Problems faced in translating technical manuals/user guides from English to Sinhalese

Abstract

Translation is divided into main categories such as technical translation, science translation, literary translation, legal translation, interpretation and etc. Though there are different kinds of translation types, technical translation is of great importance since it deals with all the technical documents such as advertisements, obituaries, marriage proposals, bids, procurement notices, user guides/technical manuals, specification sheets, scientific papers, engineering plans, IT documents and etc. Technical manuals or user guides can be considered as a technical document which assists people in using electronic goods, equipment, computer hardware and software and other related machinery. Moreover, it is commonly written by a technical writer who is considered as an expert of that particular field and production. Generally most user guides comprise of both a written guide and associated images. Translating technical manuals is generally considered to be an act which is far more different from translating other types of technical documents. Translating manuals requires a specific skill and most importantly the subject matter expertise. The process of writing a manual is always guided by a proficient of that field and when it comes to translation the guidance and knowledge of the related field is quite vital. In the process of translating a manual, a translator might face numerous difficulties and when paying attention to Sinhalese, the most popular among them is the inability to find equivalent technical terminology. On the other hand translating the safety words, identifying the target audience, usage of language, style of language can also be problematic. This research paper intends to answer the above mentioned problematic areas with examples. Though it is believed that finding 100% equivalent terms from one language to another is impossible, the responsibility of the translator will be to use language in a way that the consumer can grab the same message which was in the source manual.