A Debate over Translating VS Localizing 'Democracy'

A brief consultation of English Arabic dictionaries and encyclopedias shows that there is no one single standard Arabic translation of the English concept 'democracy'. Arab authors use, instead, a series of multiple terms that need clarification if the first term is to be clear. In many cases, they tend to localize the term into Arabic using various orthographic forms; at other times, they run a rather lengthy analysis to elucidate the concept that seems to be an essentially contested term. This paper aims to inquire into the reasons for the confusion and inconsistency in the translation of the concept 'democracy', as well as the underlying arguments for advocating the localization rather than translation of this political concept. This will be followed by a discussion of the implications of this study for lexicographers and translators. Given the fact that ideology is of non-Arabic origin, English perceptions of this fluid concept might help account for its lack of clarity in Arabic translations since Arabic is highly influenced by English in various spheres of life. It would thus be wise first to check the perceptivity of English authors of the concept. To better serve the purpose of this study, the author distinguishes here between 'translation' and so-called 'localization'. The term 'translation' is concerned with finding an existing term in the target language with an equivalent meaning for a foreign word, whereas localization involves taking the foreign term and making it linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target language, by subjecting it to the morphological and syntactic rules of Arabic to be used as if it were originally Arabic.