Translation of pronoun "you" from Indonesian to English and Uzbek languages

There are various translation techniques that are used to transfer the text from one language to another. One of the main reasons to use the translation technique is to convey the meaning and the purpose of the text from source language to target language.

The work suggests established translation technique as one of the options of translating personal pronouns from Indonesian to English and Uzbek languages.A translation technique called established equivalent can be used only if a term or expression used in the source language (SL) is recognized by dictionaries or language in use as an equivalent in the target language (TL) [1]

The reason why this method was chosen as a mean of translation is the lingua-cultural feature of personal pronouns in Indonesian language. The features like: expressing respect, age category, kinship and formality impact on the personal pronouns in their forms. Thus the first person singular have two forms : “saya” (formal form) and “aku” (informal form) which are translated as : ‘I’ into English and ‘men’ into Uzbek. The second person singular also has two forms ‘anda’ ( formal form) usually used for referring elders, and ‘kamu’ ( informal form) usually used for referring people younger or the same age. Both of these forms are translated as ‘you’ into English, but may be translated in two various ways into Uzbek language: ‘kamu’ is translated as ‘sen’ and ‘anda’ is translated as ‘siz’. The impactof the context reflect on the usage of particular forms of personal pronouns that were denoted in the dictionaries of Indonesian and Uzbek languages. Here are the examples taken from online dictionaries:

Kamu (pronoun)

you [pronoun] (used as the subject or object of a verb, or as the object of a preposition) the person(s) you spoken or written to.

you [pronoun] used with a noun when calling someone something, especially something unpleasant

Anda (pronoun)

thee [pronoun] an old word for ’you’ used only when addressing one person, especially God (usually Thee), as the object of a verb

you [pronoun] (used as the subject or object of a verb, or as the object of a preposition) the person(s) you spoken or written to

you [pronoun] used with a noun when calling someone something, especially something unpleasant (dictionary.cambridge.org)

Kamu (pronoun)

‘you’ used only among peers or by a superior to a subordinate) you (informal)

For example:

Kamu tidak boleh pergi ke sana

/you mustn’t go there /

mu (the first syllable of ‘kamu’ is dropped when it is used as the object of a verb or when it is used as a possessive pronoun and it is then joined to therelevant word)

Siapa yang memukulmu?

/Who hit you?/

Itu bukumu

/That book is yours./

Anda (pronoun) is translated into English as: you, your, yours. For example:

Anda boleh masuk sekarang

/You can come in now/

Ini minuman Anda

/This is your drink/

Apakah pena ini kepunyaan Anda?

/Is this your pen?/ (https://en.bab.la/dictionary/indonesian-english)

The examples above give information about the way personal pronouns translated into English and their grammar function. For example:

Indonesian: Siapa yang memukulmu?

English: /Who hit you?/

Uzbek: Kim seniurdi?

As, it was mentioned above the form “-mu” is the short form of ‘kamu’ (you) is added to the verb of the sentence. Here, the personal pronoun ‘kamu’ is translated as ‘you’ into English and ‘sen’ into Uzbek languages. Another example:

Indonesian: Anda boleh masuk sekarang

English: /You can come in now/

Uzbek: Siz hozir kirsangiz bo’ladi.

Here, to denote ‘you’ the pronoun “Anda” was used instead of the pronoun “kamu” and has the equivalent ‘siz’ in Uzbek language. The difference in the form of the personal pronouns is caused by cultural features of these languages. There are cultural aspects like: respect and age gap which influence to the form of the pronoun in the second person singular (you) in Indonesian and Uzbek languages, but this pronoun has establishedequivalentin translation to English language. Based on the examples that were given above it is obvious that two forms of one personal pronoun have oneequivalent in English language. The reason is ‘you’ convey the meaning of ‘anda’ and ‘kamu’ in Indonesian and ‘siz’ , ‘sen’ in Uzbek languages. The next example is pronoun denoting first person singular: " I" in English, “Men” in Uzbek language, “saya” ( formal form) and "aku“(informal form) in Indonesian language. Although “I” have only one equivalent in Uzbek language, in Indonesian language they are two. In order to choose what form to use while translation it is important to differentiate if the speech is formal or not. In the first example, where the forms of personal pronoun expressing the second person singular the cultural aspect should be considered. Because lingua-cultural features like: age, respect and kinship influence on the form of “You” used in translation.

Conclusion

Lingua-cultural aspect make influence while choosing established equivalent to translate personal pronouns from Uzbek or Indonesian languages to English. Because the wrong form of the pronoun may have a negative effect on the speech. For example: if confuse ‘sen’ and ‘siz’ in Uzbek language or ‘anda’ and ‘kamu’ in Indonesian language the speaker may be considered as rude and showing disrespect to the listener, which may lead to miscommunication. The form of established equivalent in translation was chosen to show the way to transfer the meaning of the pronoun taking into consideration lingua-cultural background of the languages. As, lingua-cultural background make impact on which equivalent to choose while translate particular context from SL to TL.Lingua-cultural features like: age, respect and kinship influence on the form of personal pronoun in translation. As, in Uzbek and Indonesian language while communicating both orally and written the way of approaching to the listener, reader is very important, so the expressing respect is vital in communication.

Reference:

1. L. Molina and A. H. Albir, “Translation technique revisited: A dynamic and funcsionalist approach,” Meta: Translators’ Journal, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 498-512, 2002

2.Hanung Suryo K, Jafar Sodiq, Rahmawati Sukmaningrum.

A STUDY OF TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN “THE LION KING” MOVIE.3rd English Teaching, Literature, and Linguistics (ETERNAL) Conference ISSN: 2828-7193 Universitas PGRI Semarang, Faculty of Language and Arts Education, English Education Study Program March 18, 2023

3. www.dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/indonesian-english