THE PECULIARITIES OF TRANSLATING “JAN” REALIA. A CASE STUDY OF THE ARMENIAN FILM “I AM”

Narine Gishyan

Narine Gishyan PhD researcher, Lecturer at the Chair of English Translation at Brusov State University, Tumanyan 42, 0002, Yerevan, Armenia http://orcid.org/0009-0007-7613-8080

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the translation peculiarities of the Armenian realia “ջան” (jan) and to explore the ways in which it is rendered in English. Drawing on a contrastive analysis of 34 occurrences of jan in the Armenian film Yes Em (“I Am”) alongside its English subtitle translation, this study investigates how culturally embedded terms function across languages. In Armenian, jan serves as a vocative marker imbued with emotional and relational nuances that convey affection, familiarity, and politeness. The paper discusses how various translation strategies, including omission, loan, transposition, and substitution, are employed (or misapplied) in subtitling, highlighting the challenges in preserving linguistic identity and cultural integrity in audiovisual translation.

Key words: realia, linguo-culture, strategy, loan, omission, substitution, transposition,text integrity.