Final TammamAlkadi Thesis

Durham E-Theses
ISSUES IN THE SUBTITLING AND DUBBING OF

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILMS INTO ARABIC:
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
ALKADI, TAMMAM
How to cite:
ALKADI, TAMMAM (2010) ISSUES IN THE SUBTITLING AND DUBBING OF

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILMS INTO ARABIC: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS , Durham theses,
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2
ISSUES IN THE SUBTITLING AND DUBBING
OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILMS INTO ARABIC:
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
By
Tammam Alkadi
Supervised by
PROF. PAUL STARKEY

DR MICHAEL THOMPSON
A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Arabic
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
University of Durham
2010
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the problems that translators tend to face in the subtitling and
dubbing of English-language films and television programmes into Arabic and
suggests solutions for these problems. In the light of an examination of the generic
features of audiovisual translation and of the particular cultural constraints inherent in
translation for Arabic-speaking audiences, it is proposed that certain elements of
translation theory can be useful in overcoming the technical and cultural barriers
identified. This proposition is tested through analysis of the translation of three
feature films, one television sitcom and an animation series that have been subtitled
and dubbed into Arabic, with a particular focus on the translation of dialect, swear
words, and humour. Technical, linguistic and cultural issues constitute a challenge to
Arabic translators who need to deal with: 1) the limitations on screen such as space,
time, lip and character synchronizations; 2) the issue of rendering English varieties
into Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and 3) the problem of culture which restricts
them when they want to translate taboo expressions. This results in a loss (partial or
complete) of the source film‘s message.
Each of the audiovisual works mentioned above was considered as a case study
that was analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Interviews,
experiments and a questionnaire were conducted in this respect to find answers to
the research questions. The interviews aimed to gather evidence of how
professionals translate, what problems they face, and what possible solutions they
may suggest for them. The experiments and the questionnaire, on the other hand,
were audience-focused tools in the sense that sample audiences watched and
judged the ability of a translation both in subtitled and dubbed forms to deliver the
message of a movie to them, and therefore, provided evidence on the relative
effectiveness of different translation procedures. Based on this, solutions were both
suggested and tested in terms of their viability to overcome the barriers that emerge
during the subtitling and dubbing of dialect, swear words and humour into Arabic.
The findings show that translators have significant scope for improving the quality
of their output, especially by adopting a more functional translation approach that
can help them successfully deal with the difficulties inherent in this type of translation
and make the translated dialogue have a similar effect on the target audience as that
which the source text has on its audience.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................. ix
SCHEME OF TRANSLITERATION ...................................................................... x
DECLARATION .................................................................................................... xi
COPYRIGHT ....................................................................................................... xii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................... xiii
DEDICATION ...................................................................................................... xiv
PREFACE ............................................................................................................ xv
Chapter 1…………………………………………………………………………………1
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1
1.0 Overview of chapter ................................................................................ 1
1.1 Objectives of the study ........................................................................... 2
1.2 Research questions ................................................................................ 4
1.3 Rationale and motivation of the study ..................................................... 6
1.4 Overview of the thesis ............................................................................ 7
Chapter 2………………………………………………………………………………....9
LITERATURE ....................................................................................................... 9
2.0 Overview of chapter ................................................................................ 9
2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 9
2.2 Translation theory and audiovisual translation...................................... 10
2.2.1 Applying the functional approach: skopos theory .......................... 16
2.3 Subtitling ............................................................................................... 20
2.3.1 Subtitling dialects: spoken into written? ......................................... 21
2.3.1.1 Dialects and class ........................................................................ 22
2.3.1.2 Styles of English .......................................................................... 25
iii
2.3.1.3 Dialects and grammar .................................................................. 26
2.3.1.4 Literature on the subtitling of dialects .......................................... 27
2.3.2 Subtitling swearing and the influence of censorship on translation 30

2.3.3 Subtitling humour ........................................................................... 35
2.4 Quality in audiovisual translation .......................................................... 43
2.5 Dubbing ................................................................................................ 47
2.5.1 Barriers to dubbing into Arabic ....................................................... 48
2.5.1.1 Cultural barriers ........................................................................... 48
2.5.1.2 Aesthetic barriers ......................................................................... 49
2.5.1.3 Synchronization in dubbing .......................................................... 50
2.5.2 Arabic varieties and the possibility of dubbing ............................... 54

2.5.2.1 Arab regional dialects or language varieties ................................ 56
2.5.2.2 Syntactic differences between Arabic dialects ............................. 58
2.5.2.3 Semantic differences between dialects ........................................ 61
2.5.3 Literature on dubbing ..................................................................... 62

2.6 Subtitling versus Dubbing ..................................................................... 65
2.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 68
Chapter 3………………………………………………………………………………..70
METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 70
3.0 Overview of chapter .............................................................................. 70
3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 70
3.2 The use of qualitative data.................................................................... 71
3.2.1 Case study design and analysis ..................................................... 71
3.2.2 Interviews ....................................................................................... 72
3.3 The use of quantitative data ................................................................. 75
3.3.1 Experiments ................................................................................... 75
3.3.2 Questionnaire ................................................................................. 77
3.4 Rigour of study ..................................................................................... 78
3.5 Methodological issues and dilemmas ................................................... 79
3.5.1 Personal bias ................................................................................. 79
3.5.2 Transcription issues ....................................................................... 80
iv
3.5.3 Experiment issues .......................................................................... 80
3.5.4 Questionnaire issues...................................................................... 81
3.6 Ethical issues........................................................................................ 81
3.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 82
Chapter 4………………………………………………………………………………..83
SUBTITLING ...................................................................................................... 83
4.0 Chapter overview .................................................................................. 83
4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 83
4.2 Case Study (A): Educating Rita ............................................................ 84
4.2.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 84
4.2.2 Educating Rita: Social background ................................................ 91
4.2.3 Dialects in the film .......................................................................... 91
4.2.4 Subtitling Educating Rita into Arabic .............................................. 93
4.2.5 Experiment (I): Educating Rita ..................................................... 101
4.2.5.1 Introduction ................................................................................ 101
4.2.5.2 Description of participants and experiments .............................. 102
4.2.5.3 Results ....................................................................................... 102
4.2.5.4 Conclusion ................................................................................. 103
4.3 Swearing and taboo ............................................................................ 104

4.3.1 Introduction .................................................................................. 104
4.3.2 Why swear? ................................................................................. 105
4.3.3 Euphemism .................................................................................. 107
4.3.4 Case Study (B): London to Brighton............................................. 108
4.3.5 Experiment (II): London to Brighton ............................................. 111
4.3.5.1 Introduction ................................................................................ 111
4.3.5.2 Description of participants and experiment ................................ 111
4.3.5.3 Results and discussion .............................................................. 112
4.3.5.4 Conclusion ................................................................................. 113
4.4 Humour ............................................................................................... 114

4.4.1 Introduction .................................................................................. 114
4.4.2 (Un)translatability of humour ........................................................ 114
v
4.4.3 Case Study (C): Friends............................................................... 115
4.4.3.1 Introduction ................................................................................ 115
4.4.3.2 Jokes with sexual connotation ................................................... 117
4.4.3.3 Puns and wordplays .................................................................. 124
4.4.3.4 Cultural jokes ............................................................................. 131
4.4.3.5 Discussion ................................................................................. 139
4.4.4 Experiment (III): Friends............................................................... 140

4.4.4.1 Introduction ................................................................................ 140
4.4.4.2 Data and participants ................................................................. 141
4.4.4.3 Description of experiment .......................................................... 141
4.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 143
Chapter 5………………………………………………………………………………145
DUBBING ......................................................................................................... 145
5.0 Overview............................................................................................. 145
5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 145
5.2 Case Study (D): The Simpsons .......................................................... 146
5.2.1 Introduction .................................................................................. 146
5.2.2 The Simpsons in different languages ........................................... 147
5.2.3 The Simpsons and Egyptian Arabic ............................................. 148
5.2.4 The Simpsons: Questionnaire ...................................................... 154
5.2.4.1 Rationale.................................................................................... 154
5.2.4.2 Audience and data ..................................................................... 156
5.2.4.4 Conclusion ................................................................................. 160
5.3 Case study (E): Con Air ...................................................................... 161

5.3.1 Introduction .................................................................................. 161
5.3.2 Experiment (IV): Con Air .............................................................. 162
5.3.2.1 Description of experiment .......................................................... 162
vi
5.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 165
Chapter 6………………………………………………………………………………166
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 166
6.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 166
6.2 Findings: summary and discussion ..................................................... 166
6.2.1 Rendering ST dialects into the TT ................................................ 166
6.2.2 Censorship and the message of the source film .......................... 167
6.2.3 Subtitling humour into Arabic ....................................................... 168
6.2.4 Dubbing as a possible solution to the barriers of subtitling .......... 169
6.2.5 Applying the functional approach: (skopos theory)....................... 171
6.3 Implications and recommendations .................................................... 171
6.3.1 The role of the subtitling and dubbing companies ........................ 172
6.3.2 The role of professionals and theorists ........................................ 173
6.3.3 The role of TV channels ............................................................... 173
6.3.4 The role of producing companies ................................................. 174
6.3.5 Dubbing versus subtitling ............................................................. 174
6.4 Limitations .......................................................................................... 175
6.5 Directions for future research ............................................................. 176
6.5.1 Extending the findings by varying the methods ............................ 176
6.5.2 Exploring new techniques for subtitling humour ........................... 177
6.5.3 Further exploration of dubbing animated humour into Arabic ....... 177
6.6 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 178
BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………...179
LIST OF FILMS AND TV PROGRAMMES ....................................................... 191
LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................... 194

Appendix (A): Interview conducted with Ahmed Khuddro, SSS, London. ...... 194
Appendix (B): Interview conducted with Sherine El-Hakim, VSI, London. ..... 198
Appendix (C): Interview conducted with Alain Baradhi, Gulf Film, Dubai. ..... 202
vii
Appendix (D): Interview conducted with Omar Kaadi, Tanweer, Damascus. 205
Appendix (E): Interview conducted with Fady Hayek, Pro Subtitling, Beirut. . 209
Appendix (F): Contacts of subtitling and dubbing companies ........................ 212
Appendix (G): Swear words in the subtitled version of CON AIR. ................. 214
Appendix (H): Swear words in London to Brighton. ....................................... 217
Appendix (I): Friends: Jokes chosen for experiment (III) ............................... 219
Appendix (J): Swear words in the dubbed version of CON AIR..................... 227
LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................

Table 5.1 Results of the Questionnaire.......................................................... 157
Table 5.2 Sentences Used in the Questionnaire ............................................ 158
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................
FIGURE 2.1 Social and regional dialect variation ........................................... 24
FIGURE 2.2 Family Tree Model ...................................................................... 57
viii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AVT…………………………………………………………….….Audio Visual Translation

MSA……………………………………………………………….Modern Standard Arabic
RP…………………………………………………………………Received Pronunciation
SC………………………………………………………………....Source Culture
SL………………………………………………………………....Source Language
ST………………………………………………………………....Source Text
TC………………………………………………………………....Target Culture
TL…………………………………………………………………Target Language
TT…………………………………………………………………Target Text
ix
SCHEME OF TRANSLITERATION
‫…………………………………………ء‬...……. ’
‫ب‬.. ………………………………...….………… b Short Vowels
‫……ت‬.……………………………....………..… t ……………...………………………..….a
‫ث‬.………………………………………………. th ………………..……….…….………….u
‫………………ج‬.…………………….…………. J ِ ..........…………..…………...…………..i
‫ح‬
‫…خ‬..………………………….……...………... kh Long Vowels

‫…………………………………د‬..….……….… d ‫ ﺎ‬.………………..…………………………ā
‫………………………… ذ‬.………...…………. dh ‫… ﻲ‬..……………...………………….……ī
‫ ر‬..…………………….……………...……….… r ‫…………………………………… ﻭ‬..……ū

‫ ز‬.….…………….…………………...……….… z
‫……………س‬.…………………….…..……….. s
‫ ش‬.………….……………………….…..….…. sh
‫ص‬..
‫…ض‬
‫…………ط‬
‫…ظ‬
‫…ع‬.……………………………………...……… ‘
‫…………………………………… غ‬...…...….. gh
‫………………………………………ف‬.……….. f
‫…………………………………… ق‬...……..… q
‫…………………………………ك‬.……..……… k
‫……………………………ل‬.………….………. L
‫…………………………م‬.………………….…..m
‫……………………………………… ن‬..……... n
‫……………………………… ﻫ‬.………..…..… h
‫……………………………… ﻭ‬.………..…..… w
‫…………………………… ي‬.…………..…….. y
x
DECLARATION
This thesis results from my own work and has not been previously offered in
candidature for any other degree or diploma.
xi
COPYRIGHT
©
The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotations from it should be
published without T. Alkadi‘s prior written consent and information derived from it
should be acknowledged.
xii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sincere thanks are expressed to my supervisor, Paul Starkey. Your regular and
prompt encouragement and support has been much appreciated. Many thanks also
to my second supervisor Michael Thompson who made good contribution to the
thesis. I also gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Peter Hugh, Media Studies
Program, La Trobe University, Australia; Arthur Berger, Broadcast and Electronic
Communication Arts, State University, San Francisco and Mehmet Asutay, Durham
University, UK. I also highly appreciate the cooperation of Ahmed Khuddro, Silver
Screen Subtitling, London; Lindsay Bywood and Sherine El Hakim, VSI, London;
Alain Baradhi, Gulf Film, Dubai; Fadi Hayek, Pro-subtitling, Beirut ; and Omar Kaadi,
Tanweer, Damascus. To Heather Fenwick, Lucia Luck, Karen Shepherd and Denise
Gustard in MLAC, thank you for your administrative assistance.
xiii
DEDICATION
To Durham
xiv
PREFACE
The following conference papers developed from aspects of the research contained
in this thesis:
ALKADI, T. (September, 2007a) Subtitling Film Dialects into Standard Arabic.

Translating Voices, Translating Regions. Durham University.
ALKADI, T. (September, 2007b) Teaching Subtitling at Universities in the Arab

World. Interpreter and Translator Training and Assessment (NU-CITTA). Newcastle
University.
xv
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Overview of chapter
This study tackles the issue of overcoming the difficulties faced by translation of
English-language audiovisual dialogues into Arabic. The academic literature related
to this topic is rich in terms of the number of published articles and books that
discuss the translation of English-language audiovisuals into different languages, but
references to those which are related to Arabic are fewer than ten and these cannot
be said to cover issues that are of concern to practitioners. Therefore, this thesis
sets out to investigate the current situation of audiovisual translation into Arabic, find
out more about its barriers and suggest some solutions to these barriers where
applicable. Qualitative, as well as quantitative, data sources are implemented under
a case study methodology to focus on certain genres selected for this study, which
adopts a functional translation approach to carry out its experiments.
This chapter introduces the objectives, nature and purpose of the study. But
before we proceed, it should first be clarified that for the sake of this research, the
terms ‗audiovisual translation into Arabic‘ will be used throughout the thesis to
generally refer to the subtitling and dubbing of English-language films, sitcoms and
animations into Arabic. Moreover, and as the issue of culture will always be a
reference point to discuss its influence on the translation of English-language
audiovisuals into Arabic, the term ‗Arab culture‘ in relation to ‗Western culture‘ will be
used in a broad sense. This is not to deny the fact that nothing is absolute in this
regard. In other words, people have always connected Arabs with Islam for historical,
1
political and religious reasons, and Islam inevitably constitutes the most powerful
influence on most of the social and cultural factors discussed in this study. This,
however, does not mean that all Arabs are Muslims, or vice versa. In fact, there are
Arabs who are Christians and Jews and who live in different Arab countries.
Furthermore, it should also be understood that when we talk about culture, nothing is
fixed or static. What is unacceptable today, and in any culture, could be acceptable
tomorrow, and vice versa. For example, censorship on TV programmes was much
stronger in the past than today. Also, the fact that Western culture is more tolerant
of swear words and taboos than Arab culture does not mean that all westerners
agree with this space of freedom given to people on TV to swear and breach
taboos. Examples of how some countries in Europe and Latin America censor or
euphemise swear words will be discussed in section 2.3.2.
Finally, and as far as the terms ‗audiovisual‘ is concerned and which occurs
frequently through the thesis, it is worth highlighting that the term refers here to
materials that use sight and sound to present information or entertainment to the
audience, and that the term ‗audiovisual translation‘ refers to the translation of such
material. On this occasion, and as far as dubbing is considered one method of this
type of language transfer, it is necessary to point out that the term ‗dubber‘ which will
also be used in the thesis, refers to the person who carries out both the translation
as well as the adaptation of a dubbed script to synchronize it with the lips‘
movements of the actors. In this sense, the term by no means refers to the actors
who dub the source audiovisual material‘s characters or the adaptor who modifies
the translated text to suit the lips‘ movements. It combines both jobs.
1.1 Objectives of the study
The thesis seeks to examine such technical, cultural and linguistic barriers to
audiovisual translation into Arabic, especially those related to the subtitling and
dubbing of dialects, humour and taboo words. For example, and as far as the
technical barriers are concerned, Fawcett (2003: 15-6) summarises the issue by
saying that ‗x‘ was left out because there was no space in the subtitles and that ‗y‘
was substituted by another form of wording because of the need for lip
synchronization. Other barriers are related to the fact that there is a gap between
East and West, which is brought about by different religious, political, geographical,
2
linguistic and ideological factors which constitute what is known as culture. This gap
makes the translation of swearing and taboo words, for example, or even jokes of
sexual nature a complicated task.
In the Arab culture, which is shaped by Islam, which in turn has a huge impact
on its ideology, swearing, religious and sexual taboos cannot be tolerated, especially
on screen. They have to be euphemised or even omitted; a thing that may affect the
message of the source text when translated into the TC. According to Faiq (2004:
11), this may affect the message of the source text which may be perceived in a
different light, and the job of the translation which is to help to break down
hierarchies between cultures and peoples becomes one which practices both
domination and resistance. Similarly, Grosman (1992: 52) maintains that the
translation simultaneously closes off the source text and opens new possibilities for
its interpretation, something that compels the translator to a particularly attentive
reading which presupposes a capacity to reflect on one‘s own interpretation and its
culture-bound particularities.
Moreover, taking into consideration the linguistic differences between Arabic
and English and that MSA, not colloquial, is the language used for subtitling, this
puts restrictions on the translation of source dialects and humour as we will see in
chapter 4. Even where dubbing is concerned, the linguistic barrier, let alone the
technical ones, will still be present. Although dubbing gives the opportunity for using
dialect to replace those of the ST , or to sound more realistic, and therefore enable
the translator to convey the message of the ST, there is still a danger that the
audience will not like or even understand the other dialects used in dubbing.
Ivarsson (1992: 16) maintains that the screen presents constant visual reminders
that the scene and the characters are distinctly foreign to the audience.
These issues will be examined in two stages. First, by analysing some of the
data to highlight these barriers; second, by suggesting as well as testing the
applicability and practicality of some solutions to these barriers. Such solutions will
be implemented by employing a translation approach that facilitates the work of
translators; by conducting experiments and a questionnaire; and by interviewing
representatives from four of the pioneering subtitling and dubbing companies that
can be considered as market leaders in the Arab world and in London.
The study will try to address all the above issues and concerns in an objective
way that has not so far been used in previous studies of subtitling and dubbing into
3
Arabic. In other words, the research addresses issues of rendering dialects, swear
words and humour into Arabic by adopting a methodology that guarantees an
audience-focused approach in the sense that the audience contribute to the findings,
together with the interviewees. It is hoped that the experiments and the
questionnaire conducted will make the study and the results more authentic and
useful.
1.2 Research questions
Fawcett (2003: 145) argues that because film translation operates under a number of
technical constraints, it is often assumed that the final target text is largely
conditioned by these constraints and nothing else. As the thesis discusses the
difficulties of subtitling and dubbing of English-language audiovisuals into Arabic, the
following five questions will be answered in order to investigate further the reasons
for such problems and the possible solutions to them:
Research Question 1 (refer to chapter 2 for full discussion):

Do translators of English-language audiovisuals into Arabic adopt any translation
model or theory that best suits audiovisual translation and helps them best interpret
the source audiovisual material‘s message? If not, what is the most suitable
translation approach to achieve this?
- SOURCE OF DATA: Interviews and most of the experiments
and the questionnaire that were carried out.

As dialect features of source English-language audiovisuals are not usually rendered
into equivalent ones in subtitling into Arabic due to the fact the subtitles are usually
written in standard rather than colloquial Arabic, does this have any consequences
on the audiovisual material‘s message? If yes, can this be avoided?
- SOURCE OF DATA: Educating Rita, interviews, an experiment
and a questionnaire.
4
To what extent does the translated audiovisual material‘s message tend to be
affected by censorship? Can translation loss caused by censorship be minimized or
compensated for?
- SOURCE OF DATA: London to Brighton, Con Air, interviews
and an experiment.

Regarding the subtitling of humour, can it have the same effect on the audience as
that of the original, and what are the best strategies for achieving this?
- SOURCE OF DATA: Friends, interviews and an experiment.

