English Jokes in Azerbaijani: Not Always on the Same Train

Abstract

People do not use humour just for the sake of entertainment, it is a part of everyday communication and information processing system. Since it touches many areas of human life, translators will be tasked with translating jokes at the end of the day. However, translating a joke is not a simple task. Maintaining the spirit of jokes requires translator’s proper and special skills. The main purpose of the paper is to identify which kinds of jokes are translatable or untranslatable from English into Azerbaijani. The researchers made an attempt to classify jokes according to their translatability extent and translation difficulties. Theoretical information is supported by practical examples. The study reveals that jokes that present unique perspectives can be easily translated; however, the ones that are based on linguistic ambiguity, namely lexical-semantic, structural-syntactic and phonological ambiguity pose essential difficulties for the translator.