The Problems Of Translating Cultural Concepts into Another Language: On The Example Of Tuvan Cultural Concepts

The article presents an analysis of the problems of cultural transfer in the translation of two editions of M.B. Kenin-Lopsan’s monograph devoted to the description of Tuvan traditions in the Tuvan language “Tyva chanchyl. Tyva chonnun ydyktyg chanchyldary” [“Tuvan traditions. Tuvan folk sacred traditions”] 1994 and 1999, in the publication in Russian “Tuvan folk traditions” 2006. The authors note that cultural transfer causes changes in meanings, adaptations of information not only due to the fact that the translator does not have sufficient linguistic culture. The translator can be a natural bilingual who has been fluent in two languages since childhood, both linguistic cultures can be equivalent. Thus, the translated edition was prepared by two bilingual translators under the editorship of two Tuvan-Russian bilingual writers. But, nevertheless, the linguistic means of Russian culture cannot convey a number of Tuvan terms and expressions, and this imposes restrictions on translations. The authors show these examples by grouping the transformations of cultural transfer into four types of problems: distortion of meanings; incomplete transmission of information; disappearance of semantic constructions; inability to translate non-equivalent vocabulary. Phrases from the Tuvan text of M.B. Kenin-Lopsan, versions of the translated edition are given, and in some cases a more successful translation, according to the authors of the article, is proposed.