Grammatical Rift and Cultural Lacuna: Constraints on English-Hausa and Hausa-English Translation

Abstract

The issue of translation is an important aspect of interaction and communication. Since 
societies, cultures and languages are not the same, there is the need for effective and efficient
translation so as to successfully achieve the desired objective of communication. This is with 
the view to bridging the communication barrier through translation. But this translation is 
shrouded with multiple complexities across languages. Some of the challenges are associated 
with the grammar and its cultural manifestations. This paper attempts an in-depth analysis of 
Hausa–English and English–Hausa translation of some concepts and terminologies with the 
view to demonstrating the difficulties in direct translation. The paper centers on International 
Media dealing with Hausa-English, English-Hausa translations, specifically, BBC, VOA, and 
related international broadcasting corporations and National dailies. This is further 
corroborated with field work on special vocabularies of Hausa figures of speech, proverbs; 
praise-epithet was carried out, particularly across Hausa popular culture.