Navigating Non-Equivalence: Translating the Thai Cultural Term Kathoey in Academic Titles and Abstracts

Thanawut Sreejak

Authors

Thanawut Sreejak Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9353-9698

Keywords:

academic titles and abstracts; kathoey; queer translation; translation strategies

Abstract

This study examines the translation of the Thai cultural term กะเทย (kathoey) into English within academic titles and abstracts. A corpus of 41 articles from a Thai-indexed database was analyzed. Grounded in queer translation theory and using Baker’s (2018) taxonomy, this study identifies substitute terms and translation strategies. The findings show a diverse range of English terms used. While the loanword kathoey was the most frequent, transgender was also common. Critically, this study also identified significant patterns of problematic cultural substitutions, including the use of sexual orientation terms like bisexual for the gender identity kathoey. The analysis of translation strategies revealed that titles were dominated by three approaches—the loanword, the more general word, and, notably, cultural substitution. Abstracts employed a wider array of strategies, but cultural substitution remained a prominent and concerning finding. These results highlight a tension between preserving the cultural specificity of kathoey and ensuring global academic accessibility. This study emphasizes that translation choices significantly shape the representation of gender and sexual identities across linguistic and cultural boundaries.

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