A Study of English Equivalents of Islamic Financial and Economic Terms in Online Dictionaries

Abstract

In the age of digitalization, the internet makes up a pivotal tool to conduct research and acquire new knowledge. One of its products is an online dictionary that can be monolingual, bilingual, or polylingual free from spatial or economic restrictions. Having said so, the majority of these dictionaries are based on paper dictionaries such as Longman, Collins, and Muʿjam al-Leghati al-ʿArabīyati al-Muʿāṣira. Although monolingual specialized dictionaries are still scarce, specialized bilingual dictionaries are scarcer. Such a reality creates many challenges for Islamic economic terminology researchers since the majority of Islamic economic terms are awaiting rendition into different languages. Additionally, in lexicography and translation, the concept of synonymity is so essential, the absence of which may add more challenges. The current study explores two online dictionaries, Almaany.com and Glosbe.com, to identify the concept of synonymity in rendering Islamic financial and economic terms collated from a monolingual dictionary. The results of the study prove that culture-specific terms still present a difficulty for lexicographers and translators up to date regardless of the means of presentation.