Variation in Official Translations: Investigating the English Translation of Government Offices and Positions in Iraq

Official Translation refers to the translation of official signboards which are found on government offices. In Iraq, signboards tagged on most government offices show considerable variation regarding translation; two or more offices tackling the same business show two different translations, as in College of Administration vs. College of Management, taking into account that these two institutions do the same business. The same applies to words such as Union, Federation and Association. Variant appear these words to be, yet they are used interchangeably to refer almost to the same sort of business. This phenomenon is noticeable on the signboards of most offices across Iraq. The present paper elaborates on the state of current translations, suggests alternative translations, reaches certain conclusions and finally proposes some recommendations that may help solve this problem.