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International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, ISSN 0974-2832, (Print), E- ISSN- 2320-5474, Aug-Oct, 2013 ( Combind ) VOL –V * ISSUE – 55-57
Introduction:
Translation has contributed to the develop-
ment of all the modern languages. It has played a vital
role in constructing their identities. There was a time
when there was no demarcation in creative knowledge
activities. Translation was happening with the pur-
pose of enlightening the people or sharing the knowl-
edge.Insomecommunities,itwasaplanned conscious
act, whereas in some other communities it was a by-
process (it was happening in an unplanned manner, it
wasapartofotherprocessesof civilization).Establish-
ing modern English language and the nation might not
be theintention ofGeoffrey Chaucerwhile translating
fromItalian,FrenchandLatintoEnglish.Buthistrans-
lation has made it. But if we look at the language
movementsthataregoingonwhereplanned conscious
effort is taking place for establishing their identities,
translation is becoming a strong weapon for them. It
will be interesting to see translation in a World where
there is no struggle for identity and compare it to a
World where there is power struggle.
Does translation differ from the World of
harmony, peace to the World of unrest, struggle, and
rebellion? What does it do in these two worlds? One
silently goes for dissemination of knowledge, and
another's immediate need is an instrument for power.
What does translation mean to a Hindi speaker who
has an identity, a boundary, ample literary and scien-
tific materials and what does translation mean to a
Bodo speaker who doesn't have much literature and
involved in a movement of establishing BODO or
Bodoland? For the first one, translation, selection of
thetextwillbemore important,andforthesecondone,
material whether through translation or any other
meansisimportant. IntheWorldofHindispeaker,what
kindoftextandwhosetextswould betranslated isabig
question, but for the second one who and what does
not matter.
Research Paper
Aug- Oct, 2013
Translation behaviorin the Central and Peripheral
languages: AnIntroductoryStudy
* Aditya KumarPanda
* Academic Consultant, National Translation Mission, Central Institute of Indian Languages ,Mysore-
A B S T R A C T
Translation, a phenomenon, can be observed how it behaves in the central languages and how it behaves in the peripheral
languages of the World. Broadly, central languages are the dominant major languages of the world whereas the smaller
languages are peripheral. These days, translation happens both in central as well as peripheral languages. This paper
will evaluate the behavior of translation in both.
Key words: central, peripheral, languages, translation
Discussion:
There is a report from UNESCO (in Index
Translationum) which states that the more central a
language in the World's translation system, the more
types of books are translated from this language. The
category of books in English which has already been
translated into other languages has 33 categories.
Translations from German are found in 28 categories.
ThestatisticaldataofflowoftranslationsintheWorld's
languageshasbeengiveninIndexTranslationum.The
IndexTranslationumstatesthat50to60 %ofallbooks
translations are done from English. After English,
German and French occupy the central positions.
Chinese, Japanese and Arabic are major world's
languages but still they are in the peripheral position
in terms of translation. Russian had a central position
till the fall of communism. Ideological literature can
push a language to a central position but it may also
cause its fall if the ideology is defeated or suppressed
byanother.Here"central"means,itisaninternationally
recognized official language, it has its own territories
around theWorld,literatureinampleisavailableinthe
language; it has a large number of speakers or users
etc. Most of the languages which can be considered
central are found in the developed countries of the
World. English occupies a central position in the
World's translation system.
More number of books are being translated
into English and also from English to other languages.
Once English was not enjoying this position, it was a
receptor,gradually,thankstocolonialismandempirical
expansion, industrial revolution it has become a giver
language. In the history of major World languages, we
can see that once they were peripheral. From this we
could generalize that a language to occupy a central
position, should first receive from others. Receptivity
is a criterion for a language to move towards a central
position.Variousactivitiesoftranslationcouldbeseen

2. 27SHODH, SAMIKSHA AUR MULYANKAN
International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, ISSN 0974-2832, (Print), E- ISSN- 2320-5474, Aug-Oct, 2013 ( Combind ) VOL –V * ISSUE – 55-57
as the acting forces behind the movement. The activi-
ties found in the movement from a peripheral position
to a central position and the same found in the move-
ment in the central are different and heterogeneous in
nature.Moretranslation fromalanguageinthecentral
positionmakesthesamelanguagemorecommunicative.
