Culture-bound words/

Realia Translation

Culture has always implicitly or

explicitly figured in the TR
Culture-bound words refer
culture of a certain nation or people.
Texts cannot be analysed outside
their socio-cultural contexts
TR implies both
linguistic and extra-linguistic
mediation.

 H.

Vermeer
the translators task is
to introduce into a society and
its literary tradition new aspects
of the world,
thus enriching the TL.

 Culture

-an important element in

translation studies
that should be taken into
consideration thoroughly by those
who deal with culture-bound texts.
besides proper nouns
they include objects, places,
institutions, habits restricted to a
given culture.

 Realia"

has its origins in Latin,

the word is a plural of "realis" (real),
the word signifies the objects of the
material culture.
Entering the field of translation studies,
"realia" does not mean objects,
but signs/words signifying objects of the
material culture,
especially pertaining to a local culture.

It is necessary to distinguish
realia-objects (outside translation
studies) and
realia-words (inside translation
studies).
Vlahov and Florin's research is
precious,
the definition the 2 Bulgarian
scholars give to "realia" :

 Words

(and composed expressions) of

the popular lg representing
denominations of objects, concepts,
typical phenomena of a given
geographic place, of material life or of
social-historical peculiarities of some
people, nation, country, tribe, that for this
reason carry a national, local or
historical color;
these words do not have exact matches
in other lgs.

 Geographic

realia
physical geography and
meteorology objects: steppe,
prairie, tornado, tsunami;
denominations of endemic
species: kiwi, koala,
Abominable Snowman, yeti,
Galpagos iguana, heryomuha.

Ethnographic realia -words

signifying notions of everyday life and
culture of peoples, forms of material
and spiritual culture, customs, religion,
art, folklore.
Everyday life: shchi, paprika, pie,
spaghetti, cider, sauna, drugstore;
kimono, sari, mocassin, lapti,
sombrero, jeans; izb, yurt, igloo,
troika, cab, gondola;

work: brigadeer, farmer, kolkhoz,

rancho, latifundium, brigade,
art and culture: kazachok, blues;
balalaika, chastushki; ikebana;
minstrel, geisha, carnival,
Ramadan, May Day, Hanukah,
Thanksgiving; Santa Claus,
vampire, zhar-ptitsa, baba yag,
flying carpet, lama, shaman;
synagogue, babe leto;

 ethnic

objects : Bantu, Coptic,

Cossack, totonaki, basque;
cockney, gringo, gorilla, yankee;
measures and money: arshin,
foot, mile, yard, hectar, acre,
quarter; ruble, dollar, kopek, lira,
dinar, peseta.

Political and social realia

regional administrative agencies:
region, province, department, county,
canton, princedom; aul, hutor, Kremlin,
organisms and offices: forum; people's
assembly, duma, senate, chamber,
congress, municipality, ispolkom, High
chamber; chancellor, khan, czar,
pharaoh, lord, sheriff, vizier, ataman,
mayor;

 social

and political life:

westernizers, Red Crescent; lobby,

Bolshevik, Sir, Ser, Madame, Five-year
Plan, college, campus; nobility,
Samurai, Barin, Mujik; red flag, fivepointed star.
military

realia: legion, cohort,

horde; carabina, katyusha; general,

marshal, commando, guerrilla, ataman,
dragon.

Strategies for rendering realia

1.Cultural Borrowing
1.1 Transcription -transmission of
sounds of a foreign lg using the letters
of the alphabet of the receiving culture.
Russian: "Guardian" -; knowhow -;-cultural borrowing
Wall Street Journal as
or -,
genocide .

 1.

2. Transliterarion -transmission of

letters of a foreign word using the letters

of the alphabet of the receiving culture.
Russian: the tomahawk-tomagavk,
Toponyms/charactonyms are rendered
in such a way into Ro: New York,
Washington, Chicago, California, David,
Mike, Guru (a spiritual teacher in
Hinduism).
lei, sorocovat, euro, dolar

 Russian:
Transliterarion

and Transcription:
"Herald Tribune- -the
first word is rendered by means of
transliteration while the second one
transcription;
"Christian Science Monitor"-
- the first 2transcription , the 3rd word
transliteration.

