The role of context in determining the meaning of a word from Arabic to Tamil translation

Abstract

A person involved in translation should be knowledgeable in context of both source and target language. The Muslim translators in Sri Lanka make mistakes in translating Arabic to Tamil. This research aims to study the mistakes and its reasons and also creates awareness about important of context. The methodology adopted is qualitative. The primary data was collected through interviews with 15 Muslim translators from Amparai District. This was supplemented with secondary data. The findings reveal that the distortion of meaning when translating Arabic to Tamil is due to the lack of competency in the context of both Languages. Being knowledgeable in context of both languages is a necessity to be a successful translator.