Can dubbing be an efficient solution to some of the obstacles that subtitlers face,
such as the transfer of dialects, swear words and humour into Arabic?
- SOURCE OF DATA: Con Air, The Simpsons, interviews, an
experiment and a questionnaire.
The general overall question that overarches the above five questions is:
- How the practicalities of audiovisual translation into Arabic are
conditioned by the technical, cultural/ideological as well as translation
conditions in which it is carried out?
The translation factor (Research Question 1) is indeed crucial to the industry of

audiovisual translation into Arabic since it can be the key or solution or it can at least
help in overcoming the difficulties that result from the ideological, cultural and/or
technical constraints that are involved in the process and that may become a
challenge to the translators. It is the translation that is supposed to absorb any
cultural shocks or differences and filter anything that the target audience may not
approve of. Yet, it is the same translation that is expected to entertain and leave an
impact on the audience in the same way as the original text or audiovisual material
does.
5
1.3 Rationale and motivation of the study
The growing demand for AVT into Arabic, especially film translation, fuelled by
globalization, necessitates an assessment of today‘s booming industry. Subtitling
and dubbing companies have always complained that they cannot find trained
subtitlers and adaptors, even though the number of translators is rising. But, a
translator is not a subtitler so it is necessary to know more about the way this
profession functions and the way the message of the ST is conveyed into the TT,
taking into consideration the cultural and linguistic challenges, as well as the
technical ones. Companies usually carry out the task of training their own staff since
there are no training courses at Universities in the Arab world to do so despite the
fact that this industry is mushrooming day after day, especially in Lebanon and
Egypt.
Furthermore, the increasing complaints from the audience against the
inadequacies of some of the dubbed and subtitled films, cartoons, and sitcoms to
reflect the message of the ST were also noticed. The internet has provided ways for
viewers to express their points of views which can be found in chat rooms and blogs.
‗Angry‘ bloggers raise the issue of the many ‗scandals‘ that take place in subtitling
and dubbing into Arabic , such as ‗exaggerated‘ censorship, including cuts, the
inability of MSA to reflect the different registers and humour of the ST in subtitling,
and the inadequacy of colloquial Arabic for dubbing films and cartoons. Examples of
these will follow in the coming chapters.
Added to all this is the fact that there is a growing awareness on the part of
producers and TV programmers who are buying, broadcasting and/or distributing
such translated audiovisual entertainment programmes that the failure of any
translation project may affect their reputation and disadvantage them financially or
competitively. As a result, it is the responsibility of AVT companies to do more
research in this regard.
Moreover, in view of the fact that this industry has received little attention
either from theorists or practitioners has created a need to conduct a study that lays
out a foundation for and encourages more research. Apart from a few articles and a
single Master‘s thesis so far, which will be detailed in chapter 2, no one can claim
that this issue has been seriously addressed, whether on the academic or
professional levels. This could be attributed to many factors, among which is the fact
6
that one of practitioners‘ aims is to make money and that the theorists of translation
do not regard this language transfer method as translation but rather adaptation.
Thus little attention has been paid to it. Therefore, and for the sake of this research,
it is necessary to show the reader where audiovisual translation and translation
theory stand. A common approach in translation theory that can be useful to
audiovisual translation into Arabic will also be suggested in chapter 2.
1.4 Overview of the thesis
This thesis is divided into six chapters. Following this introduction, the literature
review chapter presents an overview of what has so far been written about subtitling
and dubbing in relation to translation theory as well as the translation of dialects,
swear/taboo words, and humour. We see how these types of translation problems
have been dealt with by theorists and professionals alike so that we can learn from
them and illustrate how this study is going to add to this field. The chapter also
introduces and defines both subtitling and dubbing.
Chapter three discusses the methodology that the thesis adopts in order to
answer the questions. It gives a justification for choosing the design and methods of
this research. The interviews, the questionnaire and the experiments chosen to be
part of the methods have been used as complementary methods to help enhance
reliability and validity. Each of these methods helps to compensate for the limitations
of each other. Furthermore, the chapter gives details about the data to be analyzed
from the case studies, the way in which the experiments and the questionnaire were
done, and the numbers and types of participants. It also presents the questions that
were asked to the interviewees. Finally, it explains how the interviews are to be
integrated and analyzed throughout the research.
Chapter four begins the presentation of the findings of the research. It
discusses the barriers to subtitling such as the difficulty of transferring the ST
dialects, swear words and humour. Each of these barriers is investigated through
analyzing three case studies that include two films and a sitcom that have been
subtitled into Arabic. Then, the practicality of the solutions suggested to overcome
such barriers is tested by carrying out an experiment for each suggestion or case
study.
7
Chapter five discusses dubbing as a solution to the above-mentioned barriers
through conducting an experiment and a questionnaire. It also reveals the obstacles
to dubbing into Arabic and on its inherent suitability for overcoming the barriers to
subtitling. The chapter discusses the issue of dubbing into colloquial Arabic which is
believed to be more efficient in transferring the ST message into the TL than
subtitling. To test this hypothesis, the chapter analyses and conducts experiments on
two other case studies, one of which is a film and the other is an animation show
dubbed into Egyptian.
Finally, chapter six locates the findings of this study in relation to existing
studies. Moreover, it also takes into consideration the limitations of the findings and
suggests ideas for further research. Last, it offers a brief conclusion to the study
which stresses the fact that the quality of audiovisual translation into Arabic can
indeed be improved to a great extent by following crucial and costless procedures.
8
Chapter 2
LITERATURE
The aim of this chapter is to outline the methods that have been adopted by
translators to deal with different translation issues that arise from the subtitling and
dubbing of English-language audiovisuals into different target languages. It assesses
the relevance and usefulness of the sources that may be beneficial to this project
which will be situated within the existing field. Related literature is organized into five
basic foci concerned with the objectives of this research. First, the chapter presents
the literature relating to translation theory in relation to audiovisual translation; how
theory and practice interrelate and the effect of the theory of translation on the
quality of audiovisual translation. Second, it handles the issues of subtitling of
dialects, swear words and humour. Third, the literature relating to quality subtitling is
also examined. Although this part of the literature is not directly related to the
research questions, it provides insights into what helps make good subtitles. Fourth,
the literature relating to dubbing in general is discussed in order to uncover its pros
and cons so that they can be related to the failure or success of films dubbed into
Arabic in chapter 5. Last, literature relating to the comparison between subtitling and
dubbing is summarised in order to further investigate which one is favoured by the
audience and why.
2.1 Introduction
The issues of applying theoretical approaches drawing upon translation theory in

translating audiovisuals, transferring dialect into target standard or colloquial
9
varieties, toning down or censoring swear words, and preserving the humour of the
ST in the TT are not issues that are limited to audiovisual translation into Arabic but
are rather international ones that face translators worldwide. However, it is likely that
a subtitler subtitling an English-language film, for example, into German faces fewer
difficulties than one subtitling the same film into Arabic. A European subtitler has
more options in this regard. Not only do the languages have similarities but so does
the culture, something which has an advantage when it comes to translating humour
or even swearing. Similar cultures, even with different languages, usually share puns
and cultural/sexual references, the basic components of humour. Moreover, when it
comes to swearing, it will be noticed how Spanish subtitlers, for example, have more
freedom in subtitling obscene language than do Arabs, although they would still filter
such words before they reach the audience. What can be said about subtitling can
also be said about dubbing, although subtitling seems to have attracted more
attention than dubbing for reasons that we will discuss in the last section of this
chapter.
Finally, it has to be confessed that the literature in this chapter has got little to
do with dubbing and subtitling into Arabic. As mentioned earlier, the literature that
has been published dealing with translation of audiovisuals into Arabic, although
appreciated, is not really significant. Thanks are owed to Zitawi (1995, 1999, 2003),
Khuddro, (2000, 2009), Maluf (2005), Mazid (2006), and Jamal (2008a) who tried to
lay the ground for the study of this kind of language transfer. Therefore, in this study
it is hoped to bridge what the literature has failed to cover such as the issues of
translating humour and dialect. The beginning will be with the literature related to
how translation theory can be used to seek a better quality translation of
audiovisuals.
2.2 Translation theory and audiovisual translation
Delabastita‘s (1989) model is one of the earliest and most important in AVT that tried
to frame film translation within translation theory. He claims that his model ―.. is an
organized inventory of questions and hypotheses that should direct any future work‖
(1989: 194) and that film establishes a multi-channel (acoustic and visual channels)
and multi-code (the verbal, the literary and theatrical, the cinematic code, politeness
codes, moral codes, and so forth) type of communication. Any transfer of film signs
10
from the source to the target set of codes needs to respect the material parameters
within which any such translation process is necessarily accomplished. He then puts
a scheme of potential translational relationships between a source film and a target
film.
Delabastita attempts to identify a complex interactive group of related norms
by compiling a checklist of questions which summarise the foundations of his
research model proposals and which Chaume (2002: 7) sums up as follows: 1) What
is the position of the TC in the international context, in social, political, economic and
other terms? 2) What cultural relationships does the TC maintain with the source
culture? 3) What cultural constraints does the TC impose upon the translator? 4)
What are the intentions of the client who requested the translation with respect to the
translated text (time and place of broadcasting, for example)? 5) What tradition does
the TC have with regard to types of text? 6) What degree of openness exists in the
TC? 7) What is the linguistic policy of the TC? Finally, and of great importance: 8) Do
the genre of the source culture, the values expressed in it, the rhetorical
argumentation used, the different linguistic, stylistic, cultural and filmic models, the
degrees of intertextuality and so forth exist in the TC? According to Delabastita:
If the study of actual translation performance is guided by these and similar

questions, the scholar will gradually be enabled to formulate his hypotheses
concerning the motivations behind the translator‘s behaviour. (1989: 210).
Fawcett (1996: 71) proposes that despite the fact that this model renders further
modelling unnecessary by covering all the possibilities to be found in film translation,
the model is considered as post-operative rather than predictive.
Brodweel‘s (1994) model briefly mentioned three translating problems: the
inevitable reductions of the ST; the problem of readability; and the problem of
equivalence as the subtitles should sound like their spoken equivalents. Regarding
the latter, Brodweel reminds the reader of the three levels of equivalence and their
requirements: in informative equivalence it should be made clear that all the
information has been transferred to the TL; in semantic equivalence the meaning
should be transferred correctly; and in communicative equivalence the subtitle has
to transfer the communicative dynamism of the SL.
11
Fawcett (1996: 72) sees this approach as messy since it does not help the
subtitler search for equivalences which will fit the constraints of each given situation.
Not only that, it has also to be pointed out that the three levels of equivalence that
Brondeel suggests are difficult to fulfil due to the cultural and linguistic barriers that
exist between Arabic and English.
Fawcett‘s (1996: 70) approach is in favour of finding a link between film
translation and translation theory, maintaining that recent approaches to film
translation are still at the modelling stage, meaning that it has not reached the stage
where it can be dealt with by the translation theory. He started with the theory of
‗equivalence‘ which seems to be limited in a domain that imposes some constraints.
Such constraints are related to synchronization and ‗cultural pressures‘ as he calls
them. When the translator is free of these constraints or pressures, the translation
becomes more functional-dynamic. But it would still be difficult to seek equivalence
at the stylistic level. Likewise, Gottlieb, as quoted in Fawcett, claims that equivalence
in film translation is always sought at speech-act level. This is why ―a full translation
of the spoken discourse in films and television is seldom desirable‖ (ibid: 74). One
advantage of equivalence theory is that it allows us to spot the mistakes that occur in
the translation process.
With regard to ‗relevance‘ theory, Fawcett (ibid: 79) quotes what Hesse-
Quack proposed in this regard. He proves that in film translation the message is far
from always being conveyed, with a variety of adaptations to a different cultural
context in order to avoid incomprehension in the audience or unwieldy explanations
by the translator, the result of such procedures being presumably to offer adequate
contextual effects, which is the aim of relevance. But in the end, as Fawcett puts it:
―it is obvious that what appears in a translated film will follow the principle of what the
translator deems to be relevant in the complex of symbols with which he or she is
dealing at any given moment‖ (ibid: 80).
Despite the fact that relevance theory pays attention to the target text and
audience, Fawcett did not clarify how this theory helps in dealing with such complex
features as taboos and cultural references, especially when they have no bearing on
the target culture. Moreover, Gutt (1992: 24) maintains that the more contextual
effects an utterance achieves with an audience, the more relevant it will be to that
audience. But in fact, the nature of AVT requires a condensation of contextual
utterances for the technical reasons that were detailed in the previous chapter.
12
As far as Toury‘s (1980) ‗polysystems‘ theory is concerned, Fawcett (1996:
80) comments that films, like literature, can be seen as a set of systems in an
ideological context. In translation, they are transferred into a different ideological
context and a set of systems which may be differently structured and valued at the
moment of transfer. Finally, Fawcett proposes that power and ideology and the effect
of society are also to be considered in film translation. Violence, sex and swearing all
come in for social control in the translation of films.
Although Toury‘s theory had an important impact on translation theory, it
concentrates on literary texts and modifications have to be made if this theory is to
be applied to AVT. Moreover, Karamitroglou (2000: 98) maintains that Toury‘s
parameters/factors which he investigated are not part of a general project or strategy
as he neglects the vital role of the recipients and puts much unnecessary emphasis
on the source languages/systems.
Jaskanen (2001) suggests equivalence as an option for film translation in the
sense that the audience usually expects a translation close to the original. As a
result, since the concept of faithfulness is implausible due to the constraints imposed
by AVT translation, equivalence seems to be an acceptable alternative, according to
Jaskanen. She argues, however, that this does not work all the time as viewers
sometimes have different opinions from the translator‘s. She quotes part of a
reader‘s letter to the editor of ‗Katso‘ that reads: ―One should, in my opinion,
translate clever wordplay so that the meaning of the sentence is retained and the
joke is lost and not try to force a Finnish-language wordplay and lose the whole plot
in the process.‖
Diaz-Cintas and Remael (2007) talk about AVT with reference to subtitling.
They do not adopt a specific model or theory of translation which might be applied to
this kind of language transfer. They talk about the translation of marked speech such
as dialect, the translation of culture-bound terms, songs, swearwords, and humour
as was detailed in the literature. Some of the strategies that the authors recommend
for subtitling culture-bound issues are loan, calque or literal translation, explicitation,
substitution, transposition, lexical recreation, compensation, omission and addition.
All these strategies are noticeably related to translation in general and not to AVT
and cannot be said to constitute a model. They were also suggested by
Karamitroglou (1997), as mentioned above, as well as by Dickins et al (2002: 21-25).
13
As far as audiovisual translation into Arabic is concerned, it can be said that,
theoretically speaking, the only attempt, so far, to suggest a guideline for the
translation of English-language audiovisuals into Arabic was Mazid‘s (2006). He
believes that chunking1, suggested by Katan (1999: 147), is frequently used by
translators as a method to hide incompetence, as he terms it, when dealing with the
translation of culturally specific terms such as wordplays, proverbs and taboos in
subtitling. He then suggests that translators should rather use Oltra Ripolls‘ (2005:
89-90) recommendations, especially when dealing with obscene language. These
take into consideration: 1) the status of the TC in an international context; 2) the
relationship between the TC and the SC; 3) the cultural restrictions on translators; 4)
clients‘ intentions and requirements; and 5) the flexibility of the target culture and its
linguistic policies. This is in fact similar to polysystem theory which was mentioned
above and which pays more attention to the target text. The recommendations,
however, seem to be too general and do not give the translator any guidelines on
how to deal with issues that are related to taboos, humour and/or dialect in the sense
that there is no mention of the functions of both the ST and TT and how they shall be
realized.
Practically speaking, professionals who were interviewed were asked about a
model or theory that they rely on in audiovisual translation. Their answers were
surprising. Hayek (see Appendix E), for instance, argued that: ―Any literal translation
will mean the failure of a film. So, the concentration should be on the message that
the film wants to deliver rather than the words‖. Similarly, Khuddro (see Appendix A)
maintained that: ―Only 20% of the source text is translated literally and the rest is the
general meaning of the message. The meaning is what matters for me rather than
the literal translation of the text.‖ Kaadi (see Appendix D) put it clearly: ―No, we do
not rely on any particular theory‖. Finally, Baradhi (see Appendix C) preferred not to
answer the question.
Not adopting any translation theory, model or decisions may result in a
disorganised translation and consequently in a loss of the source text‘s message.
Defining the aim of a translation and the way to reach that aim is crucial. From what
we saw in the previous section, there seems to be a tendency among professionals
1
Chunking is a method proposed by Katan (1999). Katan proposed changing the size of
something by chunking it down: from general to specific, chunking it up: from specific to general, or
chunking it sideways: using an equivalent or a synonym.
14
and theorists alike to use the equivalence approach. Although this approach remains
central in the theory of translation, it raises certain issues that need to be highlighted.
As Svejcer, who is quoted in Gut (1992: 35), maintains: ―Equivalence is one of the
central issues in the theory of translation and yet one on which linguists seem to
have agreed to disagree‖. For instance, as Dickins et al (2002: 19) argue that there
is a danger that Nida‘s ‗dynamic equivalence‘, for example, might be seen as giving
carte blanche for excessive freedom which entitles the translator to write what
sounds good and reflects the content of the ST. Moreover, according to James
Holmes as quoted in Bassnett (2002: 34-5), the issue of equivalence is ‗perverse‘,
since to ask for sameness is to ask too much. Furthermore, Bassnett (ibid: 34)
argues that translation involves far more than the replacement of lexical and
grammatical items between languages and, as can be seen in the translation of
idioms and metaphors, the process may involve discarding the basic linguistic
elements of the SL text… But once the translator moves away from close linguistic
equivalence, Bassnett maintains, the problems of determining the exact nature of the
level of equivalence aimed for begin to emerge.
To exemplify, Antonopoulou (2004: 236) gave an example about how the
Greek translator of Chandler‘s novel ―Trouble is my Business‖ (1950) translated the
following sentence, in her search for an equivalent effect. The sentence constitutes
Marlowe‘s response to a visitor‘s comment that his curtains need cleaning: ‗I‘ll send
them out come St, Swithin‘s Day‘. According to Antonopoulou, the relics of St,
Swithin were supposed to have been taken to a shrine on July 15, 971 when
unusually heavy rain made the project impossible not only for that particular day but
also for the following 40 days. Because of this, source culture tradition has it that if it
rains on July 15, it will keep raining for the next 40 days. The Greek translation of this
sentence back translates into English as: ‗I will send them (on) All Saints‘ (day)‘. The
noun phrase ‗All Saints‘ Day‘ does not imply the same message that ‗St, Swithin‘s
Day‘ does. However, contextually speaking, there is a clear indication that the
curtains are never going to be sent to the cleaners. But Antonopoulou suggests that
‗St, Swithin‘s Day‘ is made explicit in the TT by replacing it with ‗St, Never‘s Day‘ in
order to have a more humorous effect on the target audience.
Indeed, as Baker (1992: 49) puts it, equivalence is influenced by a variety of
linguistic and cultural factors and is therefore always relative. Similarly, Newmark
(1988: 49) maintains that the more cultural a text, the less conceivable is the
15
equivalent effect unless the reader is imaginative, sensitive and steeped in the SL
culture. But whether it is culture, the translator, or the reader to blame, the issue of
equivalence remains debatable. Miao (2000: 204) points out that the principle of
equivalent effect is not an operational and feasible notion and has its limitations.
Likewise, as Pym (2007: 291) expresses it:
Gone is the kind of re-creative equivalence that was once allowed for by
the hunt for the natural nuance; gone is the directional creativity by which
translators consciously introduced the new. Instead, equivalence returns to
ensure the imposition of controlled patterns on all cultures. And it does so
at a time when the metalanguage of equivalence has lost its exploratory
and critical force.
We will also see in 2.3.3 how both Jaskanen (2001) and Grun and Dollerup (2003)
do not recommend the equivalence approach, especially in the translation of humour,
since the wider the gap is between two cultures the more difficult it is to look for
equivalence, especially when a translated text is limited in space and time on screen.
Moreover, Koller (1995: 212) argues that of fundamental importance is the
translation‘s double linkage: first to the source text and secondly to the
communicative conditions on the receiver‟s side. The issue of communicative
conditions is important when it comes to applying equivalence to screen translation
where different factors play a role. Time and space limitations, culture, and
censorship affect the nature of equivalence, especially when we talk about
audiovisual translation into Arabic. As a result, an approach that takes these issues
into consideration and yet delivers the message of the audiovisual material will be
suggested next.
2.2.1 Applying the functional approach: skopos theory
Although translation theory may facilitate translators‘ work, the quality of a translation
is not in fact measured by the extent to which theory was applied or utilized by a
translator at the time of translating a certain text. Similarly, it could also be argued
that it is likely that audiovisual translation practitioners are implicitly following a
theoretical model even if they do not acknowledge it. The fact that some of the
16
interviewees (see Appendices A, B, C, D, E) argued that the concentration was on
the message of the source film in the first place rather than on the text indicates that
a rather pragmatic equivalence approach is used by practitioners without being
aware of this.
Bassnett (2002: 83) maintains that the degree to which the translator
reproduces the form, metre, rhythm, tone, register, etc. of the SL text, will be as much
determined by the TL system as by the SL system and will also depend on the
function of the translation. One of the approaches that paid attention to the function
of the translated text is the functional one. It links function, linguistic dimensions and
the communicative situations in which they are implemented, as well as being one of
the first approaches in translation that took into consideration ‗audiomedial‘ texts.
Therefore, as this study deals with AVT and tackles the translation of different film
genres, it was thought that it would be worth examining the suitability of such an
approach to audiovisual translation into Arabic.
Nord (1994: 62) maintains that the framework of a functional approach
justifies any transfer procedure which leads to a functional target text, that is, cultural
adaptation, paraphrase, expansion, reduction, modulation, transposition,
substitution, loanword, claque, literal translation, or even omission. It is the aim of the
translation that decides. The functional approach which started in Germany in the
1970s and 1980s was considered a shift from the linguistic typologies of translation.
The pioneers of this school were Reis (1981/2004), Holz-Mänttäri (1984), Vermeer
(1989/2004) and Nord (1988/2005). Reis wrote about text types and their relation to
the functions and translation strategies as we will see. Holz-Mänttäri considered
translation a human interaction that has a purpose and which involves more than
one player. Nord‘s approach to functional theory pays more attention to the ST while
Vermeer‘s skopos theory basically relied on the purpose of the TT.
Skopos, meaning ‗purpose‘ or ‗aim‘ in Greek, is considered part of the
functional approach and was introduced into translation theory in the 1970s by Hans
J. Vermeer. The reason why skopos theory is considered part of the functional
approach is that it aims at producing a functionally appropriate TT or translatum as
Vermeer terms it. In other words, as Flynn (2004: 271) argues, the reason why this
theory is an example of the functional approach is that it anchors translations in their
socio-cultural contexts and views translated texts from within such contexts.
According to Nord (1997: 12), it was developed as the foundation for a general
17
theory of translation able to embrace theories dealing with specific languages and
cultures. Moreover, Munday (2008: 80) proposes that one important advantage of
skopos theory is that it allows the possibility of the same text being translated in
different ways according to the purpose of the TT and the commission which is given
to the translator. But to understand more how this theory functions, it is important to
understand its mechanisms.
According to Reiss and Vermeer, as quoted in Munday (ibid: 80), there are six
rules for this theory: 1) A translatum or (TT) is determined by its skopos; 2) A TT is
an offer of information in a target culture and TL concerning an offer of information in
a source culture and SL; 3) A TT does not initiate an offer of information in a clearly
reversible way. This means that the function of the translatum in the target culture is
not necessarily the same in the source culture. It is expected to function in a new
language and culture. Rules 4 and 5 are related to cohesion and fidelity in the sense
that the translated text must be coherent for the TT audience; 6) The five rules above
stand in hierarchical order, with the skopos rule predominating.
As can be seen, translatum is what this theory pays attention to. It is, then,
essential that the translator knows both the purpose of the ST and the function of the
TT which affect the choice of the methods and strategies used in translation.
Vermeer (p. 236) argues that the skopos of a translation is therefore the goal or
purpose, defined by the commission and, if necessary, adjusted by the translator.
The realizability of a commission depends on the circumstances of the target culture,
not on those of the source culture (Vermeer‘s italics). The translator adjusts the
commission according to both the purpose and the target culture. This means that
attention is paid less to the ST and more to the TT. It is the function of the TT which
determines the language of the translation.
Audiovisuals are normally shot for many different reasons or functions among
which are to entertain, to address a certain issue, to educate, and to make money.
So, the first step for the translator is to know what kind of audiovisual material s/he is
translating so that the skopos of the TT are met. To illustrate, Nedergaard-Larsen
(1993: 221) divides visual media into genres and emphasises that in comedy the
language is central, in feature films people are central, and in documentaries events
are central. This classification of genres helps the translator find the function of the
film to be translated. Moreover, building on Nedergaard-Larsen‘s division of genres,
Karamitroglou (1996: 45) states that in fiction, dialects, sociolects and speech
18
variants should be reproduced in some way; in romance, the audience need to follow
the atmosphere rather than the dialogue, unlike the case in crime stories where
details are significant. In action films, the translator has to restrict his/her product to
leave viewers‘ eyes free to follow the more important ‗dynamic‘ information on the
screen. Finally, when translating comedies, care needs to be taken to ensure
efficient harmonisation of the verbal joke with a possibly funny element on the
screen.
But to specify the genres of films is only the first step along the way. There
are other challenges which make the translator‘s decision with regard to the function
of the TT more difficult. They emerge from the nature of film translation, especially
subtitling, which puts restrictions on the freedom of translators. It is in fact argued
whether the intention of a translator can change the function of a film when dealing
with this type of language transfer. The fact that the source material is apparent on
screen makes it hard to do so. Therefore, however the translator tries to hide points
for whatever reasons, s/he will not succeed since a clash of intentions between ST
and TT may occur. This, however, does not mean that changes are not possible. In
fact, they are possible or even necessary, depending on the nature of the source
material and the target culture, as will be explained later. It can also be said that
functions can be affected by other factors such as the needs of viewers as well as
space, time and cost restrictions. The needs of the audience are specified according
to the functions of the ST. That is, as long as the functions of the ST are known to
the target audience and the subtitles can be read easily (and the dubbing is
convincing) then there is no reason why the translation should not be successful. But
if the original aims are not known to the target audience, then they should be made
known (see Nedergaard-Larsen, 1993: 223).
The dynamism which skopos theory allows and which gives a green light to
translators to translate texts according to the purpose of the TT and the commission
given by clients is criticized by Nord (1994: 63) for being a very general rule which
does not account for specific conventions prevalent in a particular cultural
community. She describes this as ‗the end justifies the means‘, a phrase which
means that the translator is free to choose any translation skopos for a particular
source text. For that reason, Nord (1988/2005), (1997) suggests the concept of
loyalty to solve this problem which means that, providing the intentions of the original
author are not contradicted, the translation‘s end may justify the means. Vermeer
19
(1989/2004: 237) replies by asserting that the theory in no way claims that a
translated text should conform to the target culture‘s behaviour or expectations and
that a translation must always ‗adapt‘ to the target culture as was mentioned in rules
4-5 above.
After all, the key to the functional approach in audiovisual translation is to start
with the genre. Once it is identified, the translator can go ahead and produce a
translation that fulfils the functions of the translated material and is acceptable to the
target audience, culturally speaking. In other words, the functional approach gives
the translator the space to translate the swear words of the source text by
euphemising them and making them acceptable to the target audience. It also allows
him/her to deal with humour in a way that elicits laughter in the target audience and
yet bridges the cultural differences. Moreover, this should not be considered as a
breach of rules 4/5 above with regard to fidelity. What is being done here is
minimizing the number of taboo words used rather than deleting the swear words
altogether. This will be dealt with in more detail in chapter 4, but it may be useful to
give an example of what we mean. For instance, the word ‗butt‘ will be replaced in
Arabic by ‫ئفوح‬ٝ٘‫ ‘ا‬or ‗back‘. This is similar to saying that something which is not pretty
must be ugly.
Now that we have an idea about the application of theory to the practice, it is
time that we move to the practice itself to see how the issue of dialects, swear words
and humour are dealt with. The start will be with subtitling.
2.3 Subtitling
Vöge (1977: 120) defines subtitling as a printed translation of the film dialogue which
is projected simultaneously near the bottom of the screen. Moreover, Luyken et al
(1991: 31) define subtitles as condensed written translations of original dialogue
which appear as lines of text, usually positioned towards the foot of the screen.
Subtitles appear and disappear to coincide in time with the corresponding portion of
the original dialogue and are almost always added to the screen image at a later
date as a post-production activity. Furthermore, Ivarsson & Carroll (1998: 4) uses the
term ―subtitles‖ for texts which represent what is being said (whether they are
visible, 'open' subtitles or 'closed' teletext which can be added to the picture when
the viewer so wishes). In addition, Assis Rosa (2001: 213-4) suggests that subtitling
20
involves intersemiotic and interlingual translation. It is intersemiotic because it
transfers to written verbal language a source text which corresponds to face-to-face
communication, and interlingual because it is an interpretation of verbal signs by
means of some other language. Finally, Diaz-Cintas and Remael (2007: 8) subtitling
as a translation practice that consists of presenting a written text, generally on the
lower part of the screen, that endeavours to recount the original dialogue of the
speakers, as well as discursive elements that appear in the image, and the
information that is contained on the soundtrack.
The following literature discusses the issue of culture and the way it affects
subtitling. It shows the extent to which a subtitler is able to apply theory to practice in
this regard, especially when s/he is dealing with the transfer of an audiovisual
message into a written one. It presents actual examples that are taken from films or
sitcoms that have been subtitled from English into other languages such as Arabic,
Spanish, German, and Finnish, and so on. The cultural issues that this literature
concentrates on are mainly related to dialect, swear words and humour as was
already mentioned.
2.3.1 Subtitling dialects: spoken into written?
It has been noted that language varies according to whether it is written or spoken.
Written English is in many cases more formal than spoken English, and the same
can be said about other languages including Arabic. So how is it possible to reflect
less formal or informal English language in a formal Arabic style when film translation
into Arabic, especially subtitling, is done into MSA? Before we answer this question,
it is important to understand the mechanism of both dialects or language varieties of
English and Arabic.
Dickins et al (2002: 165) argue that sociolect is defined in terms of
sociological notions of class, and that sociolectal features can convey important
speaker-related information. Consequently, if they are salient features of the ST, the
translator cannot ignore them. And as MSA cannot really be said to have different
sociolects, the situations of Arabic is referred to as one of diglossia. Diglossia, as
Dickins et al maintain, can be defined as a situation where two varieties of a
language co-occur throughout a community of speakers, each having a distinct
range of social functions. In other words:
21
Diglossia is a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to the
primary dialects of the language (which may include a standard or regional
standards), there is a very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically
more complex) superposed variety, either of an earlier period or in another
speech community, which is learned largely by formal education and is
used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not used by any
sector of the community for ordinary conversation (Hudson, 1996: 49-50).
This means that the two main language varieties, the standard and the colloquial in
Arabic, are usually spoken by everyone in a certain community regardless of social
class. This is in fact the main difference between dialects in English and Arabic. In
any case, and as Dickins et al put it:
In many cases, dropping ST dialect features is likely not to incur very

