Hi, Adel,

Thanks so much. What I am looking for is for as many people as possible for whom English is not their native or mother language to actually TELL ME how they themselves would translate those core terms I list. I already have responses from many people on my Facebook account, so I decided I would post the question here on ResearchGate. Your general remarks about translation, culture, etc. are quite accurate, and I thank you for them. Might you write back and tell me how you would translate those terms in Arabic? And by the way, which Arabic would be our own mother language (since there are different versions used in Sudan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, etc., etc.). Thank you very much. BEN

Thanks, again.

How would you translate كارثةt nto English?

All the best, BEN

Disaster: ; كارثة

Hazard: خطر

Risk: مخاطر

Vulnerability: قابلية الاصابة او قابلية التعرض

Threat: تهديد

capacity:القدرة

resilience: القدرة على المواجهة

emergency: طوارئ

crisis: ازمات

Catastrophe: فادح

Dear Ben this is the translation in Italian

Disaster: Disastro

Hazard: Pericolo

Risk: Rischio

Vulnerability: Vulnerabilita'

Threat: Minaccia

Capacity: Capacita'

Resilience: Resilienza

Emergency: Emergenza

Crisis: Crisi

Catastrophe: Catastrofe

Dear Mr.Ben Wisner,

Here is an Arabic translation of your list

1. Risk (n. مخاطرة) ( v. يخاطر)

2.Hazard (n. مجازفة ) (v.يجازف )

3.Danger (n.خطر )

4.Threat (n. تهديد)

5.Vulnerability ( n. التعرض للخطر)

6.Capacity (n.سعة or استطاعة )

7.Resilience (n. تعافي or استعادة الوضع )

8.Emergency (n. طواريء)

9.Crisis (n. ازمة )

10.Disaster (n.كارثة or بلاء )

11.Catastrophe ( n.كارثة )

Dear Mr.Ben Wisner,

Here is an Chinese  translation of your list

1. Risk 风险

2.Hazard 冒险

3.Danger 危险

4.Threat  威胁

5.Vulnerability 软弱

6.Capacity 能力

7.Resilience 恢复力

8.Emergency 紧急情况

9.Crisis  危机

10.Disaster 灾难

11.Catastrophe 大灾难

I agree with Adel that wordings differ according to different factors involved such as formality, age,gender and personality of the speakers etc. Because in Chinese sometimes we can have 100 words meaning the same thing, which always get my students (English speakers, mostly Americans) confused when I teach them new vocabularies that mean the same things covered by other words they learned. And the difference between certain words is very subtle. Like disaster and catastrophe, as you can see above I only add one more character to catastrophe, 大 (a person which is a 人 strecthing arms )means big in Chinese. Most of the Chinese characters make a lot of sense when understood through the view of pictures.

Es un placer empezar esta comunicación con usted señor Wisner, hace mucho tiempo lo tengo como referente para las definiciones de vulnerabilidad. 

Disaster: Desastre

Hazard: Amenaza

Risk: Riesgo

Vulnerability: vulnerabilidad

Capacity: Capacidad

Resilience: Resiliencia

Emergency: Emergencia

Crisis: Crisis

Catastrophe: Catástrofe

En especial existe en español un debate sobre la manera más adecuada de traducir el termino "livelihood", algunos lo señalan como medio de vida y otras como modo de vida, se´ría interesante saber cual sería mas adecuada en el marco del riesgo de desastres.

Dear Ben, 

This is the translation in Persian (Iranian Language):

- Risk = khatar-paziri (خطرپذیری): translation: accepting danger

- Hazard = Mokhatereh (مخاطره)

- Danger = Khatar (خطر)

- Threat = Tahdid (تهدید)

- Vulnerability = Asib-Paziri (آسیب پذیری) translation: accepting damage

- Capacity = Zarfiat (ظرفیت)

- Resilience = Taab-Avari (تاب آوری)

- Emergency = Ezterari (اضطراری)

- Crisis = Bohran (بحران- آشوب) Translation: similar to disasters but specially in chaotic social issues

- Disaster = Bohran= Bala (بحران- بلا) Translation: similar to crisis but used in natural hazards

- Catastrophe = Faje-eh (فاجعه)