Translation Strategies for Thai Musical Instrument Names into Chinese

Abstract

This research aims to 1) study the translation strategies employed in rendering the names of Thai musical instruments into Chinese, and 2) propose guidelines for translating Thai musical instrument names into Chinese. Data were collected through purposive sampling from existing Chinese translations of Thai musical instrument names. The analysis was conducted based on the translation theories of Kanokporn Numtong (2011) and Korsak Thamcharonkij (2010). The research findings revealed that among 82 Thai musical instrument names, three translation strategies were employed 1) Transliteration, 2) Semantic translation, and 3) Creative renaming. The most frequently used strategy was creative renaming with 45 names (54.88%), followed by transliteration with 22 names (26.83%). The least used strategy was semantic translation with 15 names (18.29%). The combined strategy of semantic translation and transliteration was not found in the data.
Regarding guidelines for translating Thai musical instrument names into Chinese, the recommendations are as follows 1) For transliteration, Chinese syllables should be selected to correspond with Thai pronunciation, using one Chinese syllable for each Thai syllable while omitting consonant clusters. For Thai musical instruments unfamiliar in Chinese culture, classificatory terms should be added. 2) For semantic translation, meaning should be conveyed from Thai to Chinese by selecting Chinese words that correspond directly to the Thai terms. 3) For creative renaming, names should be established based on distinctive characteristics of the musical instruments, such as using comparable Chinese instrument names, describing distinctive features, origin, material, tone, size, and specific function of the instruments.