Traduccions indirectes de terminologia en documents legals privats a través de l'anglès: el cas de la traducció del serbi a l'albanès
| Autor | Jasmina P. ?or?evi? |
| Cargo | Associate professor, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Ni?, Serbia |
| Páginas | 111-125 |
REVISTA DE LLENGUA I DRET #77
JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LAW
INDIRECT TRANSLATIONS OF TERMINOLOGY IN PRIVATE LEGAL DOCUMENTS VIA
ENGLISH: THE CASE OF SERBIAN TO ALBANIAN TRANSLATION
Jasmina P. Đorđević*
Abstract
Based on a qualitative case study research, this paper investigates the efcacy of indirect translation as a strategy in the
translation of terminology in private legal documents from Serbian to Albanian via English in Kosovo. The aim is to
examine whether this approach may improve the accuracy, quality, and availability of translation services in an under-
resourced linguistic combination. Research within this subeld seems necessary in the context of Kosovo, where Serbian
is a minority language and translations of private legal documents in the Albanian < > Serbian language pair have been
found to be of low quality, primarily due to a lack of professional translators and resources which are specic for that
combination. Two ofcial Albanian < > Serbian translators uent in English were recruited as participants to translate a
list of terms excerpted from documents translated for ofcial procedures. One translator provided a direct translation from
Serbian to Albanian and the other an indirect translation from Serbian to Albanian via English. Despite the limitations of
the research, the comparative analysis of the submitted translated terminology indicates that the indirect translation via
English in the context of Kosovo may provide accuracy, quality, and availability, thereby offering members of minorities
in Kosovo the potential guarantee of a fair treatment within legal procedures.
Keywords: indirect translation; terminology; private legal documents; minority languages; Serbian to Albanian;
Kosovo; translation justice.
TRADUCCIONS INDIRECTES DE TERMINOLOGIA EN DOCUMENTS LEGALS PRIVATS
A TRAVÉS DE L’ANGLÈS: EL CAS DE LA TRADUCCIÓ DEL SERBI A L’ALBANÈS
Resum
Basant-se en una recerca qualitativa d’estudi de cas, aquest article investiga l’ecàcia de la traducció indirecta com
a estratègia en la traducció de terminologia en documents legals privats del serbi a l’albanès, a través de l’anglès, a
Kosovo. L’objectiu és examinar si aquesta estratègia pot millorar la precisió, la qualitat i la disponibilitat de serveis de
traducció en una combinació lingüística amb dècit de recursos. La recerca en aquest subcamp sembla necessària en el
context de Kosovo, on el serbi és una llengua minoritària i les traduccions de documents legals privats entre l’albanès
i el serbi s’ha vist que són de baixa qualitat, sobretot a causa d’una manca de traductors professionals i de recursos
especícs per a aquesta combinació. Dos traductors jurats de l’albanès al serbi amb domini de l’anglès s‘han incorporat
com a participants en la recerca per traduir una llista de termes extrets de documents per a procediments ocials. Un
dels traductors va fer una traducció directa del serbi a l’albanès i l’altre una traducció indirecta del serbi a l’albanès
a través de l’anglès. Malgrat les limitacions de la recerca, l’anàlisi comparativa de la terminologia traduïda indica que
la traducció indirecta a través de l’anglès en el context de Kosovo pot aportar precisió, qualitat i disponibilitat, i per
tant oferir als membres de les minories a Kosovo la garantia potencial d’un tracte equitatiu en els procediments legals.
Paraules clau: traducció indirecta; terminologia; documents legals privats; llengües minoritàries; traducció del serbi
a l’albanès; Kosovo; justícia en la traducció.
∗ Jasmina P. Đorđević, associate professor, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Niš, Serbia. jasmina.djordjevic@lfak.ni.ac.rs
Article received: 17.04.2021. Blind reviews: 22.06.2021 and 14.07.2021. Final version accepted: 19.01.2022.
Recommended citation: Đorđević, Jasmina P. (2022). Indirect translations of private legal documents via English: the case of
Serbian to Albanian translation. Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 77, 111-125. https://doi.org/10.2436/rld.
i77.2022.3640
Jasmina P. Đorđević
Indirect translations of private legal documents via English: the case of Serbian to Albanian translation
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 112
Summary
1 Introduction
2 Indirect translation – a strategy to address terminology in legal translation
3 Indirect translation in legal contexts
4 The problem of language representation in Kosovo
5 The study
5.1 Methodology
5.2 Context and procedure
5.3 Results and discussion
6 Limitations and implications
7 Conclusion
Acknowledgements
References
Jasmina P. Đorđević
Indirect translations of private legal documents via English: the case of Serbian to Albanian translation
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 113
1 Introduction
Being an undertheorized subeld within the study of translation (Rosa et al., 2017), indirect translation has
considerable potential. One of the many opportunities for research is related to the eld of legal translation, in
particular legal terminology (Alwazna, 2019; Zhao & Cao, 2013) in private legal documents as classied by
Cao (2010a, 2010b). Especially in the context of multiethnic communities, the current migration crises, and
the demand for translations in less frequent and increasingly varied language pairs, relating legal terminology
translation to the subeld of indirect translation seems promising as regards its possible social benets.
