Arabic-L:TRANS:Translate or Transliterate Query

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 18 Mar 2002
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Translate or Transliterate Query

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1)
Date:  18 Mar 2002
From:Yaser Al-Onaizan <yaser at ISI.EDU>
Subject:Translate or Transliterate Query

Greetings all,

When translating organization names as some words might be "sounded out"
(transliterated) rather than translated. For example "The Federal Bureau
of
Investigation" is referred to in Arabic newspapers as "mktb al-tHqyqaat
al-fydraaly", but also as "mktb al-tHqyqaat al-itHaady." In one case
federal was
sounded out and in the other it was translated.  The same phenomenon
happens
when translating from Arabic to English, where  both "the Islamic Group"
and
"Gamaat al Islamiya" are found in English news stories


What basis do human translator use to decide whether a word should be
translated
or sounded out instead? Are you aware of any studies that discuss this
phenomenon?

I appreciate your help,
Yaser Al-Onaizan
Information Sciences Institute
University of Southern California

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End of Arabic-L:  18 Mar 2002