damaging translation loss. If it does, but there seems no reasonable way of
using dialect in the TT, the important ST effects produced by dialect will
probably have to be rendered through compensation. One technique is to
make occasional additions; e.g. ‗[…] she said in a thick Tangiers accent
(2002: 67).
What the authors suggest is more effective in written translation, for example, but not
in subtitling where time and space on screen are limited.
Other issues that have to do with spoken utterances and which may face
subtitlers are related to hesitation, repair, turn over, simultaneous utterances,
overlapping utterances, contiguous utterances, doubt and so on (see Schegloff,
1984). For the time being, the issue of the characteristics of dialects and how they
affect the translation of audiovisuals will be dealt with in the following sections.
2.3.1.1 Dialects and class

According to Haugen (1966: 923), the word ‗dialect‘, which is closely related to
sociolect defined above, came from Greek and the distinction between language and
dialect was developed in Greek because of the existence of a number of clearly
distinct varieties in use in classical Greece, each associated with a different area and
22
used for a different kind of literature. The French word „dialecte‟ refers only to
regional varieties that are written and have a literature. Francis, as quoted in Lodge
(1993: 15-6), defines dialects as varieties of a language used by groups smaller than
the total community of speakers, and that the relationship between dialect and
language is inclusive rather than exclusive. Accent, on the other hand, is defined by
Hughes and Trudgill (1996: 7) as ―your way of pronouncing your ‗language‘ when
you speak it, unlike the notion of dialect which usually embraces pronunciation as
well as syntax and lexis.‖
Zabalbeascoa (1997: 328) argues that many theories of translation
concentrated on morphological, semantic and syntactic issues and ignored issues
related to communication, language variation as well as the combination of verbal
and non-verbal elements. Mathews (1979: 47) maintains that there is no real
distinction to be drawn between language and dialect (except with reference to
prestige where a language has a prestige that a dialect lacks). Hughes and Trudgill
(1996: 6) found this hardly surprising since the Standard English dialect is spoken
natively by British people who can be regarded as being at the top of the social
scale, in the sense that they have more money, influence, education and prestige
than people lower down the social scale.
As Altano says (1988: 152), the existence of class dialects is a consequence
of the divisions and conflicts between classes. Similarly, Guy (1988) proposed that
the social evaluation of language differences between people obviously depends
directly on differences of power, status, education, and class.
To exemplify, Trudgill (1983: 34) gives examples of two speakers who utter
the same sentences differently:
-Speaker A: -Speaker B:
I done it yesterday I did it yesterday
He ain‘t got it He hasn‘t got it
It was her what said it It was her that said it
If we heard A and B utter these sentences, we would guess that B is of a higher

social status, since different social groups use different linguistic varieties, i.e.,
sociolects. This is what Hughes and Trudgill call social class dialects, which show
clear grammatical as well as phonetic and phonological differences: ―People speak
23
different kinds of English depending on what kind of social background they come
from, so that some Liverpool speakers may sound ‗more Liverpudlian‘ than others.‖
(1996: 2).
Moreover, as Hughes and Trudgill put it: ―The higher people are on the social
scale, the less regionally marked will be their accents, and the less they will differ
from RP2.‖ (ibid: 2). What is more interesting is the example they give on page 40 to
indicate language change according to social class in the form of a triangle. In Figure
2.1 below, rural old-fashioned dialects varieties associated with groups lowest in the
social hierarchy- change gradually as one moves across the countryside. There exist
a whole series of different dialects which gradually merge into one another. This is
referred to as language continuum. At the other end of the social scale, however, the
situation is very different. Speakers of the highest social class employ Standard
English. At the end of the pyramid (bottom), on the other hand, we find a far greater
degree of regional variation in the most localized regional English dialects:
Social Highest class: standard dialect

Variation
Lowest class: localized
Regional variation
in pronunciation
Figure 2.1: Social and regional dialect variation
Not all people stay in one social position throughout their lives. Those who climb the
social scale will tend to modify their accent in the direction of RP, thereby helping to
maintain the existing relationship between class and accent. Speakers with a
Bradford accent would begin to pronounce more aitches, for example. It should also
be noticed that distinctions between dialects in the UK have become less clear over
the past 50 years, and have been complicated by immigration and by the
homogenizing influences of mass media.
2
RP is the Received Pronunciation which means the accent presented as a model for the learner. ‗Received‘
means to be ‗accepted in the best society‘. It has been estimated that only about three per cent of the English
population speak RP.
24
A particularly interesting example of accents and social status, which Trudgill
(1983: 61) gives is the non-prevocalic /r/. He argues that English accents without
non-prevocalic /r/ have more status and are considered more ‗correct‘ than accents
with. RP, the prestige accent, does not have this / r/, and non-prevocalic /r/ is often
used on radio, television and in the theatre to indicate that a character is rural,
uneducated or both- one frequently hears it employed for comic effect in radio
comedy series. In New York City, however, accents with non-prevocalic /r/ have
more prestige and are considered more ‗correct‘ than those without. The
pronunciation of words like car and cart without an /r/ is socially stigmatised, and
generally speaking, the higher up the social scale a speaker is, the more non-
prevocalic /r/s he is likely to use. However, in English towns where both types of
pronunciation can be heard, such as Bristol and Reading, this pattern is completely
reversed.
2.3.1.2 Styles of English

Another example of the difficulty of reflecting these differences in translation can be
taken from Hughes and Trudgill (1996: 10). They maintain that regardless of what
dialect people speak they will use different sorts of language depending on what sort
of social situation they find themselves in. No one uses exactly the same kind of
English when they are talking to their friends in a café or pub as when they are
talking to strangers in a more formal situation. Hughes and Trudgill call these
situational varieties styles, and argue that stylistic variation can be thought of as
taking place along a kind of sliding scale of formality. Styles of English range from
very formal to very informal, with a whole continuum of varieties in between. Most
often, differences between styles have to do with words, with very informal or
colloquial vocabulary often being referred to as slang. For example, ‗fatigued‘ is a
very formal word (although rarely used), while ‗tired‘ is an intermediate or neutral
word, while ‗knackered‘ is a very informal or slang word. They all mean the same
thing, but they are stylistically very different:
1- My companion is exceedingly fatigued.

2- My friend is extremely tired.
3- My mate is bloody knackered.
25
ً‫زمتٌ علا‬ٜ ٫ٙ‫٭‬ٜ‫ ى‬-1
‫خ‬٬‫ىب‬ٙ٘ ‫زمت‬ٜ ٫ّ٬‫ صل‬-2
‫ ا٘زمت‬ٟٜ ‫٭ذ‬ٜ ٫‫ صبؽج‬-3
Back translation into English:
1- My companion is exceedingly tired.

2- My friend is extremely tired.
3- My mate is dead tired.
As we can see, there is not much difference among the three sentences except in
terms of formality where the third is clearly less formal than the other two but it
cannot give the same impression as of the original.
2.3.1.3 Dialects and grammar

Another interesting example of the untranslatability of dialects relates to what
Hughes and Trudgill (1996: 42) mentioned regarding the difference between
Standard English grammar and dialect grammar. The following passage, which is
taken from Norwich area, is likely to strike most English speakers as exaggeratedly
formal-jokey, archaic or literary:
Every time they go round John‘s, there‘s trouble. He like his peace and
quiet, and I understand that, but they don‘t see it at all. They get across
with him, and he get across with them.
The passage shows that the East Anglian verb forms do not have a present tense
ending at all in any person, unlike the Berkshire dialect which has the present-tense -
s for all persons:
I sees him every day on my way home. He likes to stop and have a chat,
and I generally has the time for that. We often stops at in at that pub- you
goes there sometimes too, right?
26
This brief introduction to British accents and dialects is intended to give an idea
about the relationship between language varieties and class in Britain. In the
following section the way such dialects are dealt with in subtitling English-language
audiovisuals into Arabic will be examined.
2.3.1.4 Literature on the subtitling of dialects
Altano (1988) argues that the use of dialects can be explained as the celebration of
the working class, both urban and rural, who are more apt to discourse in the
expressive tones of regional usage. They are primarily used for characterization and
thus permeate the text when the characters speak. He examines how the dialects in
‗Il Pasticciaccio‘, a novel by Carlo Emillio Gadda, were translated into American-
English and maintained that it was impossible to recreate the characterization
through the language achieved by the author in his assignment of one dialect for
each character. The equivalent quality and quantity of American regionalisms are
lacking because variations in American speech are more a factor of accent than
diction. Therefore, he advises translators to keep the text current despite the danger
which this may bring as slang is a vital element in language. This study will attempt
to see to what extent this view point is right in translating English-language dialects
into Arabic.
Fawcett (1996) maintains that in Being at Home with Claude (Beaudin, 1993)
the sociolect is represented in the subtitles by a variety of means so that ―What are
you doing‘?‖ becomes ―Wadda ya doin‖. But in this case the subtitler is forcing the
reader to attempt mentally to reconstruct the gangster-style sound and thus attempt
to avoid information loss by reproducing rather than repressing the sociolect. This
resulted in an increase in the decoding effort involved in mentally ‗oralising‘ a sound
on the basis of a written script. By the time an English viewer has mentally
reconstituted the required sound, a number of other subtitles will have gone by
unread. Moreover, Fawcett argues that any attempt to represent the dialectal or
sociolectal variety of the original will almost inevitably result in offence to some
cultural group whose dialect is being used to indicate inferiority or criminality. Again,
this is a further piece of advice to avoid the recreation of dialects in the target text,
especially in subtitling.
27
Moreover, Karamitroglou (1997) argues that only dialects that have already
appeared in a written form in printed materials are allowed to be used in subtitles.
For example, it is possible to use words such as 'thee' for 'you' but not 'wadda ya
doin?' since such sociolect forms are not immediately recognizable and
comprehensible by the viewers‘ eye.
Similarly, Jaskanen (2001) proposes with regard to subtitling dialects that they
are still rarely seen because of the readability issue. She quotes what the subtitler
Eija Pokkinen said in this regard: ―I would like to use dialects in translations, but they
are considered to be difficult to read‖. Another reason for shunning subtitling dialect
is to reserve the flavour of the source text‘s reality. The subtitler of the Irish series
Family (Doyle, 1994) was criticised for relying heavily on dialectal expressions. The
illusion of the invisibility of the subtitles was broken when they did not seem to fit the
reality of a Dublin working class family.
Assis Rosa's article (2001) is similar to Jackel's in that it talks about the
problems of subtitling cultural connotations. Subtitling, she argues, faces a problem
in finding a correspondence between both cultural and linguistic variations. A further
obstacle is the fact that subtitling is required to adopt TT written as well as spoken
registers similar to those of the ST in accordance with the norms of the medium of
the subtitles: writing. She points out that native speakers usually value the formal
written standard in comparison to the non-standard informal speech which is
promptly pushed to the edges.
The articles above clearly show that it is difficult to subtitle and read dialects.
Therefore, considering that Arab native speakers use MSA in writing and never use
colloquial, this study will not attempt to suggest colloquial Arabic as an alternative to
MSA in subtitling English-language audiovisuals into Arabic. There is no purpose in
creating a new barrier to find a solution to another.
Jackel (2001) examines the subtitling of dialects in La Haine (Kassovitz,
1995), a French film that deals with several hot issues such as unemployment,
youth, culture, integration of ethnic minorities and urban violence, revealing France
as a multicultural and divided society. She examined the extent to which American-
English subtitles have succeeded in presenting French multicultural society to the
Americans. She finds that the variety of the film's speech forms created difficulties for
the subtitlers such as the fast speech rate, dense visual and nonverbal phonic
information, bad language, misuse of words, local colloquialisms, and slang. To test
28
if the subtitles were successful, Jackel asks the following questions: To what extent
did the subtitlers find suitable equivalents in the target language? What factors
determined their choice? To what extent did the subtitling determine the reception of
the film in the English-speaking market? Jackel discovered that to resolve the issue
the subtitlers opted for a mixture of styles and chose American slang as the first
step. Then certain political and cultural references to French society disappeared
while other references were transported and replaced by American equivalents.
According to The Independent, as cited in Jackel (p. 227), the subtitles were too
American to the degree that ―the authenticity of the dialogue was almost entirely
lost‖. Moreover, David Styan, also cited in Jakel (p. 227), wrote: ―Sadly, Kassovitz's
multiple meanings, his nuanced visual and verbal puns, are likely to be lost on a non-
French audience‖. For example, the subtitled version differentiates less between the
three heroes' speech than the French original version, and subtitled rude words may
appear more negative, aggressive and hateful than their French equivalent. For
these reasons the film was not a great success in America:
The film's lack of appeal to the targeted US audiences had less to do

