Påskkärringar or cute witches? How cultural words are translated in tourist information websites

Abstract

This study investigates how some words are more tied to a specific culture than others, and how that can create issues in terms of translation. This essay shows the various strategies used when translating these so-called ‘cultural’ words into another language. The analysis concerns how words, expressions and references are translated in articles from three Swedish tourist information websites: Visit Stockholm, Visit Skåne and Kiruna Lapland. The cultural words evident on the websites are divided into categories which are based on the theoretical framework of Newmark (1988). The analysis is based on theories by Pedersen (2007) and aims to identify which translation strategies are most used in the material. The results show that 134 cultural words were found in the material, with the most common translation strategies being Retention, Specification and Direct Translation. The study also highlights how some words can be more problematic than others to translate, as many of them do not have an equivalent in the target language.