In his book Myths of Translation, Krzysztof Lipiński of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków puts forth a thought-provoking series of ideas, positing several common myths that have clouded the field of professional language translation. One of the myths Lipiński debunks is the view that some texts are untranslatable, far too linguistically and culturally entrenched to be rendered accurately in another language.
The idea of “untranslatability” has a long history and, for a time, was the fashionable view of anthropologists and linguists alike. They believed that the concepts available to people are restricted by their inventory of words. The idea of linguistic relativity, or the so-called Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, was the received opinion of language theorists throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. For the strictest apostles of linguistic relativity, if a language lacked a word for a thing, its speakers could not conceive of that thing, literally.
In the past decade, linguists have mostly jettisoned the idea of strong linguistic relativism, conceding that all human languages are capable of expressing equally complex ideas and anything that can be expressed in one language can be effectively translated into any other, even if a particular language might express some concepts differently than others. Grammar and syntax do not limit what one can say; they dictate how one must say it. Vocabulary does not determine what one can express, it merely provides the basic units with which to express it. A certified translator can render any idea in the target language, no matter how profound or mundane.
In his magnificent book, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language, John McWhorter writes, “one might reasonably contend that a First World culture… would have a grammatically ‘richer’ language, necessary to convey the particular complexities inherent to our [civilization], whereas preliterate cultures… would have ‘simpler’ languages for simpler lives.”
In fact, however, as McWhorter observes, “[I]f there is any difference along these lines, it is the opposite: the more remote and ‘primitive’ the culture, the more likely the language is to be bristling with constructions and declensions and exceptions and bizarre sounds that leave an English speaker wondering how anyone could actually speak the language…”
This fact alone emphasizes the importance of working with a certified translator. The intricacies and nuances of many languages are a challenge that few non-professionals can meet.
Nevertheless, with the right certified translator, any message, no matter how complex, can be effectively communicated to the target audience. Patients, clients, customers, and vendors can all be reached with the precise message you wish to deliver.