Various authors (St André, 2003, 2019; Gambier, 2003; Rosa et al., 2017; Yu, 2017) have provided denitions
of indirect translation. Gambier’s denition “the translation of a translation” (2003, p. 57) is relevant for this
study as it stipulates that the main aspect of indirect translation is that it relates a minimum of three textual
units, two of which being translated units, as well as three languages, thereby following a translation process
from language A to language B, and then to language C. Although indirect translation has been studied mainly
in relation to the translation of literary texts (Pięta, 2017), its use in other areas merits further study, especially
in situations where direct translation may prove insufcient. In addition, studies on indirect translation have
so far understood this practice as a two-step process involving two translators. One translator translates from
language A to language B, and a second translator translates from language B to language C. This paper
examines indirect translation as a strategy used by one translator (Gambier, 2003) who is competent in three
languages (English being one of them) to translate terminology where resources for the relevant pair of
languages in any particular translation commission are lacking.
This research will particularly focus on the context of Serbian to Albanian translation in Kosovo and study the
application of indirect translation via English as a solution to the prevailing problem of inadequate translations
in the Albanian < > Serbian language pair (Ombudsperson Institution, 2019; European Commission, 2019).
Kosovo’s context has a somewhat particular sociolinguistic situation. The Law No. 02/L-37 on the Use of
Languages stipulates that Albanian and Serbian are the ofcial languages of Kosovo. This entails an obligation
for institutions and public services, without exception, to ensure the equal use of both languages in every
aspect of life in Kosovo. Unfortunately, various reports (Radonjić, 2018) and empirical research (Beqaj,
2019) point to the fact that although all ofcial documents issued by the Government in Pristina must be in
Serbian and Albanian, this obligation is either inadequately fullled or not at all. In most cases the translation
of documents from and into Serbian is at an unsatisfactory level (Vićić & Andrić, 2016). A policy brief on
the quality of translation of Kosovo laws into Serbian language (Platform for Analysis and Research, 2016),
prepared with the aim of highlighting the problem of translation in Kosovo, summarized that the translation
of the Criminal Code of Kosovo had 2,000 terminological errors, as well as more than 2,100 grammatical
errors and more than 1,300 errors in spelling. The team working on the document conrmed that a lot of
the terminology occurring in the translations of legal documents was inaccurate and that both lawyers and
laypersons alike often resort to English translations of the same documents for clarication (Petković, 2014).
The level of satisfaction with a translation product refers to the standards of accuracy and quality, which
is a topic subject to ongoing investigations (Koby et al., 2014). Indeed, various factors can contribute to
both the accuracy and quality of a translation, and as a result both notions have been dened in broad and
sometimes even subjective terms. In the case of the translation of private legal documents (which include
information, facts, and data related to a specic person), accuracy and quality have been argued to be of
essential importance. More precisely, private legal documents have been classied as essential documents
as dened by Qualetra (2014). Within the European Union (EU) the translation of these documents must
adhere to the minimum standards and requirements stipulated by Directive 2010/64/EU, stating in Article
3(9) that translation must meet “a quality sufcient to safeguard the fairness of the proceedings”, as well as
in Article 5 that “Member States shall take concrete measures to ensure” the quality of translations and that
they will “establish a register or registers of independent translators and interpreters who are appropriately
qualied” (Directive 2010/64/EU). Although Kosovo is not a member of the EU, its accession is on the current
agenda for future enlargement of the EU, which means that Kosovo’s authorities must ensure that regulations,
standards, and recommendations stipulated in relevant areas in the EU are implemented in Kosovo as well.
The relevant areas include Directive 2010/64/EU guaranteeing the right to interpretation and translation in
criminal proceedings, which, in turn, includes ensuring the accuracy, quality, and availability of translation.
Jasmina P. Đorđević
Indirect translations of private legal documents via English: the case of Serbian to Albanian translation
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 114
Regulating the provision of indirect translations from Serbian to Albanian via English (the variant based
on the European Commission’s English style guide (European Commission, 2021)) when direct translation
proves unfeasible or inadequate may provide a safe solution for the translation of private legal documents
in Kosovo. This paper will contribute to that debate a scholarly perspective of the accuracy and quality of
indirect translation of specically legal terminology in an under-resourced linguistic combination via a major
language, which may increase the availability of legal translations into and from a minoritized language. First,
indirect translation, legal translation (with a focus on the translation of legal terminology), and translation in
Kosovo will be explored. Second, the case study design will be advocated as the only possibility of offering
a window into the accuracy of indirect translation for minority languages. Then, the results of the case study
will be scrutinized to support the claim that indirect translation may be an effective translation strategy for
legal terminology in Kosovo where the Serbian minority is underprivileged with respect to fair and equal
representation in ofcial situations.
