A parallel corpus as a terminology resource for Khosa: A study of strategies used to translate financial statements

Abstract

In the past, terminology development in the African languages of South Africa focused mainly on terminology lists for schools. However, using corpus-based tools, Xhosa as well as the other official African languages can now begin to develop their terminologies in scientific, technical and other fields as well. The first step towards achieving this aim is the design of a parallel corpus of English and Xhosa, a project I started three years ago comprising various translated documents from government departments at national level. In this article I provide an overview of terminology development (or the lack thereof) in Xhosa, after which I discuss the usefulness of a parallel corpus as compared to a printed dictionary. Thereafter, I identify and discuss the strategies used to translate some financial terms in a sub-corpus of English and Xhosa texts.