The Linguist

@Linguist_CIOL APRIL/MAY The Linguist 21 FEATURES by Marva Carty as Mae Mari'n Caru Mangos; Megan Martin translated The Royal Baker's Fiasco by Jessica Taylor and Olivia Priye as Picil y Pobydd Brenhinol and My First Animal Moves by Daryl Edwards as Fy Symudiadau Anifeiliaid Cyntaf; Rebecca Roberts translated Eve Eat Your Fruit! by Adele Palmer as Eve Bwyta Dy Ffrwythau!; and B L L Cruddas translated JoJo and the Adinkroes by Jodi Twum-Barima as JoJo a'r Adinkrarwyr and the Maths: Focus on better learning textbook as MATHEMATEG: Canolbwyntio ar ddysgu gwell. JoJo and the Adinkroes was a particularly fitting and interesting book. A comforting story about a virus coming to town, it is an educational title that cherishes and represents Ghanaian culture by including symbols and cultural references such as Akoma, meaning 'love'. All the cultural references in the source text were preserved in the Welsh translation in order to support a continuation of learning and preserve the original author's artistic integrity. The book deals with the Covid pandemic from a young boy's perspective, and Cruddas explains that it is surprisingly complex, with various cultural and lexical challenges. "Knowing that the book's main intention was essentially to foster a greater sense of relatability in a time where communication and support has become limited gave me a greater sense of responsibility to accurately reflect the emotions felt." Another area she found challenging was in reliably providing pronunciations for the Akan names of the Adinkra symbols. "Not only did this include having to carry out background research on how to correctly pronounce the names of said symbols, which included Akoma and Adinkrahene, to name a couple, I also had to be mindful of their phonetics and how this might impact their pronunciation in Welsh." Martin, who translated two titles for the project, revealed that she had learnt a lot, "including how to preserve cultural references, the importance of not localising names, and using the calque translation technique of coining new terms in the target language. This ensured that the texts stayed true to the original, whilst also reading fluently in Welsh in a way that's accessible to a wide audience." The extent to which Black people are not included within Welsh literature is evidenced by the fact that we even had to create a term for Black author. The word for Black is Du (pronounced deee), but this needs to be capitalised or it has a different meaning. The word for author is Awdur or Awduron, but Awduron Du and Du Awduron are grammatically incorrect and do not sound natural in Welsh. Following consultation with university lecturers, we capitalised the 'd' in the word for author, establishing the official translation of 'Black author' as AwDuron. The Lily Translates AwDuron Fund was a short-term solution to address the lack of representation in Welsh children's literature – a solution which I hope will produce long- term effects and help to remedy the problems we face in our society today. The majority of a child's learning takes place during the early years. Experiments such as the 'Doll Test' document how racism, and how we perceive ourselves and others, are learned behaviours which are acquired as early as four years old. 1 More contemporary research, such as the 'Elsa Effect', accounts for the negative emotional and psychological effect that occurs when children are not included in the world of the literature, animation and images they are exposed to. 2 Representation in children's literature and early years education therefore has a vital role in eradicating learned behaviours such as racism, misogyny and prejudice. I chose to write children's books in an attempt to break the stereotypes placed on girls by establishing new and positive connotations with natural features, and the Black and female identity. Notes 1 'Brown v. Board: The Significance of the "Doll Test"'; naacpldf.org 2 Dunrod, J (2022) 'The "Elsa Effect": Understanding the impact of underrepresentation and the importance of early years education', Mudiad Meithrin blog; cutt.ly/ElsaEffect DIVERSIFYING WELSH LITERATURE Jessica Dunrod presents her work at the Welsh Women of Protest Exhibition (main image); and (above) her Dy Wallt yw Dy Goron and Marva Carty's Mari Loves Mangoes

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