Proper Nouns Translation Strategies in the Thai Literature “Khun Chang Khun Phaen”

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to study the translation of proper nouns in Thai literature, Khun Chang Khun Phaen, using Venuti’s theories of Domestication and Foreignization. All pairs of proper nouns were collected from three versions of Khun Chang Khun Phaen, which were compared across two source language versions and one translated version. The study found that translators used a total of 9 translation strategies, which can be categorized into 2 techniques: translation using a single strategy, and translation using multiple strategies. Upon applying Lawrence Venuti’s theories of Domestication and Foreignization to classify these translation strategies, the research demonstrates that the audio capture strategy from the Foreignization theory was the most commonly utilized, while translating using a borrowing strategy had the least usage. Translators also employed strategies from the Domestication theory more frequently than they employed those from the Foreignization theory. However, the study shows that the number of translated words is more in the form of Foreignization than in the form of Domestication. This aligns with the translator’s objective of conveying the original culture and knowledge to as many readers in the target language as possible.