Issues and challenges in translating indigenous languages: the case of Toba and Maká of the Gran Chaco Region (Argentina and Paraguay)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the problems of translation as a cross-linguistic and intercultural activity that involves decision-making not only on a linguistic (structural) level but also on a communicative and performative level. In order to cover these two levels, we selected, on the one hand, two grammar categories (possessive classifiers and evidentiality) in the Toba and Maka languages that encode non-referential and pragmatical meaning and may therefore pose a difficulty in the translation process, resulting in a loss of essential meaning. On the other hand, we examined two rhetorical features connected with specific discursive genres which show that Toba and Maka verbal arts have their own patterns and organization, even if they seem erratic or random. These rhetorical features are: the prosodic structure in Toba advice and the repetition of discursive connectors in Toba and Maka narratives. The theoretical concern of this work is to reflect on the language model implied in both linguistic description and translation. The analysis is based on a corpus of different oral genres we collected in face-to face encounters during fieldwork in the Gran Chaco region.