By
Obododimma
Oha
As science
breaks bounds and makes giant strides that shatter some myths and promote
others, the tremor is also felt in linguistics, precisely in the translation of
terms associated with the adventures
into languages like Igbo. Physicists tell us that Black Holes (initially a speculation) are in
deep space and are characterised by the sucking or pull into what is appears to
be an interminable depth. Further, there is a great radiation, as well as intense heat, in the mouth of the
hole. Every hole frightens, for we do not know what is inside. Only the visual
picture of the Black Hole photographed recently is enough to scare us and even
to believe that it must be hellfire in reality. Well, this is about
linguistics, Igbo linguistics, and how the sucking already affects the
discipline in terms of its Igbo rendition. So, I posted the following teaser on
Facebook, getting interesting responses from various experts on the science of
the text:
Igbo
metalanguage, especially on scientific matters, is just coming. There was the
initial metalanguage text but it unfortunately concentrated on terms in the
study of language. A recent project along the scientific metalanguage direction
was carried out by Herbert Igboaṅụsi, a professor of linguistics at University
of Ibadan. The book resulting from the project, titled, English-Igbo Glossary of HIV, AIDS and Ebola-related Terms (2017),
was jointly edited by Herbert Igboaṅụsị and Boniface M. Mbah. Tilting somehow
towards health, the glossary, according to the editors, has as its main purpose
“to strengthen communication between the Igbo-speaking population and the
health workers serving them. In doing this, the aim is to facilitate dialogue
by eliminating linguistic and cultural barriers.” Thus, the glossary is seen as
“the outcome of a fruitful collaboration between medical experts (medical
doctors, nurses, pharmacists and microbiologists) and language experts.” So,
the project makes a foray into making scientific/technological terms also
expressible in Igbo. But, of course, it must be acknowledged that Igbo language
experts have been looking in the direction of scientific and technological
translations, leaning on some interesting strategies which include:
(a) adoption
of local rendering or mimicking the voice of the unlettered Igbo person;
(b) naming
the scientific or technological term by a related thing in the culture, leaning
on analogy;
(c) carrying
out a lexical innovation, inventing a word from related Igbo experiences;
(d) looking
for a translation equivalent in Igbo expression; and
(e) borrowing
from other languages, including English, giving the word an Igbo outlook.
One would
like to comment further on (c) and (d) above. The case of innovation is an
interesting one. Is technology or science not a matter of breaking bounds, of
creating? Why would a lexical innovation in Igbo along this line not be
appropriate, especially where the translation equivalent cannot be found
easily? So, a term like “teknụụzụ” as an innovation invites us to do more than enjoy the humour in the morphological stitching together of the English word, “technology”
and the Igbo “ụzụ” (blacksmithing). There! Who says these are not collocates?
Moreover, they suggest, in their linguistic hybridity, the double-toned nature
of our expression of post-colonials.
Who says that
Igbo is not a facilitator in scientific or technological thinking? After all,
Google and HP have realised this, and Igbo is one language for googling, just
as I can configure my HP laptop to have the sub-dots for Igbo electronic
writing. Eureka!
Now, the
opinions of some commenters on my update on Facebook would interest us. An expert is
interested in the accommodation of some literary and metaphorical aspects of
Black Hole. So, the option “ụmị mmụọ” fascinates him. “ụmị” means “well” for
accessing or storing water in Igbo culture. If you cushion it with “mmụọ”
(literally “spirit”), you have created a collocation that resonates the
mythological. A well of the spirit is not ordinary or not the same as other
wells. It contains strange things, mysteries, and is beyond our human capacity.
In a way then, “ụmị mmụọ” is also hyperbolic. Anything “mmụọ” in Igbo is
extra-ordinary, puzzling, insurmountable, superior, and so on. That was why the
ancient Igbo saw the strange things Europeans could do (like making a plane and
flying in the air with it) and quickly concluded that “oyibo bụ mmụọ” (The
European is a spirit or is a god). I am sure that if we recall my late
great-grandfather and show him the mobile phone, he would call it a powerful
charm and conclude finally that “oyibo bụ mmụọ!” The expert that is interested
in having some elements of the metaphorical is not wrong. That near-equivalence
(in spite of the fact that we have lost something in the translation) is
consoling, helpful too. The option “ụmị mmụọ” beautifully captures the sinking
and bottomlessness of this kind of well in deep space.
Another commenter was interested in the “ụmị” idea, too, and suggested “olulu ebeghiebe”
(bottomless or endless pit). The word, “ụmị,” might give an impression that
there is a design or an agent behind it all, but “olulu” gives a slightly
different direction by not suggesting an agency. As a bottomless pit, not only
is it dangerous to fall into, but there is no hope of rescue. It is
bottomless, endless, and no rope or
drone can be of help. Perhaps this helplessness and hopelessness of the victim is
also present (though not pronounced, but
masked) in “ụmị mmụọ”. The mask is present in the word, “mmụọ.”
Another
suggestion, “ala imirimi “ (very deep depression of land) appears to
minimize the reference to danger, or to make it less frightening. I
wouldn’t use the word, “euphemize,” in describing the lexical strategy. But while “ala mmụọ” or “olulu
ebighiebi” is at the other (higher) level of amplification, “ala imirimi” is at
the lower. But both are interesting attempts at understanding and representing a
frightening natural phenomenon.
Black holes,
whether emergent from locations of “dead” planets or sites of hellfire, show us
how our languages can be thought of as endless and unstable. We have to keep
inventing as we discover, and invent to discover. Only that human beings need to
tighten their belts!
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