with subtitling (in comparison with Britain, the subtitles were hardly
noticed in the US), more with perceptible cultural differences. (Jäckle,
2001: 223)
Finally, Jackel claims that the subtitlers of La Haine acted as cultural experts, but
their efforts to bridge the cultural gap between France and America did not go far
enough. This is partially true in the sense that however hard the subtitlers tried to
bridge the cultural gap between both cultures, there remained areas that were
difficult to perfect due to the nature of both the source and target texts.
Diaz-Cintas and Remael (2007: 191-2) argue that dialect and slang are
characterized by non-standard grammar, specific lexical features, and a distinctive
accent. So, any dialect should be pinpointed within the social and geographical
layout of the target culture. Then a decision about whether it should be considered in
subtitles or not should be made, taking into consideration its function. Diaz-Cintas
and Remael also stress that it is unlikely that a target dialect will be identical to the
source one. In this case, talented translators could rely on interaction with the film‘s
29
other signs to do the job based on an estimate of what viewers from the target
culture might be expected to fill in themselves.
To summarize, he translators‘ efforts to compensate for the source dialects
faced major obstacles such as the difficulty to reading dialect on screen and even
finding an appropriate target dialect. Finding such a dialect means a recreation of the
source characters but without sounding too colloquial in the target language. And as
different scholars have suggested that the use of dialect in subtitling is not effective
in transferring the dialect of the source text, the study will try to find a way to
compensate for the loss of the function(s) of dialects without creating any new
barrier. We will see how in chapter 4.
2.3.2 Subtitling swearing and the influence of censorship on translation
The issue of power and ideology has always had an impact on translation, especially
the audiovisual one since the latter is reachable by huge audiences. Hatim and
Mason (1997: 144) define ‗ideology‘ as the tacit assumptions, beliefs and value
systems which are shared collectively by social groups. Usually, as Calzada Perez
(2003: 145) put it, translators translate according to the ideological settings in which
they learn and perform their tasks. Moreover, Tymoczko (2003: 183) argues that the
ideology of translation resides not simply in the text translated, but in the voicing and
stance of the translator, and in its relevance to the receiving audience. Therefore, the
translator, according to Witte (1992: 72), must be able to judge/estimate (from this
perspective) the client‘s ‗knowledge‘ (or ‗lack of knowledge‘) of one another‘s culture
and to anticipate the impact this knowledge may have on behaviour patterns in the
concrete cross-cultural situation. In other words, the translator should strike a
balance between being faithful to both the source text and the different factors in the
target culture that affect its transfer in a way that avoids any kind of conflict. Conflict,
according to Baker (2006: 1) refers to a situation in which two or more parties seek
to undermine each other because they have incompatible goals, completing
interests, or fundamentally different values. Censorship emerges in this sense to
minimize this state of conflict using translation as one of the important tools to do so.
In other words, and as Tymoczko and Gentzler (2002) suggest:
30
Translation is associated with power in all these senses, in part, because
translation is a metonymic process as well as a metaphoric one.
Translations are inevitably partial; meaning in a text is always over-
determined, and the information is a source text is therefore always more
extensive than a translation can convey. Conversely, the receptor language
and culture entail obligatory features that shape the possible interpretations
of the translation, as well as extending the meanings of the translation in
directions other than those inherent in the source text… The very words
associated with politics and ideology used here (i.e., partiality, partisan,
participate) suggest that the partial nature of translations is what makes
them also an exercise of power. (2002: xvii-xviii)
Similarly, Billiani (2007: 3-4) defines censorship as a form of manipulative rewriting

of discourses by one agent or structure over another agent or structure, aiming at
filtering the stream of information from one source to another. It functions as a filter
in the complex process of cross-cultural transfer encouraged by translations. Both
censorship and translation establish a power structure that sustains and shapes their
respective, often intertwined operational modes. Similarly, Munday (2007: 196-7)
maintains that translation operates as a form of intercultural transfer, opening up a
source text to new readers in a new language, where it will most commonly be read
as it were originally written in the target language.
An example of this is Spain in the middle of the twentieth century. Vandaele
(2002a) discusses the issue of translation and censorship at the time of Franco
regime in Spain where the Junta monitored dubbed movies of foreign audiovisuals
and banned anything that threatened morals and values. As translators did not want
a rejection of the dubbed material by the Junta, they went for a safe translation that
would be acceptable. Indeed, it is the translator‘s ideology and the dominant target
language poetics that are the determiners of a translated text as Lefevere who is
quoted in Munday (2007: 197) maintains. Vandaele (ibid: 279) argues that it is still
commonly thought in Spanish society that content manipulation largely consisted in
the cutting of footage and the suppression or toning down of taboo expressions.
Bassnett and Lefevere (1990: 11) pay less attention to the influence of
linguistics on the transfer of a text into another language than to the interaction
between translation and culture, to the way culture impacts upon and constrains
31
translation, and to the larger issues of context, history and convention. Similarly,
Thomas (1998: 107) maintains that the achievements of ancient civilizations resulted
from a clash of cultures and ideas and therefore translators should be faithful to the
source text to translate it as it is without any changes so that the target culture is
able to perceive things differently. He argues that:
Translators have an important role to play in introducing different cultures to

each other and in provoking a healthy, creative and potentially fruitful clash
of cultures. They have to select and translate texts which show us that ours
is not the only way of looking at the world and in this way we may be
persuaded to take a fresh look at our most cherished traditions and
perceptions and rethink them. (1998: 107)
Athamneh and Zitawi (1999: 135) argue that omission is one of the methods that
translators resort to when translating English cartoons into Arabic in order to get rid
of swear words for cultural reasons: ―Such omissions do not fall under the category
of errors; rather they reflect the translators‘ conscious attempts to adapt the text in
accordance with cultural, social, and marketing considerations‖. The authors give
examples of some of the intentional omissions that were taken from some episodes
of children‘s animated pictures such as: ―You low down‖, ―What a b****‖, ―Damn you‖
and ―Damn it‖. Although the article is important in the sense that it shows how the
translator can freely omit swear words in dubbing into Arabic, it only handles dubbing
with relation to cartoon films that are addressed to children where it is normal to
apply censorship in Arab culture.
Khuddro (2000) maintains that swear words in English-language films that are
subtitled into Arabic are usually omitted to suit the Arabic-speaking audiences who
have zero tolerance for religious or sexual connotations. A good way to overlook
these obscene words is by resorting to dynamic equivalence rather than to faithful or
literal. The sentence: ―You look like hell‖ can best be interpreted as: ―ً‫ ثبئَب‬٦‫‖رجل‬, ―You
look miserable‖. The word ‗miserable‘ will make more sense in Arabic than ‗hell‘
which also has religious connotations. So, Khuddro suggests ruling it out all together
but does not explain if this has any effect on the film‘s message or not.
Mazid (2006) argues that there is a kind of filtering or slanting that occurs in
the form of resorting to omission, euphemism and the different ways of chunking in
32
the Arabic subtitles of English-language films. He gives examples from the subtitles
of Tempted (Bennett, 2001) and Big Daddy (Dugan, 1999) in his analysis. Some of
these examples are: ―This kind of marital s***‖ is subtitled as " ‫ع٭خ‬٦‫َبئٗ ا٘ي‬ٝ٘‫ ا‬٢‫ن‬٤" which
back translates as ―These marital affairs/issues‖ and ―Why did you f***ing lie to me‖
is translated as " ‫بء؟‬َٝ٘‫ ثؾُ ا‬٫ٙ‫بما ٔنثذ ل‬ٝ٘" which back translates as ―Why did you lie to
me for Heaven‘s sake?‖ Mazid proposes that mainstream media in the Arab
countries do not admit obscenity or swearing unless ―filtered‖ or ―slanted‖. Again,
Mazid does not illustrate if such censorship has any effect on the message of the
film.
Similar to Arab culture, Asian culture is also keen on euphemising swearing
and taboos. Chen (2004) examines the subtitling of swear words of American
English films into Hong Kong Chinese. Omission and euphemism are two of the
methods used by subtitlers to hide the true meanings of swear words. For example,
‗Mother-f***er‘ is not translated and ‗F***‘ is translated as ‗Freak‘. One of the reasons
for censorship in a communist country has little to do with religion, but rather it has to
do with culture. Film distributors cannot sell their product if the censors spot any kind
of obscenity in the subtitle. Another reason is the fact that the written word has
greater impact on the readers than the spoken one. Chen maintains that Cantonese
equivalents should be used to subtitle American English swear words in order to
convey the original spirit in a more effective way and thus arouse the greatest
empathy on the part of the audience. What Chen suggests is indeed important in the
sense that toning down swear words is more effective than omitting them all together
or finding equivalents for them in the target culture. This study will try to benefit from
these findings by applying them to Educating Rita (Gilbert, 1983), which is to be
analyzed in details in chapter 4.
As far as the Western and Latin American cultures are concerned,
Krasovska's article (2004) depicts some translational issues in both the Russian and
Latvian subtitles of the American film The City of Ghosts (Dillon, 2002). One of these
issues is the translation of abusive expressions as she calls them. Krasovska argues
that shifts are needed since what is considered vulgar or obscene differs from culture
to culture. Moreover, the effect of direct transfer would be stronger than that of the
source language: ―It is for this reason, that in both translations, Latvian and Russian,
there is a tendency to minimize, or even avoid the use of direct swear words to
reproduce more accurately the mood‖ (ibid: 27).For example, ―F***ing b****!‖ is
33
translated as (Slampa/ Лотаcκyxa!) ―B****‖ and ―I called you a f***ing b****. F*** off!‖
is translated as ―B****‖, too.
Moreover, regarding censorship in Latin America, Scandura (2004) argues
that censorship can occur in the form of changing the titles or subtitles of a
programme, changing the plot to fit the audience and toning down strong language.
She maintains that the latter is popular in Latin America. It is the custom to subtitle
vulgar words using neutral ones. For example, the expression ‗to make love‘ is used
instead of another slang expression with the same meaning. One reason for this is
that written foul language is stronger than the oral one. Scandura also maintains,
according to a survey that was done in Argentina in 2002, that viewers do not always
reject censorship and that they are quite happy with it in some cases.
Coming back to Spain, Fernández Dobao (2006: 223) proposes, on the basis
of Newmark‘s equivalent effect, that the stylistic register of the source text, its degree
of informality, and the frequency of swearing need to be retained in the target text in
order to produce on the audience the same effect the original text produces in its
audience, something that makes the task of the translation of such culture-specific
phenomenon a complex one. The fact that western societies, such as the English
and the Spanish, share taboos does not mean that there are no differences among
them. As a result, the lack of exact equivalence in the translation of many swear
words impels translators to look for the highest possible degree of equivalence
(compensation) linguistically, pragmatically and culturally speaking. The following
examples illustrate some of the methods that the translator can use in order to
achieve this. First, the source language sentence will be given, followed by a back
translation of the Spanish one into English:
A1- Get the f*** outta my face with that s***! (ST)
A2- Vete a tomar por culo con esa mierda (TT)
A3- Bugger off with that s***!
B1- We gotta be real f***ing delicate

B2- Tenemos que ser muy delicados
B3- We have to be very delicate
C1- Die, you mother f***er! Die!

34
C2- ¡morid ¡cabrones ¡morid
C3- Die! Bastard! Die!
As a result of her analysis of 8 Mile (Hanson, 2002) in Finnish, French and Russian
subtitles, Taivalkoski-Shilov (2008) discovers that both the Finnish as well as the
French subtitlers translated, as closely as possible, 14 obscene words out of 35 in
the ST, while the Russian subtitler translated only 2 and omitted the rest. What is
worth noting is Taivalkoski-Shilov‘s comment: ―The impression we have of the
Russian subtitler is negative and unprofessional, even though the comments on the
subtitles in Russian internet forums seem to have been rather positive‖ (2008: 265).
The above three articles show that even in Western culture censorship and
euphemism can be found in AVT, unlike what many people believe about this
culture. Hence, one should not really blame translators of audiovisuals into Arabic if
they practice censorship on taboo and swear words. However, this does not mean
that they should have absolute freedom to do so. Indeed. As Diaz-Cintas and
Remael (2007: 195-7) maintain, swear words are often toned down in subtitles or
even deleted to save space, but should be translated in some way if they contribute
to the characterization or fulfil a thematic function in a film.
To conclude, politeness on screen is a necessity that is brought about by the
fact that written swear words have more influence than spoken ones and that some
cultures would still feel that there is a need to protect themselves from the foreign.
These two reasons influence the translation of taboos even among what are known
as modern cultures as the examples above showed. But as euphemism tends not to
dramatically affect the characterization and the plot in the film, omission may suffice
as we will see in chapter 4.
2.3.3 Subtitling humour
Before we go into detail about the subtitling humour, it is worth touching upon the
degree of translatability of this genre. First, the issue of untranslatability was raised
by Catford (1965: 94) who argues that this terms occurs when it is impossible to
build functionally relevant features of the situation into the contextual meaning of the
[target language] text. He (ibid: 99) distinguishes between linguistic and cultural
35
untranslatability. The latter, which matters more in this study, occurs when a
situational feature, functionally relevant for the [source-language] text, is completely
absent from the culture of which the [target language] is a part. However, when we
talk about humour, which is in fact cultural, then we talk about a universal
phenomenon, something that may make it translatable. Newmark (2003: 126-7)
argues that, in principle, humour is universal, and can be, more or less, translated,
provided that the source and target language readership or the listeners are
educationally at the same level. He disagreed with Basil Hatim who said at a
conference (2003: 127) that an Arabic readership will not understand irony in
translation, and argued that if the readership is well educated, then there should be
no reason why irony will not be understood. Chiaro (1992: 77) maintains that
translating a joke from English into another language is not easy. Similarly, when a
joke is translated into English, results tend to be equally disastrous.
Towards the end of his article, Newmark (2003: 127) confirms that since
individuals have such different senses of humour (one man‘s giggle is another‘s
hoot), translation theorists are not likely to reach agreement about it. Moreover,
Vandaele (2002c: 149) proposes that the combined object of humour translation
must have seemed until now so vast, disorientating and dangerous ocean that few
academic efforts were made to theorize the processes, agents, contexts and
products involved. However, there have been several attempts by theorists to apply
humour theory to translation (Attardo, 2002) or to try to find approaches to the
translation of humour (Muhawi, 2002; Vandaele 2002b; Delabastita, 2002; and Diaz-
Cintas 2001b). In general, it can be said that there is no common ground, i.e.
similarity, between meanings and/or pragmatic forces in humour translation theory.
What happens is that existing approaches to humour translation incorporate a theory
of translation and apply it to humour.
This does not mean, however, that humour cannot be effectively translated.
After all, translators should be able to find a suitable approach which helps them
bridge the gap between both culture and language as much as possible and retain
some or all of the humorous effect of the source joke. And, as there is no particular
theory to help translators translate humour as illustrated above, researchers try to
choose an approach that both respects the target culture taboos and education
levels as well as compensates for the humour of the source text.
36
As far as puns are concerned, Delabastita (1996: 128) defines punning as a
textual phenomenon contrasting ―linguistic structures with different meanings on the
basis of their formal similarity‖. Nord (1994: 61-2) proposes that most plays on words
are ‗untranslatable‘ within the framework of a strict equivalence model. Similarly,
Barbe (1996: 261-2) maintains that unfamiliarity with puns causes word-for-word
translation which leads to numerous unintentionally funny effects. Moreover, she
proposes that in the translation of humorous shows, like Monty Python (Chapman et
al., 1969), dubbers take considerable liberties in order to transfer humour.
Gottlieb (1997a) argues that translating wordplay in an environment as
semiotically complex as a satirical television programme is probably no more difficult
than translating wordplay in the ―words only‖ environment of (say) a satirical novel.
In the end, it is only the overall quality of the outcome, which depends on the talent
of the subtitler, that decides. Gottlieb attributes the loss of wordplays in the target
language to different factors such as: language specific constraints (finding linguistic
counterparts in the target text), media-specific constraints (subtitling) and human
constraints (lack of talent, interest, experience, etc). He gives an example of how 51
items of wordplay in an English TV comedy programme, Carrott‟s Commercial
Breakdown (Mordecai, 1989), were compensated by only 25 items in the Danish
version. Gottlieb also proposes that compensation can be a solution to render the
wordplay in the TT. The ST off-screen narration goes: ―In Northern England the
locals play a game called ferret legging…‖ was rendered in the Danish subtitles as:
―In Northern England the locals play a game called come-freely forward‖ (back
translated literally) which means hide-and-seek, a popular Danish children‘s game.
Furthermore, Taivalkoski-Shilov (2008) points out that the Finnish subtitler of
8 Mile managed to render almost 65% of the wordplays in the original, that the
French subtitler managed to render around a third and that the Russian subtitler
translated only 10% of these wordplays. Taivalkoski-Shilov maintains that this is
related to the experience of the subtitler and how skilled s/he is. However, the fact
that the Finnish subtitler managed to render most of the wordplays when the French
and Russian failed to do so cannot only be attributed to professionalism. Cultural and
linguistic factors are also crucial in this regard.
Generally speaking, in films and sitcoms puns become almost untranslatable
because they are spoken on screen, rather than written, and it is difficult to make use
of the medium for reasons of time and space limitation. Furthermore, when there is a
37
relationship between the moving picture and speech, it is then difficult to change or
ignore the joke. Puns sometimes need to be modified or totally changed to elicit
laughter, especially if there are no equivalents for such puns in the TL. This is in fact
what this study will try to do. Puns will not be translated literally as this could be
ineffective since Arabic and English are completely different in structure, never mind
the gap between their respective cultures.
Attardo (1994), (2002) argues that no coherent theory of humour, at any
linguistic level, had been proposed. However, Raskin‘s semantic-script theory of
humour (SSTH), according to Attardo, established that all humour involves a
semantic-pragmatic process. The SSTH included a semantic opposition between the
scripts activated by a text and a violation of the maxims of the principle of
cooperation. It was also explicitly based on the idea of matching the speakers‘
competence in relation to humour. That is to say, the presence or absence of
laughter correlates with the presence or absence of humour. Finally, Attardo
suggests pragmatics as the natural place to locate the linguistic side of the
interdisciplinary study of humour. In fact, the pragmatic approach, although
important, does not address issues that are related to cultural and linguistic
differences which make the transfer of the joke even harder.
Similarly, Vandaele (2002b) proposes two aspects of humour mechanisms in
film comedy: incongruity and superiority. The former is defined as a conflict between
what is expected and what actually occurs in the joke. There are the linguistic
incongruities such as stuttering which goes against our expectation of fluent and
economical language; the pragmatic incongruities which assume a humorous charge
by breaking cognitive schemes concerning the actual use of language; and the
narrative incongruities which are defined as a ‗reinforcement‘ or ‗happiness
increment‘ and a ‗heightened self-esteem‘. These incongruities, especially the
pragmatic one, may help translators to convey the joke more efficiently by
concentrating on its pragmatic meaning. Again, this model does not tell us how far
the translator can go in censoring any sexual connotations, replacing the source
puns with equal ones, and in defining the cultural references which are usually used
as a reference point to elicit laughter.
Raphaelson-West (1989) argues that humour can be rendered into the target
language if only we keep in mind that it will not be as funny as it is in the source
language. She advises translators to keep the cultural context in mind, to locate the
38
humorous aspect or aspects of the text, and to try to explain or duplicate these
aspects. In order to do this, she suggests making semantic trees, creating branches
which account for humour and dual scripts. If the dual script is amusing in one
language but not in the target language, it may be easier to write a new, target-
culture-based joke instead of trying to translate the original. While this approach
seems practical, it gives the translator the freedom to write the joke s/he wants in
case there is no equivalent in the target culture, even if that joke has no relation to
the context.
Zabalbeascoa (1996) maintains that the cultural specificity of the ST may
make rendering humour difficult, something that causes frustration. In this case, the
author proposes that, if the translator cannot find solutions for certain types of
problems, there is a danger that the translation may be received by the audience as
more bitter, less humorous criticism of politicians, for example, than may have been
the intention in the English version. As a result, he suggests a model of translation
that is based on priorities and restrictions. The first question that should be asked is:
Is humour a priority? According to Zabalbeascoa, it is not a priority on a global level.
But if it is desirable and a priority, then entirely different jokes may be substituted for
the original ones. Thus, one must consider the possible functions of humour as well
as the mental states and attitudes expressed by it. The five priorities that he
proposes are: 1) doing well in popularity ratings, 2) being funny, 3) aiming for an
immediate response in the form of entertainment and laughter, 4) integrating the
words of the translation with the other constituent parts of the individual text, 5) or
using language and textual structures deemed appropriate to the channel of
communication. As for restrictions, some are related to the differences in background
knowledge of the original and prospective audiences; differences in cultural and
moral values, customs and traditions; differences in conventional themes and
techniques of joke-telling; and the translator‘s professional context. As one can
notice, there is nothing new in Zabalbeascoa‘s proposed model. The priorities he
suggests are what most translators look for when they try to translate humour. But
the question which needs to be answered, and which he did not, is how to deal with
the restrictions to overcome them.
Leibold (1989) argues that it is possible to render the humour of the original
text by producing an equivalent effect and gaining a funny response. She gives
some examples of puns and plays on words from San Antanio, a novel by the
39
French writer, Frédéric Dard, and proposes that equivalence maintainable in the
target text (English). For instance, Monsieur Kelknoonaar, Colonel Dükkonlajoaa and
Inspecteur Bakunu are proper name puns that Leibold translated freely as Mr,
Uhatöderndgörk, Colonel Djole Skruubool, and Inspector Berasbööm, respectively.
As can be noted, Leibold managed to retain the same deceiving spelling and yet
preserve the original meaning, even though it was not mandatory to do this as such
types of puns have minimal links to the context. It should be noted here that the
possibility of using equivalence is limited to French texts that are translated into
English where linguistic and cultural factors help in bridging the gap between the two
texts.
Furthermore, Muhawi (2002) suggests dynamic equivalence when
translating jokes from Arabic into English. He gives an example from a joke that
takes advantage of an attitude that glorifies MSA and grants no status to the
vernacular: In an elementary Arabic language class in the south of Tunisia, a teacher
draws a cat on the blackboard and asks the children what it is. ―This is a gatt (dialect
for cat)‖, says one of them. ―No‖, says the teacher. ―This is not a gatt. It‘s a qitt.‖
―Alright‖, says the child. ―It‘s a qitt. But it sure looks a lot like a gatt‖. The teacher
categorically denies linguistic validity to the spoken variety, but to the child it seems
to make no sense that the word he knows is not the ‗correct‘ one. The translated
joke, though dynamically equivalent, cannot function as an equivalent cultural form,
even when the humour in the joke is appreciated. The target audience will have to
imagine the situation evoked by the joke. An alternative option, Muhawi suggests,
would be to create a dynamically equivalent joke in English based on the disparity
between the standard and the dialectal pronunciation (say, Scottish or Cockney) of
the English phoneme /t/. For example, the teacher draws a bottle on the blackboard,
the student pronounces it bo‟ele. The teacher says, “No, it‟s not boe‟l; it‟s a bottle”…
and so on.
Taking into consideration that Muhawi‘s article discusses the translation of
jokes into English, looking for an equivalent would still be more of a challenge than
when translation is done into Arabic. This is because many jokes in English-
language sitcoms and films use sex as a reference point to elicit laughter, something
that can be considered a barrier in the target culture. Similarly, while it may be
possible to find a linguistic equivalent to a joke, it is harder to find an equivalent to a
40
joke that is based on a cultural reference. Added to this is the fact that the article is
about written rather than audiovisual humour which also imposes some limitations.
Zabalbeascoa (2003) proposes some ways to translate AV irony and gives
examples from Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996). The conclusion that he reached is that
rendering the irony of words (in conjunction or not with verbal elements) is frequently
more important than trying to achieve lexical equivalence:
It seems important to achieve coherence and complementarity between the

