Bismillah ar-rahman ar-raheem” – what did the Sheikh say? Challenges for Auslan-English interpreters rendering code-switching in Arabic-English Islamic source texts

Since 2019, the Sydney Muslim deaf community has accessed Auslan-English interpreter mediated religious teachings at two of Sydney’s mosques. Throughout these teachings, a mix of spoken English and Arabic texts are used, i.e., code-switching.

This study investigates the occurrence of Arabic-English code-switching in selected Islamic religious teachings and the management of the code-switched source text by two Auslan-English interpreters practising in this domain. It examines the structure and functions of code-switches present in teachings delivered by four Sheikhs, and whether and how they are preserved in the subsequent Auslan interpretation.

While research into translation of religious texts is well established, interpreting in religious contexts is a relatively new field of research. Despite interpreting provision in both signed and spoken languages occurring in many religious domains, the available literature has primarily focussed on interpreting in Christian settings. This area of tri-lingual and multi-modal practice therefore expands understanding of the scope of interpretation in religious settings.

Using ELAN video annotation software, this study examines six publicly available videos of Auslan-interpreted Islamic religious teachings (including texts from both Sunni and Shia sects) to identify instances of and motivations for Arabic-English code-switching, as well as the choices that two Auslan-English interpreters make when faced with these mixed source texts – effectively working across three languages.

The results show a high degree of intra-sentential code-switching in the English-Arabic source text, occurring across eight different speech acts and serving different pragmatic functions. Interpreters utilise a range of strategies to manage these code-switched source texts including: strategic omission, code-blending fingerspelling and Arabic word mouthing, substitution, substitution, and signalling of “Arabic being spoken”. For the most part, the pragmatic functions of the source text code-switches were maintained in the rendered Auslan target-text either in full or in part. The findings of this study present novel information in the field of interpreting for deaf Muslims in their faith settings.