UNTRANSLATABILITY OF CULTURAL TERMS IN NOVEL RONGGENG DUKUH PARUK BY AHMAD TOHARI. Puspita Purbasari, Khristianto. Faculty of Letters

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1 UNTRANSLATABILITY OF CULTURAL TERMS IN NOVEL RONGGENG DUKUH PARUK BY AHMAD TOHARI Puspita Purbasari, Khristianto Faculty of Letters UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH PURWOKERTO Abstract This is a qualitative research on the untranslatability. The data of the research were taken from Ahmad Tohari s Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk and its English version, The Dancer. The data were collected purposively by a criterion of cultural terms causing untranslatability in the translation. The data were then analyzed applying Mona Baker (1992) and Nida s theory on untranslatability. Based on the analysis, it was identified seven factors of untranslatability, those are cultural specific concept, the source and the target languages make different distinctions in meaning, the source language word is semantically complex, the target language lacks a specific term (hyponym), social and culture issues, material culture issues and problem of ecology. In handling the problems, translator applied seven strategies, i.e. translation by a more general word, translation by a more neutral/ less expressive word, translation by cultural substitution, translation using a loan word or loan words plus, translation by paraphrase using a related word, translation by paraphrase using unrelated words, and translation by omission. The result of data is found only 100 cultural terms that has problem untranslatability. Keywords: untranslatability, cultural term or cultural word, factor of untranslatability, strategy of untranslatability A. INTRODUCTION Untranslatability is a condition that word or cultural terms in source language (SL) have not equivalent word in target language (TL). Not only word but some utterances will be important if translates into other language so the utterance have to equivalent. Catford (1965: 93) writes that translatability appears "intuitively, to be out of line rather than a clear-cut dichotomy", and "SL texts and items are more or less translatable rather than absolutely translatable or untranslatability". B. LITERARY REVIEW Untranslatable divide into two types, those are Linguistic factor and Non-linguistic factor (Cultural Untranslatable). Catford divided the

2 untranslatability into two types, there are Linguistic untranslatability and Culture untranslatability (Setiyaningsih, 2002:33-34). According to Baker, some factors that can be cause of untranslatability are 11 but, based on the research only found 4 that appear in RDP cultural specific concept, the source and the target languages make different distinctions in meaning, the source language word is semantically complex, the target language lacks a specific term (hyponym). Nida also explain 5 factors that only chosen 3 as a cause of untranslatability in RDP, those are problem of ecology, material culture issues and social and culture issues. C. FINDING AND DISCUSSION Some factors that can cause of untranslatability also found in this research. There are seven factors of untranslatability that found in RDP s novel. 1. Cultural Specific Factor : 81 % From 81%, those are 7 strategies that used to solve untranslatable words: loan word (30%), a neutral word (16%), a general word (6%), omission (10%), cultural substitution (4%), paraphrase related word (5%) and paraphrase unrelated word (10%). 2. SL is Semantically Complex : 2 % Base on this factor, researcher uses strategies translation by paraphrase using unrelated word to solve the untranslatable words. 3. SL and TL have Different Distinction : 1% Untranslatable word that cause of this factor has sum 1 % as result of analysis. Researcher uses a strategy to cope the untranslatability that is a neutral or less expressive. 4. TL have Lacks of Specific Term (Hyponym) : 2 % 2 % is result factor of untranslatability that TL has lacks of specific term or (hyponym). In this case, researcher applies same strategies that use to solve untranslatable word above. Translation by using a neutral or less expressive is a strategy that used to solve the untranslatability phenomenon. 5. Material Culture Issues : 7 %

3 Those are 7 % the possibility of Material culture issues as the factor of untranslatability in some words. To solve the untranslatability problem, translator applied four strategies, translation by neutral word or less expressive, general word, omission and paraphrase using unrelated word. 6. Social and Culture Issues : 5% Based on the analysis, researcher found 5 % that list of factor social and culture issues and solved use translation by neutral word or less expressive and translation by omission untranslatability. 7. Problem of Ecology : 2% Problem of ecology is one of factor of untranslatability that has 2 % results. To solve the untranslatability problem, researcher applied 2 strategies translation by paraphrase using unrelated word and translation by using loan word or loan word plus explanation. Further analysis on each case is discussed in the following sections. This is the application of theory in the data. a. Wangsit : a kind of supernatural godmother (013/RDP-06/TD- 08/WLU/CU) SL: indang adalah semacam wangsit yang dimuliakan di dunia peronggengan. TL : In the world of ronggeng, the indang was revered as a kind of supernatural godmother. The word wangsit is considered as an untranslatable word because it is a special term or culture-specific concept from Indonesia culture (Baker, 21:1992). Pesan (amanat) gaib (KBBI). This word can be call as divine inspiration which give to a good person or selected person. When someone gets wangsit that consist all of goodness, they must be do the best for it. Basically, wangsit is kindness order. Paraphrase using unrelated word (Baker, 37:1992) can used to solve the untranslatability problem in the word wangsit. it can help the reader understand the message of word wangsit.

4 D. CLOSING b. Cendol : omitted (072/RDP-052/TD-091/WLU/CU) SL : Atau kalau kau ingin membual banyak-banyak, mari kita beli cendol. TL : If you want to brag, let's go and get something to eat. Cendol is penganan yang dibuat dari tepung beras dsb yang dibentuk dengan penyaring, kemudian dicampur dengan air gula dan santan (untuk minuman) (KBBI). Food that made from pulverizes rice and mix with milk squeezed from coconut as addition ingredient. It is traditional food/snack from Javanese. It is specific cultural aspect that only found in Indonesia. Food, tradition, and custom are cultural aspects that can be cause untranslatability phenomenon. The marks of word cendol means that it is refers to untranslatable word that can solve use translation by omission (Baker, 40:1992). It is applied because English culture have not equivalent to word cendol. Remove this word is correctly strategy to keep translation but the source language text must not lose the basic meaning. From the analysis, researcher found case of untranslatability in novel RDP are cultural specific term as most factor of untranslatability (81 %) and translation using loan word or loan word plus explanation is strategies that most applied to solve untranslatability problem in novel RDP (31 %). It means that a lot of cultural term from Banyumas is not untranslatable when translated into TD. E. BIBILIOGRAPHY Baker, M. (1992) In Other Words: A Course book on Translation, London and New York: Routledge. Bassnett, S. (1980/1991/2002) Translation Studies (Third Edition), London and New York: Routledge. Brislin, Richard. W Translation: Application and Research. New York: Gardener Press Inc. Catford, J. C. (1965). A Linguistic Theory of Translation, London: Oxford University Press. Martini, Tuty The Readability of Translation of Text of the Legend of Banyuwangi Folklore (Thesis).Klaten: Widya Dharma University Klaten Press. Meloeng, Lexy. J Metodologi Penelitian kualitatif.bandung: Rosda Karya.

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