Gastronomy and Translation: Cultural Words Translation in “Not

Only Nasi Goreng” by Suryatini N Gani

Zia Kemala

, Septy Indrianty

Institute of Tourism Economic, Dr. Sutami street, Bandung, Indonesia

Tour and Travel Program, Hotel Program

Keywords: Gastronomy, Cultural Words, Food, Translation

Abstract: This research responded to the rich of cultural words that Indonesia had in terms of gastronomy field. The

cultural words were culture-bound which did not have equivalent words in English. A translator often meets

difficulty in finding the equivalent words or terms in English. Meanwhile, the cultural words should be

translated into English well because it was needed in promotion of culinary tourism in Indonesia. Therefore,

the aim of the study figured out the procedures used by the translator in translating the cultural words, and

whether the translation was accurate or not. The study used qualitative research design, in a form text analysis

approach. This method allowed the study to make a systematic and factual description of the obtained data.

The data were all the cultural words found in the recipe book. The findings of the study showed that the most

frequent procedures used in translating the cultural words in the recipe book were descriptive equivalent.

Since, there are no equal words in English. Thus, the cultural words need some explanation to describe the

cultural words. Besides, the results of translation are accurate, clear, and natural.

1 INTRODUCTION

Gastronomy tourism has become major and has

become a rapidly growing component of the

attractiveness of tourism destination in recent years

[1]

(Sormaz, 2015). Tourists' wishes to experience the

local tastes in the which given by local. A tourist

might want to visit an area to have some new cultural

experience, or they just want to try local dishes and

different tastes belonging to that area as well. As a

result of this, the local foods are not only seen as

customs but also iconic products about the specific

region (Bessiere, 1998) and that is what makes a

tourist visit the culture (Smith, 2007).

Culture has been called as the way of life. Its

manifestation is very special for a community that

uses certain language as the way of expression

(Newmark, 1988:94). Language and culture, then

may thus be seen as being closely related. Other

aspects must be considered in translation.

In relation to translation and culture, sometime the

translator often found out a nuber of text that were

cukture bound. The translator often finds some kinds

of words or phrases which refer to a specific language

terminology, which is to say ‘cultural words’

(newmark 1988). Although we can easily detect most

cultural words, it can not be literally translated

because each country in the world has its own cultural

words which are different from one to another (larson,

1984). Regarding this Baker (1992:21) says that the

SL word may express a concept which is totally

unkonwn in the target culture. It may be a religious

belief, a social custom, or even a type of food. That is

to say, a translator often meets difficulty in finding

the equivalent words or terms in the TL, which only

exist in one culture.

Therefore, the translator should be able to select

an appropriate translation procedure that can

overcome such problem. The use of an appropriate

translation procedure eventually affects the final

product trsnslation result (Larson, 1984:163). Apart

from that, it can help the reader to understand the

message or information that the author is trying to

convey better.

Based on the aforementioned explanation, it is

interesting to investigate the Indonesian cultural

words translation through this study. Especially how

those cultural words were translated into English By

Suryatini N. Ganie, an Indonesian gastronomy expert

in her book which is entitled “Not Only Nasi

Goreng”. This book were translated into English in

Kemala, Z. and Indrianty, S.

Gastronomy and Translation: Cultural Words Translation in “Not Only Nasi Goreng” by Suryatini N Gani.

DOI: 10.5220/0009385700560062

In Proceedings of the 1st NHI Tourism Forum (NTF 2019) - Enhancing Innovation in Gastronomic for Millennials, pages 56-62

ISBN: 978-989-758-495-4

order to introduce Indonesian food to world wide.

Therefore this book is bilingual book.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

There are some trasaltion procedures that can be used

as a strategy in translating cultural words. The

translations arei line with those proposed by

Newmark (1988:81) and other expert, including

Graedler (2000:3), Harvey (2000:2-6), Vinay and

Darlbenet (2000), Jackobson (as cited in Leonardi,

2000), and Sarcevic (as cite in Ordudari, 2008).

Taking the procedures of translation into account,

Newmark (1988:81) classifies it into 16 types.

