and for
text itself (subject, type and use), its translation software
- To be a translator is a profession,
literary qualities, and its social or
and implies a thorough knowledge
historical context. “Transparency” was of the subject matter.
the extent to which the end result of a
translation stands as a text of its own
that could have been originally been
Prepared by:
written in the language of the reader,
and conforms to its grammar, syntax Lopez, Faizal B.

You might also like