2. Calque/loan translation -the ST

word or phrase into the TL literally.
Pedersen-this strategy could hardly be
used on proper names, but it is not
uncommon for rendering
the names of companies, official institutions,
technical gadgetry.
ginger beer - / berea de
ghimbir
New England - / Noua Anglie
Labor Day - / Ziua Muncii

Ru: skyscraper -neboskreb,

backbencher- ,
shuttle diplomacy- ,
White House- ,
Thanksgiving Day - .
Ro:
skyscraper- zgarie-nori.
White House-Casa Alba.
New Years plough pluguorul(peasant
custom)+explicitation,
Thanksgiving Day -Ziua Recunotinei.

 4.

Half-calques:
German Dritte Reich is in Ru: tretij
rejh,
in En:Third Reich, in Ro: al Treilea
Reich.
5. Appropriation -adaptation of
foreign realia: a word in the TL is
created that fundamentally is worn
over the frame - even from a phonemic
point of view - of the original word.

 In

Norse mythology,
a valkyrie (from Old Norse valkyrja
"chooser of the slain")
is one of a host of female figures who
decide which soldiers die in battle and
which live.
German Walkre,
"valchiria" (Italian),
Valkyrie (English),
valkirija (Russian).

6. Cultural Adaptation
replacing the unfamiliar with familiar.
R. Leppihalme transferring the
connotations and association of the realia
element by using TC functional equivalents,
thus choosing domestication over
foreignisation
Brandy k/coniac
Both brandy and cognac is an alcoholic drink
produced by distilling grape wine.
cognac is governed by strict laws in France,
brandy is more loose in its methods

 Cultural

adaptation
Words/phrases in both lg versions have
similar connotative and denotative
meanings
Lassi- popular and traditional yogurtbased drink of the Indian subcontinent.
a banana lassi -
/iaurt de banane
Coliv cornmeal dish, rzi -freeholders
Mamaliga -mashed corn

 8. Approximate

translation (Vlahov

and Florin)
to translate Realia in a vague way,
the color is nearly always lost,
instead of the connotation prescribed by
the author's strategy,
an expression necessarily deprived of
that intended connotation,
having a neutral style.

 8.1.

Substitution with a generic

expression of broader meaning
is resorting to the translation
principle of generalization.
I prefer dry wine or borzhomi.
I'd like something lighter: some
narzan or lemonade.
"mineral water".
Walkman .

 8.2.

Substitution with a functional

analogue-the substituted element
arouses a similar reaction in the TC
reader to the one aroused by the ST
on the SC reader.
A Neapolitan mandolin can become
a Western-American banjo.
Mile-kilometer, dollars-lei or roubles.

 8.3.

Description/explanation
instead of realia, a periphrasis is used
explicitating the denotative content.
Russian armyak -"rough cloth coat",
kulebyaka -"dish of filled pastry",
baby-sitter- who looks after a child.
Sahib- is a South Asian term of respect
and means master;
mocani wealthy sheep-rearing
Transylvanian peasants.

 Explicitation

-making info that is

implicit in the ST explicit in the
TT.
Island City- Mumbai -
/ oraul de pe
cele apte insule
the translator reveals the implicit
meaning.

When

the Israelis invaded

Lebanon, we made a stand at
Shatila.

,

/lagarul Shatila.

 8.4

Contextual translation of the realia.

Realia are substituted with words that
explain the sense of such a collocation.
Instead of translating the lexical
meaning, the systemic, relational
meaning is translated,
Putyovka na sovetskij kurort
Accommodation at Soviet spas
this word has no 'analogue' in cultures
outside the Russian-Soviet one.

 9.

Deletion---the meaning of
the source cultural term is too
obscure and the translator
does not know it.

...scoate vornicul din sat

pe oameni la o clac de dres
drumul.

the mayor ordered the

villagers out to repair the road

band of dacoits, or armed bandits,

settled in the area and began to demand
tributes.

,
.
Dacoit -denoting a robber, especially a
member of an armed gang.

 10.

Addition - (footnote, endnote,

glossary, commentary):
"We're going to stay at an
ashram," his friend announced.
"It's run by the Rajneeshis, at
Poona. It's the best ashram in the
country."

, .
.

 ashram

(a religious retreat or
community where a Hindu holy man
lives)
Rajneeshis (people inspired by the
Indian mystic Osho).

 To consult

the explanatory
dictionaries of the TL,
as there is a bulk of realia words
that, though belong to the SL, has
already entered the linguistic system
of the TL.
they possess a certain, stable form
-fixed officially in accordance with
the phonetic and orthographical
rules of the TL.