2 Indirect translation – a strategy to address terminology in legal translation
Contemporary legal translation studies put a clear focus on the translatability of legal terminology (Alwazna,
2017; Zhao & Cao, 2013). Zhao and Cao (2013) point out that terminological harmonization represents an
exceptional challenge in the work of translators working for the United Nations. Following Alwazna (2019),
a possible solution is the implementation of specic techniques that would aid the process of translating
terminology. These techniques should be controlled by legal, cultural, and linguistic criteria while the whole
process of translation should be a collaborative effort of comparative law specialists, legal translators, and
terminologists (Alwazna, 2019). The choice of the particular technique or strategy in legal translation will
depend on the nature of the text, the purpose of the translation and the type of the audience (Alwazna, 2019)
so that translators will have to resort to whichever solution might work. This article proposes that indirect
translation via English as an intermediary language, even when used by a single translator, can be helpful in
the case of Serbian < > Albanian translations of terminological units.
Indirect translation has often been criticised as inaccurate, since mistakes made in the rst step of translation
from language A to B will be repeated in the second step of translation from language B to C (St André, 2019).
In addition, indirect translation has often been discouraged due to the concern that it brings distortion or even
deviation from the original source text (Yu, 2017). Hadley (2017) even argues that indirect translation is
extremely target specic, which leads the researcher to formulate the “concatenation effect hypothesis” which
suggests that indirect translation tends to erase culture-specic elements of the source texts. The contributions
stress the fact that the target text moves away from the original so much that it is almost detached from its
source. This is seen as a negative aspect and indeed indirect translation has been frequently criticised for
increasing “the distance to the ultimate source text” (Rosa et al., 2017, p. 113). The prevailing criticism of
indirect translation has caused researchers to pay insufcient attention to indirect translation, and “very few
dispassionate studies” on this method of translation are available (Washbourne, 2013).
A point in favour of indirect translation is the fact that it has had a long-standing history as a method (Pięta,
2019) though mainly limited to a few geographic areas, such as to “Scandinavian countries, the Iberian
Peninsula, China and Brazil where research about indirect translation is available” (Pięta, 2017, p. 200). Little
research is available about practices in other regions (Africa, Australia, Russia, etc.) where indirect translation
is suspected to have occurred given the many peripheral languages existing in those regions. In other words,
indirect translation may be hidden or semi-hidden even in mainstream translation practices (Rosa et al., 2017).
However, some scholars have introduced the possibility that indirectness exists in more or less all translations,
thus questioning the existence of direct translations (Maia et al., 2018), which has foregrounded the practice
and increased its scholarly interest. Also, contemporary migration ows have increased the linguistic instability
in dominant countries, placing the need for indirect translations in the spotlight, especially in cases where
professional translators for specic peripheral or minority language pairs may be unavailable.
Until recently, research related to indirect translation has almost exclusively been related to literary texts
(Li, 2017). The most common use of indirect translation can be related to the translation of the Bible, the
works of major authors, such as Shakespeare, or the translation of philosophical and scientic works from
classical Arabic completed by translators of the Toledo School of Translators in the 12th and 13th centuries
Jasmina P. Đorđević
Indirect translations of private legal documents via English: the case of Serbian to Albanian translation
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 115
(2017). Contemporary practical issues related to increasing translation needs in a globalized world and the
unavailability of translators in specic language pairs have resulted in the application of indirect translation in
other genres and media (ranging from scientic texts to commercial and technical texts) (Pięta, 2019). Current
trends indicate that indirect translation is evolving and that it has a promising future primarily due to the
fact that different contexts depend on indirect translation because there is no other way (Washbourne, 2013).
Indeed, recent research of implementing indirect translation in the eld of machine translation has proven
promising results (Hursakainen, 2020; Tsou & Lu, 2011). The research has conrmed that when parallel
corpora for some uncommon language pair are not readily available, pairing a common third language with
each member of the initial target pair proves useful. This has led to the assumption that a global machine
translation system between all languages using normalised English as an interlingua may actually offer
advantages over other systems. Although that claim will not be tested nor argued in this paper, it does share the
same assumption for the domain of human translation where one translator may use English as an interlingua
for the Albanian <> Serbian translation of legal terminology, relying on available resources between the
Albanian < > English and Serbian < > English.
3 Indirect translation in legal contexts
Key features of legal discourse include terminology and phraseology, which is why they are considered central
in both practice and research of legal genres (Crystal & Davy, 1969) and translation (Pontrandolfo, 2011;
Prieto Ramos, 2021). Of particular concern in research is the equivalence between legal terms across legal
cultures (see a summary of major discussions in Monzó-Nebot, 2018). A common claim among scholars is that
translators in this particular area of expertise need systemic knowledge of the legal systems in the two language
pairs they are translating from and to. In addition, they have to understand the cultural differences between the
countries their language pairs are related to. Indeed, legal language “is not a universal language but one that
is tied to a national legal system” (Weißog, 1987, p. 203) and its translation should full a communicative
purpose (Nord, 2018) just as any other translation. In addition, the knowledge structures underlying different
legal systems are diverse at a national level and as such, they reect culture-bound issues (Šarčević, 1985). At
the same time, they reect international legal concepts which have been adapted to t common frameworks
(Font i Mas, 2017). Therefore, legal translation relies heavily on the translation of concepts from one legal
system (embedded in a particular legal tradition and a particular culture) to another.