However, in this paper the writer focuses on the

following twelve categories of translation

procedures;

A. Literal

Literal or word for word translation is the direct

transfer. Here, the translator converts grammatical

construction of SL to the nearest target language

equivalence (Newmark: 1988:45)

B. Transference

This procedure occurs in which the SL words are

transferred into TL text directy whitahout the

changing lexical unit (loan words). It is caused by the

vocabulary limitaion in the TL, thus a trnaslator tend

to use the original word (Newmark, 1988:81)

C. Naturalization

In this procedure, initially the SL words are adjusted

to the normal pronunciationof TL, and then it is

adapted to the form of words (Newmark:1988:82)

D. Cultural equivalent

This procedure is used to replace situation of the SL

by an analogous of the TL (when communicative

situation are difficult to understand in the culture of

TL,

E. Functional equivalent

It is used when a SL does not have equivalentin the

TL word. This procedure is used to neutralize or

generalize a SL cultural word by using a culture free

word (Newmark, 1988:83)

F. Descriptive equivalent

This procedure used when the translator finds that SL

can not be directly transferred as it is. But, it needs an

obvious explanation or description for translating it.

The difference is that in descriptive procedure, a

translator does not describe the function of of SL wors

(Newmark, 1988:83)

G. Through translation

It is the literal translation of common collocations,

names of organizations and components of

compounds (Newmark, 1988:84)

H. Transposition

Newmark (1988:86) classifies this procedure into

four types, as follow:

• The change from plural to singular.

• SL grammatical structure does not exist in

the TL.

• When literal translation is grammatically

possible but may not accord with the natural

usage in the TL and explain the meaning of

the SL expression in lieu of translating it.

I. Compensation

It is used when less meaning, sound effect, methapor

or pragmati effect in one part of sentence. Then it

compensated in another part in contiguous sentence

(Newmark:1998:90)

J. Couplet

The procedure combines two (couplet), three

(triplets) or four (quadruplet) of the above mentioned

procedures in dealing with a single problem

(Newmark:1988:91)

K. Notes

This procedures are about when additional

information should be applied or not. It offers some

additional information about cultural words in the

text, such as in the bottom of page, in the bracket, at

the end of a chapter or even at the end of a book

(Newmark:1988:91).

3 METHODS

This research employed a qualitative research design

embracing the characteristics of case study which is

framed within a textual analysis approach. As cited in

Emilia (2008:191) case study was carried out in “a

small scale, a single case”. Johnson (1992:76) furtehr

adds that the purpose of case study is to describe the

case in te context. Case study is considered to be

relevant to this study since it dealt with cultural words

in the book of Suryatini N. Ganie as a single case

which was analyzed and described.

This styudy focuses on the analysis of cultural

words translation in the recipe book entitled “Not

Only Nasi Goreng” written by Suryatini N. Ganie.

Both of the original and translated versin was

published by PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama in 2009

and it consists of 71 recipes. This book was chosen as

the object of the research because in the recipe book

contains a great quantity of cultural words. In doing

this research, the steps were as follows: first, the

research read several times both the original and

translated version of the recipe book. Second, the

researcher identified the cultural words in the recipe

book as sugesstede by Tomalin and Stempleski

Gastronomy and Translation: Cultural Words Translation in “Not Only Nasi Goreng” by Suryatini N Gani

(1996). Third, each terms were analyzed based on

newmark translation procedures (1988) which was

supported by several experts, they are Graedler

(2000:3), Harvey (2000:2-6), Vinay and Darlbenet

(2000:84), Jackobson (as cited in Leonardi, 200), and

Sarcevic (as cited in Ordudari, 2008). The translation

procedures are literal, transference, naturalization,

cultural equivalent, functional equivalent, descriptive

equivalent, through translation, transpositions,

coiplet, and notes. Fourth, calculating the whole

terms that were found in the recipe book and

translation procedure of each category in order to see

wha kinds of translation procedures were applied by

translator particularly in translating Indonesian

cultural terms into English. To calculate the data, the

writer used the formula of percentage below:

p = f x 100%

(1)

P = The percentage of translation procedure category

F = Ferquency of occurence of translation procedure

catogery

N = The total nu,ber of cultural terms

Fifth, the result of the calculation s were put on th

etables and charts which (as shown in findings) which

conssit of the number of translation procedure aplied

in each category to make the result more clearly. The

last, the data were interpreted based on theories.

