Gender Issues in Translating Women’s Language in Aslan’s Novel Nile Sparrows

This study investigates the means to translate features of women’s language in Ibrahim Aslan’s novel Nile Sparrows from Arabic into English. Selected Arabic and English excerpts are placed in two questionnaires for native speakers of the two languages to decide whether the excerpts reflect features of women’s language. While responses to the Arabic questionnaire showed that the excerpts were brimful with features of women’s language, responses to the English questionnaire showed the neutrality of the translations. Eight selected examples were classified into three categories and analyzed using Reiss’ (2000) instruction criteria in light of Lakoff’s (1973) framework of the features of women’s language. The study found that reproducing the features of women’s language in another language may require sacrificing the lexical equivalence for stylistic equivalence based on how the translator settles the conflict between formal and functional equivalences. The study maintains that no one solution fits all when translating women’s language. Determinants of the translation decision depend on several factors, such as the nature of the target language, language level, ethnicity, geographic area, and topic.