Особенности транслитерации арабских родовых префиксов в англоязычной британской и американской научной лексикографии

Transliteration of Arabic borrowings in modern Russian is an important and pressing problem, especially in scientific lexicography, “and as a translation technique remains one of the most in demand”

A number of modern authors note that transliteration is a complex process of representing words of one language using equivalent contextual or orthographic equivalents of another language

Thus, transliteration means representing words and phrases of one language in the alphabet of another language while preserving their pronunciation. Transliteration is necessary when the processed and enumerated lexical properties are written in different languages. The problem of transliteration is quite serious: in this case, if you do not follow the scheme of the transliteration scheme, the incorrect placement of sounds, letters and incorrect transmission of the lexical result as a whole always occurs.

Considering the specifics of transliteration and orthographic processing of Arabisms in the scientific discourse of British and British English, first of all, it should be noted that the written version of the borrowed lexical formula should not be distorted, since its bearer has a universal, language-independent identification

For example, these Arabic family prefixes: al, ar, as, at, ash indicate where the person comes from (صدام حسين التكريتي [sadaam husayn altikriti]) “Saddam Hussein of Tikrit” and indicate the etymological origin of the names, as well as various family connections: Saddam Hussein (the Arabic name "Saddam" means "opposing") did not have a surname in the European sense. Hussein is his father's name (nasab), similar to a Russian patronymic; Abd al-Majid is the name of his grandfather, and al-Tikriti is a nisbah pointing to the city of Tikrit, where Saddam is from.

"Saddam Hussein (the Arabic name “Saddam” means “opposing”) did not have a surname in the European sense. Hussein is his father's name (nasab), similar to the Russian patronymic; Abd al-Majid is the name of his grandfather, and al-Tikriti is a nisbah pointing to the city of Tikrit, where Saddam is from”

For a deeper understanding of the problems and errors in the transliteration of Arabic family prefixes in English scientific lexicography, let us consider several specific examples from practical data. For example, the family prefix السيد [Al-Sayyid]. In Arabic, the family prefix السيد means “master.” When transliterating this prefix into English, you will often see different spellings such as Al-Sayyid, Al-Sayed, Al-Sayyed, etc. Some lexicographers may use different transliterations of the same family prefix, which can lead to confusion and misunderstanding.

For example, the family prefix الشيخ [Al-Shaykh] in Arabic means "sheikh" or "elder". When transliterating this prefix, differences in spelling also arise, for example, Al-Shaykh, Al-Sheikh, Al-Sheik, etc. These differences can make it difficult to find information about a specific person or author.

The next example is the family prefix الحاج [Al-Hajj], which is used to denote a “pilgrim” who has performed the “Hajj”. When transliterating this prefix, various spellings are also possible, for example, Al-Hajj, Al-Haj, Al-Hagg, etc. Incorrect transliteration of this family prefix can lead to misunderstanding of its meaning and status of a person. Analysis of such examples allows us to identify errors and inconsistencies in the transliteration of Arabic family prefixes in English scientific lexicography, and to improve the quality of translation it is necessary to use uniform methods of transmitting information across language barriers.

Borrowing new terminological units is important within the framework of transliteration and orthographic processing of foreign language lexical units in the scientific discourse of the English language (and its British and American variants). Often, transliteration is used to obtain phonetic equivalents in the target language (English) for a given word in the source language (Arabic). However, transliteration in different writing systems often leads to the fact that the name of the linguistic unit of scientific discourse in the source language is presented differently

Separately, we should dwell on the so-called automatic (machine) transliteration. Thus, models for automatic (machine) transliteration are often used to represent terms in languages with different writing systems and alphabets, for example, English and Arabic.

There are two types of transliteration:

1. Direct transliteration is used when the “letter being transliterated” is Arabic. In this case, nouns, especially proper nouns, take different forms, but all are acceptable as long as they retain the original pronunciation. This phenomenon occurs because English and Arabic languages are very different in their phonemic systems (the same situation can arise between English and Russian). For example, the Arabic name صلاح الدين [salah aldiyn] can be written in different ways: Salah El Din, Salah Al Din, Salahdin (the last option is the most common)

2. Reverse transliteration is used when transliterating an English name into Arabic. The names almost always take the same form, and this is the difference between them: Johnson جونسون [junsun], George جورج [jurj], Alex اليكس [alyaks]

Thus, transliteration determines the process of transition of a lexical unit by using the original phonetic pronunciation of the word and its implementation through the letters and symbols of the language into which it is transliterated. That is, we are talking about the transition of a text unit of one language (in particular, Arabic) into the alphabet of another (English) without changing the original meaning, but preserving the original pronunciation, in contrast to the translation of lexical units (not proper names), caused by the process changes in the lexical meaning of something written, spoken or mentioned from one language to another.

For example, international brands, prominent personalities, programs, electronic and technological applications are transliterated by bringing together the sound types of Arabic and English, such as: Attar Collection, Amouage (Arabic perfume brands), Emirates Airline (airline), Damas (jewelry company), etc. Arabic proper names cannot be translated into English, so Attar Collection is translated as “Attar Collection”, Amouage “Amuage”, Damas “Damas”. Difficult to translate and missing from dictionaries, especially modern and new ones, proper names, companies, international brands and enterprises are always transliterated:

Damas is a leading jewelery house in the Middle East and a distributor of classic fine jewellery, which also offers its own collections of gold jewellery, set with diamonds and other precious stones. “Damas is a leading jewelry house in the Middle East and a distributor of classic fine jewelry, which also offers its own collections of gold jewelry set with diamonds and other precious stones”

Amouage perfumes are the national pride of Oman; they embody the national flavor of this eastern country. “Amuage perfumes are the national pride of Oman; they embody the national flavor of this eastern country”

Founded in Y2015, based in dubai (uae), attar collection is a niche, luxury perfume house offering the richest quality of perfumes and natural oils presented in the exclusive design and a modern elegant image

Transliteration is a priority and extremely necessary compared to translation, since in some cases during translation it is difficult to find an exact analogue or equivalent meaning other than the comparative one

Thus, a key and effective tool for implementing the lexicographic method is the analysis of the borrowing under study in a number of dictionaries from the point of view of its genetic characteristics. In this regard, the problem of the only correct semantic interpretation of the same Arabic borrowings, defined as identical from the point of view of grammatical structures, arises. A huge role in this context is played by identifying the original source of formation of the corresponding lexeme, since many words came into the scientific discourse of the English language from Arabic, Greek and Latin, but through initial assimilation in other languages of the Old World, for example, from Old French, Old German, etc. The basic method for the terminological system of assimilation of borrowed lexemes – transliteration – has a certain specificity in English scientific discourse. This mainly has to do with the phonetic aspect of the use of new words and often the lack of clearly defined transliteration criteria for all possible cases of using this method.