4 DATA AND RESULT

Based on the research, the following table shows the

frequencies of each translation procedures applied in

translating cultural words.

Table 1: Procedures of translation used in translating

cultural words.

Procedure of

Translation

Quantity

Percentage

(%)

Literal

13.2

Transference

15.6

Naturalization

3.2

Cultural

Equivalent

9.2

Functional

Equivalent

2.8

Descriptive

Equivalent

102

40.8

Through

Translation

0.4

Transposition

Couplet

3.2

Notes

1.6

Total Number

250

100

5 DISCUSSION

Based on the data above, it can be analyzed that there

are 250 cultural words found in the recipe book, and

ten procedures of translation were used in translating

them. It can be seen that the most frequent and

dominant translation procedures usedis descriptive

equivalent. It is used to neutralize or generalize a

source language of cultural words by using a

description, or in other words this procedure is

applied when the translator finds SL word can not be

transferred as it is (Newmark). Therefore, it is

appropriate to be applied in this study, since most of

the cultural words are name sof food or drinks that

their equivalent could not be found in the Target

Language culture. Here, descriptive equivalent

translated 102 items of cultural words (40.8%). Thus

descriptive equivalent turns out to be the most

possible way to translate the cutural words since it

provides necessary explanation in the Target

Language (Baker, 1992: 167).

For more obvious result, the following section is

the explanation of translation procedures used in

translating the cultural words.

1. Literal

In general, the writer found that the translator did not

meet any difficulty in translating those terms because

they have the nearest equivalence that make them

more naturally accepted in the TL (Newmark). Here

is the example:

Table 2: Literal translation.

Petani (p.80)

Farmer (p.80)

According to Oxford Learner’s Advanced

Dictionary, petain means a person whose works are

growing crops, raising and breeding livestock,

poultry and other animals. The trasnlation of petani

into farmer is a kind of literal translation procedure

because the translator translated the word singly

(Newmark). As a matter of fact, the translation

enables the reader to easily understand the transferred

meaning, because thetranslator picks the right words

and procedure. As Larson notes that the best

translation is the one which uses the normal language

forms of the receptor language.

2. Tranference

In general, the translation is acceptable since those

translations are completely transferred in order to

make the TL accurate and clear (Wills in Frisberg).

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Table 3: Transference translation.

Lontong (p.50)

Lontong is a type of food made from rice mixed

with coconut or peanut suace. The translator used

transference procedure since the words is translated

similarly with the orginal one (Graedler, 200:3).

However, this translation still has a weakness point.

Occasionally, the term sounds unsual and

incomprehensible for the target readers because it will

be quite difficult for them to understand what lontong

is. As stated by Larson that when a source language

text is from a culture very different in which the

receptor language, it is often difficult to translate in

such way that the result will communicate the

samemessage. It will be better if some additional

information is added to the translated terms in

describing the SL word, since the TL has no direct

equivalent for a word which occurs in the source text

(Baker, 1992)

3. Naturalization

It is believe thah the translatior will find no

difficulties in translating the terms because the terms

which have already been nauralized into English. As

a result the translation runs smoothly and sounds

natural (Larson). The example is as follow:

Table 4: Naturalization.

Bir (p.8)

Beer (p.8)

This procedure transfers and adapts the SL word

to the normal pronounciation and to the morphology

of the TL but different way in writing because they

have been adjusted to the rules of translation of the

TL (Newmark). This translation is legally and

naturally accepted in TL. As stated by Larson (that

one of good criteria of good translation is using the

appropriate vocabularies and grammatical structure,

and sounding natural in the TL. In addition, Wills in

Frisberg says that a translation is good when the sense

it makes to the reader is similar to the original.

