Cultural implications in the translatability of English food idioms into Arabic

Abstract EN

Idioms are specific expressions or phrases whose meaning cannot be predicted easily from literal interpretation.

The translator should be aware of the cultural norms and social attitudes of both source and target language.

However, idioms range in opacity from literal, semi-opaque to complete opaque expressions.

The last two categories are very dangerous in interpretation because the translator had to be acquainted with the social competence of the two cultures.

The present study focuses upon one important field of knowledge i.e.

the translatability of food idioms because they are culturally bound and need much concentration from the translator.

The present paper attempts to find out the suitable strategies involved in translating food idioms from English into Arabic.

It proposes a number of equivalences for the investigated food idioms taking into account all perspectives and shades of meaning in these two cultures.