picture, the sound and the words, rather than correspondences restricted
to the verbal plane even if the final solution is subordinated to the criterion
of synchrony with the pictures (including lip-synch and others). (2003: 16)
Although Zabalbeascoa is trying to pay more attention to the pragmatic than the
literal equivalent of the translated joke, he does offer a clear approach that guides
the translators‘ work.
Ghazala (2007) suggests some procedures to translate irony, which is, according to
Nash who is quoted in Ghazala, is a major stylistic resort for humour. Some of these
procedures consist of locating irony in the SL text in order to avoid distorting the
central point of the original; understanding its cultural, social, political, religious, etc.
implications; looking for an identical style of irony in Arabic which, as Ghazala
maintains, would be the best solution; suggesting an equivalent style of irony in
Arabic that can reflect the English counterpart in one way or another; or finally,
tracing a cultural, social, literary, political, etc. equivalent image of irony in Arabic.
Jaskanen (2001) proposes that the reality of subtitling be approached from
the view point of and difficulties in translating humour. She gives some examples
from the subtitled US comedy Sabrina (Scovell, 1996) and shows the difficulties
encountered in transferring humour into the target culture by equivalent or faithful
methods. She argues that the subtitlers in these examples must have felt at a loss as
they needed to present what is unfamiliar in the target culture, and that which is
brought from the ST, into a humorous and familiar context. Moreover, there are
some puns which are visualized and which in this case are difficult to depict.
Furthermore, and even when the subtitlers chose equivalent terms, those terms
violated the principle of 'referential accuracy' and thus the ideal of the invisibility of
subtitling. In other words, target culture adaptation gives rise to a 'credibility
41
problem'. So, the concept of equivalence is not tangible and may mean an open-
ended interpretation of the source jokes.
Similarly, Grun and Dollerup (2003) argues that in the translations of comics
‗equivalence‘ is impossible as no two cultures or languages are symmetrical. They
suggest two different kinds of ‗gain‘: namely: gain without loss and gain with loss.
The former is found when the target-language text is more specific than the source-
language text whereas the latter is found in cases where there are 1:1 lexical
equivalents in the source and target languages.
Ptaszynski (2004) analyses nine jokes adopting Zabalbeascoa‘s (1996)
categories mentioned above. Then she discusses the translatability of jokes with
reference to three approaches: Catford‘s division between linguistic and cultural
untranslatability, Ke‘s sociosemiotic view, and Toury‘s target-oriented approach. For
Catford, who is quoted in Ptaszynski, the notion of untranslatability is connected with
the notion of equivalence: ―Untranslatability occurs when it is impossible to build
functionally relevant features of the situation into the contextual meaning of the
target language text‖ (2004: 179). Ke, on the other hand, approaches
untranslatability from a sociosemiotic point of view, based on a distinction between
three dimensions of sign relationship, namely semantic, pragmatic and syntactic and
three types of untranslatability: referential, pragmatic and interlingual. Gideon
Toury‘s approach is target-oriented. He argues that translations are facts of target
cultures. This means that the translatability of the source text depends on the target
conditions. When it comes to rendering humour into Arabic, one can simply argue
that it is indeed a problem of culture in the first place, although language constitutes
another barrier.
Ptaszynski offers three approaches that she finds suitable for the translation
of humour. She does not, however, prefer or recommend one over another. But the
most suitable of these approaches to the translation of humour into Arabic seems to
be Toury‘s because it pays attention to the target text and audience.
Diaz-Cintas (2001b) assesses the limitations under which the translator of
humour has to work, foregrounding the value of the semiotic dimension, of which the
written target text is only a component. He proposed that humour is undoubtedly one
of the instances of verbal re-creation that fully challenges translators‘ skills, pushing
them to search for imaginative solutions (adding, deleting, recreating, etc.) that could
be different from the original in order to achieve a similar effect and fulfil the
42
expectations of the target audience. With regard to Zabalbeascoa‘s restrictions,
Diaz-Cintas maintains that subtitling (since Zabalbeascoa talked about dubbing) can
also be another restriction as the original dialogue can be heard all the time.
Moreover, some jokes may be embedded in strong language and therefore
translators may activate mechanisms of self-censorship to avoid upsetting the
audience:
The inevitability of losses on both denotative as well as connotative levels

in some parts of any work is a condition sine qua non? of any translation
attempt, especially when the translator is faced with humorous contexts
and some very restrictive limitations pertaining to the medium. (Diaz
Cintas, 2001: 189)
To conclude, if it is taken for granted that humour can be translated, then the
approach to its translation should be defined according to the different factors that
play roles in the process such as the cultural and linguistic ones. Even when a
specific approach is adopted, the translation may still incur loss. The equivalence and
pragmatic approaches have been recommended by different scholars as we have
seen above, although the equivalence approach is sometimes criticised on grounds
of credibility issue, something that necessitates a set of priorities and restrictions
before the translation starts as Zabalbeascoa suggested (1996). But the question
here is how to deal with such priorities and restrictions in order to deliver the
message to the target audience? That is what this study will try to answer in chapters
4 and 5.
2.4 Quality in audiovisual translation
One of the early articles that suggested steps to guarantee better subtitles was
Minchinton's 3-page 'Fitting Titles' (1987) in which he stresses the necessity of
explaining jokes and slang in the script as this makes the subtitler's task easier:
No matter what style of titling is used, for film or television, glossaries in

dialogue lists and scripts will ensure faster work, more accurate translation,
and greater audience appreciation. (ibid: 281)
43
For example, Taivalkoski-Shilov (2008) mentions how UIP (United International
Pictures company which produced 8 Mile) provided the translators with a detailed
and helpful ‗spotting dialogue list‘ (214 pages) and a leaflet entitled ‗8 Mile Lyric
Translation Guidelines‘ (39 pages) which contained explanations, instructions
(general guidelines, recommendations for keeping certain expressions in English,
etc.) and ―alternate lyrics‖, i.e., interlingual translations of the rap lyrics.
Likewise, Diaz-Cintas (2001a) attributes high-quality subtitling to a good
dialogue list. Such a list is usually supplied by the film distributor or producer. It
should offer, besides dialogue, metatextual information on the implicit socio-cultural
connotations. It should also explain punning, wordplay, possible double entendres,
colloquialisms and dialectalisms. Moreover, it should disclose the origin and the
usage in context of certain terms that may be obscure at first sight and give the
correct spelling of all proper names.
Similarly, Zabalbeascoa (1996) argues that the ‗success‘ of joke translation
should be assisted by a ‗stylebook‘ that classifies jokes, bridges gaps and includes
general statements about translation and specific contextualized translating
assignments.
Furthermore, James (2001) stresses the importance of having a high quality
original script to enable the subtitlers to transfer it to the TT with clarity since a poor
script will influence the quality of the subtitles. However, if the ambiguity in the script
is intended by the writer, then the subtitler has to take a decision on whether to keep
or clarify it.
In most cases, major subtitling companies in Arab countries do not receive a
dialogue list and translators translate without one (see Appendices A, B, C, D, E).
This will definitely affect the quality of the translation. Although the producing
companies are responsible for such a list, audiovisual translation companies may
have to find other alternatives to compensate as will be suggested in the conclusion
of this thesis.
In addition to the dialogue list, subtitlers also contribute to the quality of
subtitles. Mueller (2001) holds subtitlers responsible for the quality of subtitles. She
draws attention to the crucial issues of selecting, training and regular (quarterly)
assessing of subtitlers. She claims this should really be taken into consideration by
44
companies. According to her, a subtitle can only be good as the person who
prepares it, and good subtitles are unobtrusive and unseen3. When selecting
subtitlers the following criteria should be applied (p. 144): native-speaker level aural
comprehension of all registers of the source language, a high degree of written
facility with the target language, wide vocabulary in languages, bicultural skill as well
as the appropriate qualifications and experience. Added to these is the 100%
comprehension in all varieties of slang, cultural references, half-finished sentences,
body language, irony, puns, etc. She gives as an example from the German film The
Boys (Woods, 1998) which was subtitled into English and required the German
subtitlers to seek the help of advisers familiar with drug terminology.
Likewise, Diaz-Cintas (2005) attracts attention to low quality subtitling that
goes hand-in-hand with the boom in audiovisual technology. What has happened is
the huge rise in demand for subtitled films has lead to the mushrooming of AVT
companies which are not well experienced in this field. In addition, poor working
conditions, the poor training of newcomers, and the absence of proper in-house
guidelines makes the task worse.
Indeed, the issue of translator training is as important as the dialogue list. In
fact, an experienced and knowledgeable subtitler may compensate for the lack of a
good dialogue list. Unfortunately, neither universities nor subtitling companies in the
Arab world offer any training courses for this profession (except in Lebanon to a
limited extent). The new subtitler is basically trained on the software programme and
is given a general idea about the guidelines that the company follows regarding
censorship.
Another way to assess the quality of audiovisual translation is by conducting
questionnaires and asking the audience about the ability of a translation to convey
the message of the translated material. For instance, in one of her essays, Chiaro
(2004) investigates the way Verbally Expressed Humour is perceived by selecting a
small corpus that was taken from around 300 hours of dubbed sitcoms and cartoons
into Italian and by setting a web-based self-reporting questionnaire that explores
people‘s reactions to both the VEH and the quality of translation. Depending on the
respondent‘s answers, Chiaro reaches the conclusion that it is very often the case
that occurrences of VEH either pass by unnoticed or are totally misunderstood,
3
Unseen in the sense that they read easily and do not distract the audience‘s attention.
45
especially when they depend on the recipients‘ encyclopaedic knowledge. The
author suggests that more care should be taken in the actual control of translation
and that more training of translators is essential.
A similar small-scale questionnaire was also conducted by Chiaro (2007) but
which included both Italian as well British respondents in order to explore the
perception of VEH and the impact that translation has on the Humour Responses. 22
British respondents watched seven video-clips in their language (English) and 34
Italians watched the same clips but in dubbed and subtitled Italian versions. The
results showed that the Italian HR was slightly lower than that of the British
respondents thus implying that translational impact on HR was minimal. Chiaro (ibid:
150) argues that the reason behind that could be a culture-specific thing in the sense
that the British and Italian may have a different sense of humour however the
translation was excellent.
Another study by Antonini and Chiaro (2005) aims at monitoring the quality of
audiovisual translation, underscoring translation norms on Italian TV products and
investigating the reception of such norms upon Italian viewers through testing the
reception of a number of a random of a number of selected clips that were watched
by 500 respondents. After viewing each clip, respondents were asked to rate their
appreciation of the clip on a zero to ten graphic rating scale aimed at assessing the
respondents‘ self-reported understanding of the content of the clip, and to briefly
explain what they understood of it.
In an attempt to try to involve the audience in order to find out what affects
the quality of audiovisual translation, Fuentes (2003) conducted an experiment in
which he involved three ten-respondent groups who were asked to watch three ten-
minute video clip versions of Duck Soup (McCarey: 1933). The ten respondents of
the first group were native speakers of English who watched the original version. The
native speakers of Spanish in the other two groups were requested to watch the
subtitled and the dubbed version. The result which Fuentes came up with is that,
despite the fact that both the subtitled and the dubbed versions do not reflect all the
humorous aspects of the original one, text are in most cases translated literally:
The target text is also often marked by an acute lack of orality, which in my
opinion is one of the main problems in audiovisual translation, especially in
the case of Spain. This has a direct influence on the way the audiovisual
46
text is received by viewers. It even falsifies to a large extent the reality of
the audiovisual message, since the target viewer receives a message
distorted by an unnecessary, uncomfortable extreme literalness expressed
in a uniform register, instead of a more appropriate and appealing array of
colloquial registers typical of authentic contexts. (2003: 304)
To conclude, poor or high quality of audiovisual translation is in fact related to

different elements such as the availability of a good dialogue list, good wages,
training, editing, the availability of a reference library, and experience of translators.
This should indeed be taken into consideration before any translations are judged.
But even when such elements are available, experience on the part of the translator
is still needed.
2.5 Dubbing
The term dubbing, or ‗‫غخ‬ٙ‫ ‘ا٘لث‬in Arabic, only became familiar in the Arab world, Maluf
(2005) argues, when there was a need to dub children programmes into Arabic. Only
then did the development of this language transfer method see light. Despite this, the
technique is still not as popular as subtitling for reasons such as the financial and
aesthetic. Leaving aside children‘s and cartoon films, and countries such as Spain,
Germany, Italy and France which prefer dubbing to subtitling to preserve their
national identity rather than for reasons of censorship, the vast audience worldwide
would prefer to listen to the original language of audiovisuals4 and read the subtitles
rather than watch a dubbed version in which the voices of the impersonating
actors/actresses may not suit the original characters as we will see. Moreover,
dubbing puts translators and adaptors in a dilemma when they want to maintain the
same ideas and plot as the original audiovisual and at the same time make sure that
lip synchronisation is achieved as well. Furthermore, it is noticeable that, apart from
cartoons, the majority of films dubbed into Arabic, although not numerous, have
been dubbed into MSA with the exception of a few films that have been dubbed into
Egyptian.
4
Diaz Centaz (1999: 38) talked about Greece‘s experience in this regard. He says: ―The
innovation was extremely popular among housewives who could carry on with their chores and follow
the plot on the screen without having to be stuck to the television set in order to read the linguistic
exchanges‖.
47
Generally speaking, the history of dubbing can be related to the late 1920s
when studios insisted that if films were no longer silent films they should have the
highest quality dialogue (Parkinson, 1997: 86). Ivarsson (1992: 15-6) claims that
dubbing started in 1927 when the audience could hear the actors and that by 1929
dubbing studios had spread all over Europe. Dries (1995: 9) maintains that dubbing
was introduced at about the same time as the introduction of the original sound to
the moving picture. At the same time the problem of exporting films to countries with
another language needed a solution and dubbing was one. Maluf (2005) puts this
differently. He suggests that when the articulation, intonation, accent, or dialect of
the stars of the silent silver screen were inappropriate for the new films, studios
resorted to dubbing over the dialogue, by adjusting the mouth movements of the
original actors in the film to the voice of other actors.
Dubbing in Arabic speaking countries can be traced back to 1963. Maluf
(2005) maintains that one of the first production houses, if not the first, to dub media
programmes into Arabic was ‗al- -Fanni‘ based in Cyprus and originally
developed as a radio production house in 1963. The first experiment was a
voiceover adaptation of a BBC radio episode of Jane Eyre. Video dubbing into
Arabic, according to Maluf, came later in 1974 when Filmali dubbed the children‘s
cartoon Sindbad which was followed by in 1975. In 1991 Filmali
dubbed the first of a series of Mexican soaps into MSA. It was broadcast the
privately-run Lebanese Broadcast Corporation (LBC) and was a success. In 1999,
the first long feature film dubbed, Police Academy, was shown on Beirut's MTV. It
was a test that dubbing could not withstand as we will see.
2.5.1 Barriers to dubbing into Arabic

Barriers of Dubbing can be summarized under three main categories. They relate to
culture, aesthetics, and lip synchronization which also has three sub-barriers related
to phonetics, content and character.
2.5.1.1 Cultural barriers

Culture can be said to be a frequent barrier in the audiovisual industry in general and
in dubbing into Arabic in particular. This is because any gap between two different
cultures which is not or cannot be bridged may cause alienation between the
48
audience and the characters. Moreover, this may also result in the fact that the
audience will listen to impersonating characters (actors speaking the target
language), who are well known, speaking a dialogue (source text) that does not
belong to their culture. In this respect, the issue of culture may explain the failure of
Police Academy, according to Maluf (2005):
The reasons for the success of the Mexican soap and the failure of the
otherwise very popular Police Academy film series to attract a wide
audience in Arabic were cultural. The plots and dialogues of the former
were culturally acceptable to Arab audiences as possible Arab stories with
Arab actors, while the latter were seen as a contrived translation of plots
and dialogues that had no bearing on Arab reality.
Abu Samah, who is quoted in Maluf, proposed that even the Latin American soaps
which were success in the Arab world needed some editing to make them suit Arab
culture. This claim, in fact, should be reconsidered, simply because editing or
adapting a foreign film or soap opera of one culture to suit a different culture does
not guarantee its success as we will see in the case of The Simpsons (Groening,
1989).
2.5.1.2 Aesthetic barriers

The issue of aesthetics in dubbing is extremely important and contributes to the
success or failure of a dubbed audiovisual material. This is because dubbing creates
a kind of interaction between the viewers and the impersonating voices, especially if
the viewers are familiar with these voices. As a result, if the actions and words
contradict the image that the viewers have drawn in their minds about those
characters, then a barrier between the viewers and the audiovisual material may
result. Fodor (1976: 15) maintains that a sophisticated public which connects speech
and facial expressions immediately feels the contradiction between French facial
expressions and English voices subsequently dubbed on to it. To illustrate, the most
popular translated and watched audiovisuals in the Arabic-speaking world are action
ones and the actors in such audiovisuals are usually known to the audience who
would like to watch them speaking their original language. In other words, to listen to
Arnold Schwarzenegger or Van Damme speaking Arabic will be a constant reminder
49
to the audience that what they are watching is foreign. Similarly, this could be
another factor that contributed to the failure of Con Air (West, 1997), Air Force One
(Petersen, 1997), and The Rock (Bay, 1996) where the audience thought that it was
funny to listen to Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, for example, speaking Egyptian
Arabic. Dubbing into Arabic, especially Standard, may have more to offer with
history, social and romantic plots. The reason is that such genres may sometimes
have common ground with Arab culture and may sound more realistic than action
films especially that they talk about human relations (hatred, love, envy, etc.).
Therefore, when such characters speak Arabic, they sound acceptable and
convincing. This could be one of the reasons for the success of Mexican and,
nowadays, Turkish romantic soap operas dubbed into Arabic. Moreover, MBC Max
has recently dubbed different history films into MSA to be broadcast on its channel in
2010. Examples of such films are Kingdom of Heaven (Scott, 2005), Brave Heart
(Gibson, 1995), Lord of the Rings (Jackson, 2001), Troy (Petersen, 2004), Alexander
(Stone, 2004), and The Godfather (Coppola, 1972).
2.5.1.3 Synchronization in dubbing

Fodor (1976: 9) sets three requirements for dubbing to be successful. These are
related to content, lip (phonetic) synchrony, and character synchrony:
The chief requirements of a satisfactory synchronization involve a faithful

and artistic rendering of the original dialogue, an approximately perfect
unification of the replaced sounds with visible lip movements, and bringing
the style of delivery in the new version into optimal artistic harmony with the
style of acting. (1976: 9)
Content synchrony can be said to be related to a good translation or writing of the

script into the target language. It is not an easy task at all since it is considered as an
art which needs a skilled artist. Its importance results from the fact that the target text
will be the major element in determining the success of audiovisuals. The reason is
that some violations in lip synchronization and character synchrony can be tolerated,
but content that does not speak to the target text audience or which is grossly
violated (changed to suit the target culture) is not acceptable. This is true if we
consider again the failure of the Police Academy series which concerned the
50
dialogue as well as the plot neither of which sounded all familiar to the target culture,
a feature which El-Rashidi (2005) also identified with regard to the failure of The
Simpsons as we will see.
Reasons for poor content and script in the target language vary. One of them
is the fact that languages are different from each other in terms of length. Texts of
certain languages become shorter or longer than they were when translated into the
target language. Fodor (1976: 78-79) noted for example that Chinese texts are much
shorter than their Hungarian versions. Similarly, Arabic is known to be a rhetorical
and poetic language, having lengthy expressions. When synchronization is to be
achieved in such cases, then short texts will have to be prolonged and long ones
shortened to synchronize with the spoken utterances. This may affect the quality of
good dialogue which is why an ‗artist‘ is needed for this task rather than a translator.
Commenting on his film The Message (Akkad, 1977) (more on this commentary can
be found in the special features of the film), Akkad, speaking English, maintains that
the reason why he chose to make two different versions of it, one in Arabic and one
in English was:
Because Arabic and English are two separate and different languages. You
cannot dub Arabic into English nor English into Arabic. It is very difficult for
the lips‘ movements. So, when I budgeted the film, I budgeted it on the
basis that the Arabic version would require a few extra takes. But I was
wrong. It took us much longer, and there is no way you can learn this from
anybody else because this is the first time done, because the style of acting
in Arabic is a bit different; it is more dramatic, more poetic and more
lengthy.
Another reason for poor target text in dubbing can be related to the translation
process. Since script translation involves the job of both the translator and the
adaptor, loss may result. It is not a loss that happens during translation only, but
rather one that happens after the translation as well. When the adaptor wants to
adapt the translation to the lip movements of the original dialogue, then s/he may not
recognize the necessary changes that the translator has made and, as a result, this
may also lead to another adaptation loss.
51
The last reason for a poor target text is financial. The dubbing process costs a
lot of money, most of which goes to actors and actresses. Unfortunately, the
translator gets the least money despite the hard task s/he carries out. Diaz-Cintas
considers this a problem that is worth taking into consideration: ―Many directors still
have to wake up to the reality that the translation process is an artistic factor on
which more control needs to be exerted and in which it is worthwhile to invest the
necessary amount of money - which generally is very little compared with the overall
budget‖ (1999: 67).
As far as phonetic synchrony is concerned, Fodor (1976: 21) defines it as the
visible sound formation in the picture and the purport of the source text which are the
decisive factors in shaping the target sounds and their sequences in correct speech.
Luyken et al (1991: 137) also stress that ―The prime requirement of lip-sync dubbing
is that it should be ‗in sync‘ which is a basic requirement for any film and television
programme in which people are seen to be speaking.‖ Barbe (1996: 260) states that
―If viewers notice that sounds do not correlate or are ‗out of sync‘, a quantity of
energy must be expended away from the action.‖ Others, such as Martinez (2004)
and Meyer-Dinkgräfe (2006), argue that lip synchronization is a basic requirement in
dubbing.
On the other hand, Rowe (1960: 116) proposes that the audience is often
concerned with lip-lip synchronization rather than the translation. This requires
adjusting the standards on the approach of the dubbing writer. So, Rowe throws the
ball into the audience‘s court and indicates that the more tolerant the audience is
regarding lip-lip synchronization the greater the writer‘s ability to approach translation
standards of fidelity and quality. Similarly, Myers (1973: 58) is in favour of the Italian
school which favours fidelity over synchrony because he believes that creative
dubbing is one which does not stress sync but, in its stead, a true adaptation of the
original script and performances. Vöge (1977: 120) also maintains that when
synchrony is an overruling requirement in dubbing, then this automatically implies a
translation which is less than faithful to the original. Delabastita (1989: 203) noted
that the problem of dubbing or even film translation in general is reduced to the
problem of synchrony when this should not be so.
Zabalbeascoa (1997: 329-332) successfully attracts attention to the issue of
lip-lip synchronization. He argued that both audience and scholars have considered
AVT only a problem of lip synchronization, thus making it a unique feature of this
52
kind of translation and making all other ‗problems‘ minor or not even seen or taken
into account. More importantly he considers translation as a matter of priorities and
restrictions which will have to be fixed anew for each task. If priorities are viewed
vertically on a scale of importance, then one can say that a particular priority is also
a restriction on all the priorities that are below it. Lack of tolerance from the audience
regarding lip-lip synchronization is considered a restriction because the greater the
tolerance the weaker the need for lip-lip synchronization and the wider the range of
possible solutions. This is also stressed by Barbe (1996: 260) who argues that
tolerating lip-lip synchronization has an advantage: ―Being out of sync has also
inspired humorous usage in films such as The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and
Police Academy, as well as in the British television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?‖
As can be noticed, the issue of synchronization is considered to be an
obstacle in the way of translators since taking it into consideration will restrict them.
However, in the end, despite the fact that synchronization can be a restriction,
dubbing can still be carried out, and may be successful providing the plot is retained.
Lip-Lip synchronization is never perfect and a degree of mismatch between lip
movements and dubbed dialogue is inevitable. This is not to ignore the fact that any
lack of lip-lip synchronization in countries that have zero tolerance in this regard,
such as the Arab countries, will only deepen the gap between the audience and
audiovisuals, a gap that may have already been created by character synchrony.
Character synchrony in dubbing means the harmony between the performing
characters and the dubbing voices of the characters in terms of temper, reaction,
body movement and language. Fodor (1976: 72) describes this problem as
psychological. To put it differently, if there is a contradiction between what we see
and what we hear, then a kind of discomfort will result. He stresses that:
There must be certain correspondences between the source and target

