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Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 65:5 (2019) ► pp.648–661

The translation of Palestinian prisoners’ cryptic security Arabic terms into English

| An-Najah National University
| An-Najah National University
| An-Najah National University

This study deals with the translation into English of nine cryptic security Arabic terms Palestinian prisoners have nomenclatured in response to the life conditions in Israeli prisons. These terms were collected from prison literature and through interviews with five newly-freed Palestinian prisoners who served long terms in Israeli jails. The terms’ functions are pragmatically explicated, and suitable translations, capturing their pragmatic imports, are offered. The study found that these terms have drifted from their original semantic usages and acquired new functions prompted by Palestinian prisoners’ needs for self- and mate-security concerns. In such cases of highly contextualized language usages, the translation options range from those capturing the form and/or function to those capturing the communicative sense independently.

Keywords: Palestinian prisoners, culture-specific terms, security prison terms, pragmatics, instrumental translation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Problem of the study
  • 3.Purpose of the study
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Theoretical framework
  • 6.Prison terms as culture specific items
  • 7.The security prison terms
  • 8.The translation of metaphorical security terms
    • 8.1 /ʕαṣˁfu:r/ (lit. “bird”)
    • 8.2 / bidlif / (lit. “it leaks”)
    • 8.3 /iz-zawyih/ (lit. “corner”)
    • 8.4 /ɣajːamat/ (lit. “cloudy”)
    • 8.5 /kabsih/ (lit. “the press of a button”)
    • 8.6 /ʕadˁitkusa:yih/ (lit. “a bite of zucchini”)
    • 8.7 /Neindga/ (lit. “Ninja Warrior, a Japanese fighter”)
    • 8.8 /ɣazaːl/ (lit. “deer”)
    • 8.9 / kabsu:lih/ (lit. “capsule”)
  • 9.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 23 December 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00120.she
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2020. Bibliography of Recent Works. Journal of Palestine Studies 49:3 ► pp. 105 ff. DOI logo

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