The Power of Humachine Translation: A Posthumanist Approach to Investigating Transliteration Patterns of Arabic Toponyms into English

Toponyms are a prerequisite for a well-written news story. Adhering to a unified transliteration pattern of toponyms significantly helps avoid confusion and improves search engine optimization. This study explores inconsistencies among human translators affiliated with Arab news websites in transliterating Arabic toponyms into English. The study attempts to find answers to the following main questions: What are the drawbacks of human-produced toponym transliteration patterns? Why does incorporating the machine into this practice have potential benefits? A qualitative approach is adopted to analyze the transliteration patterns of Syrian cities mentioned in 22 news articles covering the earthquake that hit Syria in February 2023. The articles were retrieved from various English websites owned by Arab media institutions. The transliteration patterns were compared to a standard transliteration system issued by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (2007). The analysis revealed inconsistencies in human-produced transliteration patterns and conspicuous disregard for the standard system. The findings of the study were interpreted in light of the posthumanist approach espoused by O’Thomas (2017), which emphasizes the importance of incorporating the machine in the translator’s workflow and highlights the benefits of posthumanism to enrich the field of Translation Studies. The study called for machine translation in toponym transliteration to guarantee high accuracy and consistency. Future research was recommended to test the machine's performance in this area.