English vs. Arabic Culture-Specific Concepts (CSCS) : Abstract

English Vs.
Arabic
Culture-Specific Concepts (CSCs)
Dr. Sabri Elkateb
Dept. of English - Faculty of Education
Zawia University
Abstract:
As far as translation is concerned, a deep look into Arabic and
English cultures may give rise to instances of un-translatability or loss of
meaning. The wider the gap between the source language SL and the target
language TL, the more difficult the transfer of message between them will
be. The difference between Arabic and English in the language usage and
the variation in their cultures make the process of Translation a real
challenge. Our primary concern in this paper is to look more closely at
- 227 - University Bulletin – ISSUE No.18- Vol. (1) – January - 2016.

English to Arabic Culture-Specific Concepts (CSCs) ‫ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ‬
some of the specific aspects or categories of culture which may cause

particular problems. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the variety and
complexity of the problems encountered by a translator in the translation of
cultural specific terms between English and Arabic. Theoretical and
practical implications of the problem are discussed with critical analysis
and evaluation of some problematic words and expressions along with their
suggested equivalents, translations and/or solutions. This study concludeds
that, for the translator, awareness of the complexities of differences
between cultures is a prime key for solving translation equivalence and
untranslatability issues.
Introduction:
In order to translate or reproduce the exact meaning of the original in
the translated text, translators are generally under the pressure of knowing
the culture and cultural similarities and differences of both source
Language (SL) and target language (TL). They have to bear in mind,
however, that meaning is constructed by the writers in order to be
reconstructed by their readers. “Translation is the most obviously
recognizable type of rewriting, and . . . it is potentially the most influential
because it is able to project the image of an author and/or those works
beyond the boundaries of their culture of origin. (Lefevere 1992a: 9 cited in
Munday 2012). However, anyone who has ever attempted to translate a text

Dr. Sabri Elkateb ‫ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ‬
knows that knowledge of the languages alone does not guarantee success
(Misiaczek 2005). This leads us to deeply consider other aspects that cause
failure in conveying the intended massage via translation due to
untranslateable content which is mainly cultural.
In this respect, translation theory, certainly, does not provide a set of
concrete or magic rules, which can ensure that the translator will come up
with a perfect translation. Misiaczek (2005) argues that the role of the
theory, however, is to make the translator aware of various factors which
are involved in the translation process and offer some principles and
guidelines that will help the translator to make certain decisions and
choices. Hence, translation theory must exceed the boundaries of
linguistics to other aspects that hinder the job of the translator and affect
the quality of translation.
The Cultural Turn:

Research in translation studies has moved beyond language to focus
on the interaction between translation and culture. This focus has also been
on the way culture impacts and constraints translation as well as on the
larger issues of context, history and convention. Therefore, the challenge is
to move from translation as a linguistic material or a text to translation as
culture and politics. This significant switch is called ‘Cultural Turn’ to

refer to “the analysis of translation in its cultural, political, and ideological

context” (Munday 2012). Cultural Turn became the ground for a metaphor
adopted by Bassnett and Lefevere in 1990. They attempted to move theory
beyond linguistic and drew comparative studies of source text ST and
target text TT to examine the way culture effects translation. Their work
“Translation, History and Culture takes into account the influence of the
publishing industry on ideology, discusses feminist writing, examines
translation in the context of colonization, and sees translation as rewriting”
(Hodges, 2010).
Culture-Specific Concepts:
Handling culture-specific concepts (CSCs) appears to be one of the
most challenging tasks to be performed by a translator; in other words,
culture and intercultural awareness, are far more complex phenomenon
than it may seem to the translator. Braçaj (2015) claims that the more a
translator is aware of complexities of differences between cultures, the
better a translator s/he will be.
The main concern has traditionally been with words and phrases that
are so heavily grounded in one culture that they are almost impossible to
translate into the terms –verbal or otherwise – of another. “Long debates
have been held over when to paraphrase, when to use the nearest
equivalent, when to coin a new word by translating literally, and when to

