Der Plural von Einigen im Arabischen und seine Übersetzungsmöglichkeiten ins Deutsche Am Beispiel einiger deutscher Koranübersetzungen.

Document Type : Original Article

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German Language Department, Faculty of Languages and Translation, October 6 University (O6U)

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Nouns in Arabic can have more than one plural form. Nouns can have plural forms that indicate a quantity of more than ten, and the same nouns may have also other plural forms which indicate a fewer quantity, namely from three to ten. Translating Arabic texts that contain both kinds of plural forms is problematic, especially into languages in which nouns have usually only one plural form for all amounts that exceed one. This phenomenon is spotted in the Quran, the holy book, which is numerously translated. Hence, studying several German translations for the Quran gives a deep look on the possibilities available to convey the precise meaning of the Arabic “plural of paucity” into German. The study shows that German plural forms conveyed the meaning of plurality without limiting the quantity to ten as the Arabic plural of paucity does. Using some German nouns, which lexically express the meaning of paucity, or implementing some superlatives may enable better translation for this Arabic linguistic phenomenon.

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