4. Cultural Equivalent

The translator pays attention to find the equivalent for

each cultural word so that the readers can easily

understand the translations (Massoud). Here is the

example:

Table 5: Cultural equivalent.

Daging semur landung

(p.50)

Beef sirloin (p.50)

The translator applied cultural equivalent

procedure in translating the term daging sandung

lamur since basically daging sandung lamur and beef

sirloin are almost the same which is categorized into

kind of beef. The term was translated into relevant

and natural term in the TL as long as the translator is

able to capture the local color and the need to be

understood by the audience outside the cultural and

lingual situation (Thriveni, 2001)

5. Fucnctional Equivalent

This procedure has chosen by the translator to make

the target readers understand by providing several

information about the function of the SL. Here is the

example:

Table 6: Functional equivalent.

Daun pandan (p.4)

Screw pine leaf; used for

flavoring and aroma

(p.4)

Daun pandan is a kind of plant which typically

have slender palm stems with special fragnant and

aerial prop roots (Britanica Online dictionary). Here,

the translator intended to neutralize or generalize the

SL word with inserting an explanation of the function

by using fuctional equivalent (Newmark).

6. Descriptive Equivalent

This procedure enables the translator to add some

information about the cultural words in the translated

version in order to make it clear. The example is as

follow:

Table 7: Descriptive equivalent.

Urap Sayuran (p.60)

Urap sayuran, vegetable

salad with grated coconut

dresing (p.60)

Based on the description, the translation

procedure used descriptive equivalent. The procedure

provides certain necessary explanation that is needed

in the form of word, phrase or even clause to make

the translated words or phrases appear normal

whether gramatically and semantically inthe TL

(Baker, 1992:67). As Harvey (2000) states that it can

be helful to add some information in the original SL

term to avoid ambiguity.

Gastronomy and Translation: Cultural Words Translation in “Not Only Nasi Goreng” by Suryatini N Gani

7. Through Translation

In this case the translator assume that the target

readers have already known the term. Here is the

example:

Table 8: Through translation.

Lembaga Gastronomi

Indonesia (p.1)

Indonesian Institute

Gastronomy (p.1)

Lembaga gastronomi Indonesia is an organization

which studies various cultural component with food

as its central axis. Here the translator trasnlated it into

Indonesian Instittute Gastronomy. The structure is

change but hte meaningn is transferredd correctly. As

Abdulla (1994:70) suggests that a successful

translation isone attempts to preserve “the appropriate

stlyistics resources of the TL”.

8. Transposition

Larson pounts out that transposition procdure refer to

alternative way in which a translator can find the

equivalent word in receptor language. Here is the

example:

Table 9: Transposition.

Cabai merah (p.4)

Red chili (p.4)

It is translated into red chiliby usung transpositin

procedure because there is a change position of the

adjective in the SL within the TL. In the SL, the

adjective is placed next to the noun while in the TL

adjective is placed before the noun.

Cabai Merah Red Chilly

Noun Adjective Adjective Noun

One reasonable explanation for that is the cultural

difference between the two languages have resulted

linguistic differences and one of them is the change

of gramatical rule from SL into TL (Newmark,

1988:163). It has great impact on the result of

translation. In accordance with Souter (as cited in

Ordudari) who claims that “our ideal in translation is

to produce on the minds of our readers as nearly as

possible the sam effect as was produced by the

original on its readers.”

9. Couplet

The translator used couplet procedure because there

are two kinds of procedures used in translating this

words (Newmark, 1988: 91). Here is the example:

Table 10: Couplet.

Palem (p.4)

Palm tree (p.5)

This transalation used two procedures, namely

naturalization and compensation . the translation of

the word palem into palm is an exampple of

naturalization procedure, while the translation palem

into palm tree is a kind of compensation procedure,

which occurs when loss of meaning, sound effect,

metaphor, or pragmatic effect in one part of a

sentenceis compensated in another part of in

contiguous sentence (Newmark, 1988:90). As a

result, the translation quality is good based on the TL

reader’s perspective. This is similar to Wills in

Friesberg (1990:50) who says that a good translation

if needed to add or leave out something.

