Verbatim Translation Research Articles

Problematicity of Translating Some Selected Arabic Qur'anic Collocations into English: Linguistic, Stylistic, and Cultural Perspectives

Rendering the Arabic Qur'anic collocations into English has always been a burdensome and daunting job. It is ever more problematic than the rendition of any genre. The recent research is a caveat-lector attempt that seeks specifically to investigate the problematicity of translating some selected Qur'anic collocations into English that is from linguistic, stylistic, and cultural perspectives. The findings of the study show some of the selected translations flop to transfer the connotative meaning of Qur'anic collocations scrupulously, and hence they have weak connotations. On the other hand, some renderings succeed in conveying the implicative meaning of Arabic Qur'anic collocations, and consequently, they have strong connotations. The results also reveal that the most generally put to use translation method or strategy for translating the embedded meaning of Arabic Qur'anic collocations was that of verbatim translation or literal translation, and they also demonstrate that this resulted in a great loss of the intentional meaning, distorting the perfect translation of Qur'anic collocations that is from linguistic, stylistic, and cultural perspectives.

Cultural and Lexical Challenges Faced in Translating Some Selected Verses of Surat Maryam into English: A Thematic Comparative Review

Translating the Arabic Qur’anic cultural and lexical expression into English has always been a strenuous and complicated task. It is ever more problematic than the translation of any genre. The recent study is a caveat-lector endeavor especially to scrutinize cultural and lexical challenges faced in translating some selected verses of Surat Maryam into English and their rendering losses. The foremost significance of this study is how the three selected Quranic translators attempted to achieve adequate cultural and lexical equivalence when rendering implicative meaning and profound meaning of the cultural and lexical expression in Surat Maryam. The study demonstrates that three targeted. Quranic translators' renderings encountered cultural and lexical challenges while translating some selected verses of Surat Maryam into English. It is also discovered that proper linguistic and explicative analyses are priorities for accurate translation, which avert discrepancies in implicative meaning and rendering loss. The study concludes that the three notable Quranic translators employed literal translation, verbatim translation, Semantic translation, and communicative translation methods in rendering some selected ayahs[ verses] of Surat Maryam into English comprising lexical and cultural challenges.

‘I feel it’s something that irritates her’

Interpreting is increasingly being used in psychotherapy, but the presence of an interpreter in the therapeutic encounter is an under-researched area. This paper examines interpreter-mediated trauma therapy with Danish-speaking therapists treating Arabic-speaking patients diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We focus on the notion of ‘emotion discourse’ as a broad term covering how therapists and patients talk about emotional experience, and how interpreters negotiate and mediate it. The data consist of three group interviews with ten therapists and six excerpts from two audio-recorded interpreter-mediated therapy sessions. The detailed interaction analysis explores (1) the therapists’ expectations about interpreting emotion discourse and (2) the interactional strategies that the interpreters use to negotiate and render the interaction between therapists and patients who speak different languages. The findings show that the therapists have clear expectations about what needs to be translated and how, but these expectations remain hidden to the interpreters. The interpreters use various interpreting strategies and orient towards meaning rather than towards verbatim translations. We conclude by recommending that both therapists and interpreters engage in a professional collaboration that requires not only training and awareness of mutually relevant information, but also an updated view of interpreter-mediated interaction as a dynamic collaborative process.

Semantic Approach on Toshihiko Izutsu’s Translation of Surah Al-Alaq (96:1-19): Comparison of 3 Qur'an in Japanese Translation

Toshihiko Izutsu is a japanese non-Muslim Islamic thinker. He translated the Qur'an into Japanese in a distinctive and striking style compared to any other Japanese translator ever. The study took one example of a letter in the Qur'an, Alaq (96:1-19), and compared Izutsu's Japanese translation with a translation by the Japan Muslim Association (JMA) and Makoto Mizutani. It can be said that the Izutsu version attempts to convey not only the complex layered meaning of each chapter and each section of the Quran, but also the atmosphere of the Quran and the Arabian Peninsula at that time to Japanese readers at the same time. On the other hand, the other two Japanese translations seem to be attempting verbatim translations that are more faithful to the Arabic original. However, it might be able to be said that the JMA version emphasizes providing an accurate meaning based on the Sunnah classics annotation by putting a detailed note even at the expense of readability while the Mizutani version is same level with JMA but the Arabic text is not attached and it’s the easiest to read among three version.Keyword: Semantics, Toshihiko Izutsu, Qur’an

