A Strategy for Managing Differences in Dialects in Union Bible Translation in the Ila Bible Translation Project

Abstract

The Ila language has three major dialects. During the translation work of the Ila New Testament Bible, Mazwi A Leza, several Reviewers Workshops were held. Their goal was to ensure a common dialectal comprehension so that the translated text would be as ‘inclusive’ as possible. Inclusivity was a very important consideration due to the financial constraints in the Zambian and Donors perspectives. Money for Bible Translations in all the different dialects of the Ila language would be almost impossible to find. The other goal of the Reviewers Workshops was intelligibility of all the dialects of the Ila language. These are the two considerations that made a union Ila Bible a Translation Brief (TB) issue. The TB therefore became accepted as the template for translating the Mazwi A Leza Bible. During the Reviewers Workshops, each of the three major dialects represented, claimed to be the ‘original and authentic’ Ila language, and as such, each one wanted to dominate and have only its words and phrases incorporated in the Mazwi A Leza. In addition, since the launch of Mazwi A Leza, there has been a suggestion that the three major dialects of the Ila language were not well-represented in the Mazwi A Leza, and that some words and phrases used in the translation were not familiar to all the Ila speaking people. The main purpose of this study was to ensure that the Old Testament translation, currently in progress and being done on the same basis as the Mazwi A Leza, once completed, will be inclusive of all the Ila speaking communities. This study endeavored to investigate and understand how best to manage the phenomenon of different dialects in the Ila language. It desired to establish what is common in the different dialects, so that this could be used to the benefit of the current ongoing Old Testament and future Bible translation works in the Ila Language. The study took place in the fourteen different geographical areas located in the three districts of the Ila speaking community. Since this Dissertation sought to explore how to effectively manage the different dialects in the Ila language, the Ila community was an integral part of the study. The resulting Old Testament translation work must be inclusive of the three major dialects of the Ila language, so that none of the readers belonging to any one dialect will be disadvantaged in any way. This study was mainly a qualitative one, as such, qualitative methods such as Interviews/Discussions were used in carrying it out.

Quantitative methods, such as Questionnaires, were used at a secondary level and in support of the qualitative methods. In addition, a randomly selected text from Matthew (8:1-8) was extracted from Intesitamente Impiya and Mazwi A Leza a analysed by the respondents for inclusivity, intelligibility and comprehension. At the end of the study, the data collected was coded, assigned meaningful titles and tabulated accordingly. The data was finally interpreted and major themes, patterns and relationships were summarized and linked to the hypothesis, research aims and objectives accordingly. The findings were that the Mazwi A Leza was inclusive and has been well- received by the Ila-speaking communities because the three major dialects were all well-represented in the resulting translation. This then means that the Old Testament, which is being translated in a similar manner as the Mazwi A Leza, once completed, will be inclusive of the major dialects of the Ila language.