Środowiskowe aspekty przekładu języków mniejszościowych
The Environmental Aspects of the Translation of Minority Languages

Author(s): Adrianna Stańczak
Subject(s): Translation Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: translation; translation studies; minority languages; language minorities; environmental protection; the environment; indigenous languages and cultures
Summary/Abstract: Language and translation are usually considered to be a solely human form of behaviour, and yet they are often and easily linked with environmental thinking, especially in the context of endangered languages and linguistic diversity. Arguments on minority language issues are often centred around their connection to their natural environment, but then they also usually betray a tourist perspective and treat minority language speakers as prisoners of their locality, living outside of modernity and mobility. Michael Cronin counters these arguments by highlighting the importance of a close relationship with one’s own local environment, and differentiating between locality and limitation. Such a close relationship with one’s surroundings does not exist in global languages, in which meaning is being lost: specific terms are replaced with more general ones, and it becomes difficult or impossible to truly perceive the specific elements of the environment that no longer have names. Minority languages are also a unique source of knowledge, especially pertaining to the various ways of taking care of land and being cared for by it. Translation, then, is not only crucial for the survival and flourishing of minority languages, but also for better protection of the environment.

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