The Realization of Arabic Passive Voice in English and Acehnese: Grammatical Contrastive Study

This study aimed to reveal (1) the Arabic passive voice forms in The Holy Quran; (2) the Arabic-English translation alternatives for passive voices found in Muhammed Marmaduke Pickthall’s Quran translation as TT1; and (3) the Arabic-Acehnese translation alternatives for passive voices found in Tgk. H. Mahjiddin Jusuf’s Quran translation as TT2. This study applied descriptive qualitative method and content analysis. The subject of this study was Alquran Alkarim as the source text (ST), The Quran Translated by Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall as the Target Text I (TT1), and Alquran Alkarim dan Terjemahan Bebas Bersajak dalam Bahasa Aceh by Muhammad Mahjiddin Jusuf as Target Text II (TT2). The objects are passive voices found in 15 juz of The Holy Quran and their translations in both TT1 and TT2. The data collection was done by reading and note taking. Those data were analyzed by using contrastive analysis theory. The validity was measured through intra-rater and inter-rater validity. The results of this study are described as follows. The total number of Arabic passive voices found in the whole 15 juz of The Holy Quran is 546. As many as 277 passive constructions (50.73%) are constructed in perfect tense (al-fi’lu al-māḍi). As many as 201 or 36.81% are in the imperfect tense (al-fi’lu al-muḍāri’), and 68 (12.46%) are passive participle (ismul maf’ul). Those 546 Arabic passives are translated differently in both TT1 and TT2. In TT1, 432 Arabic passive voices are translated into English passive forms, 45 Arabic passives are rendered into English active forms, and 69 Arabic passives are replaced by other forms including five infinitives, one present participle, 18 adjectives, four nouns, 16 noun phrases, one existential construction, nine passive verbs + infinitive, two passive verbs + present participle, one active verb + infinitive, four verbs + adjective, one nominal sentence, and seven clauses. Meanwhile, in TT2, 286 Arabic passive are translated into Acehnese passives, 93 Arabic passives are rendered into Acehnese active forms, and 167 Arabic passives replaced by Acehnese other forms including six adjectives, 34 nouns, 43 noun phrases, 23 existential constructions, 14 verbs + adjective, 11 phrases + verb / verb + phrase, 22 embedded verbs/nouns, six nominal sentences, and eight clauses. Based on the number of percentage, it is concluded that TT1 maintains the use of passive voice in translating Arabic passives, the use of active and other forms only applied when passive cannot be used. Instead, the TT2 balances the use of passive form and other forms when dealing with Arabic passives. Therefore, TT1 applies semantic translation which is ST-oriented while the TT2 applies communicative translation which is TT-oriented. Keywords: Arabic, Acehnese, English, Quran, translation, passiv