ETHNOMEDICAL PERCEPTIONS OF PREGNANCY THREATS AND HOMEBIRTH PREFERENCE IN RURAL CAMEROON: THE CASE OF NCHANG, SOUTH WEST REGION

The principal objective of this research has been to highlight ethnomedical understanding of risk factors causing mishaps in childbirth as the fundamental determinant to low facility-based deliveries. Skilled obstetric assistance has been proven to significantly reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. Reliance on facility-based delivery is therefore fundamental to maternal wellbeing. However, preference for homebirth is still common and prevalent in rural Cameroon where socio-cultural perceptions still exert strong influence on health-seeking decisions and behaviors. Understanding the reasons for this preference is important to design targeted interventions for more effective maternal death control schemes. This qualitative research was carried out in all ten quarters of Nchang using both random and snowball sampling techniques to select participants. Forty in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions were conducted using corresponding research tools. Verbatim translation and transcription of audio recordings was done from pidgin or kenyang to English, followed by codification and a thematic analysis. Our findings reveal that low demand for obstetric assistance and its consequential correspondingly higher maternal mortality rates are fundamentally determined by socio-cultural perceptions of pregnancy threats. KEYWORDS: perceptions, facility-based delivery, obstetric assistance, homebirth, maternal mortality

EHEALS as a predictive factor of digital health information seeking behavior among Brazilian undergraduate students.

This study aimed to perform the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) for Brazilian Portuguese. The cross-cultural adaptation was conducted through conceptual equivalence, verbatim translation, semantic, item and operational equivalence, and back-translation. Subsequently, 521 undergraduate students answered the adapted version of the eHEALS, the General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) and sociodemographic and health-related questions. Statistical analysis was performed to determine the dimensionality, internal consistency, stability and concurrent/convergent/discriminant/predictive validities of the eHEALS (p < 0.05). The adequacy of sample size was confirmed by a non-identity correlation matrix (Bartlett's test of sphericity, p < 0.001), without influence of multicollinearity (determinant = 0.026). The confirmatory factor analysis identified four factors in agreement to the constructs namely as online searching self-efficacy, awareness of available sources, information usage ability, and critical analysis of useful information. The eHEALS displayed an excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88), a good stability (ICC = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.49-0.84), and it was significantly correlated with GSES (concurrent validity). Higher eHEALS scores were identified among (i) white and (ii) younger students, (iii) from health sciences courses, (iv) with more years of graduation, (v) who their fathers were working in specialized functions (discriminant validity), and (vi) among those who were frequently interested in digital health information (convergent validity). The students with higher eHealth literacy levels were more likely to seek health information in the last 24 h (predictive validity). In conclusion, the eHEALS demonstrated adequate psychometric properties to be applied for the Brazilian population.

Interpreting as creating a potential for understanding

According to a widespread norm among legal representatives, legal interpreters should translate verbatim, or at least as close to the source utterance as possible. Yet, sociolinguists have shown repeatedly that the absence of verbatim translation is not inherently problematic. Differences between source utterances and their translations may in fact facilitate understanding. On the basis of a corpus of audio-recordings from a court in Denmark, we analyse differences between a request presented by legal representatives and then the interpreters’ versions. We focus on a routinised and procedural request, usually presented by the prosecutor and addressed to the judge, and very often conveyed in a highly implicit manner. We demonstrate that the interpreters tend to elaborate and add particular types of information in their translation. We argue that the additions facilitate understanding for the accused, as many inferences, based on institutional insight, are needed in order to understand what the prosecutor means. We also point to the paradox that, although interpreters are tasked with creating understanding, it is almost impossible to assess whether they succeed and what insight the accused obtains. This is due to the institutional organisation of the type of court hearing analysed.