Of crucial importance in legal translation is the fact that legal concepts carry intertextuality as their meaning
may be shaped by different sources (e.g., legislation, case law, common law, civil law), so certain legal terms
will not have the same semantic potential in the source and the target language (Biel, 2008; Engberg, 2017,
2020). The specic intertextuality of legal concepts is thereby closely related to the problem of equivalence,
i.e., providing corresponding terms for concepts in the target language. Translators may resort to various
translation strategies (see a summary of translation techniques in Đorđević, 2017), the result of which is
most often either importing a term into or assimilating the term to the target language. In either case the nal
translation may be inadequate.
In order to ensure that legal translations are adequate, two aspects that need to be achieved are accuracy and
quality. Accuracy is a bilingual notion which relies on the correspondence between the source and target text
(Koby et al., 2014). This presupposes that the translator has provided an acceptable target language equivalent
for a certain concept. Quality is a monolingual notion and it refers to properties of the target text reected
in grammar, spelling and cohesion (2014). If the aspects of accuracy and quality are not achieved in legal
documents in the target language, they may deprive individuals, i.e., the speakers of that minority language,
of the right to fair representation in legal procedures (Directive 2010/64/EU). As will be presented in the next
section, the different legal systems in Kosovo cause many problems in the translation of legal documents in
general and legal terminology in particular because cultural, professional, social, or political obstacles impose
difculties that are reected in the translation of private legal documents. The mediation via English in the
process of translation might be a good solution.
Jasmina P. Đorđević
Indirect translations of private legal documents via English: the case of Serbian to Albanian translation
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 116
4 The problem of language representation in Kosovo
Kosovo is a multiethnic country inhabited by people speaking several minority languages. According to the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) (Council of Europe,1992) the term regional
or minority languages includes “languages that are: i) traditionally used within a given territory of a State
by nationals of that State who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the State’s population; and
ii) different from the ofcial language(s) of that State”. The ECRML also stipulates that “the right to use a
regional or minority language in private and public life is an inalienable right” conforming to the principles
embodied in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations, 1966) and the spirit of
the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Council of Europe, 1953).
As a former autonomous province Kosovo was part of former Yugoslavia and then of Serbia until 2008, when
Kosovo declared independence. Albanian is the ofcial language but there seems to be no ofcial consensus
regarding the variant of the Albanian language used in the translations for Kosovar institutions. Despite the
fact that Kosovars adopted the literary norm of the Albanian language according to the 1977 Orthography
Congress, the inuence of Serbo-Croat in Kosovo during the time it was an integrative part of Yugoslavia
was substantial (Kryeziu, 2018). Based on the Law on the Use of Languages (2006), Serbian is an ofcial
language along with Albanian while special status is given to Bosnian, Turkish, Gorani and Romani as minority
languages. The same law stipulates that all “persons have equal rights with regard to the use of the ofcial
languages in Kosovo institutions” (Article 2.1).
Unfortunately, various ofcial reports, including the 2019 Ombudsperson’s Annual Report (Ombudsperson
Institution, 2019) and the Kosovo 2019 Report (European Commission, 2019), conrm social and legal
practices do not conform to the Law. Both resources agree that the right to use the Serbian language at all
levels (administration, education, legal representation, etc.) is violated primarily due to the fact that translations
of ofcial documents and information is of a low quality (Ombudsperson Institution, 2019). The same issue
has been conrmed in the European Commission report (2019, p. 16), which states that “[e]nsuring access to
judicial proceedings in the Albanian and Serbian languages across Kosovo and the use of both languages in
the work of judicial bodies remains a challenge due to a lack of qualied translators”.
Indeed, Kosovo ministries lack their own or any central translation service and often resort to private
companies for translation purposes. As stated by a member of the Consultative Council for Communities, in
the Serbian < > Albanian language pair in Kosovo, there is only one translator whose mother tongue is Serbian
(AKTIV, 2018). A general search for translators conducted for the purpose of this research yielded a modest
number of only two ofcial translators in Kosovo (both living and working in Pristina), who conrmed that
they translate private legal documents from Serbian into Albanian. What is more, translators working for the
government, those translating in ofcial procedures included, receive limited nancial resources and modest
compensation, the network of translators is uncoordinated, and political leaders are generally not interested,
which are additional elements contributing to a low quality of translations in Kosovo (Vićić & Andrić, 2016).
A recommendation put forward by all the relevant agencies, the NGO AKTIV and the Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) being the most prominent, is to establish a central translators’
ofce or agency which would be commissioned by the government. Translators who would work there would
undergo ofcial training, cooperate with each other, exchange knowledge and thereby be able to guarantee
accurate translations from Albanian to Serbian and vice versa. The government of Kosovo has adopted a
decision to establish a central translation ofce to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of translations
but it has yet to materialize (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 2019).
5 The study
This study is based on the assumption that indirect translation of legal terminology may be performed by
one translator who is uent in three or more languages (Gambier, 2003) and that the third language may
be used as an intermediary language (Pięta, 2019). In certain situations, underrepresented language pairs,
Albanian < > Serbian being one of them, fail to provide accurate translations simply because of a lack of
both translators and resources in that language pair, thereby having an impact on the possibility for realizing
Jasmina P. Đorđević
Indirect translations of private legal documents via English: the case of Serbian to Albanian translation
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 117
language rights of minorities. Against this background, it is hypothesized that for the purpose of translating
legal terminology in the context of Kosovo, the English language may be an intermediary language given
the fact that both translators and resources in the Albanian < > English and Serbian < > English language
pairs are available. The aim of this study is thus to examine whether the application of indirect translation
(Pięta, 2019) in the translation of terminological units found in private legal documents may be legitimised
as an additional translation strategy in cases where professional translations in a specic language pair are
of insufcient accuracy, quality and availability. The methodology, corpus and procedure will be presented
in the following sections.
