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TRANSCRIPT
Elias Shakkour
Department of Linguistics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Presented at:
TSS 2012 – Vienna, Austria
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
www.uiuc.edu
Due to the fact that Arabic and English are incongruent
languages, linguistically and culturally, the translator is bound
to face difficulty in the process of translation between them.
The difficulties are likely to increase, especially when the texts
involve new terms, neologisms, lack of equivalence and other
linguistic and cultural mismatches. Most of the problems in this
field are related to scientific and technical terminology which is
the professional translator's biggest problem.
Elmgrab (2011). “Methods of Creating and Introducing New Terms in Arabic: Contributions from English-Arabic Translation.”
2011 International Conference on Languages, Literature and Linguistics. IPEDR vol. 26, p.491
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
• Linguistically, English and Arabic belong to very different
families. English is a Germanic language with heavy Latin
influences, while Arabic is a Semitic language with fewer
influences from other languages.
• Lexically, English is far more flexible than Arabic.
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noun verb adjective
noun e-mail (my friend)
shop (for clothes)
tailor (a dress)
math (teacher)
rain (forest)
love (letter)
verb (go for a) run
(first, second) take
(it’s a) go
rest (room)
fight (club)
jump (rope)
adjective (at the) ready
(I want your) dirty
(to sell) goods
better (the situation)
tidy (up a room)
clean (the table)
• Morphologically, Arabic (unlike English) is very resistant to loanwords.
English information
Spanish información
German Information
French information
Italian informazione
Polish informacja
Dutch informatie
Hebrew אינפורמציה (“informatsya”)
Arabic معلومات (“ma’luumaat”)
• “We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
-James Nicoll
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
• Unlike Arabic, English is very flexible about (metaphorically)
using everyday words, sometimes even very colloquial
words, in technical contexts.
• Examples from IT:
pop-up harvest server host
chat firewall mouse memory
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• Arabic is not as flexible:
pop-up نافذة منبثقة
harvest حصد
server خادم
host مضيف
chat دردشة
firewall جدار ناري
mouse فأرة
memory ذاكرة
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These are more or less
literal translations of the
English words, some (but
not all) of which are
actually used as Arabic
terms in IT.
• “The difficulties are likely to increase, especially when the texts involve
new terms, neologisms, lack of equivalence and other linguistic and
cultural mismatches.”
• All too often, Arabic translators and terminologists coming up with
Arabic equivalents of English terms opt for terms that are relatively
literal but may violate the criterion of transparency!
العرض القياسي
القرص الصلب
• Sometimes they strive for one-to-one correspondence and make
semantically invalid choices that may violate the criterion of
appropriateness.
نسخة
ترويج
cf. German Auftrag
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DERIVATION (االشتقاق) • Arabic has a very rich repertoire of morphological patterns
that allow for the derivation of new nouns and verbs expressing very specific meanings.
kataba (wrote) kattaba (made … write)
kaataba (corresponded with)
kitaab (book) kutayyib (booklet)
takaataba (corresponded [reflexive])
maktab (office) maktaba (library, bookstore) maktuub (letter) kaatib (writer)
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Example: َمْفَعل (maxxax)
1. T c m (food) maTcam (restaurant)
2. t H f (antiques) matHaf (museum)
3. s b H (to swim) masbaH (pool)
4. t j r (commerce) matjar (store)
5. S n c (to make) maSnac (factory)
6. T b x (to cook) maTbax (kitchen)
7. n H t (to sculpt) manHat (sculpting room?)
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ARABIZATION (التعريب) falsafa (philosophy)
faylasuuf (philosopher)
tafalsafa (philosophized)
to save – sayyava? [already used in some dialects!]
server – saariv?
to promote – parmata?
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BLENDING (النحت)
barmaa’i (amphibian)
barr = land maa’ = water
naqHara
naqHara (transliteration)
naql = transmission Harfi = literal
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• Derivation: Limited to available patterns
• Arabization: Foreign roots not necessarily
transparent
• Blending: Not very productive linguistically
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• Arabic already has tilfizyoon for “television,”
so why not virzyoon for “version”?
• In many cases, a loanword is the most
common term used by Arabic speakers even
when an alternative exists
(“tshaat,” “maykrofoon,” “raadyo,” “skaanir”)
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standard view:
(ideal view) العرض القياسي rather than (normal view) العرض العادي
[!is an example of a meaning-based equivalent (display) عرض]
promoting investment:
(encouraging investment) تشجيع االستثمار
rather than ترويج االستثمار (peddling investment)
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Although Arabizing English terms is not a
piece of cake, coping with the challenges is not
impossible: there are strategies available
which, when combined with common sense
and adherence to the linguistic and
professional principles of appropriate term
creation, can facilitate the achievement of the
task.
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Contact Information:
Elias Shakkour
Department of Linguistics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
707 South Matthews Street
Urbana, IL 61801 USA
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign