Cultural Barriers in Translation Process

1-    WHAT IS CULTURE

Peter New Mark (1956) defines culture as the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression.

 

2-    WHAT IS TRANSLATION

Translation is a meanings making process. A good translation provides a converted version of the source language in the target language however, its focus remains on conveying the same conception keeping in view, particularly, the cultural values of the latter.

 

3-    LANGUAGE TYPES AS TRANSLATION BARRIERS

The recognition with the following three forms of any language helps us understand how a language type, which involves the role of culture, poses a hindrance in the way of proper and suitable translation.

 

3.1    UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

The words of any language which represent man-made ubiquitous objects (mirror, pen or chair) are counted as the tokens of universal language (UL). Nevertheless, the (UL) also includes such words that speak of natural objects (moon, sky or plants) or phenomena (sleep, float or die) which occur everywhere in the world. These words are easily translated because there is no involvement of culture which tends to make translation difficult.

 

3.2    CULTURAL LANGUAGE

Cultural language or dialect is generally defined as a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group. Hence, the people of one region may have specific norms, customs and rituals which may be quite different from those of other regions regarding the same event. There will be, definitely, a translation problem because the connotations of such culture specific words may need a vast explanation on the background of that cultural event.

 

3.3    PERSONAL LANGUAGE

Personal language or idiolect represents the speech habits of a particular person. It means that every person has a speech style of one’s own. A musician may compare his beloved’s hair with strings of guitar and a geographer may say that they (hair) are like clouds. Similarly, a motor mechanic rejoices when he says that her eyes shine like headlight. However, a third person, who is more inclined to compare her legs with compasses, may get confused with these comparisons. So, personal language casts a barrier in the way to easy and flexible translation.

 

3.4    CULTURAL FOCUS AS BARRIER

Cultural focus originates when a speech community focuses its attention on a particular topic and consequently gives birth to a plethora of such words or terminologies which may be quite unfamiliar to another speech community. Resultantly, this situation becomes a strong barrier against translation process because such words, new to other community, demand a vast explanation for comprehension. For instance, the English on sport- notably the crazy cricket words (a maiden over, silly mid-on, 'howzzat'), similarly, the French on wines and cheeses, the Arabs on camels.