Author(s)

Motjope-Mokhali Tankiso¹, Malaza Gcebile¹, Simelane Lindiwe²

¹Department of African Languages and Literature, University of Eswatini, Manzini, Swaziland.
²Department of Academic and Communication Skills, University of Eswatini, Manzini, Swaziland.

The majority of level three translation students at the University of Eswatini and National University of Lesotho have difficulties translating some kinship terms between English and the African languages of Siswati and Sesotho due to differences in kinship systems. This qualitative study attempts to establish the reasons for student difficulties in translating kinship terms. The study employs communicative and comparative approaches in which data were collected through document analysis of student works at the two institutions. The students were all mother tongue speakers. Target texts were analysed in the three languages and compared to their source texts. Further, Siswati and Sesotho target texts were compared. The study’s main finding was that problems in translating kinship terms amongst students were caused by their ignorance of the English kinship system and that they tended to impose their system on English. The study also found that differences in the kinship systems also create problems of equivalence for the learners. On the comparative data, the study established that both Siswati and Sesotho students were mostly unsuccessful in the translation of some kinship terms due to their linguistic differences.

Translation, Kinship Terms, Equivalence, Source Text, Target Text, Linguistic Differences

Tankiso, M. , Gcebile, M. and Lindiwe, S. (2023) The Challenges Experienced by Students of the University of Eswatini and National University of Lesotho When Translating Kinship Terms between English, Siswati and Sesotho. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 13, 874-891. doi: 10.4236/ojml.2023.136051.