Problems in Arabic Translation of Taboo Language in American Daily Press

Abstract

Taboo is a social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person or place. It is a common occurrence in the language and it has turned out to be so subtle that even the term taboo has become forbidden. It can be related to various elements such as body parts, sexual activities, food, the concept of death, animals, religious issues, etc. In order to avoid it for religious, political or sexual reasons, certain strategies are used. Translating taboo expressions constitutes a thorny area stands as a challenging task for the translators. Thus, cultural, social and religious constraints should be taken into consideration.The current study aims at: (1) studying the taboo in terms of its concept, purpose and types: (2) discussing what are viewed as banned expressions and what are not in Arabic. (3) Defining and analyzing the strategies employed in translating the taboo expressions to show whether the renderings are appropriate or not.To achieve the above-mentioned aims, the study hypothesizes that (1) translating taboo expressions poses problems for the translators. (2) Both English and Arabic use a variety of taboo expressions. In order to test the validity of these hypotheses, different texts from American Daily News (Foreign affairs/American spectator / liberty) have been selected randomly and translated by six subjects of M.A. holders. Through the analysis, new renderings were proposed wherever the subjects' renderings found inappropriate.The study concludes that taboo expressions are synonymous used in both English and Arabic and sometimes translators try to avoid them by using certain strategies. Finally, the study ends up with some suggestions that might help translators to understand and translate taboo expressions appropriately.