Abstract

In this study we examine ten hypotheses related to stylistic features of two Semitic languages, Hebrew and Arabic. Our assumption was that these hypotheses would enable us to discriminate texts written originally in Hebrew from those translated from Arabic. The ten hypotheses take into account a contrastive analytical view as well as recent research in Translation Studies. Being cognate languages, Hebrew and Arabic share morphological, phonetic and semantic features; consequently, certain Arabic forms trigger similar forms in Hebrew. We see this as accounting for the predominance of interference in the case of this (cognate) language pair and as evidence of an overarching hypothesis, whereby translation between cognate languages will entail interference, often superseding the norm of adherence to target-language standards. Eight of the ten hypotheses were borne out, to varying extents.