5.1 Methodology
Given the specic aim of this research, the methodological approach chosen was the case study. In line
with the main denition of a case study implemented in the eld of applied linguistics (Duff, 2008; Duff &
Anderson, 2016; Neubert, 2005; Susam-Sarajeva, 2009), this study is meant to offer an exploratory approach
to understanding the characteristics of the issue of providing legal certainty and protection of linguistic rights
using indirect translation. The translation of the legal terminology used in private legal documents from
Serbian to Albanian via English in the context of Kosovo will be taken as a case in point. Case studies in
the eld of translation are widely used, but their characteristics are often taken for granted (Susam-Sarajeva,
2009). As Neubert (2005) stresses, case studies in translation could offer signicant insight with a rather solid
empirical basis and signicant practical implications. Despite its lack of generalizability, case study research
can provide a detailed portrayal of an issue, setting, individual and interaction (Duff & Anderson, 2016).
Specically in this research, the case study design may offer a way to explore the convenience of investigating
a particular hypothesis further, with other language pairs and in different sociolinguistic contexts.
According to Duff and Anderson (2016), case study research is appropriate when a certain entity within a
context is affected by certain factors and contingencies, including social, cultural, political, and geographical
issues. The case study method may enable the examination of the specic “complexities, interactions, and
dynamics of the system […] within the fullness of the case” (Duff & Anderson, 2016, p. 112). In the case of the
Serbian < > Albanian language pair in Kosovo, the lack of translators has been conrmed and acknowledged as
an urgent problem (European Commission, 2019). That is why exploration of the issue of indirect translation
of private legal documents from Serbian to Albanian via English in the context of Kosovo may be expected
to provide “a vivid illustration or exemplar of more abstract principles” (Duff & Anderson, 2016, p. 112),
i.e., in this case, an answer to the question of whether indirect translation may be a solution to the problem
of inadequate Serbian to Albanian legal terminology translation in the context of Kosovo.
Using a control group employing direct translation along with the experimental group would have offered
more reliable results. Unfortunately, in the context of Kosovo the lack of professional translators in the
Serbian < > Albanian language pair made that ideal design impracticable. A case study design was therefore
chosen to provide a detailed portrayal of the issue, setting, individual, and interaction in a situation where
specic factors and contingencies do not allow for a different approach (Duff & Anderson, 2016).
5.2 Context and procedure
The 2019 Ombudsperson’s Annual Report (Ombudsperson Institution, 2019) and the Kosovo 2019 Report
(European Commission, 2019, section 4) agree that the right to use the Serbian language at all levels is violated
primarily due to the fact that translations of ofcial documents lack accuracy, reect low quality and are often
unavailable. This violation of the basic right to use their own language indicates that the Serbian minority in
Kosovo is underprivileged in administration and education, as well as in many other areas, legal procedures
included. In addition, many Serbs living in Kosovo were born in Serbia or have other ofcial ties to Serbia.
This means that the private documents attesting to their vital statistics or even educational background are
primarily in Serbian. Albanian being the dominant language in Kosovo, using these private legal documents
in ofcial procedures in Kosovo entails their translation from Serbian into Albanian, where the main problem
is often inadequately translated terminology. That is why certain terminological units excerpted from private
legal documents were chosen as a framework for this case study, based on which the applicability of indirect
translation as a translation strategy in the context of legal translations in Kosovo could be evaluated.
Jasmina P. Đorđević
Indirect translations of private legal documents via English: the case of Serbian to Albanian translation
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 118
Many terminological resources are already available for the Serbian < > English and the English < > Albanian
language pairs. Combined research of these resources, an exploration of respective legal documents as well
as consultations with legal representatives can lead the translator to an adequate term in the target language.
For instance, the multilingual terminological databases EVRONIM (n.d.), for Serbian, and ALterm (n.d.),
for Albanian, have been created as one of the results of the process of preparing the Serbian and Albanian
versions of the EU acquis. They contain general lexis, general terminology, legal terminology, and terminology
specic to other areas as well as a certain number of the most common phrases and xed phrases. Each term
entry includes the subject area it belongs to. Apart from English, the terms are also translated into French and
other languages where available. These two termbases can aid legal terminology translation from Serbian
into English, and from English into Albanian. As far as the terms included in this study are concerned, they
cannot be found in the mentioned term bases.
This research faced a lack of Serbian < > Albanian translators, which made it extremely difcult to recruit
translators who would have the expertise to participate in this study. One available resource was a list published
by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Ofce (2019). However, this list was last updated on 28 March
2019 and included ve translators, one of whom translated only in the language pair Albanian < > English.
The other four stated English, Serbian and Albanian as their working languages. The list does not include
information regarding the translators’ afliation to the government or a professional translation and/or
interpreting association/agency. Eventually, none of the listed translators responded to the email sent to them.
