TRANSLATION STRATEGIES OF NORTHERN THAI FOOD NAMES FROM THAI INTO CHINESE

Abstract

This research article aims to 1) study the translation strategies from Thai into Chinese for Northern Thai food names and 2) to suggest guidelines to translate for Chiang Rai local food names into Chinese. Data analysis was analyzed by the book’s name called “THAI FOOD IN 3 LANGUAGES”, which prepared and compiled by the Language Institute, Chiang Mai University. The study was conducted with only Northern Thai food, which were divided into 2 categories, 119 names for savory dishes and 20 names for sweet dishes. Afterwards, all data were analyzed what strategies of translation were used? while the concepts and translation strategies of Pimpan Vessakosol, Kanokporn Numtong and Zhou Lingshun were being used as criteria for analysis. Findings of an analysis revealed that 6 types of translation strategies were found. The most common strategies were literal translation strategy with 33.09%, followed by literal translation and word adding strategy with 30.94%. The strategies that are not shown in this research are transliteral strategies. Suggestions for Thai local food names translation in Chiang Rai into Chinese language are as follows: 1) translation for food names contains local vegetables was allowed to use the method of searching for scientific plants’ as same as its name in Chinese and check by searching photos for verification, whereas 2) translation of food names from cooking method and taste, in general, the literal translation strategy is mainly used; however, if the source food is non-culturally specific or disappear in target culture, convey such meaning with culturally replaced translation strategies.