From Javanese Suroboyoan to English: A Study of Cultural Terms, Translation Techniques, and Quality Assessment

Abstract

Purpose

This research aimed to identify all cultural terms in Lara Ati (2022) movie, the translation techniques employed to translate them, and their translation quality in English.

Method

This study employed descriptive qualitative approach. The data are all cultural terms taken from Lara Ati (2022) movie in its Javanese Suroboyoan and its English version. They are in form of words and phrases. The cultural terms were identified using Newmark’s (1988). To analyse the translation techniques, Molina and Albir’s (2002) translation techniques were applied. And to find out the translation quality, parameters by Nababan, Nuraeni, and Sumardiono (2012) were employed. To gain valid information on the quality, informants were also involved to assess the accuracy and acceptability.

Results/findings

The research found out 126 cultural terms in Lara Ati movie. 46.8% of them belong to social culture, 22.2% to material culture, 19.1% to gestures and habits, 6.4% to ecology, and 5.6% to social organization. The translation techniques employed were categorized into two, which are couplet and singlet techniques. 7.9% data were translated by using couplet techniques and the other 92.1% by single techniques. In couplet, borrowing techniques were found in all data. Meanwhile, in single techniques the most dominating techniques were literal (39.7%), adaptation (27.0%), and borrowing (9.5%). The least techniques with 1 frequency or 0.7% were found in established equivalent, modulation, and variation. In translation quality, the assessment on accuracy only found accurate (95.2%) and less accurate (4.8%) data. Meanwhile, in acceptability, all categories were found. Acceptable occurs in 89.7% data, less acceptable in 8.7%, and unacceptable in 1.6% data.

Conclusion

To sum up, the use translation techniques produce different level of accuracy and acceptability. The use of couplet techniques produced accurate translations, but in term of acceptability in only resulted acceptable and less acceptable. In single techniques, most techniques produce accurate translation. Only adaptation, borrowing, and literal produce the less accurate ones. In term of acceptability, the use of adaptation produces unacceptable translation. The use borrowing, generalization, and literal produce less acceptable. Meanwhile, the use of other techniques affects the translations to be acceptable. This research proves that translation and translation quality of cultural terms is still interesting, especially when it comes from a regional language to an international language. Therefore, the future research should explore movies that tell cultural life of people from specific regional languages.

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