Translation and annotation of the travel notes of a33mi21 Cave written by He Xiudong Dongba

a33mi21 Cave 阿明洞 as the holy land of the Dongba religion is located in Baidi 白地, Sanba 三坝, Shangri-la, Yunnan province. Li Lincan, a grandmaster in the study of Dongba characters and the deputy director of the Taipei Palace Museum, paid homage to the a33mi21 Cave in 1942 and wrote an inscription. In 2005, his son Li Zaizhong, following in his father’s footsteps, paid a formal visit there again, and He Xiudong Dongba from Tacheng 塔城, traveling with him, recorded the pilgrimage journey in Dongba characters and translated it into Chinese, which is the first travelogue published in the Naxi language and has considerable research value. This paper has a verbatim translation and annotation of the travelogue and conducts preliminary research from the perspectives of the author and the age, the paper and the line, the frequency and number of words and text structure, the word relationships, the variants and transformation of the words, lexical features, and so forth.

The active role of interpreters in medical discourse – An observational study in emergency medicine

ObjectiveTo study communicative tasks executed and related strategies used by patients, health professionals, and medical interpreters. MethodsEnglish proficient and limited English proficient emergency department patients were observed. The content of patient-hospital staff communication was documented via pen and paper. Key themes and differences across interpreter types were established through qualitative analysis. Themes and differences across interpreter type were vetted and updated through member checking interviews. Results6 English proficient and 9 limited English proficient patients were observed. Key themes in communicative tasks included: establishing, maintaining, updating, and repairing understanding and rapport. All tasks were observed with English proficient and limited English proficient patients. The difference with limited English proficient patients was that medical interpreters played an active role in completing communicative tasks. Telephone-based interpreters faced challenges in facilitating communicative tasks based on thematic comparisons with in-person interpreters, including issues hearing and lost information due to the lack of visual cues. ConclusionsProfessional interpreters play an important role in communication between language discordant patients and health professionals that goes beyond verbatim translation. Practical implicationsTraining for interpreters and health professionals, and the design of tools for facilitating language discordant communication, should consider the role of interpreters beyond verbatim translation.

A Latin Poem Translated into Russian in 1670: A Panegyric in Praise of King Louis XIII from Antoine de Pluvinel’s Book “Maneige Royal”

This paper offers an analysis of an early prose translation of a Latin panegyrical poem into Russian. The poem, “In lavdem Lvdovici XIII” was written by Peter / Petrus / Pierre Valens in 1623 or earlier. It was included in the book “Maneige Royal”, first published in 1623 under the name of A. de Pluvinel, who was the riding teacher of the young King Louis XIII. The book was translated into Russian in 1670, albeit not from the original French edition, but from the German version in the bilingual edition “Maneige Royal / Königliche Reitschul”, published in Braunschweig, 1626. The book's Russian title is a verbatim translation of the German one, “Korolevskaia ezdnaia shkola”. The translation is known from two copies: RNB, F.XI.1 (Saint Petersburg), and as one of the texts in the Codex AD 10 (Västerås, Sweden). Our analysis leads to the conclusion that both the translation itself and the two copies most probably were made at the Ambassadorial Chancery (Posol'skii prikaz). The translation of the Latin panegyrical poem shows that the translator understood the Latin text quite well, although it contains a few isolated errors. At the same time, some of these mistakes might have been the result of misprints in the German original, or they may have been caused by the copyist who produced the fair copy. It seems very likely that the translation of the Latin poem (as well as of the entire book) was made by the translator Ivan Tiazhkogorskii, who knew all three languages used in the book (German, Latin, and French). Although Tiazhkogorskii for the most part translated texts from his native language, German, he was able to make decent translations also from Latin and French; however, historical, political and above all mythological allusions caused a few difficulties.

Translation and annotation of the travel notes of a33mi21 Cave written by He Xiudong Dongba

a33mi21 Cave 阿明洞 as the holy land of the Dongba religion is located in Baidi 白地, Sanba 三坝, Shangri-la, Yunnan province. Li Lincan, a grandmaster in the study of Dongba characters and the deputy director of the Taipei Palace Museum, paid homage to the a33mi21 Cave in 1942 and wrote an inscription. In 2005, his son Li Zaizhong, following in his father’s footsteps, paid a formal visit there again, and He Xiudong Dongba from Tacheng 塔城, traveling with him, recorded the pilgrimage journey in Dongba characters and translated it into Chinese, which is the first travelogue published in the Naxi language and has considerable research value. This paper has a verbatim translation and annotation of the travelogue and conducts preliminary research from the perspectives of the author and the age, the paper and the line, the frequency and number of words and text structure, the word relationships, the variants and transformation of the words, lexical features, and so forth.