sound sequences in point of phonetic attributes such as individual timbre,
pitch, intensity and speech tempo, peculiarities which are revealed to the
spectators by the exterior, temperament and deportment of the actor
impersonating the character. If the correspondence is of the right degree
we have synchrony in character, if it falls short of a certain level we
experience dischrony in character. (1976: 72)
53
One example of this is when a young character is dubbed by an older one or when
an evil character is dubbed by a romantic one. Another example can be taken from
the history film The Lion of the Desert (1981) by Akkad. Antony Quinn, who played
‗Umar al-Mukhtār, was dubbed by Abdullah Ghaith, a famous Egyptian actor. Ghaith,
Prophet, in The Message. Ghaith‘s voice was suitable for dubbing Antony Quinn
(‗Omar al-Mukhtar) since it has the rhythm of not only an old but also a confident and
actor who did not have the charisma of Ghaith, then character dischrony would have
occurred. Moreover, it is worth remembering that soap operas which are dubbed into
Arabic are usually able to escape character dischrony because the actors of the
source operas are not known to the Arabic-speaking audiences; so any character
dischrony will pass unnoticed, a factor that adds to their success.
2.5.2 Arabic varieties and the possibility of dubbing

Now that we have an idea about the technical barriers to dubbing in general and into
Arabic in particular, it is time to turn to barriers concerned with translation and
language transfer. It was discussed at the beginning of this chapter that dubbing, in
comparison to subtitling, is able to render the source text‘s dialects, censor its swear
words, and maximize humorous effects. For example, whereas in dubbing it is
possible to make use of different dialects, it is difficult to do so in subtitling where
MSA is mainly used. This does not mean that some of the dialect features cannot be
reproduced in subtitles; but their use will be limited and less effective, let alone the
fact that they are difficult to read. And as was previously stated in chapter three, the
subtitler Eija Pokkinen cited in Jaskanen (2001) maintains: ―I would like to use
dialects in translations, but they are considered to be difficult to read‖.
Satellite technology has enabled the Arabic-speaking audiences, particularly
children, to have access to all kinds of audiovisuals including Egyptian-dubbed
cartoons which non-Egyptian children find difficulty in understanding. The reasons
for this may vary, but one important reason is related to dialectal differences, and the
difference between MSA that children learn at school and Egyptian Arabic that they
do not speak or even hear in their daily life. In this light, the reason(s) for the failure
of The Simpsons, which was mentioned above and which was linked to culture, has
54
to be reconsidered. It is also possible that the Egyptian dialect was another factor as
we will see in chapter 5.
What can also be noticed nowadays is the boom in dubbing Turkish soap
operas into Syrian Arabic after the popularity of dubbed Mexican ones into MSA. But
this is not the case with films. Maluf (2005) argues that Hollywood films have not
been dubbed into what he calls ‗vernacular Arabic‘ but he does not state why.
However, he gives a reason for not using Egyptian for dubbing:
While the Egyptian dialect is the most widely understood form of colloquial
Arabic, precisely because of the diffusion of film and popular lyrics from
that country, the fact that Egypt was not dubbing Hollywood productions
meant that dialect was not being used for that purpose.
What probably is meant is that the Arabic-speaking audiences are not used to
listening to or watching audiovisuals that are dubbed into Egyptian dialect, even if
that dialect is popular. Formal Arabic seems to give weight to drama or history
audiovisuals in particular, something that dialects may fail to achieve. Moreover,
when dubbed into MSA, such audiovisuals may address a wider audience: people
who do not have a good idea about a certain dialect. In the case of animations,
children who are probably ignorant of that dialect would probably prefer MSA.
On the other hand, Maluf (2005) proposes that despite the popularity of
Mexican and Brazilian soaps or telenovelas, their use of MSA in dialogue is seen as
stilted and remains the butt of popular jokes. What one may recall here is Maluf‘s
statement earlier that Egyptian was not used in dubbing because it was not being
used for that very reason. Maluf probably means that neither MSA nor colloquial are
effective in dubbing. However, the successful dubbing of Turkish soaps into Syrian
dialect which started in 2007 has proven to Maluf that colloquial can really be used in
soap operas. But the question is why audiovisuals which were dubbed into Egyptian
were not as successful as the dubbed Turkish telenovelas? It should be mentioned
that the audience for soap operas is different from that for films and sitcoms. It is
mainly, composed of housewives. Moreover, Syrian dialect is becoming more
popular than both Egyptian and MSA in the audiovisual market. Kaadi, the vice
president of Tanweer Company in Syria (see Appendix D), maintains that ―if these
series (Turkish telenovelas) were dubbed in MSA or Egyptian dialect, they wouldn't
55
have had that success.‖ However, some argue that the success of these Turkish
soaps has nothing to do with dialect but rather with the plot (mostly romantic),
beautiful Turkey and good direction: ―The success of the Turkish soap operas has
nothing to do with the Syrian dialect but rather with the interesting story and nice
scenery‖ (Hayek, interview, Appendix E).
In summary, culture should not be the only factor to take the blame for the
failure of films such as Police Academy and cartoons such as The Simpsons. One
reason is that cartoons, for example, have been dubbed into MSA for over forty
years and proved to be successful and culture has never been a barrier. Cultural
differences do exist but censorship and adaptation bridge the gap. So, why did
adaptation fail to do so now? Consequently, it may be worth investigating the
possibility of dubbing audiovisuals into Arabic dialects and examining the barriers to
this. In order to do this, we should first look into the varieties of Arabic to see if they
constitute a barrier themselves.
2.5.2.1 Arab regional dialects or language varieties

Hudson (1996: 37) looks into the main types of language variety: language, dialect,
and register and concluded that the concept (language X) has no part to play either
in linguistics or even in sociolinguistics. All we need, according to Hudson, is the
notion ‗variety X‘ and the observation that a given variety may be relatively similar to
some varieties while relatively different to other varieties. The linguistic items are
what makes the difference between one variety and another because a variety of a
language is a set of linguistic items with similar social distribution. However, in the
case of the Arabic varieties we have mostly geographical rather than social
distribution, although there are various sociolects within Arabic. According to Lodge
(1993: 16), barriers separating groups of people from one another may be
geographical, but they may also be divisions of social class. While in some countries,
such as England, social class takes precedence over geography, in others, it is
geography that is the determinant of speech (see Hudson 1996: 42). The ‗family tree
model‘ (Figure 2.2), adapted from Hudson (ibid: 37) allows us to show how closely a
number of varieties spoken at present are related to one another geographically.
Versteegh (1997: 169-172) classifies Arabic dialects into five main categories under
56
each of which come a variety of dialects that are geographically close to each other
and thus have many things in common:
Dialects of the Arabian Peninsula Syro-Lebanese Mesopotamian Egyptian Arabic Maghrebi

(Gulf States, Oman and Yemen) (Inc. Jordan and Palestine) (Iraqi) (Incl. Sudanese) (Inc. Mauritania)
Figure 2.2: Family Tree Model
The ‗wave theory‘, which replaced the family tree model, is based on the assumption
that changes in language spread outwards from centres of influence to the
surrounding areas in much the same way that a wave spreads from the place where
the stone is dropped into the pool. This theory explains why isoglosses (from Greek
iso- ‗same‘ and gloss- ‗tongue‘) intersect by postulating different geographical foci for
the spread of different items (Hudson, 1980: 39). For example, people in the Gulf
states speak the same dialect with very slight differences. In the North African
(Maghreb) countries, people also have very similar dialects or language varieties.
The same applies to the northern region (the Levant). However, this theory is
partially non-applicable when we talk about the differences between these dialects
as a whole. In other words, it is much easier for a Lebanese to understand a Syrian
than an Algerian.
It should be emphasized here that talking about dialects in relation to the
countries shown in the tree model above is in fact far from precise. The dialect
continuum means that boundaries between dialects are rarely clear-cut. People
ought to be careful when talking about comparing the differences and similarities of,
say, a Lebanese and Syrian dialect, especially of those dialects that are on the
borders of both countries since the divisions are in fact political. That is to say,
borders divide people of a certain region, who originally spoke one dialect which later
became two: a Syrian, for example, and a Lebanese.
So far, the regional distribution of the dialects is clearer. Now if the wave
theory stops working beyond a certain region, then how do dialects start to differ? As
mentioned before, dialects differ for various reasons. One of them is due to where
57
civilization began (it is known that the development of civilization affects the
development of language) and the contribution of a certain region to that civilization.
The second is related to the influence of the non-Arab (‗Ajam) or foreigners who
migrated to the Arab countries for various reasons and whose influence is strongly
felt in the west (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania) and less in the
east (the Gulf). Trade, colonization and globalization also affected the spread of
dialects. Johnstone (1967) argues that before the rise of the oil industry, an
important influence on the population of the Gulf countries was Persia. Many Persian
families had been long-established in those countries and spoke Arabic as their first
language. Holes (2001: xv) listed this foreign vocabulary together with the Arabic that
is used in the region and argued that:
The sea has brought a succession of short-lived and long-term foreign

cultural and linguistic influences, beginning with the Sumerians five
millennia ago, and continuing virtually unbroken with the Babylonians,
Persians, Indians, Portuguese, up to the arrival of the British in the 19th
century. (2001: xv)
But in brief, it can be said that the major differences among Arabic varieties are
mainly related to semantics and syntax as will be detailed below.
2.5.2.2 Syntactic differences between Arabic dialects

There are many books written about the syntax of Arabic dialects. What can be
noticed is that almost all of these books talk about one particular dialect at a time. It
is indeed hard to find a book that compares two dialects or more, except in two
cases. The first is a brief handbook of 18 pages by Crewe (1973) who compared the
Sudanese to the other main dialects (Egyptian, Moroccan, Syrian and Arabian
dialects) in terms of phonology and syntax. This cannot be said to be
comprehensive. The second is Brustard‘s (2000) The Syntax of Spoken Arabic,
which can be considered a useful and interesting book that is worth considering in
some details.
Brustad (2000) deals with four basic Arabic dialects and compares their
grammatical aspects. It seems apparent that the writer has chosen these dialects
because they are the most common in the Arabic-speaking countries. Each one
58
involves a geographic dimension which is essential to the dialect. For example,
Syrian is a widespread dialect in the northern region which includes Jordan, Lebanon
and Palestine. Egyptian is also widespread in the Arabic-speaking countries and is
fairly close to the Sudanese. Kuwaiti is also widespread in the Gulf and is very close
to Saudi, Iraqi, Qatari, Bahraini, Omani, and Emirate speech. As for Moroccan, it is
widespread in the western part of the Arab world countries and is relatively close to
Tunisian, Libyan, Algerian and Mauritanian. This is why the study can be said to be
comprehensive in terms of the major dialects it covers and shows the effort that
Brustad (2000) makes to compare and contrast the syntactic features of these
dialects. She is trying to prove that there are not such big differences, syntactically,
between the dialects of Arabic. She is also trying to refute the claim that Arabic
dialects are mutually unintelligible and that formal Arabic is the only language which
is common among Arabs. The following grammatical aspects are taken from her
book, covering many important syntactical issues in the structure of dialects and
showing how complicated the differences are.
TEMPORAL VERBS. With regard to temporal verbs, for example, Brustad
(2000: 215), argues that ―temporal verbs vary to a great extent in the four dialects‖.
One can hardly find a temporal verb in a dialect that is in common with another verb
in another dialect. Some of these colloquial verbs are derived from MSA but they do
not always convey the same meaning. For example, ‫ ِمل‬in MSA means ‘sit down‘ but
in some dialects it could also mean (unexpectedly) continue or ‗keep doing‘.
MOOD. As far as modality is concerned, compare the following examples
(Brustad, 2000: 235). The confusion arises from the fact that the same sentence has
two different meanings in Egyptian and Syrian:
E ‫؟‬٪‫ ّب‬٫‫ثزْوث‬
Do you drink tea?
S ‫؟‬٪‫ ّب‬٫‫ثزْوث‬
Would you like to drink some tea?
FUTURE AND INTENTIVE MOODS. Brustad (2000: 242-4) maintains that each
dialect uses different forms of future and intentive particles that are completely
different from other dialects‘ particles, except in the case of the Syrian, Kuwaiti,
Egyptian and Sudanese ‫ة‬, and may be completely different from MSA.
59
INDICATIVE MOOD. This represents action as a realized process, depending
on the lexical aspect of the verb, habitual, progressive, or stative. The following
example given by Brustad (ibid: 247) of the Moroccan durative indicative mood ― ‫ب‬ٜ
‫ ا٘لاه‬ٟٜ ِ‫( ‖دفوع‬She does not go out of the house) can be interpreted in an imperative
sense in Egyptian (Do not go out of the house!). Moreover, it may be important to
highlight that these features have no simple connection with MSA; something that
makes it more difficult for others to understand their meanings.
NEGATION. Like future and intentive moods, negation is even more
complicated in spoken Arabic. This is due to the different types of negation and to
the various grammatical structures and particles (equal to the English ‗not‘ and ‗no‘)
used to express it. Mitchell (1956: 43), for example, distinguished between five
negative particles in Egyptian, mainly ِٜ ,ِ‫بٌ٭‬ٜ ,ُ٧٘...‫ب‬ٜ ,ِ‫٭‬٠‫ب‬ٜ and ‫ب‬ٜ preceding and ُ
following the word negated; Cowell (1964: 383-88) classified negation in Syrian
Arabic according to four negative particles: ‫ب‬ٜ, ‫ال‬, ٧ٜ -ٖ‫ب‬ٜ and -ٞ‫ب‬ٜ; and Holes (1990:
71-3) divided negation in Gulf Arabic into two categories, ‗sentence negation‘ and
‗constituent negation.‘ As for Moroccan, negation is even more complicated as the
following two examples from Brustad show (2000: 278-305). Brustad argues that the
focus of negation in Moroccan changes according to the activity. In other words, in
the first sentence below the focus is on ‗going‘ since the speaker is negating a
presupposition that he was actually going to work, while in the second sentence this
is not the case and thus the focus of negation is on ‗working‘:
ً‫ ولا‬ٚ‫قل‬٠ ُ٫ّ‫ب‬ٜ ‫ب‬ٜ

I am not going to work tomorrow
‫ ُ ولا‬ٚ‫قل‬٠ ُ‫ب‬ٜ
I am not working tomorrow
Consider the following negation from Moroccan as well:
‫ذ ي ا٘لاه؟‬١ٔ ٫ّ‫ب‬ٜ
Weren‘t you in the house?
In many other dialects this sentence can be interpreted differently such as: ‗Were
you walking in the house?‘ as the word ٫ّ‫ب‬ٜ means ‗walking‘ in MSA, ‗OK then‘
or/and ‗walking‘ in Syrian, ‗nothing‘ in Omani, and so on.
60
2.5.2.3 Semantic differences between dialects
Al-Madani (1992: 155) maintains that around 80% of the spoken Arabic is standard,
whereas al-Tannīr (1987: 5), on the other hand, could gather only around 1400
words from spoken Arabic that are basically standard. Regardless of these figures,
some examples from various dialects to clarify the semantic differences these
dialects will be given.
One of the examples is the noun ‗fight‘ when used to describe people
brawling. In Syrian this is ‗٣ٙ‫آر‬ٜ‘, in Saudi ‗٣ّ٧٤‘ and in Egyptian ‗٢‫بء‬١‫‘ف‬. The three words
are different from each other and also different from the original word in MSA which
is ‗‫ُْبعوح‬ٜ‘. Moreover, the word ‗fight‘ has different forms in Saudi colloquial,
depending on the region where it is spoken. The MSA sentence ‗٪‫ه‬٦‫ّل‬ٝ‫ ث‬ٞ٧ٕ٬ ٟ٘‘ or ‗ٟ٘
‫ ‘أٍزؽ٭ك‬or ‗I will not be able to‘ becomes ‗ ٫١‫ب هػ ٌ٭‬ٜ‘ in Syrian and which literally
translates ‗I will not in me‘. See Brustad (2000: 195).
Coming back to Gulf dialects in the Arabic peninsula where Arabic is
supposed to have preserved its purity for historical and geographical reasons, we
find that these dialects have a significant foreign vocabulary which is also hard to
understand, sometimes. Consider this example from de John (1958: 73) where the
words that have no bearing in MSA are written in bold:
.ٚ‫ فب‬٪‫اّزو‬٦ َ٧َ٘‫ػ ا‬٦‫ل اه‬٬‫اه‬

‫؟ﭽﯿث؟‬ٟ٬‫ل‬٬‫ٌ رو‬١‫ ع‬٪‫أ‬
‫؟‬ٛٔ ‫ انوار‬,ْ‫نا‬٤ ‫ اؽت‬.‫ل‬ٝ‫ؾ‬ٜ ٗ‫ْ ؽُ دشداشحﯿن ألع‬٩‫ ّ٭‬٦ ً‫ل ﭽﯿث ؽُ نفانﯿف‬٬‫اه‬
.‫ٌ روبﯿّات‬ٝ‫ص٭و انوار ف‬٬ :‫ص‬٠ ٦ ‫نا ا٘نهاق روبﯿحﯿن‬٤
.٢‫ل بنزات ٔض٭و‬٬‫و‬٬ !ٍٖ‫لغ٭ت وب‬
I want to go to the bazaar today and buy material. What kind do you
want? Calico? I want calico for my dresses and something for two
gowns for Muhammed. I like that. A yard is how much? This, a cubit
is two and a half rupees; a yard will be five rupees. Oh, oh!
Expensive! It takes much money (many baizes).
As is the case with other dialects, Egyptian has also got a range of vocabulary that is
not related to Standard Arabic as we will see in the following section. Moreover, this
dialect has also been influenced by the Turks, the English presence and to some
61
extent, the French. As a result, it could not escape, like other dialects, the impact of
foreign languages. Examples from Phillott and Powell (1926: 703/363/565) are
helpful in illustrating such this point. Again foreign words are marked in bold:
.‫ ا٘جالك‬٫ٌ ٢‫و‬٬‫ذ انحﯿهه كا‬٠‫ ا٘زوْ ٔب‬ٚ‫ا‬٪‫ أ‬-

.)٪‫خ (ك‬ٙ‫٭‬ٙ٘‫ انحﯿاجرو ا‬٫ٌ ْ‫ ّبء اهلل أها‬ٞ‫ ا‬-
.‫ انحرامواي‬٫ٌ ِٜ ‫ انوابور‬٫ٌ ‫ ع٭ذ‬-
- In the days of the Turks the ‘cat and nine tails’ was at work up
and down the country.
- Hope to see you in the theatre tonight.
- I came by train, not tram.
To sum up, the pages above have aimed at showing some of the differences
between Arabic dialects. It is noticeable how all Arabs speak and understand one
formal standard language in formal contexts and how they adopt another daily
spoken variety that has its own grammatical and syntactic aspects and which might
not be understood by others. This explains how a group of friends from different Arab
countries who are speaking their own dialects switch to something much closer to
MSA when they do not understand each other at some point. Now that we have an
idea about these differences, it is time to see if they can still be used to dub source
language dialects without creating a barrier, and consequently solve the problem of
subtitling such dialects into Arabic. This issue will be further investigated by
analysing two case studies: an action film (Con Air) and an animation series (The
Simpsons) that dubbed into Egyptian. The latter was intended to target a large
audience all over the Arab world. It is with this that we start the discussion.
2.5.3 Literature on dubbing