More translations from English and into
English have made English an international language
forcommunicationWorldwide.
Translationbehaviorintheperiphery:
Where translation is treated as a means to
establish one's identity, one's boundary. Here periph-
ery means which is at the primary stage of develop-
ment, the first attempts are being made for establish-
ment. Any kind of text can be selected for translation
because here there is a need to produce materials for
enriching the language and for the establishment of its
own territory.Whetherthereisamarketfortranslation
or not, is secondary in the languages that are at the
periphery.It is in the movementtowards being central.
Translation creates a space at the peripherywhich will
concretizethelanguage,whichwillgiveacontexttothe
givenlanguageforafunction.Themore thesecontexts
arecreated,themorefunctionalthelanguagebecomes.
One of the major feature of a major language is it has
gotmorecontextsforcommunication.Attheperiphery,
as we discussed earlier that the languages are in a
receptive state. It is the translation which enables a
language to receive more and more from others. The
languages which are at the periphery do have a space
throughtranslation forcommunicating globally.But if
weseethetranslationflowintheperipherallanguages,
it gets more from others than it gives.
Translation at the peripheryis alwaysin need
ofan empowered patron whocan supportit financially
and politically. The languages which are central are
politicallyand financiallywell-supported.Translation
creates literature, empowers the script, and facilitates
communicationinthelanguages.Thelanguageswhich
are at peripheral state may not have developed scripts,
so it is the translation from others develop the same.
Translation in the language that is at the pe-
riphery is always in search of a model. In style and
formats, rules, it is always imitative. In most of the
developed Indian languages, translation has followed
mostly Western's style and approaches of translation.
And now the other developing Indian languages are
following the style and rules of developed Indian lan-
guages.Translationalso changes the style ofthe target
language. Translation, not only contributes to the
knowledge system of a society, it also influences the
discourseand thelanguagestyleofthetarget language.
Translation at the center: Here we are talking about
translation in an established system, it has already
established its territory, it has ample literature, huge
readership. Moreover what Abram says,
"The central languages are used in
elementary education and usually also at the level of
secondary and higher education. They appear in print,
in newspapers, in textbooks and in fiction, they are
spoken on radio, on cassettes and increasingly on
television. Most of them are used in politics, in the
bureaucracy and in the courts. They are usually na-
tional languages and quite often the official languages
of the state that rules the area."[Abram, 2002].
Now the selection of the text will be conser-
vative. Itmayselect textsthat maysuitto its objectives
or it may prefer some author's texts for ideological
reasons. Why Marx has been translated into more no
of established languages when they are not at the
peripherybutatthecenter?Marxcanalsobetranslated
at the periphery without having the same reason for
which the established might have gone for. The
languageatthecenterhasgotmorenumberofcontexts
forcommunicationanduse.Marketisofmuch concern
for the central languages. Before translating a book,
the publisher of these languages will think about its
marketability.Ifabookisabest-sellerinalanguage,the
publisher will immediatelygo for it.
Conclusion: This is an interesting field of
enquiry into the behavior of translation in major lan-
guages and in smaller languages. Translation creates
a space where a major language communicates to the
smaller languages and vice versa. Here translation
cannot be seen as a passive actor but it is a force of a
contestant who starts to compete and who is already
in a competition. The more the flow of translation, the
more the language develops.
1 Heilbron, Johan.2010, Structure and Dynamics of the World System of Translation. UNESCO
2 Gentzler, Edwin. 2008, Translation and Identity in the Americas. Routledge
3 House, Juliane. English as Lingua Franca and its influence on Discourse Norms in Other Languages. 2010, Translation Today:
Trends and Perspectives, Gunilla Anderman, Margaret Rogers, eds. Multilingual Matters: England
4 Crystal, David.1997, English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5 Swaan, Abram de.2001, Words of the World: The Global Language System, Polity
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