transcribe. All these “untranslatable” cultural-bound words and phrases

continued to fascinate translators and translation theorists” (Braçaj, 2015).
According to Wiersema (2004) a translator has three options for the
translation of cultural elements:
1- Adopting the foreign word without any explanation.
2- Adopting the foreign word with extensive explanations.
3- Rewriting the text to make it more comprehensible to the target-
language audience.
Graedler (2000:3) puts forth some procedures of translating CSCs:
1. Making up a new word.
2. Explaining the meaning of the SL expression in lieu of translating it.
3. Preserving the SL term intact.
4. Opting for a word in the TL which seems similar to or has the same
"relevance" as the SL term.
Culture-bound terms (CBTs) are defined by Harvey (2003:2-6) as the
terms which "refer to concepts, institutions and personnel which are
specific to the SL culture". He puts forward four major techniques for
translating CBTs: 1. Functional Equivalence: using a functionally similar
referent in the TL. 2. Formal Equivalence or 'linguistic equivalence':
supplying a 'word-for-word' translation. 3. Making up a new word.
Therefore, explaining the meaning of the SL expression in lieu of

translating it, preserving the SL term intact and opting for a word in the TL
which seems similar to or has the same "relevance" as the SL term. In the
following sections there will be an investigation, evaluation and deep look
into some problematic concepts, terms and phrases which cause a certain
degree of difficulty or considered untranslatable.
1. Social and Religion Terms

If we take a word like ‘mahr ‫ ’ﻣﮭﺮ‬or ‘Sadaq ‫ ’ﺻﺪاق‬we find that the
nearest word commonly used in English is ‘dowry’. But analysis of this
word in both English and Arabic would reveal that it denotes the senses
shown in Table1
Table1 Senses of the word dowry
ENGLISH SENSES ARABIC SENSES
1. Money or property 1. Advance dowry ‘muqaddam Sada:q ‫ﻣﻘ ﺪم‬
brought by a woman to her ‫’ﺻ ﺪاق‬: Money or property brought by a man
husband at marriage to his wife at marriage
2. A life estate to which a 2. Delayed dowry ‘muakhar Sada:q ‫ﻣ ﺆﺧﺮ‬
wife is entitled on the death ‫’ﺻ ﺪاق‬: Money or property stipulated upon in
of her husband the marriage contract which is due to be paid
by the husband to his wife in case he intends
to divorce her.

Here a translation would fail or the meaning may be lost if the

translator gives more explanation to the words used as equivalents. Another
example illustrates a social and religious event represented by the term
‘khitan ‫ ’ﺧﺘﺎن‬which denotes a Muslim and Jewish religious rite performed
on a male child from a week after birth. Here we have circumcision which
is the surgical operation on the male organs but has no reference to the
social or religious ceremony associated with this event which has a sense of
becoming a Muslim. The above words may seem easier task in translation
than the terms in Table2 which have no nearest or close equivalents in
English:
Table2 Cultural specific terms
Arabic ِTransliteration Definition
a light meal before starting a new day of
‫ﺳﺤﻮر‬ suhur
Ramadan (before daybreak).
a man who beats a drum in the streets
(before dawn) to wake people up to have
‫ﻣﺴﺤﺮاﺗﻲ‬ musahharati
‘suhur’ before they start a new day of
fasting.
the meal at the end of fasting Ramadan day.
‫إﻓﻄﺎر‬ ifTar In a normal day in the rest of the year it
means the ordinary breakfast.

Arabic ِTransliteration Definition

a visit to the Holy shrines in Mecca and
‫ﻋﻤﺮة‬ umra Madina out of the time of Pilgrimage
considered as a minor pilgrimage
an annual compulsory alms (2.5 %) of the
‫زﻛﺎة‬ zakat savings of a Muslim when any amount or
property exceeds one year in possession.
special Muslim practices including the type
of clothing, hair cutting/shaving and
‫إﺣﺮام‬ iHram
behaviour prior to and during Pilgrimage
ceremonies.
the socio religious event in which Muslims
‫ﻋﯿﺪ‬
?eid alfitr celebrate their end of fasting in the Holy
‫اﻟﻔﻄﺮ‬
month of Ramadan.
a sheep killed as sacrifice on the day of The
‫أﺿﺤﯿﺔ‬ udHiya
Greater ?eid.
This area covers a vast range of fields including ceremonies or

festivals, titles, customs and rites, sects and varieties, roles, notable or
historical personages, beliefs, doctrines, and morals.

