[Lexicog] Lacunae - and how to fill them

[Mali Translation]

The subject "lacunae" can be approached from different perspectives,
e.g. by asking "Lacunae - from whose point of view?"
I think theoretically it is possible that Shakespeare or Immanuel
Kant or Karl Marx can be translated into the language of the Australian
Aborigines, but is it necessary and desired?
When the desire is there, I believe in the creativity of the
human mind and the possibility of translation. I have seen the German
playwright Heinrich Kleist's play "Der Zerbrochene Krug" translated
into Bambara (the African language I am mainly working in). When I saw
the performance of the play, I was deeply touched.
When Holy Books are translated into other languages, it is inevitable
that new words are coined for concepts, institutions, cultural items
that are unknown in the receptor language. These words will enrich the
language and find their way into dictionaries.
Who can give examples of interesting word coinages and/or reinterpretations
(expanding or narrowing the semantic range) of existing words as result of
translation which have been adopted, hence effectively enriched the
language?

Fritz Goerling




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