Difficulties in Translating Words and Expressions from Algerian Arabic (Darija) into French

Abstract

The present study aims to shed light on the words, expressions and idioms that readers frequently come across while perusing Arabic-written novels related to Algerian popular literature, whose translations into French are too problematic. Here, “words, expressions and idioms that are part of the Algerian dialect” are the topic of discussion. This article’s purpose is to offer techniques, methods, strategies and approaches that can maintain the elegance, significance, impact and meaning of the aforementioned phrases and expressions. Through this research, the searcher also wants to enable translations of the words, expressions and idioms under discussion. He choses to conduct an analytical and critical assessment of the corpus. With this aim in mind, he has extracted a few samples from Abdelhamid BENHADOUGA’s novel “Rih Eljanoub” as well as their translations from “Le vent du sud,” which is the Molièrean translation of the aforementioned novel that was translated by Marcel Bois. He intended to offer alternative translations that he believes are appropriate and conservative given the meanings that the various terms and expressions that he is working with convey, in addition to his analysis and criticism of the current translations. The writer of this article is then prompted to pose the following queries: Can Arabic words, expressions and idioms that pertain to Algerian dialectal Arabic be translated into French? What steps can we take to prevent the weight of the target language (French) from destroying the impact and message that these words, expressions and idioms convey? He tries to address these queries in this article.