1. Easter: ‫ ﻋﯿ ﺪ اﻟﻔﺼ ﺢ‬Here the translation does not carry enough meaning or
denotation to the event: “The most important and oldest festival of the
Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and held
(in the Western Church) between March 21 and April 25, on the first
Sunday after the first full moon following the northern spring equinox.
the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church,
celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and held (in the Western
Church) between March 21 and April 25, on the first Sunday after the
first full moon following the northern spring equinox.” .
2. Verger: ‫ ﺷ ﻤﺎس‬The Arabic word here does not carry any meaning for
non Christian Arabs. Another more acceptable word for Verger would be
(‫ )ﺣﺎﻣ ﻞ اﻟﺼ ﻮﻟﺠﺎن‬as shortened translation of “ an officer who carries a rod
before a bishop or dean as a symbol of office. Or “an official in a church
who acts as a caretaker and attendant.”
3. Stag night: ‫ ﻟﯿﻠ ﺔ اﻟﻌ ﺮﯾﺲ أو اﻟﻌﺮاﺳ ﺔ‬, a party for men only that is given for a
man just before his wedding day. Here the meaning can not be perceived
without a clear difinition.
4. Protestant: ‫ ﺑﺮوﺗﺴ ﺘﺎﻧﺘﻲ‬a member or follower of any of the Western
Christian churches that are separate from the Roman Catholic Church
and follow the principles of the Reformation, including the Baptist,
Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches. Here the word is trnsliterated

not translated where it remains meaningless out of its culture as non

Christians do not tell the difference in the divisions of Christianity.
5. Roman Catholic Church: ‫ ﻛﻨﯿﺴ ﺔ اﻟ ﺮوم اﻟﻜﺎﺛﻮﻟﯿ ﻚ‬: In order to arrive at a full
understanding, the reader/translator should tell the difference among the
parts of the church and that the Roman Catholic Church is the part of
the Christian Church that acknowledges the pope as its head, especially
as it has developed since the Reformation.
6. The Holy Ghost: ‫ اﻟ ﺮوح اﻟﻘ ﺪس‬Christians believe that God is three prts,
God The Father, The Son (Jesus Christ) and God The Holy Ghost( ‫اﻟ ﺮوح‬
‫)اﻟﻘ ﺪس‬. Without this clear in the mind of the reader/translator the
meaning might be lost or misunderstood.
Many of these names or terms have no exact equivalent, or even
when one exists, its use and understanding are markedly different,
especially to the layman from a different faith. There is apparently more of
a problem when translating from Arabic into English as Islam is much
more pervasive in society and much more a part of everyday life. The
translator must be particularly sensitive when dealing with religious
terminology so as to avoid causing any offence. This is especially the case
with anything considered sacred such as verses of The Holy Qur’an.

2. Political and Administrative Terms:

Political terms are sometimes highly charged with emotive or
political meaning, which is difficult to render from one language into
another. There are also several political terms which do not exist in the
other language like ‘Shadow Cabinet’ in English, and other terms which
are familiar only to those who have knowledge of the political structures of
most Arabic countries as in ‘majlis shura ‫ ‘ ﻣﺠﻠ ﺲ ﺷ ﻮرى‬which, when
translated, have the vague general term ‘consultative council’. Furthermore,
there are terms that have been phonologically transliterated from Arabic
without recourse to translation due to the vagueness that may from the
culturally different counterpart:
1. Amir ‫أﻣﯿ ﺮ‬: an independent ruler or chieftain or a member of his family,
especially in Africa or Arabia
2. Jamahiriya ‫ﺟﻤﺎھﯿﺮﯾ ﺔ‬: a previous name for Libya which carries the
meaning of a totally different system from “republic” political system
(jumhuryia ‫)ﺟﻤﮭﻮرﯾﺔ‬.
3. intifaDha ‫ اﻧﺘﻔﺎﺿ ﺔ‬: uprising (against occupation of land firstly known in
Palestine)
4. mujahideen ‫ ﻣﺠﺎھﺪﯾﻦ‬: Islamic (mainly relegious) freedom fighters
5. alqa?ida ‫ اﻟﻘﺎﻋﺪة‬: terrorist organisation established in Afghanistan
6. Hizbullah ‫ ﺣﺰب اﷲ‬: political party in Lebanon

