Translating conversational language: Analysing Newmark’s procedures through Venuti’s domestication and foreignization in Sinhalese and English

Translation plays a significant role in facilitating intercultural transfer worldwide, bridging lexical, cultural and communication gaps. Literary translation can be considered a distinctive type of translation as it poses dynamic challenges due to its linguistic, cultural, and aesthetic intricacies. Translating conversational elements in a literary translation with idioms, slang, and colloquial expressions can be challenging as they are deeply embedded in the culture and often lead to non-equivalence. Translation procedures are frequently used to overcome such challenges. The present study intends to analyse the use of Newmark’s (1988) seventeen translation procedures categorized under Venuti’s (1995) domestication and foreignization approaches in translating the conversational language. The study was conducted using a descriptive and qualitative method, which involves a deep examination of the conversational elements of the novel One arranged murder by Chetan Bhagat and its Sinhalese translation Avasan kaṭayutu dilliyēdi, translated by Dileepa Jayakody. The selected aspects of conversational language were analysed based on Newmark’s procedures, which were aligned with domestication, and foreignization approaches. The findings showed that the translator has most frequently used domestication strategies compared to foreignization strategies. Modulation and Cultural equivalent, which were classified under the domestication method, emerged as the most frequently used procedures with fifteen and fourteen extracts, respectively. In conclusion, the research underscores the translator’s approach to use domestication, specifically to improve the readability, fluency and the naturalness of the translation rather than preserving the literalness. Future researchers are encouraged to conduct more research on the effectiveness of Newmark’s procedures in achieving naturalness while preserving translation fidelity via domestication and foreignization.