2026 Volume 46 Pages 19-30
This paper aims to analyse the socio-cultural context and functions of linguistic taboos (such as fart, euphemised as ‘release air’) in Mubako, language of the Bali Kumbat people in the North West region of Cameroon, and explain their implications for translation. The study stems from the background that taboo linguistics is an essential element of language use in society and understanding its operational dynamics is critical for language learners and professional language mediators, including translators. The dataset comprises sensitive language, including taboo words and expressions, most of which have established euphemisms. Taboo expressions are collected from six purposively selected Mubako speakers with the help of unstructured interviews, and analysed qualitatively. According to the data, Mubako linguistic taboos are classified as decorum-related, morality-related, fear-related and religion-related. Findings reveal that religion-related taboos constitute the highest number of linguistic taboos in Mubako and they do not have euphemistic alternatives like the other three categories. Translating Mubako linguistic taboos can contribute significantly to the development and promotion of the Mubako language by increasing its societal uses. However, such translation is challenged by lexical, syntactic, semantic, and paralinguistic constraints, which require selected approaches, especially foreignisation strategies such as borrowing, literal translation, transference, and notes.
