TOWARD A MORE RIGOROUS SCHOLARSHIP ON PHONETIC TRANSLATION IN INDONESIAN LITERARY TRANSLATION

Abstract

Despite the growing body of research on literary translation in Indonesia, there is a notable scarcity of studies addressing phonetic translation, which concerns the preservation of sounds and other auditory features of literary text. An examination of the proceedings of the Konferensi Linguistik Tahunan Atma Jaya (KOLITA) from 2021 to 2025 reveals a conspicuous absence of focused study on phonetic translation in literary translation. Across, KOLITA’s linguistic investigations are rather rooted in semantic equivalence, cultural adaptation, and readability. The underrepresentation of inquiries into phonetic translation, coupled with the historical emphasis on meaning-centered approaches in Indonesian translation scholarship, contributes to the marginalization of phonetic concerns. This limits the understanding of literary text’ sonic dimensions and constrains the development of translation practices that could preserve the musicality of the source text. This paper calls for future translation practice and scholarship that preserve or transfer also the sonic richness of the source text. By addressing sonic elements, scholars and translators can better capture the full expressive range of source language, extending beyond syntactic and semantic concerns and cultural fidelity to embrace the sonic richness that shapes readers’ aesthetic experience, and thereby fostering more holistic translation practice and scholarship.