 The

form of the adapted realia

word into the TL can differ to a great
extent from its original form, derived
from the SL.
It can be explained by the
differences between the phonetic
systems of the SL and TL,
different alphabets and other
factors.

the accent of the translated culturebound word.

S. Florin and S.Vlahov
"while introducing a new realia in the
text, the translator would do a good
thing, if he marks at least once in the
text the stressed syllable of the realia
word".
To avoid the reader's distorted
pronunciation of the unknown word.

 The

grammatical form of realia

word is determined by the part of
speech, various grammatical
categories which it belongs to.
the main part of the realia are
nouns,
as they denominate concrete
objects, they have an exact referent.

 some

culture-bound words have to

be adjusted to the grammatical
system of the TL:
to the grammatical categories of
number, case, if they are nouns;
they can also receive certain
suffixes.

 Greek

"synagogue

1.Transliteration

of the Hebrew

word:
beit hakneset
this choice has the characteristic
of recognizing the alien element and
of providing for a specifying (neither
neuter nor generalizing) rendering.

 2.

Translating the Hebrew words beit

hakneset to reconstruct in the receiving
culture a linguistically similar form:
gathering house;
this choice has the characteristic of not
recognizing the alien element
(a "gathering house" could be in any
culture) and of providing for a neuter
(neither specifying nor generalizing)
rendering.

 3.

Creating a specific translatant for the

receiving culture, in this case:
synagogue;
this choice has the characteristic of only
partially recognizing the alien element
(the reader may not know that "synagogue"
is a Greek word deriving from Jewish
culture)
and of providing for a neuter (neither
specifying nor generalizing) rendering.

 4.

Explicitating the denotative

content:
sacred building in Jewish tradition
destined to the exercise of cult;
this choice has the characteristic of a
specifying (neither neuter nor
generalizing) rendering consisting in
explicitation, joined to the recognition
of such an element as belonging to a
given culture;

 5.

Substituting synagogue with a local

variant of this kind of element:
church (for Christian culture),
mosque (for Islamic culture),
temple (for some polytheist cultures);
this choice has the characteristic of
appropriating the alien element.
Finding a church in a Hebrew text set in
a Jewish context is in a sense a
"cultural fake",

 6.

Substituting the synagogue

with a variant of this kind of sacred
building considered 'international', the
best known in the world.
supposing that the best known
denomination is "temple", one could use
as translatant
"temple";
a generic 'international code' not typical
of a given region,

7. Adding an adjective specifying

its cultural identity:
"Hebrew temple";
this choice has the characteristic of
recognizing the alien element on
the plane of content,
although not on the formal plane,
and of providing for a neuter
(neither generalizing nor specifying)
rendering.

But committee translation has distinct

advantages, also, especially in increased
accuracy that comes from the checks and
balances process of committee work.
Vernacular translations produced under the
United Bible Societies are typically committee
translations.

Common language translation (CLT)

A common language translation is a
version of the source text which is in the
"plain", ordinary language of the average
speaker. It follows an idiomatic translation
approach. The vocabulary and
grammatical constructions are chosen
carefully to ensure that they are in
common usage by ordinary speakers of
the language. A common language
translation for English would be in Plain
English.

Dynamic translation
If a translation is dynamic we mean that the
original meaning is communicated naturally
in it, as well as accurately. Dynamic
translation contrasts with literal translation,
which often loses some of the original
meaning in its attempt to retain the form of
the original as much as possible. A dynamic
translation pays careful attention to the
natural features of the target language.

It uses a vernacular (commonly used)

vocabulary as opposed to a specialist
vocabulary of the target language. A
dynamic translation attempts to speak in
the language of the average fluent
speaker of the language. The terms
dynamic translation and idiomatic
translation are equivalent.

Essentially literal translation

The translators promote it as: an
essentially literal translation that seeks
as far as possible to capture the precise
wording of the original text and the
personal style of each writer. As such, its
emphasis is on word-for-word
correspondence, at the same time taking
into account differences of grammar,
syntax, and idiom between current
literary English and the original
languages

Thus it seeks to be transparent to the

original text, letting the reader see as
directly as possible the structure and
meaning of the original. It appears that an
essentially literal translation may have
some more natural wordings than a literal
translation, and so is easier to read.