Introduction
Mechanical engineering is the science of designing and manufacturing mechanical systems or
devices. It is one of the oldest and most widespread engineering specialties and is often the
profession one has in mind when thinking of a “typical” engineer (Gindis & Kaebisch, 2018).
Mechanical engineering has a wide range of working fields such as: aerospace, automotive,
naval, rail, power, infrastructure, robotics, manufacturing, consumer products, and much
more. Furthermore, it is considered to be one of the most diverse engineering disciplines
meaning that it incorporates a great deal of complex technical terms. These technical terms
are in English; meaning that they are well understood by English language speakers, but the
dilemma in this case occurs when attempting to translate these terms to Arabic language as a
result of equivalence issues. In this case, Arabic speakers might not get the true or the full
meaning of some words after translation. In addition, some technical terms might refer to one
thing within the field of Mechanical engineering, but can also refer to another thing in our
everyday life; meaning that the readers can get a completely wrong/irrelevant translation of
some words as the translation is not within the context of Mechanical engineering (one word
can have two meanings). This research paper explores the issues of equivalence when
translating Mechanical engineering terms from English to Arabic; by analyzing twenty terms
from the field of Mechanical engineering. These terms will be analyzed in the body, and
finally, the paper will be concluded by providing some recommendations for improving the
translation of Mechanical engineering terms from English to Arabic.
Conclusion
To sum up, the field of Mechanical engineering involves the use of many technical terms.
Some of these terms have actual translations that reflect the true meaning of the word, and
some words do not. In order to maintain the consistency of translating mechanical
engineering terms from English to Arabic and to increase its effectiveness, the following
recommendations should be taken into account:
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Terms that have no translations in Arabic language (i.e. zero equivalence) must be
transliterated, in addition to giving a detailed translation and an explanation of the
definition in English. This ensures that the reader will understand the term and will
eliminate the equivalence issue.
individuals from the field of Mechanical engineering must carry out the process of
translation, and not individuals from other fields due to the fact that there are many
terms with one to many equivalences. As previously mentioned, many technical
words can have more than one meaning; a meaning that is understood within the field
and a meaning that refers to something in everyday life. If the translations of these
technical terms are done by individuals within the field, it will be guaranteed that the
translated words are used in the correct context and the overall translation of the text
makes sense (text normative equivalence).
Gindis, E. J., & Kaebisch, R. C. (2018). Spotlight On: Mechanical Engineering. In Up and
Running with AutoCAD® 2018 (pp. 115-117): Academic Press.