7. hizb alba?th ‫ ﺣﺰب اﻟﺒﻌﺚ‬: political party in Iraq

Names of political parties are problematic for several reasons. If
there is no corresponding party then a translation may seem to be straight
forward. The Conservative Party is rendered as ‘hizb al-muHafiDhi:n ‫ﺣﺰب‬
‫‘اﻟﻤﺤﺎﻓﻈﯿﻦ‬, yet, it may not convey much meaning regarding its popularity,
agenda or policies. Moreover some political and administrative terms in
Arabic may prove problematic in translation. This is because such terms
are sometimes administratively similar but linguistically different. The term
’province’ or ‘district’ in English, has many cultural equivalents in the
Arab countries such as ‘muHafaDha ‫ ’ﻣﺤﺎﻓﻄﺔ‬, ‘mudiriya ‫ ’ﻣﺪﯾﺮﯾﺔ‬, ‘wilaya
‫ ’وﻻﯾﺔ‬or ‘shabiya ‫’ﺷﻌﺒﯿﺔ‬, where they are named according to the
administrative system in each country. In this case, a translator translating
from English into Arabic has to be aware of the political and administrative
nomenclature in the relevant countries so that the most appropriate cultural
equivalents can be chosen. Hense, in translating political or administrative
terms, a translator should bear in mind the level of general knowledge of
the readership and decide whether the mere transfer of such terms into the
target language is sufficient, or that some additional information must be
supplied to complete the translation.

3. Material Objects:
This field covers a vast number of terminologies and it might not be
possible to include every aspect in this wide domain. We will attempt to
look at some areas and give some examples to illustrate where translation
problems might lie. Manmade objects or artefacts include: tools,
instruments and devices, clothes and jewellery, food and drink, buildings,
transport, and any personal or communal possessions.
Most tools do not pose a problem as they are technical and where the
same tool exists for similar tasks in another language there will be a
corresponding term. For example, for the word ‘brush’, there is an
equivalent term ‘furshat ‫ ’ﻓﺮﺷﺎة‬in Arabic, though there may be tools
exclusive to one culture such as ‘miswak ‫ ’ﻣﺴﻮااك‬in Arabic (natural tooth
brush from a holy plant, still in use by Arabs and Muslims) which, for lack
of an equivalent term, has to find its way into the English lexicon. There
are other words with an accepted translation though the use is different: an
umbrella to protect against rain is rendered as ‘shamsiyya’ ‫ ﺷﻤﺴﯿﺔ‬parasol’
which in hot weather countries is used to protect against the sun. Many
specialised tools or instruments are likely to be found more in manuals and
technical texts rather than general texts, and their translation would require
suitable skills.

There are several articles of clothing that present certain difficulties

in translation from English into Arabic. However, they are familiar to most
Arabs there are no direct terms in Arabic language to refer to them. They
are mostly referred to by generic terms or modified by certain adjectives
For example, ‘mini skirts’, ‘jeans’, ‘pullovers’ and ‘stockings’. On the
other hand some items in Arab culture proved more problematic as they
came into existence as a result of the religion, tradition, weather, or cultural
specific symbols. The following Arabic items of clothing are used in
different Arab countries:
1. kufiya ‫ ﻛﻮﻓﯿ ﺔ‬: head wear for Arabic men which rendered in English as
veil, muffler, yashmak which are confused with other Arabic/Islamic
types of head wear.
2. aqal ‫ﻋﻘﺎل‬: a headband worn by Saudi Arabia and Gulf states Arabs
3. jallabiya/djellaba ‫ﺟﻼﺑﯿ ﺔ‬: A male long baggy dress worn by Arabs in
Morocco and a similar in Egypt
4. dishdashah ‫دﺷﺪاﺷﺔ‬: long baggy dress worn by Arabs in the Gulf states
5. niqab ‫ ﻧﻘ ﺎب‬: facial veil, a veil worn by some Muslim women in public,
covering all of the face apart from the eyes. (in Saudi Arabia, Yemen
and Gulf states)
6. khimar ‫ ﺧﻤ ﺎر‬:, a head veil covering or veil worn in public by some
Muslim women, typically covering the head, face, neck, and shoulders.
(in Saudi Arabia and Gulf states)

7. hijib ‫ ﺣﺠ ﺎب‬: an islamic veil which is worn by Arabic and Muslim

women to cover the hair and the neck.
4. Animals:
Animals may have a variety of roles or may be of differing status:
wild, farmed, domestic, work animal, pet, sport, hunting, source of food,
etc. Cats often live wild in the Middle East and are considered vermin,
though they are loved pets in Britain. Similarly, in Britain, dogs are
common house pets and numerous names for breeds are known and used in
everyday conversation, though the idea of keeping a dog in the house
would be anathema to a Muslim. Conversely, in parts of the Arab world
kestrels are kept as beloved hunting pets, which would be illegal in the UK.
Animals will also have differing significance according to their prevalence,
they may be more or less common, or native to only one region
(e.g..reindeer or gazelle), which may also affect their use as a source of
food. Another problem might arise from multiple names in one culture
having only one corresponding equivalent in another culture. For example,
‘asad ‫ أﺳﺪ‬, laith ‫ ﻟﯿﺚ‬, DhirGa:m ‫ ﺿﺮﻏﺎم‬, GaDhanfar ‫ ’ﻏﻀﻨﻔﺮ‬for a lion. With
some animals which are specific to a particular part of the world a
description has to accompany any translation given to the name of a certain