A nal resort was Proz.com, an online register of thousands of translators, interpreters and translation
companies offering a wide range of language services (translation, interpreting, voice over, dubbing, subtitling,
localization, etc.) in many different language pairs. The register provided a total of only two translators
who were native in Albanian, close to native in Serbian (they studied Serbian at school while Kosovo was
an integrative part of Serbia), as well as uent in English. The expertise of both translators (Translator 1
and Translator 2) could be established based on the fact that they have the Certied PRO badge, a type of
certication provided by Proz after reviewing the translator’s credentials. This indicates that they had been
appointed by an authority in Kosovo as ofcial translators. In addition, they both responded to the email sent
to them, agreed to participate in the study and signed relevant consents.
Given that a case study may include data elicited through solicited narratives, document analysis and writing
models (Duff & Anderson, 2016, p. 115), the present research relied on the translated terminology that each
of the two recruited translators were asked to produce. Upon randomly assigning one of the two translators to
the direct translation procedure and the other to the indirect translation procedure, each translator translated
60 terms within short contexts excerpted from private legal documents of various types originating from a
total of 150 authentic documents in Serbian, including certicates, divorce decrees, settlement agreements,
child support decisions and afdavits issued by Serbian authorities in procedures that the author of this
research compiled in the period from 2005 to 2015 as a certied and sworn translator. The aforementioned
documents are the ones needed in legal procedures in Kosovo so that they are the ones that are most frequently
translated. Therefore, these documents were chosen as a resource for this study as they could provide the
legal terms that translators in Kosovo translate from the Serbian into the Albanian language when members
of the Serbian minority are involved in legal procedures in front of Kosovar authorities. In order to ensure
complete protection of all personal information or otherwise sensitive personal data, the context of the terms
was carefully chosen. The nal excerpts provided to the translators contained neither personal information
nor sensitive data, thus securing full anonymity to the owners of the documents used in this research. The
terms were chosen based on the glossary of ofcially accepted legal terms in the Serbian language that the
author of this research has compiled.
The aim of this study being to explore whether indirect translation would yield a translation of legal
terminology of better accuracy and quality (Koby et al., 2014), two lists of legal terms were needed to enable
a comparative analysis. Given that the credentials for both translators provided evidence of their competences
(both are ofcial translators assigned and sworn by the former Serbian government and then reassigned by
the Kosovo government), the direct translation method was randomly assigned to one translator, and the
indirect translation method to the other. Translator 1 was asked to translate the excerpted terms from the
Serbian language into Albanian and then provide a word-for-word translation of the Albanian translation
Jasmina P. Đorđević
Indirect translations of private legal documents via English: the case of Serbian to Albanian translation
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 119
into English. Since the author of this research does not speak Albanian, the word-for-word translation into
English was supposed to help the author follow the translation Translator 1 provided. Translator 2 was asked
to translate the same excerpted terms from the Serbian language into English, and then translate the terms
from the English language into Albanian.
Since the author of this research has no knowledge of the Albanian language, two more participants were
recruited for the case study, an independent linguist, native in Albanian and Serbian as well as uent in
English, and an independent lawyer, native in Albanian and uent in Serbian and English. The linguist was
asked to provide a professional opinion regarding the linguistic aspects of the translated terminology and a
back translation of the terms into Serbian. The back translation had the sole purpose of helping the author of
this research understand the Albanian equivalents as well as any nuances in meaning that may justify the use
of alternatives or paraphrases to account for systemic differences. The lawyer was asked to assess whether the
translations conform with the technical aspects of the Albanian legal language. In other words, the lawyer was
asked to conrm whether the translations reected an accurate systemic knowledge of the legal systems in
the translation and whether they reected knowledge of the law of the legal systems in Serbia and in Kosovo
(Font i Mas, 2017; Šarčević, 1985). Both their opinions were needed to provide insight into the accuracy and
quality of the completed translation products, given the author of this research could not do so on their own.
5.3 Results and discussion
Šarčević (1997) indicates that a legal translator must be able to make both legal and linguistic decisions
and that they must have competence both in law and in translation. More importantly, a translator must be
able to recognize “the cultural aspects of law” (1997, p. 70) and translate them adequately. Quite often, it is
difcult or impossible to nd an absolute legal equivalent due to the differences in legal systems and cultures
(1997). In such cases, the translator should resort to a careful paraphrase whereby they should ensure that
both the original information and intent are not lost. Failure to accomplish this would result in an inadequate
translation. In the case of the research presented here, the analysis of the completed translations was based
on the assumption that if the cultural aspect of the respective law was violated, the translation would have to
be regarded as inadequate.
After the two translators had completed the translation of the legal terms assigned to them, the linguist and the
lawyer recruited for the purpose of this research (Section 5.2) conducted a comparative analysis of the terms
translated directly from Serbian to Albanian and the indirect translations from Serbian to Albanian via English.
Their analysis yielded 23 terms that differed in the two translation products completed by the two recruited
translators. In addition, the lawyer stated that in 17 instances out of the 23 different translations, the directly
translated terms were “inconsistent with the terms commonly used in the Albanian legal language” in Kosovo.
