The Procedures of Translating Abbreviations in English Medical Texts into Indonesian

Abstract

This study reveals the procedures of translating abbreviations in English medical texts
into Indonesian. It aims at (1) identifying how the abbreviations of English medical terms are
translated into Indonesian and (2) identifying the phrase of the SL transferred into Indonesian.
This study discusses three procedures of translating abbreviations of English medical terms
which are reformulated based on the need of this study, i.e.(1) translating the abbreviation into
abbreviation (borrowing); this procedure showed that the abbreviations of English medical terms
were translated into abbreviations, in which borrowing was found (2) translating the abbreviation
into abbreviation (adaptation); this procedure showed that the abbreviations of English medical
terms were translated into abbreviations, in which adaptation was found (3) translating the
abbreviation into phrase; this procedure showed that the abbreviation was translated into phrase.
The data were taken from the translation of a medical textbook, Oxford Handbook of Midwifery
(2006) and its translation into Indonesian Buku Kebidanan Oxford (2010). The results showed
that there were three types of procedures used to translate the abbreviations in this study referred
to as translating abbreviation to abbreviation (borrowing), and translating the abbreviation into
abbreviation (adaptation), and translating the abbreviation into phrase.