Comparing Text-Matching Software Systems Using the Document Set in the Latvian Language

There are many internationally developed text-matching software systems that help successfully identify potentially plagiarized content in English texts using both their internal databases and web resources. However, many other languages are not so widely spread but they are used daily to communicate, conduct research and acquire education. Each language has its peculiarities, so, in the context of finding content similarities, it is necessary to determine what systems are more suitable for a document set written in a specific language. The research focuses on testing the existent text-matching software systems on a set of documents prepared in the Latvian language. The corpus includes documents containing verbatim plagiarism, paraphrasing, translation plagiarism and original text to test both false positive and false negative cases. In total, 16 different text-matching software systems are compared on the plagiarism coverage using the prepared document corpus. The research presented is a part of an international initiative “Testing of Support Tools for Plagiarism Detection (TeSToP)” established under the European Network for Academic Integrity.

The nativization of English in Taiwanese magazine advertisements

AbstractThis study investigates from a sociolinguistic perspective how Taiwanese copywriters nativize English in Chinese‐based advertising copy in Taiwanese magazines in response to the growing impact of globalization over a decade. Two corpuses of magazine ads are used for quantitative and qualitative analyses: 649 ads from a 1999 English‐mixing magazine ads corpus and 1,505 ads from a 2009 corpus. The analysis demonstrates a clear trend of Taiwanese copywriters showing growing bilingual ingenuity by coining English phrases and sentences via recruiting verbatim translation based on Chinese grammar. The results of this study shed light on how nativization of English has been reinforced through copywriters’ linguistic innovation and exploitation of grammatical and collocational deviations in an era of increasing globalization.

ЗВЕРТАННЯ-ЕКСПРЕСИВИ В ПЕРЕКЛАДАХ П. КУЛІША ТРАГЕДІЇ В. ШЕКСПІРА «РОМЕО І ДЖУЛЬЄТТА»

У статті досліджено особливості перекладу П. Кулішем емоційних звертань у трагедії В. Шекспіра ≪Ромео і Джульєтта≫. З’ясовано: що перекладач послуговується не лише дослівним перекладом, що трапляється спорадично, а й добирає в мові перекладу семантичні відповідники англомовним апелятивам. Зафіксовані випадки, коли П. Куліш вдається до контекстуального переосмислення загальномовних лексем у певних емоційних станах діалогів героїв досліджуваного твору.

