Translating dialectal expressions and terms embedded in Saudi modern novels with a particular emphasis on Ragaa Alsanea’s Girls of Riyadh

• Sayed M. Ismail Mousa ^[1] ; Basem Okleh Salameh Al-Hawamdeh ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad Príncipe Sattam Bin AbdualazizAl-Kharj-Riyadh-Reino de Arabia Saudita
• Localización: Onomázein: Revista de lingüística, filología y traducción de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, ISSN 0718-5758, ISSN-e 0717-1285, Nº. 64, 2024, págs. 41-60
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Translating dialectal terms and idiomatic expressions embedded in Saudi contemporary fiction is an underresearched topic, and the assessment of translating dialectal terms and expressions has not been examined adequately as there is a scarcity in the studies addressing such a translation issue. Therefore, the current study is mainly interested in assessing how far the translators of Girls of Riyadh could succeed in translating the em-bedded dialectal expressions in the novel and whether their translation could transfer the overall effect, aesthetic values, cultural atmosphere, style and pragmatic effect. To achieve this end, the study has classified dialectal elements under the rubric of cultural markers and assessed the rendition of these cultural markers in connection with Dick-ins’ degrees of cultural transposition and House’s concept of covert translation and its criteria. Following the assessment of samples from the novel, the study has found that the translators neither follow domestication nor foreignization and that they rely heavily on the communicative translation strategy, and in most cases dialectal expressions are omitted or rendered into formal English.