Crossing the Linguistic Causeway: A Binational Approach for Translating Soundscape Attributes to Bahasa Melayu

TL;DR

This study develops and evaluates bilingual translations of soundscape affective attributes into Bahasa Melayu, considering cultural differences between Singapore and Malaysia through expert input and cross-national participant assessments.

Contribution

It introduces a binational, expert-led translation process for soundscape descriptors and provides a quantitative evaluation framework for cross-cultural linguistic differences.

Findings

Only 'annoying' showed significant cross-national translation differences.

Translations for perceptual descriptors are inherently imperfect across languages.

Quantitative evaluation highlights potential for translation correction measures.

Abstract

Translation of perceptual descriptors such as the perceived affective quality attributes in the soundscape standard (ISO/TS 12913-2:2018) is an inherently intricate task, especially if the target language is used in multiple countries. Despite geographical proximity and a shared language of Bahasa Melayu (Standard Malay), differences in culture and language education policies between Singapore and Malaysia could invoke peculiarities in the affective appraisal of sounds. To generate provisional translations of the eight perceived affective attributes -- eventful, vibrant, pleasant, calm, uneventful, monotonous, annoying, and chaotic -- into Bahasa Melayu that is applicable in both Singapore and Malaysia, a binational expert-led approach supplemented by a quantitative evaluation framework was adopted. A set of preliminary translation candidates were developed via a four-stage process, firstly by a qualified translator, which was then vetted by linguistics experts, followed by examination via an experiential evaluation, and finally reviewed by the core research team. A total of 66 participants were then recruited cross-nationally to quantitatively evaluate the preliminary translation candidates. Of the eight attributes, cross-national differences were observed only in the translation of annoying. For instance, "menjengkelkan" was found to be significantly less understood in Singapore than in Malaysia, as well as less understandable than "membingitkan" within Singapore. Results of the quantitative evaluation also revealed the imperfect nature of foreign language translations for perceptual descriptors, which suggests a possibility for exploring corrective measures.