Challenges of Getting Lexical Equivalents in Interpreting Religious messages: Case study of Public Religious Meetings in Bondo Town-Kenya

Abstract

Interpretation plays an important role in religious meetings where those in the audience speak different languages. However some interpreters face serious challenges in their attempt to interpret the messages from one language to the other. This paper discusses some difficulties of lexical nature in interpreting religious messages in Bondo town in Kenya. The main objective of the study was to establish challenges in translation during religious meetings where English and Luo languages were used. Data was collected by taping the messages during the meetings. These were then transcribed and analyzed to establish whether the lexical items in the interpreted message gave the accurate message that the orator intended to put across to the audience. The analysis showed that a number of lexical items used did not give the accurate message the orator intended to pass to the audience. This distorted the message in a number of cases.