Translation of Realia Words in English and German Media Texts into Russian

Abstract

The paper deals with realia words in the English and German media texts used as a material at the translation practice lessons with university students trained as interpreters and translators. Realia words are unique as they are associated with the history and culture of some nation and its social, political and geographical features. Realia words are often met in media texts. They do not have equivalents in other languages, which can prevent full understanding of the text and cause difficulties in the translation process. Realia words used in media texts have educational value as well, drawing students’ attention to the historical and cultural characteristics of the vocabulary units under study and thereby contributing to the expansion of their background knowledge. The aim of the paper is to analyze the ways of translating realia words used in the English and German media texts into Russian. The authors applied such research methods as descriptive, continuous sampling method and method of contextual analysis. Material for the study was selected from the articles of the US and German media sources, such as The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Fox News, Business Insider, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, Tagesschau, Deutsche Welle and Focus. The analysis showed that realia words form a separate layer of vocabulary. In the English and German media texts the most common are onomastic, socio-political and everyday realia words, while ethnographic and mythological ones are less frequent. The main techniques applied to translate the realia words under analysis into Russian are calque and half-calque translation, transcription, transliteration and explanatory translation.