Investigating the Challenges of Translating Slang: A Dilemma to Be Solved

Cultural nuances; Colloquialism; Dialect; Paraphrasing; Semantics; Slang; Substitution; Syntactics.

1

Dr. Randa Saliba Chidiac
Department of Languages and
Literatures, Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, Holy Spirit University
of Kaslik

Dr. Mireille Saba Redford
Department of Languages and
Literatures, Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, Holy Spirit University
of Kaslik
2

Dr. Laurence Nehmtallah Ajaka
Department of Languages and
Literatures, Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, Holy Spirit University
of Kaslik
3

Ms. Myriam Mezeraani
Department of Languages and
Literatures, Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, Holy Spirit University
of Kaslik
4

European Journal of Prosthodontics and Restorative Dentistry (2026) 34 (04s), 340-346

Investigating the Challenges
of Translating Slang: A
Dilemma to Be Solved

Compared to written communication, slang is more frequently employed in conversations and restricted to specific subcultures that understand its meaning. Translating slang can be problematic if the translator wants to convey the context-driven word from the SL to the TL. Like in other languages, the effort used by the translator to convey the tone and cultural meaning along with proper translation and localization of slang make the content more relatable and improve the process of communication. As a guide for this work, we pursue Eble’s (2004) categorization followed by Baker’s (1992) translational strategies, in addition to Miremadi’s (1991) challenges to show how appropriate translation strategies of slang can vary depending on the specific context especially when translating movies which differ from translating a text into another language as translators can add more context for word choices in footnotes. The research paper also proposes the translation of slang expressions from Arabic into English with the challenges embedded in the syntactic, semantic, and cultural levels since slang translation is not a literal process that involves word-for-word, but rather a creative one to find the functional equivalent rather than the exact substitution. The future trajectory of this work is a blend of linguistic ability, cultural nuances through the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence translation systems, with a focus on cultural nuances to establish a trend for adopting new measures in the slang translation process which is spreading globally today due to hyper-speed evolution.

Received-19-05-2026 Revised-23-06-2026 Accepted-27-06-2026

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