TRANSLATING CHINESE REALIA INTO ARMENIAN: A CASE STUDY OF YU HUA’S TO LIVE

Lilit Akopyan; Asya Samvelyan

Lilit Akopyan PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Brusov State University, 0002, 42 Toumanyan, Yerevan, http://orcid.org/0009-0008-5690-3475
Asya Samvelyan Lecturer, Brusov State University, 0002, 42 Toumanyan, Yerevan, http://orcid.org/0009-0009-2988-1810

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the translation methods of Chinese culture-specific items (realia) suggested by authors in translating the Chinese novel To Live (活着) by Yu Hua into Armenian, as well as the factors influencing the authors’ choice of Chinese culture-specific realia translation strategies. This study takes realia as the research object and discusses their translation challenges, as well as evaluates appropriate strategies for their effective transference into the Armenian cultural and linguistic context. In this study, authors mainly used transcription plus footnote translation strategy which allowed to preserve phonetic and cultural nuances of the source material.

Keywords: Culture-specific item, Realia, Translation methods, Strategies.