Of Curses and Beards: Reclaiming Herstories

Of Curses and Beards: Reclaiming Herstories Ana Roncero-Bellido Gaspar de Alba, Alicia. The Curse of the Gypsy: Ten stories and a Novella. Arte Público P, 2018. 224 pp. ISBN: 978-1558858626. The Curse of the Gypsy: Ten Stories and a Novella, by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, offers readers two fascinating and complex literary projects: first, a collection of ten interconnected stories that shape what Alicia Gaspar de Alba describes as a deconstructed novel with the title “The Curse of the Gypsy.” Following this is the historical-mythical novella recovering “The True and Tragic Story of Liberata Wilgefortis, Who, Having Consecrated her Virginity to the Goddess Diana to Avoid Marriage, Grew a Beard and Was Crucified.” With these two texts, Gaspar de Alba’s (historical) fiction engages in a critique of patriarchal, heteronormative, and white supremacist ideologies across both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and the Atlantic, as the stories take readers to early 20th century Spain, Mexico and the U.S., and to the Hispania Lusitania of the 2nd century A.D. The stories in “The Curse of the Gyspy” weave different narrative voices that reveal the complexity of the characters Gaspar de Alba re/creates. “The Curse of the Gyspy” begins with the story of Margarita Vargas, a gypsy from Granada (Spain) who is victim of a lifelong curse her mother puts on her when she finds out Margarita is pregnant with the Grenadian poet Federico García Lorca’s child. This curse has taken the shape of a petrified fetus Margarita carries for eighty years, even after Lorca’s execution at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. As Margarita confesses her captivating romance with Lorca and their tragic fate, readers learn that her mother’s curse was dictated by the King of the Gypsies, Chorrojumo, who foresaw the disgrace of the Vargas family’s honor. This shame comes from Margarita’s double treason to her family and the gypsy community, for not only has she corrupted herself with a payo—a non-Gypsy—but she has also betrayed her husband’s heart well before he dies at war. The novel progresses with Margarita’s departure from Granada and subsequent marriage to a famous Mexican bullfighter, Benito Rivera, whom she follows to Mexico, as will the curse. Rivera’s family rejects his marriage to a gypsy, which they consider a step backwards towards Jose Vasconcelos’ cosmic race (39); and her husband, unable to accept Margarita’s presumed infertility, abandons her for years until they move to the border city [End Page 168] of Juárez. The family’s destiny thus lies in the hands of Margarita’s great-granddaughter, who is to take Margarita’s ashes back to Granada to break the curse. As the deconstructed novel progresses through the ten interconnected stories, readers get to meet two generations of complex characters who are descendants of Margarita, known as Maggie across the U.S.-Mexico border, and who all get reunited for her funeral. The stories of Margarita’s descendants tell the reality of many lives across the border: the rivalry between sisters that prompts a trip to Oaxaca; the story of Little Jay, a queer teenager who struggles with her sexual identity and deported parents; or the hopeless prayer of a woman whose sisters have locked in a convent when she confesses her father’s sexual abuses, among others. With these stories, Gaspar de Alba breaks the boundaries between history, myth, and fiction as she recreates the historical figure of Garcia Lorca and even his poetry; the popular actress Margarita Xirgú; the mythical character of Mariano Fernández Santiago, commonly known as Chorrojumo, patriarch of the Gypsies, whose statue still guards the entry to Granada’s gypsy neighborhood of Sacromonte (Cárdenas); and the Aztec warrior goddess Coyolxauhqui. Importantly, Margarita’s curse is actually inspired by true events. However, it is only at the end of the book that readers realize of the true nature of the supposedly fictional story, which is a verbatim translation of the news published in El Diario de Juarez in 1984 (23). Next, in a historical-mythical novella, Gaspar de Alba recovers the story of one of the...

Lu Xun and Nabokov in the Light of the “Verbatim Translation” Concept

Lu Xun and Nabokov in the Light of the “Verbatim Translation” Concept

The Brazilian version of the 20-item rapid estimate of adult literacy in medicine and dentistry

BackgroundThe misunderstanding of specific vocabulary may hamper the patient-health provider communication. The 20-item Rapid Estimate Adult Literacy in Medicine and Dentistry (REALMD-20) was constructed to screen patients by their ability in reading medical/dental terminologies in a simple and rapid way. This study aimed to perform the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of this instrument for its application in Brazilian dental patients.MethodsThe cross-cultural adaptation was performed through conceptual equivalence, verbatim translation, semantic, item and operational equivalence, and back-translation. After that, 200 participants responded the adapted version of the REALMD-20, the Brazilian version of the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry (BREALD-30), ten questions of the Brazilian National Functional Literacy Index (BNFLI), and a questionnaire with socio-demographic and oral health-related questions. Statistical analysis was conducted to assess the reliability and validity of the REALMD-20 (P < 0.05).ResultsThe sample was composed predominantly by women (55.5%) and white/brown (76%) individuals, with an average age of 39.02 years old (±15.28). The average REALMD-20 score was 17.48 (±2.59, range 8–20). It displayed a good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.789) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.73; 95% CI [0.66 − 0.79]). In the exploratory factor analysis, six factors were extracted according to Kaiser’s criterion. The factor I (eigenvalue = 4.53) comprised four terms— “Jaundice”, “Amalgam”, “Periodontitis” and “Abscess”—accounted for 25.18% of total variance, while the factor II (eigenvalue = 1.88) comprised other four terms—“Gingivitis”, “Instruction”, “Osteoporosis” and “Constipation”—accounted for 10.46% of total variance. The first four factors accounted for 52.1% of total variance. The REALMD-20 was positively correlated with the BREALD-30 (Rs = 0.73, P < 0.001) and BNFLI (Rs = 0.60, P < 0.001). The scores were significantly higher among health professionals, more educated people, and individuals who reported good/excellent oral health conditions, and who sought preventive dental services. Distinctly, REALMD-20 scores were similar between both participants who visited a dentist <1 year ago and ≥1 year. Also, REALMD-20 was a significant predictor of self-reported oral health status in a multivariate logistic regression model, considering socio-demographic and oral health-related confounding variables.ConclusionThe Brazilian version of the REALMD-20 demonstrated adequate psychometric properties for screening dental patients in relation to their recognition of health specific terms. This instrument can contribute to identify individuals with important dental/medical vocabulary limitations in order to improve the health education and outcomes in a person-centered care model.