animal like the case with ‘armadillo’ or ‘armadillos’ where we have to

describe the animal and the region where it normally lives or found.
5. Jobs, Duties, and Activities

Work is more culture-bound than one might think. It includes job
types and titles, salaries, work conditions and other related concepts such as
unemployment, insurance and job security. Many jobs will have no
equivalent, such as ‘bawwab ‫’ﺑﻮاب‬, to translate this as doorman would be
very misleading. Others may have different status. A ‘caretaker’ in
England would be much more highly regarded than ‘farrash ‫ ’ﻓّﺮاش‬in an
Arab country, besides some differences in the duties and responsibilities.
Salaries and tax systems, of course, vary from one country to another, and
what is considered high in one place may be low elsewhere. Tax systems
vary and will be taken for granted without explanation in the country where
they operate, but would require explanation to a foreigner, Council Tax,
national insurance, top rate, or ‘zakat ‫ ’زﻛﺎة‬for example. There may also be
different understanding or views of concepts related to work, such as
unemployment, workers’ rights, redundancy, job security, nepotism, equal
opportunities or job titles like dinner lady etc.
Arabic uses gender more than English in the description of some jobs
like ‘tabi:bah ‫ ’ﻃﺒﯿﺒﺔ‬which has to be translated as a (female doctor),
‘ami:nat sir ‫ ’أﻣﯿﻨﺔ ﺳﺮ‬or ‘sekrerah ‫ ’ﺳﻜﺮﺗﯿﺮة‬for (female secretary) a job

assigned more to women and ‘ra:qiSah ‫ ’راﻗﺼﺔ‬a (female dancer) which is

also, culturally, a professional woman’s job not a man’s job. Any changes
in conveying the gender will result in the loss of the information intended.
6. Regional and Dialectical Differences

The standard form of the Arabic language is referred to as ‘classical
Arabic’. It is mainly used in all writing and in media as well as in mosques.
There are diverse interrelated colloquial dialects in Arabic. These dialects
vary considerably from one another and differ from standard Arabic in
pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar and are usually labelled according
to major geographic areas, such as Egyptian, Gulf, Lebanese, North
African and Moroccan.
Most recently, socio-linguistic studies and dialectology have
indicated that a person can be identified in terms of his/her area of origin,
or social class, from the language he/she speaks. A single language may
cover various cultures, and likewise, one culture may cross the borders of
many languages. For example English, as an international language of
politics and science, borders on various cultures in Europe, Asia, Africa
and the Caribbean. The influence of language in the transfer of technology
to the Arab countries by various European countries has confronted Arabic
and Arab speakers with a serious linguistic problem that made some terms

considered as dialectical and caused difficulty in standardizing a vast

amount of terms related to various fields used in different Arab countries.
For example, a word like ‘mobile phone’ is translated in Morocco, Tunisia
and Algeria, where French is used as a second language, as ‘portable ‫ﺑﻮرﺗﺎﺑﻞ‬
’ or ‘silolar‫ ’ ﺳﻠﻮﻻر‬for ‘cellular’ in Lebanon and Syria, whereas in Libya,
Egypt is translated from English as ‘mobile’ or less often the Arabic term
‘naqqa:l’ is used. There were many attempts to give an Arabic equivalent to
this term but lack of coordination in various terms that refer to the same
concept in different forms like ‘naqqal ‫’ﻧﻘﺎل‬, ‘jawwal ‫ ’ﺟﻮال‬which is derived
from ‘jala ‫ ‘ ﺟﺎل‬to travel, or ‘mahmul ‫ ’ﻣﺤﻤﻮل‬from ‘hamala ‫ ‘ ﺣﻤﻞ‬to carry,
or ‘khalawi ‫ ’ﺧﻠﻮي‬from khaliya ‫ ﺧﻠﯿﺔ‬, cell ‘etc.
Arabic regional nomenclature reflects certain difficulty for
translation into Arabic. We have seen, in Subsection (2) above, how a term
like ’province’ or ‘district’ in English, has many cultural equivalents in the
Arab countries such as ‘muhafadha ‫ﻣﺤﺎﻓﻄﺔ‬, mudiriya‫ﻣﺪﯾﺮﯾﺔ‬, wilaya ‫ وﻻﯾﺔ‬or
shabiya ‫‘ﺷﻌﺒﯿﺔ‬, where they are named according to the administrative
system in each country.
Conclusion:
Manipulating culture-specific concepts (CSCs) between English and
Arabic has generally been the most challenging task for translators; That is
to say, culture and intercultural awareness are far more complex