Despite the fact that dubbing goes back to the 1920s, the literature on this practice
did not start until thirty years later. Dubbing, according to Rowe (1960: 116), is a kind
of cinematic netherworld filled with phantom actors who speak through the mouths of
others and ghostly writers who have no literary soul of their own, either as creative
authors or translators. Myers (1973: 56) suggests that the purpose of dubbing is to
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render a reasonably faithful adaptation of a foreign film while attempting to achieve
that very elusive goal of 'perfect sync'. Fodor (1976: 9) describes it as a procedure of
cinematography which consists of a separate and new sound recording of the text of
a film translated into the language of the country in which it is to be shown. Luyken et
al. (1991: 73) define dubbing as the replacement of the original speech by a voice
track which is a faithful translation of the original speech and which attempts to
reproduce the timing, phrasing and lip movements of the original. Dries (1995: 9)
proposes that dubbing can best be described as the technique of covering the
original voice in an audiovisual production by another like it.
As far as the issue of using language varieties in dubbing is concerned, Rowe
(1960) tried to answer the question about whether it is possible to retain the flavour
of the original text with the actors affecting accents and using foreign locutions, or to
create the illusion that the script was originally written in the dubbed language. He
suggests writing in an accent for the character speaking in dialect, leaving the rest of
the cast to speak the standard language. With regard to dubbing into Arabic, this
suggestion cannot be fully implemented since it would sound odd to make an actor
speak standard Arabic and another speak colloquial, unless there was a purpose.
But if the two characters speak two different colloquials, this would be more
convincing.
Maluf (2005) maintains that the language which is most common in the Arab
world is MSA. Moreover, though this is not favoured for dubbing, neither is colloquial.
This hypothesis will be put to test in chapter 5. According to Meyer-Dinkgräfe (2006),
dubbing represents a dubious homogenization of other cultures and much of a film's
meaning can be lost. One example is the dubbing of a dialect into standard language
which may result in loss, but is something which is to be expected in any process of
translation. Indeed, this is what happens in dubbing into MSA for reasons that are
unavoidable. (see chapter 5).
Regarding character synchrony and the role it plays in a successful dubbing,
Fodor (1976) describes this technique as a psychological aspect in dubbing and
stressed that it is essential for there to be a correspondence between the source and
target sounds If the voice of the dubbing actor does not match the personality and
deportment of the visible character, then character dischrony is likely to occur.
Similarly, Dries (1995: 9) argues that dubbing should create the perfect
illusion of allowing the audience to experience the production in their own language
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without diminishing any of the characteristics of the language, culture and national
background of the original production. Such a perfect illusion should be delivered by
actors. But what happens is that sometimes, as Meyer-Dinkgräfe‘s (2006) suggests,
a few major dubbing stars speak with the same voice in different films, which results
in the confusion of the audiences who, once they see Tom Hanks, will think of Kevin
Kline or Bill Murray because they are all dubbed by Arne Elsholtz. The issue of
character synchrony and its influence on the success of a dubbed film will be
examined in chapter 5.
The issue of culture and its effect on dubbing is stressed by Barbe (1996) who
maintains that changes are effected to make the original text suit the target culture
where a translation could deviate markedly from the English version, but despite
that:
Experiments have shown that most film-goers can easily distinguish
between a German original and a dubbed version. The dubbed version
seems artificial. (1996: 261)
Similarly, Maluf (2005) examines the commercial and cultural reasons that make
dubbing into Arabic almost non-existent apart from dubbing certain Latin American
soaps and children's cartoons. The first long feature film that was dubbed into
'standard' Arabic in 1999 was Police Academy (Wilson, 1984). It was not a success
and the reasons, according to Abou Samah as cited in Maluf, were cultural as the
plots and dialogues had no bearing on Arab reality. The objective of any good
dubbing, according to Maluf, is precisely for viewers to fail to notice, or at least to
forget, or to suppress the fact that they are viewing a translation of the original
production.
Again, the impact of culture on dubbing into Arabic will also be put to
experiment. It seems that while culture can play a role in the success or failure of a
dubbed film, the degree of cultural impact is very little as we will see in chapter 5.
But despite these difficulties that dubbers may face, there might be some
advantages to this practice. For example, Zitawi (1995) and Zitawi and Athamneh
(1999) uncovered mistakes in the dubbing of cartoons into Arabic. They examined
56 episodes of children‘s animated pictures shown on television in Jordan and other
Arab countries in terms of accuracy of translation and faithfulness to the original text.
Lexical errors constituted 45.00% of the total number of errors, syntactic errors
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constituted 32.50% of the total errors, and idiomatic errors amounted to 22.50%,
which ―can be attributed to the translator‘s ignorance of the meaning of some
idiomatic expressions, carelessness, and/or lack of attention to the context of the SL
text‖.
Zitawi‘s article (2003) also deals with the way idiomatic expressions are
translated in children‘s cartoons and the strategies that can be adopted in this
regard. The scholar analyses the translation of each idiomatic expression on the light
of translation theory. She examines the strategies that translators use, such as
dynamic translation, naturalization/localization, addition, deletion, and word-for-word
translation. These strategies are used in accordance with lip synchronization and
cultural considerations. The majority of the idioms (55) were translated using the
dynamic strategy. Only two idioms were translated literally.
It could be said that the most important advantage of dubbing into Arabic is
that it hides all obscene words and any translation mistakes. A comparison between
subtitled and dubbed versions of the same film (Con Air) in chapter 5 will try to show
how translators dealt with both versions in this regard.
To conclude, character synchrony and the extent of cultural differences
contribute to the success or failure of a dubbed material. Moreover, despite the fact
that dubbing disguises swear and taboo words, preserves a nation‘s language and
allows a space for transferring source language varieties, it is still not as popular as
subtitling for reasons that have to do mainly with character synchrony, culture and
high costs.
2.6 Subtitling versus Dubbing
Myers‘ 3-page article (1973) examines the debate on whether to subtitle or to dub.
For those who favour subtitling over dubbing such as the Americans, the reason is
that they can enjoy the original performance. Myers was not convinced by this point
of view and argued against subtitling for the following reasons: it is not possible in
subtitling to title every spoken word due to the limited space available on the screen;
nuances are lost as well unless there is an excellent subtitler who is expert at
condensation; reading a line is not the same as hearing it; it is irritating to have to
keep referring from title to screen in order to keep up with the action. Moreover,
65
subtitles are lost against a white or light background. The alternative for Myers is
creative dubbing that does not stress synchronization but attempts a true adaptation
of the original dialogue.
Vöge (1977) notices that a survey conducted in 1974 by the Netherlands
Broadcasting Foundation shows that those who are in favour of subtitling do not trust
dubbing as it is not authentic. He added that in homogenous films (films which
achieve coherence between language and place): ―it is difficult to replace the
language spoken in such a film by the language of the audience, as such
replacement involves a distortion of the reality of language and place‖ (p. 123).
Another disadvantage of dubbing is the cultural gap which exists between the
audience and the film which may only accentuate the incongruity of dubbing whereas
in subtitling, the spoken text remains intact but is accompanied by translation at the
bottom of the screen. Naturally, subtitling will be especially successful in the case of
films made in a relatively well-known language. The only disadvantage of subtitling
for Vöge is the abbreviation of the film text.
Reid (1978) argues that subtitling is an intelligent solution because the viewer
is an intelligent person and it makes an appeal to his intelligence. Dubbing, on the
other hand, is easier to watch, yet the intelligent viewer will want to know: what did
the speaker really say Dubbing is more suitable for children than adults, Reid
argues. The reason why subtitling is favoured over dubbing is because spoken
language is more than words. We do not usually judge a person by what he says but
rather by the way s/he says it. So, subtitling is a good method for rendering the
original message since it does not interfere with the original dialogue and body
language as dubbing does.
In another article, Reid (1986: 12) proposes that the first thing that comes to a
person‘s mind when foreign language feature films are mentioned is the argument of
subtitling versus dubbing: ―How comical to hear Robert Redford speak German‖ or
―How ridiculous to read a film rather than watch it.‖ The whole issue, according to
Reid, is that in some films the language is part and parcel of the whole product,
whereas in other films the linguistic setting makes little difference. For example, films
in which the nationality or cultural group to which people belong plays an important
part, probably benefit from subtitling rather than dubbing.
Ivarsson (1992: 17-9) argues that when dubbing is done well, it is difficult to
distinguish it from the original. Moreover, in dubbing, the picture is not affected and
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the audience, even the illiterate, will understand the dialogue easily. However, the
original text can be changed or censored for cultural, political, and lip-lip
synchronization reasons without the audience knowing, let alone the fact that the
audience is not hearing the voices of the original actors. On the other hand, subtitling
can be disturbing because it obstructs the picture and the subtitles flit in and out. The
translator, furthermore, may make mistakes that are obvious to everyone with any
knowledge of the language. However, in subtitling one can hear the original sound
with the original pauses, rhythms of the words, and intonation. In fact, language is
more than speech. Gestures, body language, facial expressions are best
accompanied by the original dialogue. Ivarsson adds that subtitling has the
advantage of not interfering with the other subtle and significant sources of
information. Above all, subtitling helps people gradually acquire a new language. For
these reasons, and in countries where both versions of translation, subtitling and
dubbing, are provided, the audience will no doubt go for the former.
Diaz-Cintas (1999) maintains that the fact that it has to accommodate itself to
the spatial synchrony where it has a limited space on screen for the subtitles makes
subtitling an uphill task for subtitlers. Add to this is the problem of the ‗double‘ effort
that has to be made by the audience to both read the subtitles and follow the plot of
the film. The corruption of the original picture due to the added material on the
screen adds to the challenge. This is not to mention the fact that the spectator is able
to compare the original dialogue with the subtitled one and discover the
discrepancies, if any. Last, but not least, subtitling suits the educated audience who
can master speed-reading. However, one should not be pessimistic. Subtitling is a
recommended way to support teaching or learning a language. It is a cheap
technique and a quick one. It allows the audience to enjoy the film in its original
language.
Dubbing, on the other hand, according to Diaz-Cintas (1999) , is more
complicated. Apart from the high costs of this profession, synchronisation constitutes
a major challenge in it. It is not only a matter of lip-lip synchronization but of
synchronisation between the body language and the voices: intonation. In addition,
achieving this lip-lip synchronization will restrict the dubber to produce a more faithful
rendering of the original dialogue. Dubbing, moreover, will always remind the
audience that what they are watching belongs to a different environment and culture.
However, in dubbing there is no need to concentrate on the subtitles and be
67
distracted from the emotional line of the film. It also affords the illusion that the actors
are speaking in their mother tongue, and this is desirable sometimes for reasons of
protecting national identity.
Scandura (2004) summarises the findings of a small-scale survey about
subtitling and censorship that was conducted in Argentina in 2002. One of the
questions asked to viewers was whether they preferred subtitling or dubbing. People
aged between 18 and 41 preferred films and sitcoms that are subtitled and 63%
preferred subtitling over dubbing because it enables them to listen to the source
dialogue and to improve their English. Those who preferred dubbing argued that
subtitling interferes with the picture and that dubbing helps them do other things
while listening to the dialogue.
In conclusion, despite the fact that neither dubbing nor subtitling is perfect,
subtitling seems to be more popular for reasons that are related to authenticity, lower
cost, enjoying the original sounds, etc. Such reasons are enough to persuade
subtitling companies to favour this method to dubbing. Dubbing, on the other hand,
seems to hold less attraction for aesthetic and financial reasons. The financial issue
is a burden on TV channels. The aesthetic issue, on the other hand, is usually
criticized by the audience as we will see in chapter 5. This is why Reid (1978) is in
favour of using dubbing for children rather than adults who may easily spot any
discrepancies, and therefore turn the dubbed film into a funny one when it should not
be.
2.7 Conclusion
This chapter has introduced some of the challenges that face translators of film
dialogues mainly from English into other languages and the different ways that were
adopted to resolve such obstacles. For example, the investigation into whether
translators of English-language audiovisuals into other languages, including Arabic,
use any translation approach was aimed at realizing the extent to which this may, or
may not, affect the quality of a translation. Moreover, as subtitling imposes certain
constraints which are related to technical and linguistic factors, this tends to affect
the quality of subtitles. Added to these factors is the cultural gap that exists between
the SL and the TL. Culture, together with language, affects the transfer of the source
dialogue‘s language varieties, its swear and taboo words as well as humour. Dialects
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are difficult to replace by equivalent ones and are also difficult to read. As for
euphemising and omitting swear words, and taking into consideration that this is
frequently used almost worldwide, this tends not to affect the message of the
audiovisual material, unless such words are essential to the characterization and to
the plot. Yet this remains unproven. Humour, the most complicated aspect of
translation in subtitling, seems to be approached differently by different subtitlers.
Most of them opt for equivalence and pragmatic theories to achieve maximum
results.
Dubbing facilitates different results for the audience who can easily follow the
dubbed material, and translators, who can censor taboos, and use TL dialects to dub
the SL ones, and therefore, have more space to express the message of the ST.
Despite that, whether dubbing into Arabic is more efficient and more successful than
subtitling in dealing with such translation issues has not yet been proven.
Finally, it is hoped that this literature has established a background about the
problems encountered by translators in the subtitling and dubbing of English-
language audiovisuals into other languages that will help in laying down the basics
for the argument of this study.
(cf. Adams, 1989, Hansen et al., 1998, Berger, c1998, Bertrand and Hughes, 2005,
Jensen, 2002).
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Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY
This chapter uses qualitative research method based on a case study methodology
supported by experiments and interviews. The research also partially benefits from a
quantitative approach based on a questionnaire to be justified in this chapter. First,
the design of the case study as well as the questionnaire and experiments are
outlined. Then, more details about data collection and participants are given. Finally,
the validity of the method and the ethical issues of the study are discussed.
3.1 Introduction
Previous chapters have established the argument of this study by illustrating its aims
and by building on previous studies. Once again, the main aim is to identify and
examine the obstacles that result from the translation of English-language
audiovisuals into Arabic and to suggest some solutions for these obstacles which are
mainly influenced by the technical, cultural and linguistic issues involved in this kind
of translation. But the main focus will be on the transfer of dialect, swear words and
humour into Arabic and on the resultant difficulties encountered by translators. The
solutions suggested, as we will see, will be tested by using both qualitative and
quantitative methods. (cf. Adams, 1989; Hansen, et al., 1998; Berger, c1998;
Bertrand and Hughes, 2005; Jensen, 2002).
As the audience is the target of these translated audiovisuals, more attention
will be paid to them through conducting some experiments, rather than to the
analysis of translations, in both identifying the problems and in suggesting solutions.
70
The audience can be classified into two categories, one of which is aware of the
deficiencies of audiovisual translation into Arabic and the other of which has no clue
whatsoever about them. This depends on the audience‘s English level.
3.2 The use of qualitative data
3.2.1 Case study design and analysis

Maxwell (1996: x) proposes that the design is the logic and the coherence of a
research project—the components of the research and the ways in which these
relate to one another. Choosing a design for this study facilitates the collection and
analysis of the data. Since the study selects certain translated audiovisuals to
examine, each of these can be said to form a case study. Therefore, this study
intends to adopt the case study design as a guideline.
Stake (2000: 47) sees a case study as both a process of inquiry about the
case and the product of that inquiry. It is a form of research which is defined by
interest in individual cases, not by the methods of inquiry used. Furthermore, de
Vaus (2001: 250) suggests that case studies are particularly suited to research
problems when the phenomenon in which we are interested either cannot be
distinguished from its context or must be seen within its context. An even more
precise definition of the case study is Schramm‘s which is quoted by Yin (2003: 12):
―the essence of a case study, the central tendency among all types of case study, is
that it tries to illuminate a decision or set of decisions: why they were taken, how they
were implemented, and with what result‖. Moreover, Bertrand and Hughes (2005)
define the case study as a method by which a sample is collected and subjected to
some form of close scrutiny or study on the assumption that the cases studied are
able to tell us something about a more general situation. To put this differently, Yin
(ibid: 1) argue that case studies are preferred when ‗how‘ or ‗why‘ questions are
being posed. When the how and why are answered, they help us to make a
generalization. A case study research, according to de Vaus (ibid: 221), must have a
theoretical dimension without which a case study will be of little value for wider
generalization. We might begin with a question or a basic proposition, look at real
cases and end up with a more specific theory or set of propositions as a result of
71
examining cases. Finally, George and Bennett (2005: 19) maintain that one of the
advantages of case studies is their capacity to foster new hypotheses.
Moreover, the data collection for this research necessitated a period of field
work in the Middle East to study some of the companies that subtitle audiovisuals
and to carry out the experiments and the interviews. Prior to that, various films and
sitcoms were watched in order to become familiar with the quality of the translations
and the companies which did them. It was this viewing of films, sitcoms and cartoons
which generated the idea for the field work to examine more closely the business
and the way it is being run. Then, certain samples were chosen to double check their
translation. After that, a smaller number of these audiovisuals were selected to act
as pilot studies as will be illustrated below. Only then were the cases decided on.
The cases were selected according to the issues that needed to be
addressed. First, to address the problem of translating dialect, Educating Rita
(Gilbert, 1983) which utilized dialect for characterization, was chosen. Second, to
address the issue of translating swear words and taboos, London to Brighton
(Williams, 2006) and Con Air (West, 1997) were selected. Third, to handle the issue
of humour translation, the comedy series Friends (Crane and Kauffman, 1995) was
also chosen. Finally, and in order to examine the extent to which dubbing into
dialects can be a solution to some of the obstacles of subtitling, The Simpsons
(Groening, 1989) and Con Air were reviewed. These were the four case studies
selected for analysis.
3.2.2 Interviews
Rubin and Rubin (1995: 1) propose that qualitative interviewing is a great adventure;
every step of an interview brings new information and opens windows into the
experiences of the people you meet. Interviews constitute a crucial part of all
qualitative research. In order to be suitable for the overall design of a thesis, the
interviews are meant to be focused and exploratory. To put it differently, Yin (2003:
90) argues that case study interviews are open-ended, enabling the interviewer to
ask key respondents about the facts of a matter as well as their opinions about
events. The interview questions designed for this study were semi-structured ones.
This constitutes what Yin (2003: 90) calls focused interviewing. A focused interview
is one in which a respondent is interviewed for a short period of time. It can still be
72
considered open-ended where the interviewer follows a certain line of questioning to
answer the thesis‘ main questions. Moreover, interviews are considered exploratory
when they are meant to uncover particular problems and elicit new information with
regard to the topic provided that they are done properly.
The questions used in the semi-structured interviews were simply sub-
questions of the main thesis questions:
1- Do translators of English-language audiovisuals into Arabic adopt any

translation model or theory that best suits audiovisual translation and helps them
best interpret the message of the source audiovisual material? If not, what is the
most suitable translation approach to achieve this?
A- Do you rely on a particular translation theory? What is it?
B- Do you agree that audiovisual translation is an adaptation rather than a
translation?
2- As dialects of source English-language audiovisuals are not usually

rendered into equivalent ones in subtitling into Arabic due to the fact the subtitles are
usually written in standard rather than colloquial Arabic, does this have any
consequences for the message of the audiovisual material? If yes, can this be
avoided?
C- How can English-language dialects be subtitled into equivalent Arabic ones
and is it important to do so?
D- Since the only language used in subtitles is MSA, how does this affect the
message of an audiovisual material? If there is any loss in message, how can this
loss be compensated?
3- To what extent do the translated audiovisuals‘ messages tend to be

affected by censorship? Can translation loss caused by censorship be minimized or
compensated for?
E- Does euphemizing swearing and taboo words affect the message of an
audiovisual material at all?
F- Taking into consideration the fact that we are living the age of globalization, is
it really important to euphemize?
73
4- Regarding the subtitling of humour, can it have the same effect on the
audience as that of the original, and what are the best strategies for achieving this?
G- Is translated humour able to have the same effect that the original text has on
the audience and how?
H- To what extent can the translator be free to deliver the message? In other
words, which has the priority, translation or humour?
I- Which can better express the humour of the TT, standard or colloquial
Arabic?
J- Are puns translatable into Arabic?
5- Can dubbing be an efficient solution for some of the obstacles that

