The term Allah is a term that quite often evokes strong negative emotions in the Western world. Since both the Bible and the Qur’an are being translated into Talysh, it is worth evaluating what term to use for God, and whether it would have a negative effect or not to use the term Allah in these translations. Suggestions are made from a Western point of view that Tanrı, a Turkish term for God, would be a better term touse than Allah, as the term for the word God in translations of the Bible. The Qur’an aswell as some Bible translations use the term Allah, which is one of the most common terms for God in the greater Turkic-speaking world in several languages. Should the Talysh Bible translation follow suit to make the translation culturally more acceptable?Die verstaan en die gebruik van die term Allah as ‘n term vir God in Bybel- en dieKoranvertalings, met spesifieke verwysing na die Talysh sprekers in Azerbaijan. Die term Allah is een wat altyd baie sterk negatiewe emosies uitlok in the Westerse wêreld. Aangesien die Bybel sowel as die Koran op die oomblik in Talysh vertaal word, is dit betekenisvol om te evalueer watter term vir God gebruik moet word, en of die gebruik van die term Allah enige negatiewe uitwerking op die vertalings sal hê aldan nie. Sekere mense vanuit ’n Westerse wêreldbeskouing reken dat dit meer aanvaarbaar sal wees om die term Tanrı in Bybelvertalings te gebruik as die term Allah. Die Koran sowel as sekere Bybelvertalings in die groter Turks-sprekende area gebruik die term Allah. Allah is een van die mees algemene terme vir God in verskeie tale in daardie area. Moet die Talysh Bybelvertaling ook die voorbeeld navolg en Allah in hulle vertaling gebruik om dit kultureelmeer aanvaarbaar te maak of nie?

This article focuses on the way respect is shown by using 2 nd person personal pronouns in languages that distinguish between you plural (you all), you honorific (polite) and you singular (familiar) forms. it discusses the likely influence of the well known rus sian synodal Translation on other translations in the former soviet union regarding the usage of the 2 nd person personal pronouns. This article also highlights by way of comparison how Afrikaans and other Western translations use the 2 nd person personal pronoun. Problems often arise when the original languages are followed too literally without taking into account the target culture, or due to the translators' perception of the social status of the engaging referents. issues discussed and principles drawn from this study not only apply to the russian world, but also influence all translations that have a set of 2 nd person personal pronouns that distinguishes between 2 nd person singular, plural and polite forms. 1. inTroducTion "you can say you to him" does not make much sense. however, it could make sense in some languages that distinguish between formal and informal 2 nd person personal pronouns. The quote refers to an interpreted conversation between a german and an englishspeaking person. The germans wanted to move from a formal to an informal level of addressing each other. The inter preter was meant to say: "you (formal) can say you (informal) to him" (elling worth 2002:143). russian, Afrikaans, dutch, german, french, finnish, and so on distinguish between you plural, you polite and you singular but they do not all express respect, formality or intimacy in the same way. When addressing god and Jesus, russians, germans, finns, and so on would use the singular intimate form. Afrikaans and dutch, on the other hand, would address god in a formal way, using the polite (plural) form.

An alphabetic acrostic lament Laments date back to the start of mankind and are known among all peoples, languages and nations. Laments are often spontaneous and unstructured, but sometimes they are structured in poetic form. The biblical book of Lamentations is structured according to the alphabet. The alphabetic framework that forms the foundation of the book indicates that it has a cognitive advancement/build up, and consists of a logically-anticipated inception/beginning and conclusion. It starts with the first letter of the alphabet and concludes with the last. According to Jewish rabbis the alphabetic acrostic structure indicates that the lamentation was completed in full – from start to finish. With the constant development of Afrikaans a need exists for a contemporary Afrikaans Bible translation. This article is an attempt to present the book of Lamentations in a contemporary alphabetic acrostic Afrikaans translation. The message and structure of the book form a cognitive unit that must be preserved as much as possible. A cognitive unit indicates that the reader anticipates the logical build-up and it makes sense to him/her. The acrostic structure is considered to be not only an inherent part of the poem itself, but it could also be insightful and illuminative to the reader.

The influence of the translator’s loyalties and underlying translation philosophy on the translation choices, with reference to the Afr2020 Bible translation. When the reader looks a little deeper than the initial superficial ‘Revised’ Old Translation impression that reading the Afrikaans 2020 translation gives you, then one realizes that a great deal of effort had to be put into leading such a large group of diverse translators to understand the essence of a direct translation and to be able to apply it consistently. But it is precisely here that problems can arise. Due to the nature of skopus and the style of the Afrikaans 2020 translation, this direct translation can be categorised on the side of the more literal translations and it thus has a very high percentage of agreement with the 1953 Old Afrikaans translation. If the direct translation is not just another name or a revision of the so-called word-for-word translation, then what is this direct translation? Van der Merwe referring to this translation also touches on this issue when he says: ‘a ‘direct’ translation of the Bible is not new jargon for a word-for-word translation of the Bible. It is an attempt to ‘interpretively resemble’ in good idiomatic Afrikaans all the communicative clues of the source text in the contexts construed for the source text audience’. This underlying fundamental premise brings a lot of tension to the fore. Van der Merwe also confirms this (2014:294) by stating: ‘attempts to translate ancient texts directly (is) an almost impossible ideal (to) pursue’.Contribution: This study evaluated the Afrikaans 2020 translation according to its own criteria, the translation brief and to its self-proclaimed nature as ‘direct’ translation in order to try to make an objective evaluation and assessment of this great work. This process also pointed out where the loyalties of the translators lie, and what the underlying translation philosophy is, and how difficult it is to make a distinction between the direct translation method and using archaic words and terms.