In other words, in 17 instances the indirectly translated terms were more accurate as they complied with the
standard usage in ofcial procedures (the cultural aspect of the respective law). The 17 “inconsistent” direct
translations were labelled as cultural errors which were identied based on the fact that they were referring
to the inappropriateness of the equivalent translation in the domain of legal procedures (cultural aspect) (see
examples in Table 1) (Note: The terms that differ in the direct translation and indirect translation list have
been underlined).
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Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 120
Table 1
Examples of inconsistent translations in the IT list
No. Serbian
Direct
translation
product in
Albanian
Back
translation into
Serbian
(gloss
translation in
English)
English as
intermediary
translation
Indirect
translation
product in
Albanian
Back translation
into Serbian
(gloss translation
in English)
1.
alimentacija mbajtja
nanciare
nansijska
podrška
[nancial
support]
alimony alimentacion alimentacija
[alimony]
2.
pravo na
izdržavanje
edrejta për
mbajtje
nanciare
nansijsko
održavanje
[nancial
maintenance]
right to
alimony
e drejta për
ushqimi
pravo na
izdržavanje
[right to alimony]
3.
sporazumni
predlog za
razvod braka
shkurorëzim me
marrëveshje
razvod prema
sporazumnom
dogovoru
[divorce
by mutual
agreement]
proposed
agreement
on divorce
settlement
propozim
marrëveshje
për zgjidhje
të martesës
sporazumni
predlog za razvod
braka
[proposed
agreement for
divorce]
4.
dozvola za
nošenje oružja
leja për
armëmbajtje.
licenca za
nošenje oružja
[licence
to weapon
carrying]
permit to carry
a weapon
leje për
mbajtje të
armës
dozvola za
nošenje oružja
[permit to carry a
weapon]
5.
dozvola za
posedovanje
oružja
leja për pronësi
të armës.
licenca za
posedovanje
oružja
[license to own
a weapon]
permit to
possess a
weapon
leje për
posedim të
armës
dozvola za
posedovanje
oružja
[permit to own/
possess a weapon]
6.
lovna karta kartela e
gjuetisë
karta za lov
[card for
hunting]
hunting card kartelë
gjuetie
lovna karta
[hunting card]
7.
osporavanje
materinstva
kundërshtimi i
amësisë.
odbijanje
materinstva
[rejection of
maternity]
contestation of
maternity
kontestim i
amësisë
osporavanje
materinstva
[contestation of
maternity]
8.
ništavnost
i rušljivost
priznanja
pavlefshmëria
dhe anulimi i
pranimit.
ništavnost i
poništavanje
priznanja
[nullity and
annulment of
consent]
annulment and
cancellation of
confession
anulimi dhe
prishja e
njohjes
ništavnost
i rušljivost
priznanja
[annulment and
cancellation of
confession]
9.
krivičnoprav-
na prinuda
shtrëngimi
penal
kriminalna
prinuda
[crime coercion]
criminal
coercion
detyrim
penalo
krivičnoprav-na
prinuda
[criminal
coercion]
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Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 121
The 17 terms translated directly from the Serbian into the Albanian language labelled by the lawyer as
“inconsistent with the terms commonly used in the Albanian legal language” would most probably not be
inconsistent in a different context as they were not inaccurate, which the linguist conrmed. However, in
the legal contexts provided here, where the language is highly technical, these translations fail to reect an
accurate systemic knowledge of the legal systems in the particular language pair, and they do not reect the
knowledge of the history, evolution, culture, and law of the legal systems in Serbia and in Kosovo, elements
considered of crucial importance in legal translations (Font i Mas, 2017; Šarčević, 1985).
For instance, the term sporazumni predlog za razvod braka (‘proposed agreement on divorce settlement’) is
a term which was introduced after the reform of the judicial system in Serbia (implemented upon adoption
in the Serbian National Assembly in 2006). Based on that proposal spouses can avoid a lengthy procedure
following a lawsuit (as performed prior to the judicial reform) by making precise arrangements regarding
details about the domicile of their children, their education, the periodical visits, as well as the division of
all assets gained together as husband and wife. The directly translated term in Albanian shkurorëzim me
marrëveshje (‘divorce by mutual agreement’) does not contain the aspect of “proposal” but indicates that it
is a nal “agreement”, which it is not, because other authorities (social services, psychologists, etc.) have to
validate the proposal before it is accepted as nal. Unlike that, the indirect translation propozim marrëveshje
për zgjidhje të martesës (‘proposed agreement for divorce’) does reect the aspect of this document being
a “proposal”. Another example is the term osporavanje materinstva, which in English is ‘contestation of
maternity’. However, the direct translation provided here is kundërshtimi i amësisë, which means ‘rejection of
maternity’ and not contestation, as does the indirectly translated term kontestim i amësisë. These differences
in meanings were conrmed by the lawyer, who stated that the indirectly translated terms were consistent
with the terminology commonly used in the legal Albanian language now being adopted in Kosovo.
