423.4.3  : PROBLEMS

The government policy, as already mentioned, is to promote Hindi as the national language of India. Therefore, it is used parallel with English for all official communication. In most cases the original texts are written in English and then translated into Hindi. The Hindi texts, thus arrived at, have a number of translation problems which create comprehension problems for their readers, making comprehension impossible at times.

There are linguistic as well as extralinguistic factors responsible for the bad translations that one normally comes across so far as the public notices are concerned. Problems related to the linguistic factors can perhaps be solved by a linguist who can develop a theory and prepare some source material to help the translator, who may be a non-linguist. Extralinguistic factors are more difficult to handle. They are more complex involving political pressures on a government and its policies. These factors can only be pointed out. Perhaps the best approach is to start out with some examples.

The following are a few texts of public notices in English along with their Hindi counterparts. The Hindi texts are phonetically transcribed. The transcriptions cover the spelling errors (in bold) made in the original Devanagari script. The IPA symbols have been marginally modified to avoid typographical inconveniences. The modified symbols are:

1. English

     Soiled currency notes and notes of slight mutilations which do not interfere with their identifications and genuine notes are freely exchangeable here. In case of complaint please contact branch manager.

     gande noT tathaa Ese noT thoRe se kaTe phaTe hõ Or un noTõ kii pramaaNiktaa kii pEhcaan m? baadhaa na ho yahaã par badle jaa sakte h?. yadii koii Sikaayat honepar kripayaa Saakhaa prabandhak se miliye.

(State Bank of India, University of Hyderabad Branch, Hyderabad)

2. English

     Please satisfy yourself before leaving the counter that the cash received by you is in order in every respect. No claim will be considered under any circumstances thereafter.

Hindi

     Kripayaa aap ye suniScit kar l? ki aapko bEnk se sahii rakam praapt huii hE kyõki uske baad is sambandh m? kisii haalat m? koii daavaa swiikaar nahi iÖ kiyaa jaayegaa.

(State Bank of India, University of Hyderabad Branch, Hyderabad)