Are Translators Really Subservient? Empirical Evidence from Lexical Transfer and Language Prestige in Curaçao

This paper examines whether translator subservience is generalisable among translators. Taking professional Curaçaoan Papiamentu translators as a case study built on a much larger work, the research looks at issues of subservience from the perspective of agency in the English-to-Papiamentu lexical transfer process and at the influence of language prestige. The results show instances in which the translators reported more lexical transfers than did the non-translators. The results also reveal an overlooked translator agency in the process rather than translator subservience, in view of the fact that in this process they are on the “frontline”, pre-empting whatever decisions the official language planners make.