Translating the Cultural-Specific Concept ‘manna’ into West Bengal Sign Language

Key: WBSL – West Bengal Sign Language in India.

Bible translation is a dynamic and multifaceted field that incorporates linguistic, cultural, and theological factors to ensure the translated text's accuracy, consistency, and naturalness. Spoken languages rely on verbal expressions and context, on the other hand, Sign languages must visually convey both explicit and implicit meanings, requiring creative strategies to maintain the original text's intent. It can be challenging to effectively transmit culturally unique references, concealed meanings, and metaphorical language in sign language, particularly in the Old Testament. Since faithfulness to the original text and the intended audience are both involved, the idea of loyalty in Bible translation goes beyond linguistic accuracy. The study examines how to bridge linguistic and conceptual cultural gaps and analyses the strategies and decisions that translators made while translating the cultural-specific term "manna" from Exodus 16:31 into West Bengal Sign Language. This study examines the translation strategy to comprehend the culturally specific concept of ‘manna’ by West Bengal Sign Language translators and the amplified approach (based on dynamic equivalence theory) they used to handle such a situation.