A Functional Approach to Linguistic Problems in Islamic Subtitling

This study examines the linguistic challenges encountered in subtitling Islamic TV programs from Arabic to English. The formal and cultural discrepancies between the two languages cause some gaps in translation between them given their different lexical and grammatical systems. Linguistic features such as polysemy, semantic change, idioms as well as description of grammatical rules are common pitfalls that cause mistranslations in this area. These difficulties are further complicated by the space and time constraints which limit the amount of text shown on the screen and, thus, prevent the subtitler from clarifying ambiguous sections of the ST. Christian Nord’s functional translation-oriented text analysis model is employed to analyze a sample of four real-life examples taken from programs broadcast on Al-Arabiya Channel and Iqraa TV. Findings show that documentary translation is suitable for the problems of lexical complexity while instrumental translation can overcome the difficulties of translating idioms and description of Arabic grammar to English-speaking viewers. Besides, the strategies of omission, condensation and compensation seem to be a necessity together with creative adaptations to maximize the communicativeness of the subtitles.