Abstract:
This research project was aimed to investigate what the translation
techniques were employed in the translation process of Thai dish names and what the
frequency and percentage of each technique used to translate these names were. The
research data were collected from Thai-English menus of six selected restaurants in
Chonburi Province, Thailand. There were 1,022 samples from the collected menus,
which were analyzed and categorized using Malones translation techniques as the
research framework. After the data analysis, there were eight out of nine techniques
used and 2,490 uses of different techniques were found in total from the research data.
The eight techniques were Equation, Reordering, Amplification, Substitution,
Reduction, Convergence, Divergence and Condensation while Diffusion was not
found. From the findings, the most frequently used technique was Equation technique
with the frequency of 899 names counted as 36.10% of all the techniques found,
followed by Reordering with 578 names or 23.21% and Amplification with 327
names or 13.13%. The least used technique was Diffusion technique, which was not
found in the research data, followed by Condensation and Divergence with seven
names counted as 0.28% and 80 names counted as 3.21% of all techniques found,
respectively.
For further study, many areas could be further investigated e.g. the locations
of restaurants, such as South or Center of Thailand, or translators backgrounds. In
addition, this research could play an important role as a guideline to help translators in
the future translation of Thai-English menus for Thai cuisines so that worldwide
customers could have the best understanding of what the menus are.