constructing pathways to translation - Higher Education Commission

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7. Abbreviations should not be translated as abbreviations but complete words should be
used in translations. For example, government in English is abbreviated as “Govt.” and
“Lt.” for Lieutenant are used, but while translating, the full word should be used to avoid
ambiguity.
As long as possible, “Hindi Azafat” and “Haroofe Jar” should be avoided. For
example, ‘Time Glass’ translated as “Rait Garahi” instead of “Rait ki Garahi” ,should be
used.
4.5.1 Proper Nouns
They are of two kinds: Names of Persons, and Names of Places.
Regarding names of persons, it is not necessary that pronunciation of the original word
is adopted, but with some modifications, it should be molded into Urdu pronunciation,
like Plato, Aristotle and Socrates are pronounced as, Aflatoon, Sukraat, and Aristoo.
In such a case, it is important to remember, that if the pronunciation of an English word
is difficult to be translated into Urdu, it is advisable to adopt the word as it is, so that its
original pronunciation should be retained as far as possible and used in Urdu. Translators
in Urdu are also free to make modifications in pronunciation to make the word adapt to
and match the Urdu language. For example, the English name ‘Vughan’, can be
pronounced as ‘Wan’, and ‘Pugh’ may be pronounced as ‘Pyo’. Still there are certain
words which are difficult to be adapted, because of their lexical complexity. In such a
case, Urdu follows Arabic translators, and their rules of translation are adapted. For
example, Arabs pronounce and write, ‘Aristotle’ as ‘Arasta talees’, and Urdu has used
the word ‘Arastoo’. The same is the case with the words Joseph, Jones, and Jacob for,
‘Yousaf’, ‘Yonus’, and ‘Yaqoob’, accordingly
4.5.2 Place Names:
It is indeed a strange phenomenon that people are familiar with the name of pleces like
‘Roseta’ and ‘Demeta’, but are unaware of the fact that they were derived from ‘Rashid’
and ‘Damyat’. The same is the story of Sudan. The word Sudan is basically derived from
the word ‘Aswud’, meaning black, in Arabic. Since English speaking people cannot
pronounce ‘Th,’ and use ‘D’ instead, ‘Suthan’ became ‘Sudan’. Careful consideration