Scientific and technical translation between literal and transliteration in Arabic and English

Abstract

Translating new concepts into new terminology has always been challenging because of linguistic variations between languages. Over the decades, English has become the language of science and technology. Therefore, it dominates all other languages in the globe. Translation of technical terms and concepts are usually carried out from English into other languages, such as Arabic. Many specialized dictionaries have attempted to give a suitable Arabic equivalent for technical and scientific terms. The aim of this paper is to identify the strategies used in the process of translation and transliteration. Accordingly, a descriptive and comparative analysis of five English technical terms with their translational and Arabicized counterparts were analyzed and discussed. Some were translated literally and some were transliterated. Results showed that there is not always a formal equivalent in translating a technical term; literal translation can sometimes be productive.