Medical Translation and Difficulties in Medical Translation

Medical science, one of the earliest scientific fields, is a science discipline that is closely followed throughout the world and that always keeps abreast of change and evolves constantly. Due to the fact that it is related to human health, most information in this field such as a new inventions, technological developments, and treatment methods are shared among scientist around the world . This sharing occurs through translation. Translations made in the field of medicine are defined by a number of different terms, namely medical translation, translation for medicine, medical text translation, translation of medical documents. Translators who make translations in this area have zero tolerance to errors. This is because even the slightest misunderstanding about health can lead to fatal outcomes. In addition , many factors such as the unique terminology used in medical language, Greek and Latin based terms, the types of usage of these terms in the target language, and target language equivalents make the task of translators -who are under such a heavy burden - even more difficult. For this reason, medical translations cannot be made by any translator. Not only that it is not enough to master both languages (the translated and the target) but at the same time the translator must have a certain knowledge and experience in the field. In this study, the medical language and terminology and theoretical information on the method of medical translation has been included in the beginning. Then, the medical language and terminology in medical texts, how international medical terminology adapts countries to their own languages, and their equivalents in the daily language (intralingual translation) have been examined. Finally, wrong translation approaches and translation problems, which raise difficulties for translators and lead to misconceptions and error, are highlighted and a number of possible solutions are offered.

Keywords

Medical terminology, medical translation, translator, translation difficulties