News / National
Premier Services caught up in isiNdebele spelling storm
22 Jun 2017 at 07:10hrs | Views
PREMIER Optometry Services (POS) has been caught up in an isiNdebele spelling and grammar storm after it wrote a meaningless notice in the language.
From the Shona and English translations, the message at POS premises in Bulawayo was meant to alert the public about things they should not do at the medical company's offices.
A POS worker who declined to be named said the Premier Service Medical Investments (PSMI) subsidiary posted the notice with wrong isiNdebele grammar at its branches countrywide.
The company's notice read: "ukhubema akuvunyezwa lapha . . . ucingo akuvunyezwa lapha. . . ukudla akuvunyezwa lapha" instead of "ukubhema akuvunyelwa lapha (smoking is prohibited here) . . . ucingo aluvunyelwa lapha (use of cellphones prohibited) . . . ukudla akuvunyelwa lapha (Eating is not allowed)."
The notice has English and Shona translations whose messages were correctly communicated.
The medical services company joins a list of institutions which have abused IsiNdebele in the city through misspelling and printing senseless messages while trying to communicate in isiNdebele.
Social media users yesterday took to Facebook and micro blogging site Twitter to express their disgust over the company's failure to respect isiNdebele.
"Our language is our identity. This is an insult to our identity. As large as that organisation is, they could not find a single person who speaks isiNdebele so that it could be written correctly? Either that or it was a deliberate act," commented Xolani Ndlovu on a Facebook post.
A picture of the notice has gone viral on various social media platforms with others using #asifuni bumbulu (we don't want nonsense) to express their displeasure on the company's failure to "respect" isiNdebele.
"So it has happened again people never learn from previous encounters disrespecting someone's language is the same as p*ss*ng in their mouth," (sic )Twitted @curateByo.
A linguist who preferred anonymity said such companies were corrupting the language.
He said companies should not assume bi-linguists are experts in translating languages and should engage professionals to translate languages.
"The source of all this is the engagement of bi-lingual translators. Speaking two languages does not qualify one to be a translator. For someone to translate a language they should be trained in that particular profession. We should not just pick someone because they claim that they can speak isiNdebele and English and ask them to do translations," he said.
Previously, social analysts have blasted the corporate world for failing to consult language speakers when coming up with texts that require translation from one language to another.
They said what the companies were doing is a violation of a people's heritage as enshrined in the constitution.
The Dr Joice Mujuru-led ZimPF was recently forced to apologise for wrong isiNdebele.
A comment could not be obtained from POS as their phone rang unanswered.
From the Shona and English translations, the message at POS premises in Bulawayo was meant to alert the public about things they should not do at the medical company's offices.
A POS worker who declined to be named said the Premier Service Medical Investments (PSMI) subsidiary posted the notice with wrong isiNdebele grammar at its branches countrywide.
The company's notice read: "ukhubema akuvunyezwa lapha . . . ucingo akuvunyezwa lapha. . . ukudla akuvunyezwa lapha" instead of "ukubhema akuvunyelwa lapha (smoking is prohibited here) . . . ucingo aluvunyelwa lapha (use of cellphones prohibited) . . . ukudla akuvunyelwa lapha (Eating is not allowed)."
The notice has English and Shona translations whose messages were correctly communicated.
The medical services company joins a list of institutions which have abused IsiNdebele in the city through misspelling and printing senseless messages while trying to communicate in isiNdebele.
Social media users yesterday took to Facebook and micro blogging site Twitter to express their disgust over the company's failure to respect isiNdebele.
"Our language is our identity. This is an insult to our identity. As large as that organisation is, they could not find a single person who speaks isiNdebele so that it could be written correctly? Either that or it was a deliberate act," commented Xolani Ndlovu on a Facebook post.
A picture of the notice has gone viral on various social media platforms with others using #asifuni bumbulu (we don't want nonsense) to express their displeasure on the company's failure to "respect" isiNdebele.
"So it has happened again people never learn from previous encounters disrespecting someone's language is the same as p*ss*ng in their mouth," (sic )Twitted @curateByo.
A linguist who preferred anonymity said such companies were corrupting the language.
He said companies should not assume bi-linguists are experts in translating languages and should engage professionals to translate languages.
"The source of all this is the engagement of bi-lingual translators. Speaking two languages does not qualify one to be a translator. For someone to translate a language they should be trained in that particular profession. We should not just pick someone because they claim that they can speak isiNdebele and English and ask them to do translations," he said.
Previously, social analysts have blasted the corporate world for failing to consult language speakers when coming up with texts that require translation from one language to another.
They said what the companies were doing is a violation of a people's heritage as enshrined in the constitution.
The Dr Joice Mujuru-led ZimPF was recently forced to apologise for wrong isiNdebele.
A comment could not be obtained from POS as their phone rang unanswered.
Source - chronicle
