A Translation of Cultural Words in Julian Millie’s People’s Religion Book: An Ideological Perspective
Keywords:
cultural words, translation ideologies, translation strategies, religious discourseAbstract
This study focuses on translation ideology in rendering cultural words from Sundanese into English in The People’s Religion, a translation book by Julian Millie of Sundanese-language sermons by the Indonesian preacher AF Ghazali. Specifically, it investigates how cultural terms are translated and what ideological stances are reflected through the strategies used. The analysis employs a qualitative descriptive method with data drawn from 70 culturally specific words. The study uses Newmark’s (1988) taxonomy of cultural categories and integrates translation strategies from multiple theorists to identify patterns. Venuti’s (1995) concept of foreignization and domestication is used as the primary ideological framework, supported by Hatim and Mason’s (1997) critical discourse approach to interpret the translator’s decisions. Importantly, this study introduces a third category, which is a hybrid ideology, to accommodate cases where mixed strategies are used, reflecting the translator’s flexible negotiation between source and target culture. The findings from 70 data samples reveal that domestication (30 data) is the most dominant ideology, followed by foreignization (25 data), and hybrid ideology (15 data). These results demonstrate that the translator tends to prioritize readability and accessibility for the target readers yet also retains some cultural authenticity when deemed necessary. The findings suggest that translation of cultural words is a deeply ideological process that requires critical strategy selection to balance cultural authenticity with reader accessibility.
Downloads
References
[1] L. Venuti, The translator’s invisibility: a history of translation, 3rd ed. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. [Online]. Available: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351581035
[2] E. A. Nida and C. B. Taber, The theory and practice of translation, 8th Editio. Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1982.
[3] J. F. Aixela, “Culture-specific items in translation. In R. Alvarez & M. Carmen Africa Vidal,” in Translation, power, subversion, Eds., Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1996, ch. 4, pp. 52–76.
[4] P. Newmark, A textbook of translation. New York: Prentice Hall, 1988.
[5] I. Y. Rahmah, “A Translation Analysis of Culture-Specific Items in Madurese Digital Folktales,” Yogyakarta State University, 2020. [Online]. Available: http://eprints.uny.ac.id/id/eprint/70381
[6] L. Dai, “Ideology in Translation: Theories and Reflections,” vol. 75, no. Seiem, pp. 504–506, 2016.
[7] L. Yang, “The Application of Foreignization and Domestication in the Translation,” in International Conference on Education, Language, Art and Intercultural Communication (ICELAIC), 2014, pp. 321–324.
[8] F. Gunawan, “The ideology of translators in Quranic translation: lessons learned from Indonesia,” Cogent Arts Humanit., vol. 9, no. 1, 2022, doi: 10.1080/23311983.2022.2088438.
[9] S. Syihabuddin and T. Aryanti, “The study of translation ideology and its accuracy in Qur’anic vocabulary for women,” Arab. J. Pendidik. Bhs. Arab dan Kebahasaaraban, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 191–202, 2023, doi: 10.15408/a.v10i2.34974.
[10] N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln, The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, 5th ed. London: SAGE Publications, 2018.
[11] J. W. Creswell, Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, 3rd editio., vol. 53, no. 9. London: SAGE Publications, 2009. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004.
[12] B. Hatim and I. Mason, The Translator as Communicator, 1st ed. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
[13] M. Q. Patton, Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, 3rd ed. London: SAGE Publications, 2002.
[14] L. Sumarni, Translation: from theory to practice. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University Press, 2016.
[15] M. Sumantri, A. Djamaludin, A. Patoni, R. H. M. Koerdie, M. O. Koesman, and E. S. Adisastra, Kamus Sunda-Indonesia. Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, 1985.
[16] B. B. Kemendikbud, Kamus besar bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka, 2023.
[17] M. N. Sayaheen and T. Sepora Tengku Mahadi, “Foreignizing and domesticating religious terms and expressions in children’s literature,” J. Soc. Sci. Humanit., vol. 17, no. 9, pp. 158–167, 2020, [Online]. Available: https://ejournal.ukm.my/ebangi/article/view/44760
[18] M. El Haj Ahmed and A. Abu Shammala, “Foreignization and Domestication Strategies in the Translation of Cultural Specific Items in Itani’s and Ali’s Translations of Alnisaa’ Sura,” AWEJ Transl. Lit. Stud., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 254–287, 2020, doi: 10.24093/awejtls/vol4no1.20.
[19] M. Ebrahimi and T. Sepora Tengku Mahadi, “Domestication and foreignization in key cultural text translation: A case study of the English translation of Lost in the Crowd,” Int. J. Comp. Lit. Transl. Stud., vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 1–7, 2020, doi: 10.7575/aiac.ijclts.v.8n.2p.1.
[20] I. B. Abdo and B. Manzallawi, “Translating the Islamic religious expressions in Taha Hussein’s novel ‘Al Ayaam’ by E. H. Paxton,” English Lang. Teach., vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 190–197, 2020, doi: 10.5539/elt.v13n1p190.