A fact that could not be conrmed in this research is that the indirect translation of the excerpted terms increased
the distance to the ultimate source text that Rosa et al. (2017) stated. If anything, the indirect translation
proved the opposite as the strategy to translate from Serbian to English and then to Albanian provided a
better, more direct and more accurate relationship between the source and the nal target language relying on
the intertextuality that exists between legal texts in the two languages (Biel, 2008). Neither could Hadley’s
“concatenation effect hypothesis” (2017) be conrmed. In fact, the indirect translation of the excerpted terms
did not erase culture-specic elements of the source terms. On the contrary, the target terms yielded a better
presentation of the source terms in Albanian as they accurately reected culture-bound elements (Šarčević,
1985). Therefore, it could also not be conrmed that indirect translation is inferior to the mainstream practice
imposing direct translation (Alvstad, 2017).
To conclude, the indirectly translated terms analysed in this research indicate that they were in accordance
with the national legal system of Kosovo (Weißog, 1987), that they were based on the necessary insight into
the collocational aspects as well as proper understanding of expert discourse in the source and target cultures
that legal languages rely on (Engberg, 2017), and that they were in compliance with the instructions and
guidelines issued by the Kosovo institutions who commission the translations (Galdia, 2013). By contrast,
the directly translated terms conrm the already established poor quality of translations that the OSCE had
determined earlier (2018). Though the results of this case study may not provide generalizable conclusions,
they do indicate that legal terminology indirectly translated from Serbian to Albanian via English may provide
accuracy and quality (Gambier, 2003; Koby et al., 2014). More importantly, the case study indicates that the
application of indirect translation may ensure that the Serbian minority in Kosovo have better access to judicial
proceedings in their own languages. Therefore, implementing indirect translation in other similar contexts
may also be expected to ensure improved accuracy, quality and availability of translations.
6 Limitations and implications
This research has two main limitations related to the case-study methodology and the size of the sample,
both resulting from the same reasons. First, as presented in Section 5.2, only two certied translators in the
Albanian < > Serbian language pair in Kosovo could be recruited to participate in the research. Second, to
reduce the time demanded from participants and the potentially sensitive information shared, the 60 terms that
the translators translated were presented in limited contexts, i.e., two or three sentences surrounded the terms.
Jasmina P. Đorđević
Indirect translations of private legal documents via English: the case of Serbian to Albanian translation
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 122
A vaster sample would allow us to conrm whether the results of this study do tell us something beyond a
particular behaviour and to establish the indirect translation of terminology as a strategy supporting accuracy
and quality. Further designs, such as asking the same participants to translate terms from two different lists
using direct and indirect translation strategies respectively, along with incorporating different language pairs,
would provide new data to contrast the results. What this study does show is that the criticisms against indirect
translation may nd deance in the empirical world, and that introducing indirect translation into the training
of future translators merits further consideration. Teaching trainees to use indirect translation via a major
language whenever they need to nd a more adequate equivalent in the third (Gambier, 2003) would provide
them with necessary skills for the real world. The limitations underlying the design, however, must be taken
as a sign of its necessity. Studying different ways to provide more accurate translations and of a higher quality
in relation to public services is a strong justication to try any feasible methods to increase our knowledge on
the matter. Indeed, indirect translation may be a solution in situations when there is no other way (Washbourne,
2013), increasing the quality of a translator’s work and thus providing members of minority groups with fair
representation in ofcial situations.
7 Conclusion
The motivation for this study was based on the fact that “the right to use a regional or minority language
in private and public life” (ECRML, 1992), which in the case of Kosovo is the right to use the Serbian
language at all levels (administration, education, legal representation, etc.), is violated primarily due to the
fact that translations of legal terminology in ofcial documents is of a low quality. Both the Ombudsperson
Institution (2019) and the European Commission (2019) conrm this problem. The case study presented
here, indicates that the translations of legal terms from Serbian to Albanian in Kosovo, for which resources
are scarce, may ensure accuracy, quality, and availability if they rely on indirect translations via English,
preferably based on existing terminology bases in the Serbian < > English and English < > Albanian pairs.
That way members of minorities in Kosovo could have a potential guarantee to fair treatment within legal
procedures. What is more, other procedural languages of the European Commission (French and German)
or any of the 24 ofcial languages used in the European Parliament could full the role of an intermediary
language if translators are available. An ofcially approved network of translators with expertise in one of
the ofcial languages of the EU as well as Albanian, Serbian or a minority language with special status in
Kosovo (Bosnian, Romani, Turkish and Gorani) could be established. Such an ofcial network would most
certainly provide members of all minorities in Kosovo the right to equal representation in legal procedures
as indirect translation could be used as a strategy between and among translators of various language pairs.
Indirect translation should not be discouraged in favour of direct translation simply because the latter is a
familiar concept (Alvstad, 2017). Though more research will be needed to conrm the ndings from this study,
a preliminary conclusion to be drawn is that indirect translation may be an additional translation strategy in
situations when direct translation might be unavailable or insufcient. Hopefully, this study will open a door
to more extensive research.
Acknowledgements
The author is deeply indebted to the translators who agreed to provide their expertise and translate the
excerpted terms from Serbian to Albanian as well as to the Albanian linguist and lawyer who kindly agreed to
review the translations and supply their opinions regarding accuracy of language and style in the translation
products.
The study was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the
Republic of Serbia (Contract No. 451-03-9/2021-14/200165).
Jasmina P. Đorđević
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Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 77, 2022 123
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