Contribution of prosodic and paralinguistic cues to the translation of evidentiary audio recordings

This study examines accuracy in the translation and transcription of evidentiary audio recordings in the Australian context. Verbatim translation requested by crime agencies and courts is investigated and translation and transcription methods are suggested with reference to conversation analysis. The purpose of evidentiary audio recordings dictates a faithful translation; however, the prevalent ‘written to be read’ translation and transcription styles used by crime agencies can jeopardise the output, given the problems created in reflecting the speakers’ intentions, moods, power and attitudes. The credibility of transcripts when tendered in evidence in court hinges on the quality of the translation. In addition to the stylistic accuracy of the translation of speakers’ interactions, the present paper argues that important discursive information exhibited in the suprasegmental features in conversation should be documented on transcripts, including prosodic and paralinguistic elements, such as intonation, timing of responses and volume. When strategically used, these features can help in placing the last pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, and producing ‘audible’, ‘written to be read as if spoken’ texts.

HP-02-001 Sexual problems associated with Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) among Kipsigis women of Mauche Division, Nakuru, Kenya

Investigate the sexual consequences of FGM/C among women in Mauche division of Nakuru County in Kenya. The study was conducted at Mauche division of Nakuru county in Kenya. The community under investigation has over the last three years reported that married mature women and mothers choose to undergo FGM/C a new trend of the practice. Qualitative research methodology was employed where in-depth interviews and case narratives were conducted. A thematic analysis of the recorded and verbatim translations of the data was conducted. The study revealed that women from Mauche suffer from sexual problems as a result of FGM. Women reported a decline in sexual desire and subsequently sexual pleasure. Preliminary data shows that this decrease is attributed to physical and psychological levels of impingement, notably, the missing part and/or the clitoris, linked to no digital stimulation before intercourse by the partner and also husbands/partners consideration of women with clitoridectomy to be sexually cold and therefore preferring uncut women.

PRM157 - ‘How Does that Make You feel?’ - the Ambiguity of Translating Depression

To identify common translation issues occurring during linguistic validation of depression scales; to assess possible solutions that could be applied across target languages. We gathered back-translation reviews from linguistic validation projects comprising four depression scales and spanning thirteen languages; identified issues faced during discussion with lead linguistic validation consultants in-country; compared problems and solutions to find any patterns; highlighted challenges common to depression scales. There were three main challenges: 1. Colloquial expressions are frequently used. Problematic items included ‘I could not get going’ and ‘I could not shake off the blues’. All languages reviewed had no colloquial equivalent for ‘shake off the blues’; we resolved to create conceptual equivalence (‘I could not get rid of my depression’/’I could not stop feeling sad’) with a conversational register to reflect the source. 2. Some symptoms of depression are challenging to translate. For example, ‘worthless’ and ‘worthwhile’ posed problems for 62% of languages. Most often, the terms were confused with ‘useless/useful’. Where there was no direct translation, and when suitable for the clinical context, these terms were translated as ‘worth nothing’ and ‘valuable’. 3. The marginally-nuanced ideas were no problem for a broad English vocabulary, however, during linguistic validation, there was difficulty differentiating between English source terms such as ‘wound-up’, ‘nervous’, ‘agitated’, ‘restless’ and ‘tense’. All target languages struggled to translate ‘nervous’ and ‘wound-up’ in two separate terms. Project managers defined the latter as ‘brought to a state of great tension’, possibly including ‘nervous movement’, and the concept was rendered successfully. Attitudes towards depression vary across different cultures. Verbatim translations are found to be risky for numerous reasons but, with careful discussion between lead linguists and project managers, conceptually-equivalent, culturally-adapted wording is found to allow for this. To the issues reviewed, similar solutions were applied across languages and in different depression scales.