Author: Dr. Perpetual Usenbo
Date: 20/02/2026
The paper discusses selected Ẹdo proverbs. Proverbs are fixed strings of words used to provide ready-made responses in a variety of conversational settings. Unlike other non-literal uses of language, such as idioms and collocations, proverbs take the form of statements. Using data from collections of proverbs, the study determines the extent to which one can translate proverbs from this language into another. To illustrate equivalence, the study adopted a four rank hierarchy: lexical, literal, free and figurative translation. Although proverbs are clear examples of culture-specific expressions, the analyses shows one can translate the syntactic, semantic and discourse features of these expressions. The study found two notable exceptions: differences in imagery and a lack of target language proverbs with similar connotations.
Keywords: Ẹdo, Equivalence, Features, Translation, Proverbs
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