International Translation Day is celebrated during 30 September of every year. The celebration offers an opportunity to draw attention to the importance of language practitioners, especially translators, terminologists and interpreters, whose invaluable contribution to communication more often than not remains unacknowledged and unknown.
The Department realise the critical importance of translation as a tool of national importance, which serves to promote communication between government, communities, individuals, businesses and government entities. The South African government further understands that without translators, communication with its citizens would be almost impossible and on international stage, the chances of carrying out trade and solving massive international problems such as wars and mediating peace or conflict would be almost impossible.
The Department has joined forces to celebrate the International Translation Day which take place every year it on 30 September. A different theme is provided every year by UNESCO and this year’s theme is “indigenous languages and their translation.” The theme emphasizes and encourages the use of indigenous languages in translation as a means of giving them the status of economic value and of course for their survival.
UNESCO highlights the need to promote and protect indigenous languages and the rights of those who speak them. The Department is aware of the fact that losing a language is not more than just losing the mere words, but it is a loss of a particular unique cultural perspectives and narratives embodied within a language. Translators bring cultural narratives alive as they relay them to a wider, cross-cultural audience.
Translation plays a pivotal role in the development, promotion and preservation of indigenous languages, it is critical to sustainable development, inclusive governance, peace and social equity. The Department is aware that if our indigenous languages are not developed and promoted, they are in danger of being extinct and it is very important given such a forward movement in demand for translation services that itself imperils indigenous languages.
Throughout the world indigenous people are often on the margins side of the societies in which they live and without effective translations or translators, they are facing enormous difficulties or challenges in accessing services that mainstream citizens take for receive especial those who come from the rural or remote areas.
This year, International Translation Day will be commemorated by recognising the importance of indigenous languages, not just to those official languages they are, but to the rest of the indigenous languages that are rapidly losing some of its rich mosaic of cultures in an ever-increasing trend in South Africa.
The Department also engaged in the development and promotion of indigenous languages through language technologies; where it is responsible for supporting multilingualism and enhancing access to information. It does so by giving financial support to projects that develop ground breaking systems and software such as spell checkers, machine translation systems, and terminology management systems of all official languages.
Arts and Culture department further support the development and the promotion of multilingualism or the use of indigenous languages, by developing specialised terminologies and technical vocabularies in all the official languages in various domains, such as Engineering and Construction; Road Safety; Pharmaceutical; Information Communication Technology; Indigenous Plants and Animals terminology
In line with the UNESCO declaration of 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages, the Department intends to bring together various activities in the language calendar viz., International Literacy Day, International Translation Day and the International Year of Indigenous Languages, by celebrating them jointly through a Language Indaba that will be held from 3-4 October 2019 at Birchwood.
Enquiries:
Zimasa Velaphi, Head of Communications
Cell 072 172 8925
Email: zimasav@dac.gov.za
Petunia Lessing
Cell: 066 301 4645
Email: PetuniaL@dac.gov.za
