Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Hazem Ali ¹
• Nazar Mohammed ²
• Ahmad l Khali ²

¹ English Dept., College of Education Akree, University of dohuk, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

² English Dept., College of Basic Education, University of dohuk, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Abstract

Translating culture-specific terms is not an easy task as it comprises a number of problems and challenges. One of the biggest challenges that may the translators face when translating culture -specific terms is the process of achieving the cultural equivalence. The present paper tries to investigate the problems and difficulties that students face when translating culture-specific compliments from Kurdish Bahdini into English in various cultural situations. The paper precisely examines six Kurdish compliments and scrutinize their rendering into English language. In order to realize this aim, the researchers designed a test to scrutinize and analyze the translation of six compliments which are used in daily conversation by Bahdini Kurdish speakers and these translations were reviewed. The findings of the study revealed that different techniques such as addition, paraphrase, omission and literal translation are adopted by the participants when translating compliments. 

Keywords

• compliment
• translation
• equivalence
• culture-specific term