The Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Research Programme through the Translation Hub has written and compiled a Chichewa medical dictionary, to bridge the language barrier between researchers and communities.

The work, led by Fanny Kapakasa, Senior Translation and Transcription Coordinator, is the culmination of years of hard work and extensive research.

Kapakasa says: “The proposal to compose the Medical Terms Dictionary: Mawu a za Chipatala was made in 2014 by Dr. Nicola Desmond who was the then lead of the MLW Behaviour and Health group, in response to the need for ethically, orderly, consistent and uniform translation of research documents.  This was also to ensure there was a compilation of culturally acceptable vocabulary of often complex medical terms from English to Chichewa, and availability of publications to support this work.”

Unique Features & Contributors

The Medical Terms Dictionary includes equivalent translations and definitions of the terms and phrases. There are cross-references: linking related terms to each other. The dictionary covers various medical fields, such as diseases, anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology, and genomics. The terms are also arranged in Alphabetical order and the last section has translations of Abbreviations commonly used in the health sector.

The dictionary has extensive terminology, mostly extracted from the studies conducted within MLW and contributed by other stakeholders.

Key partners included Dr. steven Paas, a linguistics consultant, who also contributed to the dictionary through a submissions from his collections of medical terminologies, mainly – with Oxford University Press’s explicit permission – from the Oxford Chichewa Dictionary, which he developed (www.chichewadictionary.org and https://translate.chichewadictionary.org)

Paas further collaborated in the project from a lexicographical angle, by arranging the entries under notation symbols indicating nouns and their classes, verbs, adjectives, etc.

Access and Future Plans

The dictionary is currently available via the intranet, and there is no charge to it.

Going forward, the dictionary will be launched nationally. “Launching the English-Chichewa Medical Terms Dictionary will be an exciting milestone. We would also like to develop versions of the medical dictionary in other languages spoken in Malawi such as  Tumbuka and Yao to cater to a broader audience nationwide,” explains Kapakasa.

According to Kapakasa, the authors recommend ongoing reviews and updates every two years to ensure the dictionary reflects updated medical advancements.

“Additionally, we would welcome incorporating AI-driven solutions such as text-to-speech, and speech-to-text, and partnering with education institutions, different health sectors, research institutions and communities,” she said.