Underlying Linguistic Problems Experienced by Translators in Translating the Qur'anic Arabic lhazana' [phrase omitted] Words Into English: A Comparative Study

In this study, the researchers aimed to investigate the underlying linguistic problems experienced by three notable translators: Abdel Haleem (2004), Khan and AL-Hilali (1996), and Pickthall (1930) when rendering the Qur'anic [phrase omitted] l-hazana' words into English, and to identify the types of semantic loss produced by their renderings. Corpus-based research was conducted as the study examined three renditions of the Holy Qur'an that were sourced from the Qur'anic Arabic Corpus (QAC) and books of Qur'anic translation of the abovementioned translators. Based on the descriptive analytical approach, the researchers analyzed the underlying linguistic problems encountered by the aforementioned translators. Findings showed that the linguistic problems encountered when translating the Qur'anic l-hazana' words into English are the result of the linguistic gap arising from the cultural differences between the two source language text(Arabic) and target language text(English). Divergences in and loss of meaning are inevitable when translating the Holy Qur'an into English in general and Qur'anic [phrase omitted] l-hazana' words in particular. It was also found that Arabic Qur'anic [phrase omitted] l-hazana' words are associated with distinctive rhetorical devices, literary style, and elegant technique which cannot be captured faithfully in English translations. Index Terms--experienced, [phrase omitted] l-hazana', linguistic problems, translating, The Holy Qur'an