phenomena than it may seem. For the translator, awareness of the

complexities of differences between cultures is a prime key for solving
translation equivalence and untranslatability issues. The aim of this paper
has been to demonstrate the variety and complexity of the problems
encountered by a translator in the translation of cultural specific terms
between English and Arabic. This paper was an attempt to discuss
theoretical and practical implications of the problem. Critical analysis and
evaluation of some problematic words and expressions along with their
suggested equivalents or solutions were provided.
References:
(1) Baker, Mona (1992). In Other Words. London: Routledge.
(2) Baker, Mona (2005). Translation and Conflict. London and New
York: Routledge.
(3) Bassnett, S. and Lefevere, A. (1990) Translation, History and
Culture, New York: Pinter.
(4) Bassnett, S. (1991) Translation Studies. London and New York:
Routledge.
(5) Braçaj, M. (2015) Procedures of Translating Culture-Specific
Concepts, Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER
Publishing, Rome-Italy

(6) Graedler, A. L. (2010) “Cultural shock” Oslo Studies in English -

Translation course. University of Oslo
(7) Harvey, M. (2003). A beginner's course in legal translation: the
case of culture-bound terms.
(8) Hervey, S., & Higgins, I. (1992). Thinking Translation. London &
New York: Routledge.
(9) Hatim, B. and Munday, J. (2004) Translation: An Advanced
Resource Book, London and New York: Routledge.
(10)Hodges, P. (2010) Cultural Approach to Translation Theory,
accurapid.com/ journal. Homologous Vs. Analogous. (n.d.).
(11)Misiaczek , M. P. (2005) Strategies and Methods in Dealing with
Culture Specific Expressions. Proceedings from the Eighth
Conference of British, American and Canadian Studies. Brno:
Masarykova univerzita Magdalena Paluszkiewicz-Misiaczek 244
(12)Munday, J. (2012) Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and
Applications, 3rd ed, London: Routledge
(13)Wiersema, N. (2004) Globalisation and Translation, Translation
Journal, accurapid.com/journal/27liter.ht - 2015

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English Vs.

- 227 - University Bulletin – ISSUE No.18- Vol. (1) – January - 2016.

some of the specific aspects or categories of culture which may cause

- 228 - University Bulletin – ISSUE No.18- Vol. (1) – January - 2016.

The Cultural Turn:

- 229 - University Bulletin – ISSUE No.18- Vol. (1) – January - 2016.

refer to “the analysis of translation in its cultural, political, and ideological

- 230 - University Bulletin – ISSUE No.18- Vol. (1) – January - 2016.

transcribe. All these “untranslatable” cultural-bound words and phrases

- 231 - University Bulletin – ISSUE No.18- Vol. (1) – January - 2016.

1. Social and Religion Terms

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Here a translation would fail or the meaning may be lost if the

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Arabic ِTransliteration Definition

This area covers a vast range of fields including ceremonies or

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not translated where it remains meaningless out of its culture as non

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2. Political and Administrative Terms:

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7. hizb alba?th ‫ ﺣﺰب اﻟﺒﻌﺚ‬: political party in Iraq

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There are several articles of clothing that present certain difficulties

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7. hijib ‫ ﺣﺠ ﺎب‬: an islamic veil which is worn by Arabic and Muslim

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animal like the case with ‘armadillo’ or ‘armadillos’ where we have to

5. Jobs, Duties, and Activities

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assigned more to women and ‘ra:qiSah ‫ ’راﻗﺼﺔ‬a (female dancer) which is

6. Regional and Dialectical Differences

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considered as dialectical and caused difficulty in standardizing a vast

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phenomena than it may seem. For the translator, awareness of the

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(6) Graedler, A. L. (2010) “Cultural shock” Oslo Studies in English -

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