10. Notes

The translator used additional information in the

bracket. The example is as follow:

Table 11: Notes.

Ayam panggang (p.60)

Ayam panggang (grilled

chicken) (p.60)

The translator used notes procedure in translated

ayam panggang into ayam panggang (grilled

chicken). Actually, this procedure is similar to

descriptive equivalent. However, the difference lies

in the placement of the additional information given

by the translator. The additional information in the

notes procedure is put in the bracket, while inthe

descriptive equivalent the additional information is

not put in the bracket, but it is placed soon afterwards

or following the Sl term. The brackets are often used

for a literal translation of transferred words or phrases

(Newmark, 1988:92). Through some additional

information, then it can help the reader to move a little

nearer to the meaning of the original words or phrases

(Newmark, 1988:101). In addition to Nida

(1964:237) who advocates the use of notes to fulfill

at least the two following function; providing

suplementary information, and calling attention to the

original discrapencies. Then the intended message of

the original text is successfully delivered in a

communicative and comprehensive translation

(Denuon, 2004).

Based on the aformentioned discussion, the

translator tried to find the appropriate, relevant, and

acceptable equivalent in the TL whic is tottaly

unknown in the TL. Therefore the tranlator used

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different kinds of procedures to translate the cultural

words. In fact, some of the translated terms were not

translatedinto closest natural equivalent to the SL.

When the cultures are similar, there is less

difficulty in translating. This is because both

languages will probably have terms that are more or

less equivalent for the various aspect of the culture.

When the cultures are ery different, it is often difficult

to find lexical items (Larspn, 1984:95)

It was observed that the main problem in translatin

gthe cultural word is no equivalence from SL into TL.

It was caused by the translated text that is adopted

from the culture of its creation and placed somewhere

new shows us what sort of text and ideas appeals

accross cultural boundaries, and what people felt to

be of value in other cultures (Baker, 1992).

Therefore, the translator had to choose an

appropriate translation procedure whic will affect the

final product of result of translation (Larson,

1984:163). As a result, the reader can understand and

read the recipe book nicely witout any difficulty. As

Baker (192:19) assumes that a good translation will

make the reader not relize of the fact that it is a

translation even though there are some words that are

totally unknown in English as the TL.

Based on the explanation above, we can learn

something important about common concern and

problem and how the translator solves the problems

occur during the translation process. Furthermore, the

translator does not only need the ability of two

languages, but also the knowledge of the culture of

both languages. It is important because translation is

a tool which has brought and continued to bring

people of different cultural and linguistic

backgrounds closer. It enables them to share a more

harmonious view of the world, and establish bridges

of understanding and appreciation among different

societies (Baker, 1992).

6 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the findings and discussions it can be

concluded that the translator applied literal,

transference, naturalization, cultural equivalent,

fuctional equivalent, descriptive equivalent, through

translation, transposition, couplets and notes

translation procedure are used by the translator. The

results show that descriptive equivalent procedure is

the mosty used in translating cultural words found in

the recipe book for about 40.8%. additonally, the

cultural words have been translated well by the

translator, since most of the translation fulfills some

criteria of a good translation such as accuracy, clarity,

and naturalness.

After conducting the research, some suggestions

for the readers is first, a translator should have

comprehensive knowledge of both source and target

language. They need it to produce a good translation

result. It can be done by practicing to read and

translate different genres of material with various

levels of difficulty, continuously trying to improve

writing ability in increasing English ability and

vocaculary co-extenisvely with the knowledge of new

facts and foreign language words (Newmark,1988).

Second, translators should be careful in translating

cultural words or any kinds of text. Thus, they must

be able to use an appropriate translation procedure for

each cultural word. They have to pay attention to find

equivalent for each cultural words so the readers can

easily understand the text. We ouught to keep in mind

that due to differences, there is no exact translation

between the two languages. What one we can hope

for is an approximation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillah in the name of Allah SWT, the paper

can be completed. The researcher also express the

most gratitude to Sekolah Tinggi Ekonomi Pariwisata

Yapari Bandung and Dikti who support the research

fully.

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