1. 80 RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, ISSN 0975-3486, (Print), E- ISSN -2320-5482, Aug- Oct, 2013 (Combind) VOL –V * ISSUE- 47-49
Research Paper— English
Aug- Oct ,2013
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
whentherewasnodemarcationincreativeknowledge
activities. Translation was happening with the pur-
pose of enlightening the people or sharing the knowl-
edge. In some communities, it was a planned con-
scious act, whereas in some other communities it was
a by-process (it was happening in an unplanned man-
ner, it was a part of other processes of civilization).
Establishing modern English language and the nation
might not be the intention of Geoffrey Chaucer while
translating from Italian, French and Latin to English.
But his translation has made it. But if we look at the
languagemovementsthataregoingonwhereplanned
conscious effort is taking place for establishing their
identities,translationisbecomingastrongweaponfor
them.Itwillbeinterestingtosee translationinaWorld
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
means is important. In the World of Hindi speaker,
what kind of text and whose texts would be translated
is a big question, but for the second one who and what
doesnotmatter.Translationisusedfordifferentcauses
Translation behavior in the Central and Peripheral
languages: An Introductory Study
*Aditya KumarPanda
*Academic Consultant, NationalTranslation Mission Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore
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.
A B S T R A C T
Key words:central, peripheral, languages, translation inthesetwo worlds.WhatiscentraltotheHindispeaker
isperipheraltotheBodospeakerandwhatisperipheral
to the Bodo speaker is central to the Hindi speaker.We
could see the differences in translation behavior at the
peripheral languages and translation at the central lan-
guages.
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
translationsaredonefromEnglish.AfterEnglish,Ger-
manandFrenchoccupythecentral positions.Chinese,
Japanese and Arabic are major world's languages but
still they are in the peripheral position in terms of
translation.Russianhadacentralpositiontillthefallof
communism.Ideological literaturecanpushalanguage
to a central position but it may also cause its fall if the
ideology is defeated or suppressed by another. Here
"central" means, it is an internationally recognized
official language, it has its own territories around the
World, literature in ample is available in the language;
it has a large number of speakers or users etc. Most of
the languages which can be considered central are
foundinthe developedcountriesoftheWorld.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,
wecanseethatoncetheywereperipheral.Fromthiswe

2. 81RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, ISSN 0975-3486, (Print), E- ISSN -2320-5482, Aug- Oct, 2013 (Combind) VOL –V * ISSUE- 47-49
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
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
position makes the same language more communica-
tive. More translations from English and into English
havemadeEnglishaninternationallanguageforcom-
municationWorldwide.
Translationbehaviorintheperiphery:Where
translation is treated as a means to establish one's
identity, one's boundary. Here periphery means which
is at the primary stage of development, the first at-
tempts are being made for establishment.Any kind of
text can be selected for translation because here there
isaneedtoproducematerialsforenrichingthelanguage
and for the establishment of its own territory.Whether
there is a market for translation or not, is secondary in
the languages that are at the periphery. It is in the
movement towards being central. Translation creates
a space at the periphery which will concretize the
language, which will give a context to the given lan-
guage for a function. The more these contexts are
created, the more functional the language becomes.
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. Translation at the periphery is always
in need of an empowered patron who can support it
financially and politically. The languages which are
central are politically and financially well-supported.
Translationcreatesliterature,empowersthescript,and
facilitates communication in the languages. The lan-
guages which are at peripheral state may not have
developed scripts, so it is the translation from others
develop the same.
At the level of periphery, translation is one of
the options for empowerment and establishment,
whereas in the central languages it is a part of the
established systems. Translation takes part in the pro-
cess of bringing a small language towards a center
where it becomes an established part.AndTranslation
Studies, as a discipline, can be seen as an outcome of
the development of an established language.
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. Translation also changes the style of the
target language. Translation, not only contributes to
the knowledge system of a society, it also influences
the discourse and the language style of the target
language.Translationatthecenter:Herewearetalking
about translation in an established system, it has al-
ready established its territory, it has ample literature,
huge readership. Moreover what Abram says,
"The central languages are used in elementary educa-
tion and usually also at the level of secondary and
highereducation.Theyappearinprint,innewspapers,
intextbooksandinfiction,theyarespokenonradio,on
cassettes and increasingly on television. Most of them
areusedinpolitics,inthebureaucracyandinthecourts.
They are usually national 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.Itmayselecttextsthatmaysuittoitsobjectives
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.Marketisofmuchconcern
for the central languages. Before translating a book,
the publisher of these languages will think about its
marketability.Ifabookisabest-sellerinalanguage,the
publisherwillimmediatelygoforit.
Conclusion:
This is an interesting field of enquiry into the
behavioroftranslationinmajorlanguagesandin 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 pas-
sive actor but it is a force of a contestant who starts to
compete andwhoisalreadyinacompetition.Themore
theflowoftranslation,themorethelanguagedevelops.
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, GunillaAnderman, 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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