The Translation of Names for Unclean Birds in Kambera (Eastern Sumbanese)

Numbering no more than 200,000 speakers, Kambera, the language of the eastern region of the island of Sumba, is one of the few minority languages of Indonesia that has been provided with a translation of the Old Testament. The special interest of this paper concerns the translation of animal names in Kambera and more particularly the names of the unclean birds named in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Through a detailed review of the Kambera names selected and with reference to the available ethno-ornithological literature, an interpretation is offered of the strategies apparently followed by the translators, largely with reference to the general approaches known as “dynamic” and “formal” equivalence. Consideration is further given to the apparent influence of translations in Indonesian, Dutch, and other European languages and to apparent lacunae in their knowledge of local avifauna and bird nomenclature.