Domestication and Foreignization in Translating Cultural Terms from English into Kurdish in George Orwell’s Animal Farm

Abstract

— Translation of culturally specific terms is considered a challenging activity. The current study explores the Kurdish translations of cultural terms found in the novel Animal farm written by George Orwell in 1945 and translated by three different translators. The study particularly attempts to identify the type of cultural terms according to Newmark’s (1988) taxonomy. In addition, the study uses Venuti's (1995) strategies of domestication and foreignization to identify the three translator’s choices, and uses Newmark's (1988) translation procedures to operationalize those two strategies. The results of the study reveal that all the five main categories of cultural terms were discovered including ecology, material culture (artefact), social culture (work and leisure), social organizations as well as gestures and habits. Material culture was the most frequent category of cultural terms found in the data. The translators employed various procedures, with cultural equivalent being the most common and deletion being the least. Furthermore, the translators' tendencies towards domestication and foreignization vary. Translator 1 demonstrates a greater inclination towards foreignization, while Translators 2 and 3 lean more towards domestication, with a notable similarity in their preferences. This study will be a contribution to the field of literary translation by offering insights concerning domestication and foreignization in translating CTs from English into Kurdish.