The translation of Spanish and Hispanic colloquialisms into Maltese

Abstract

Translation itself is a challenging task but the translation of colloquialisms and slang in particular, can be even more so due to the fact that these linguistic phenomena are full of metaphorical nuances. For this reason, they may be untranslatable at times and will certainly require pragmatic translation. The objective of this study is to build a foundation for a phrase book of colloquialisms, slang and vulgarisms from Spanish into Maltese. In order to achieve this, there was first a need to research more information on the translation of this type of language and the strategies and procedures used to achieve its closest possible equivalent in the target language. Moreover, an in-depth knowledge of both languages and cultures, as well as willingness to thoroughly research and discuss the expressions with native speakers of both languages are required. Due to the figurative nature of this type of language, the majority of the expressions required many changes which caused various linguistic losses. However, since both source and target cultures are not that far apart, it was somewhat simpler to find very close pragmatic equivalents in the translation of these expressions into Maltese.