Hybrid languages and their translations in the light of postcolonial translation theories: Camfranglais example

ABSTRACT Hybrid languages hold a significant place in the multicultural countries, especially in formerly colonized nations. Individuals who are from formerly colonized countries speak hybrid languages, and they produce art and literature in hybrid languages. Citizens of formerly colonized nations are usually fluent in both their own language and the language of the colonizer because they have a multilingual education system. They are also multicultural as they are exposed to both their own culture and the culture of the colonizer. This situation gives them a chance to create a whole new language by using the language of the colonizer. They also create a third culture and by doing that they make the colonizers foreigners to their own languages and cultures. This is how they show the colonizer that the tables now have turned, and they have the upper hand. These colonized individuals represent their identities through the hybrid languages and cultures. Camfranglais, a hybrid language which is spoken in Cameroon, is an impeccable example. In 1970s young people of Cameroon started to use Camfranglais to be able to keep secrets from their parents and since then it became a commonly used language. In today's Cameroon writers and artists use Camfranglais as a tool for resistance against the colonizer. Peter Wuteh Vakunta is one of the writers who uses Camfranglais in this poetry. In this dissertation, his translations from Camfranglais to English will be discussed and as the case study of the dissertation, one of his poems will be translated into Turkish. For the theoretical framework views of scholars such as Antoine Berman, Lawrence Venuti, Gayatri Spivak, Tejaswini Niranjana, Samia Mehrez, Edward Said and Frantz Fanon will be discussed in the dissertation. One of the main objectives of this dissertation is to shed a light on the importance of hybrid languages for formerly colonized nations and why it is important to translate the works which have been written in hybrid languages such as Camfranglais. Translation can give the citizens of formerly colonized nations a chance to make their voices heard from all around the world, translation can shape the future, and can be used as a tool of resistance. One of the other objectives of this dissertation is to question the possibilities of translation of hybrid languages and try to construct a strategy to translate a hybrid language into Turkish. Key Words: Translation, literature, Camfranglais, Post-colonialism, Hybrid languages, colonization.