The Translation Of Loanwords In Print Advertisements

Abstract

Malay language has a long history of borrowingwords from other languages. English is the main language that contributes towardsMalay language vocabulary since lexical interference between both languages increases on a daily basis. In the field of mass media, the translation of English advertisements into Malay has increased the number of loanwords significantly when translators tend to borrow source words into the target language during translation. The practice is largely influenced by the obstacles and challenges which translators need to overcome when translating advertisement texts such as untranslatable words, particularly brand names; language economisation (or linguistic economy), i.e., where loanwords decrease the required space in translated advertisement texts; lack of equivalents in the target language; and the negative connotation that certain words may have if translated into the target language. This study examines the existence of loanwords in the Malay version of print advertisements. The corpus comprises 2064 headlines from the Cosway and Avon product catalogues. Haugen’s definition of loanword together with Heah and Abdul Wahid’s point of view areutilised to identify and analyse the loanwords. This study provides information on six categories of loanwords that exist in print advertisement, namely (i) unassimilated loanword, (ii) partially assimilated loanword, (iii) wholly assimilated loanword, (iv) orthographically assimilated loanword, (v) assimilated compound loanword and (vi) truncated loanword. Indirectly, this study also implies that translation procedures contribute to anglicism in the translated version of Cosway and Avon advertisements.