subtitlers face, such as the transfer of dialects, swear words and humour into
Arabic?
K- Can dubbing solve the problem of subtitling English-language dialects by
dubbing those dialects into colloquial Arabic such as Egyptian, for example?
L- Taking into consideration that in dubbing the audience cannot compare
between the two texts, the source and the target, can dubbing do a better job with
regard to censorship?
M- Is dubbing into colloquial Arabic better able than subtitling into MSA to
successfully transfer the humour of English-language audiovisuals and why?
David et al (2004: 88) argues that once a set of questions relating to the key themes
is generated, it is necessary to pilot these questions since they are the basis for the
researcher‘s interaction with the interviewees. The interview pilot study was
conducted by interviewing a subtitler, Ahmed Khuddro, who has worked in subtitling
for over 18 years and runs his own business (SSS) as well as working as a
freelancer in London.
After that, the first actual interview was conducted once again with SSS as
well as VSI International in London in the summer of 2006 (see Appendices A and B
for transcriptions of both interviews). Following that, Gulf Film in Dubai was visited in
July 2006 for the same reason (see Appendix C for a transcription of interview). A
trip was made again in 2007 to the Middle East which on this occasion proved fruitful
as interviews were conducted with both Tanweer, Damascus, and Pro Subtitling,
Beirut (see Appendices D and E for transcriptions of interviews). For these
74
companies‘ contact details and some titles of audiovisuals translated by these
companies see Appendix F.
A big effort was made to conduct an interview with a company in Egypt,
especially with Anis Ebeid, but in vein, as they did not seem to be keen on this. The
Middle East, especially Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, is in fact full of subtitling
and dubbing companies. This is due to the low wages that translators get in
comparison to the wages paid in Western countries for the same job. The three most
well known companies in the Arab countries are Anis Ebeid (Egypt), Tanweer (Syria)
and Al-Ittihhad al Fanni (Lebanon). Other big companies are mainly centred in
Western countries such as VSI, IBF, IMS and SSS (London), ECI (London, Los
Angeles, and Athens), Titrafilm (Paris) and Filmali (Cyprus) that subtitle and/or dub
films for TV channels (Such as Show Time, Orbit, MBC, and ART), Cinemas and
DVD shops. There are also tens of small and non-official companies in the Middle
East that illegally subtitle films for the local market, not respecting any copyrights.
3.3 The use of quantitative data
3.3.1 Experiments
Hakim (2000: 127) argues that the aim of the research experiment is to study causal
links: to assess whether a given factor X has an impact on another factor Y, or
whether changes in one variable produce changes in another. Berger (c1998: 97)
defines an experiment as a kind of test to: 1) demonstrate that a proposition is true,
2) examine the validity of a hypothesis, 3) discover something that is not known or
the utility of something that has not been tried before. The aim of experiments in this
research was to mainly see how viewers perceive Arabic subtitles in terms of the
quality of translation and the reception of Egyptian dubbed films and animations. The
object was supposed to find out more about the nature of the obstacles in subtitling
in original translation and the possible solutions for them, mainly by suggesting the
functional approach: skopos theory, and applying it to the modified translation when
applicable.
Certain audiovisuals were selected for this purpose. Each audiovisual material
was considered a case study and was thoroughly investigated. The experiments
were carried out as follows: some changes (the changes reflect the researcher‘s
75
viewpoints on how to improve the quality of translation) on the original translation
were made in the first three cases, Educating Rita, London to Brighton, Friends but
Con Air was left as it is in both its versions, the subtitled and the dubbed. It was
important to see how the original translation differed from the altered version, and
thus, observe the influence of obstacles on the translation as well as the validity of
the suggested solutions.
For example, with regard to the subtitling of dialect, Educating Rita which
combines both working and middle class dialects of England was chosen. Two
different copies of the film were shown to the viewers, the original translation and the
modified one as we will see in the next chapter. The participants were asked to
watch the film twice, each time with a different translation.
Similarly, London to Brighton was also resubtitled again taking into
consideration that all, or most of, the deleted swear words were resubtitled. Some of
the euphemised words were translated again in a way that made them as close as
possible to the source text while still being inoffensive to the audience. The purpose
was to find out if excess omission and euphemism of swear words affects the
message and characterisation in a film.
Regarding comedy, three episodes were selected from Friends and their
subtitles were modified in a way that aimed at improving the quality of humour in the
series. As far as dubbing versus dialects is concerned, two copies of Con Air were
shown to the viewers, an Egyptian dubbed version and a MSA subtitled one. Finally,
the participants in all experiments were asked to watch both the original and
modified translations and judge which one(s) was better able to deliver the message
of the original film or sitcom.
As far as the participants in the experiments were concerned, the groups
consisted of 10 individuals who came from different educational backgrounds and
different Arab countries. With regard to their age, the participants ranged from 20 to
41 years old. It was also ensured that their level of English did not reach that of
native speakers or come close to it. The purpose of this was to ensure that they had
to rely on the Arabic subtitles and thus make the experiments more effective and
valid. Moreover, only those who liked watching subtitled English-language films and
sitcoms were chosen so that they had the experience to choose a suitable
translation of the film(s) they watched.
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With regard to the pilot study, a group of viewers was asked to watch a
number of audiovisuals, one at a time. Then they were asked to answer questions
afterwards in order to check if anything was wrong with regard to the viewers‘
interest in the genres or with regard to the questions themselves. No problems arose
and no changes were made to the plan. The pilot audiovisuals that they were
requested to watch were Casino Royale (action: swear words), Friends (comedy:
humour), and This is England (Meadows, 2006) (drama: dialects).
3.3.2 Questionnaire
A major difference between an experiment and a questionnaire, according to Berger

(c1998: 35), is that the latter takes the world as it comes, without trying to alter it,
whereas the former systematically alters some aspects of the world in order to see
what changes follow. Moreover, Bryman (2004: 133) maintains that another
advantage of questionnaires is that they are free of the interviewer effect, unlike
interviews. Since the thesis suggests the use of Arabic dialects in dubbing as a
solution to the problems that subtitlers face, it was necessary to assess the
effectiveness and validity of such a solution: hence the idea of the experiment
previously mentioned (Con Air) and the questionnaire referred to in this section. The
questionnaire aims at finding out the reason(s) for the failure of The Simpsons, which
was dubbed into Egyptian. It is claimed that the reasons for the failure are cultural
rather than translational as we will see in chapter five. If the questionnaire proves
that the failure of the animation is due to the Egyptian dialect, then, together with the
results of the dialect experiment, this will contribute to the conclusion that using
dialect in dubbing may not be the best solution to the issues of subtitling dialect.
Foddy (1993: x) maintains that questions in questionnaires are the foundation
stones upon which most contemporary social science rests. Therefore, as questions
constitute a crucial component in conducting questionnaires, the researcher must
ask questions that elicit useful information on the subject of enquiry. The
questionnaire is composed of nine expressions in Egyptian dialect that were used in
episode three of the dubbed version of The Simpsons. The reason for choosing
these expressions from one rather than different episodes is to refute the claim of
those who may argue that the researcher chose the most difficult expressions from
the 30 episodes that have been dubbed and put them in the questionnaire, and
77
which as a result, may not provide valid or reliable results simply because having
some difficult expressions in the 29 episodes may not affect the overall quality of the
translation and therefore of an understanding of the series.
As far as the respondents are concerned, Berger (c1998: 36) argues that the
social and economic characteristics of respondents such as sex, age, race, religion
and education must be considered before carrying out a questionnaire. Second, the
questionnaire was distributed to 200 pupils from different Arab nationalities who
ranged from 10 to 18 years old, both males and females. The respondents were
chosen from the Arabic schools in the UK. They were simply asked to respond to the
Egyptian expressions by indicating if they understood them or not. Then they were
asked to describe what they had understood, using the language that was most
convenient for them such as MSA, their spoken dialect or even English.
The quantitative method which comprises experiments and a questionnaire is
intended to supplement the qualitative data in the study which uses case studies and
interviews. Both, qualitative and quantitative data will be used to help in answering
the five questions. Generalizations and claims are meant to be formed from these
data by interpreting and aggregating instances until general themes emerge.
Interpretations and themes can be considered as assertions to be grounded in the
data, modified as the research proceeds, and used in the discussion of the findings.
3.4 Rigour of study
Kirk and Miller (1986: 19) define the concept of reliability as the extent to which a
measurement procedure yields the same answer whenever it is carried out. Its goal,
according to Yin (2003: 37), is to minimize the errors and biases in a study. In other
words, reliability means that the indicator consistently comes up with the same
measurement (result) whenever a particular case is repeated. In fact, the research
tool is supposed to be consistent and stable enough to become reliable. Moreover,
the difference between any sets of results should be very small so that the reliability
increases.
Validity, on the other hand, is the extent to which the measurement procedure
gives the correct answer. See Kirk and Miller (1986: 19). In fact, as Carmines and
Zeller (1979: 16) argued, the issue of validity raises the question, ―valid for what
purpose?‖ Thus, one validates not the measuring instrument itself but the measuring
78
instrument in relation to the purpose for which it is being used. De Vaus (2001: 234)
distinguished between internal and external validity in case study design and so did
Yin (2003). The former argued that threats to internal validity stem from the danger
that factors other than our key variable are producing any changes we observe.
Internal validity, as Yin (ibid: 36) put it, is only a concern for causal (or explanatory)
case studies in which an investigator is trying to determine whether event x led to
event y.
With regard to external validity, according to de Vaus (2001: 237), case
studies have been criticized for lacking such validity since it is argued that a
profound understanding of a case provides no basis for generalizing to a wider
population beyond that case. In other words, single cases offer a poor basis for
generalizing. Yin (2003: 37) argues that case studies rely on analytical generalization
where the investigator is striving to generalize a particular set of results to some
broader theory. He maintains that since a scientist generalizes from experimental
results to theory, an analyst should try to generalize findings to theory. However, this
is not automatic according to Yin. A theory must be tested by replicating the findings
on a second or third case. Therefore, it is hoped that the 5 cases that were chosen
will allow a generalization with regard to the subtitling and dubbing of English-
language audiovisuals into Arabic. To put this differently, each of the five case
studies contributes to the validity of the generalization drawn and helps investigating
to what extent the practicalities of the translation of English-language audiovisuals
into Arabic are conditioned by the technical, cultural/ideological and translation
conditions in which they are carried out.
3.5 Methodological issues and dilemmas
There are four obstacles to be underlined with regard to the methodology of this
study: researcher bias, the transcription process, the experimental issues and issues
related to the questionnaire.
3.5.1 Personal bias
Bryman (ibid: 517) maintains that social researchers are sometimes put in the
position where they take sides, something which is widely pervasive in sociology.
79
The study can be said to be value-bound in the sense that it is bounded by
assumptions and regulated by both cultural ideologies and the researcher‘s own
views. For instance, using the functional approach as a framework in the translation
of audiovisuals into Arabic echoes the researcher‘s belief in its ability to efficiently
deliver the message of the source audiovisual material taking into consideration the
technical, linguistic and cultural constraints. Similarly, translating more swear words
than is usually done and toning up the euphemised ones reflects his view that in
doing so, no limits should be crossed and no norms violated. Moreover, discussions
of the findings should be understood as the researcher‘s own interpretation and
therefore considered as personal values. For example, the way the interviews were
integrated and the way quotes were selected from these interviews can also be read
in the same way. So, great care was taken to ensure that the data is interpreted in
this way.
3.5.2 Transcription issues
The situation of transcribing interviews is similar to subtitling in the sense that the
spoken word is changed into written. But while in subtitling facial expressions and
poor synchronisation of speech can be spotted on screen, it is not possible to do so
in the case of recorded interviews where all hesitations, attitudes of surprise,
embarrassments, and repetitions are lost. This was also taken into consideration
while transcribing the interviews that non-verbal gestures were noted down to assist
in the interpretation of the data. Kvale (2003: 284) maintains that attempts at
verbatim interview transcriptions produce hybrids, artificial constructs that are
adequate to neither the live oral conversation nor the formal style of written texts.
Transcriptions are translations from one language to another: what is said in the
hermeneutical tradition of translators also pertains to transcribers: translators are
traitors.
3.5.3 Experiment issues
Berger (c1998: 99) argues that experiments have one big problem in the sense that
they are artificial. When people know that they are involved in an experiment, this
may affect their behaviour. This can indeed be true. Some of the participants in this
80
study hesitated before they chose one of the two translations observed because
they, unfortunately, did not want to say something which may not find favour with the
researcher. Therefore, participants were told that both versions were done by some
companies in order for their judgment to be unaffected. Moreover, care was taken
that each participant‘s feedback was given in private so that others were not
influenced by the opinions of other participants.
3.5.4 Questionnaire issues
One serious disadvantage of questionnaires, according to Bryman (2004: 134-5), is

the fact that they might not be appropriate for some kinds of respondents. This was
indeed a concern that was faced. There was a fear that some of the participants
were not familiar with Egyptian Arabic or had never watched Egyptian programmes
as this would affect the findings. For this reason, further care was taken to ensure
that the respondents were over 10 years old, and had watched Egyptian cartoons or
soap operas before in order to guarantee that they are not unfamiliar with this
dialect.
3.6 Ethical issues
Hoyle et al (2002: 520) argue that the researcher should be prepared to justify his
procedures, to assure readers that his participants had been treated with dignity, and
had left his study with their self-esteem intact and their respect for him and social
science enhanced rather than diminished. One of the obstacles that could face
qualitative research is the close contact with the people who constitute a part of the
research such as interviewees and participants. However, all the interviewees and
participants who were informed about the nature of this research, the names and
addresses of the University and the supervisor, the title of the thesis, the purpose of
the study, and the length of the interviews and experiments. They also gave their
consent to publish their and their companies‘ names. Only one of the interviewees
refused to be recorded; so his answers were written down during the interview.
81
3.7 Conclusion
This case-study based research has been informed by qualitative and quantitative
data which were influenced by and collected from different perspectives and
sources. These data and their analysis were tested by internal and external validity.
The purpose of analysing these audiovisuals is to discover the how of the subtitles
(How did the subtitles reflect the message of the audiovisual material or how
successful they were in doing so?); the purpose of the interviews is to find the why of
the subtitles. The experiments are designed to prove if the how is effective enough.
To put it differently, what is intended is to try to uncover how English-language
audiovisuals are subtitled into Arabic (text analysis), why are they subtitled the way
they are (interviews), to what extent these subtitles are effective in conveying the
message of the English-language audiovisuals into Arabic and if there is a possibility
for improvement (experiments). In this way it is hoped to show how translation theory
is put into practice in the translation of audiovisuals.
In the following chapter, the issues of subtitling dialect, swear words and
humour will be discussed by analyzing three case studies. But before we conclude
this chapter, it should be emphasized that the case-study design is only one of the
methods that could be adopted by researchers. Trying other methods such as
surveys, focus groups, and other theories and designs could be even more useful.
The reason why surveys were not an option in this study is that, although they are
easy to conduct, they are frequently done by many researchers. As for focus groups,
the fact that subtitling companies are scattered in different countries makes it difficult
to apply this method. .
82
Chapter 4
SUBTITLING
4.0 Chapter overview
This chapter starts the argument of the thesis by analysing and conducting
experiments on the data that were collected. In other words, it discusses the thesis
questions through implementing the methodology that was adopted and detailed in
the previous chapter. It begins by presenting the first obstacle in subtitling: dialects
(Research Question 2). Then it discusses the issue of subtitling swear and taboo
words (Research Question 3). After that, it investigates the issue of subtitling humour
into Arabic (Research Question 4).
Finally, I consider the experiments which, examine the Arabic subtitles of
English-language audiovisuals and suggest some ideas to deal with the above
mentioned difficulties. I also aim at testing the validity of the functional approach
suggested, and detailed in chapter two, and directed by Research Question 1.
Discussion in this chapter is based on three experiments on the three
audiovisuals chosen in the previous chapter as the case studies. The experiments
are also supported by data from the interviews conducted with professionals and the
participants in the experiments.
4.1 Introduction
The first issue that this chapter deals with is the subtitling of dialect in English-
language audiovisuals into Arabic through trying to answer the first thesis question
related to this issue. As we saw in chapter two, one of the major obstacles that
83
subtitlers face is related to subtitling language varieties. The language we speak tells
who we are. As Trudgill (1983: 34) argues ―The internal differentiation of human
societies is reflected in their languages.‖ In other words, language reflects a
speaker‘s education, region and background. However, such areas of difference,
together with the grammatical, morphological and phonetic (let alone the cultural)
particularities which are apparent in speech, almost disappear in written discourse.
This means that only the dialogue reveals and helps us understand the background
of the characters. The British audiences, and to some other extent English-speaking
ones, will know the background, the dialect as well as the social class in the film
Trainspotting, or This is England, for example. However, the same films, when
subtitled, will not be understood in the same way by the Arabic-speaking audiences
since most of these issues disappear in subtitling, especially when they are subtitled
into MSA. This creates a problem for the translator as to what extent s/he will be able
to reflect colloquial in the standard language. In written texts, it is possible to add
―occasional additions which might compensate the important effects produced by a
dialect‘‖ as is the case in printed translation as noted by Dickins et al (2002: 168).
This is not feasible on screen due to space and time limitations.
4.2 Case Study (A): Educating Rita
4.2.1 Introduction
Newmark (1995c: 145) argues that the more colloquial or idiomatic a source
language text, the more it is likely to diverge from literal translation in the target
language. But since this is not the case in subtitling dialects of English audiovisuals
into MSA, it was necessary to know how this may affect the message of the subtitled
material. But before we proceed, it will be useful to have an idea about what
practitioners think in this regard.
Kaadi, from the Tanweer subtitling and dubbing company in Damascus (see
Appendix D), believes that sometimes it is possible to subtitle English dialects into
Arabic. But even if they cannot really be translated, he claims, this does not affect
the message. Kaadi did not indicate how dialects are subtitled into Arabic nor how
they do not tend to affect the message if they are not subtitled. It is possible that he
84
wanted to give his company a good reputation by stating that they are able to deliver
the message to the target audience whatever it is. Then he argued that in case this
cannot be done, this may not affect the message of a film. On the other hand, El-
Hakim, from VSI International in London (see Appendix B for more details), had a
different opinion in this regard. In fact, she was rather more frank than Kaadi. When
she was asked whether any loss is incurred when English dialects are subtitled into
MSA, she maintained: ―Yes, of course, any translation – not only subtitling – is bound
to lose some of the spirit of the work in the process. All endeavours to ‗compensate‘
this loss aim at conveying the spirit or the core message as closely as possible in the
localized version.‖ Although she did not mention how, she at least admitted the
difficulty of the task. Moreover, Khuddro, from Silver Screen Subtitling in London
(see Appendix A), argued that it is important to render English dialects into Arabic
ones, even though it is unlikely that the message would be affected if they are not.
Similarly, according to Baradhi from Gulf Film in Dubai (see Appendix C), even if
dialects cannot be rendered, the message of the film will not be affected whatsoever
since the audience will eventually understand without any need to make it explicit.
Again, Khuddro and Baradhi believe that the audience will get the message through
what they see on screen such as, for example, the way actors dress, the way they
behave, etc. Finally, Hayek, from Pro Subtitling in Beirut, (see Appendix E) believed
that regardless of whether the message is affected or not, it is not possible to render
these dialects into Arabic.
In order to observe how English-language dialects are translated into Arabic
and to what extent is Arabic able to reflect such dialects, an example from one of the
English films will be given before we move to talk in details about the case study
chosen for this part of the chapter. Nil by Mouth (Oldman, 1997) is a British film
surrounding the life of a family of characters living on a council estate in working-
class South-East London, where the director grew up, and depicting the poverty,
violence and misery of these characters‘ lives that have not lived up to expectations.
But what makes the film, which was a critical success winning eight awards, unique
is the language variety spoken in it. Cockney is a famous English dialect spoken in
East and North London by the working class people who now regard themselves as
the 'real' Londoners in a very cosmopolitan city where a lot of the population have
come in from other areas of the country or abroad.
Some characteristics of Cockney, as stated in Hughes et al (2005: 73-6), are:
85
1) /h/ is almost invariably absent; 2) the glottal stop (ʔ) is extremely common; 3) the
contrast between /θ/ and /f/ as well as between /ð/ and /v/ is variably lost; /ei/ is
realized as /æɪ/, /ai/ as /ɒɪ/, and /ou/ as (æu); 4) when they are initial, /p, t, k/ are
heavily aspirated more so than in RP.

Moreover, as well as having a distinctive pronunciation and many grammatical
features, the language of London is most notable for its Rhyming Slang. This
consists of using a phrase that rhymes, with the word you want to say, so 'telephone'
becomes 'dog and bone'. Unfortunately, many of the phrases then lose the second
word, making it very hard for the outsider to guess the original meaning; 'rabbit' for
'talk' comes from the phrase 'rabbit and pork', but few would be able to guess it. A lot
of the original rhyming slang appeared among the market traders in the East End of
London in the 19th century, but it is still used and new words and phrases are being
invented all the time. At the moment, it is very fashionable to use famous people's
names, so the DJ Pete Tong is used meaning 'wrong'- 'things have gone Pete Tong'.
Cockney has been known as being spoken by people the lower class in the
London area. For instance, Mathews (1938: ix) argued that ―Of all the non-standard
forms of English, Cockney is the most generally despised and downtrodden‖. This
brings to mind what a woman who worked with Fritze (1982: 6) said to him:
―Because I speak Cockney, they all think I‘m stupid‖. Who are ‗they‘? –―everyone
who ascribes to the bourgeois cultural values, including so-called proper spoken
English‖. The term, however, is now used happily and proudly by the people of the
East and North of London, who, as noted, regard themselves as the 'real' Londoners
in a very cosmopolitan city where a lot of the population have come in from other
areas of the country or abroad.
In the following part of a dialogue that goes on between Mark and Ray in Nil
by Mouth, the characteristics of Cockney clearly appear in almost every sentence.
The Arabic subtitles are also written for reasons of comparison between the two
texts. The scene takes place in Ray‘s flat:
1- Mark: So, we're sitting there,

2- and I'm taking these pills, right?
86
ْ‫ب‬١٤ ٟ‫ّب عبَ٘٭‬١ٔ :‫مارك‬
‫بً؟‬١َ‫ ؽ‬،‫ة‬٧‫ٓ ا٘ؾج‬ٙ‫ٖ ر‬٦‫ب‬١‫ذ أر‬١ٔ٦
1- Mark: We were sitting there,

2- and I used to take these pills, right?
3- I've got these pills, right? I was diagnosed

4- of depression, right? This is years ago that.
‫اد‬٧١ٍ ‫ن‬١ٜ ‫ اإلٔزئبة‬ٟٜ ٫٠‫ذ ألب‬١ٔ

.٫٘ ‫ة‬٧‫ٓ ا٘ؾج‬ٙ‫صً ر‬٦ ٛ‫ر‬٦
3- I suffered depression for years

4- So, these pills were prescribed to me.
5- And these pills, right,

6- have got a f***ing side effect.
.٣‫ج٭‬٠‫ب رؤص٭واد عب‬٥٘ ٞ‫ٔب‬٦
5- ………………….
6- They had side effects.
7- No one knows over here, right?

8- The Americans know, right?
‫نا‬٤ ٛٙ‫م‬٬ ٫‫ز‬ٙ‫ لبئ‬ٟٜ ‫ أؽل‬ٟٕ٬ ٛ٘

.ٛٙ‫ ل‬٩ٙ‫ا ل‬٧٠‫ ٔب‬ٞ‫ٕب‬٬‫و‬ٜ‫ األ‬ٞ‫ أ‬ٛ‫هو‬
7- No one of my family knew about that…

8- Although the American did.
9- We're like the f***ing guinea pigs.

10- We're dropping like f***ing flies.
87
.٣ٍ‫و األ٘٭‬٬‫بى‬١‫ ٔب٘ق‬٦‫جل‬٠ ‫ّب‬١ٔ
.‫زَبِػ ٔب٘نثبة‬٠ ‫ّب‬١ٔ
9- We looked like guinea pigs.

10- We were dropping like flies.
11- So, all of a sudden, I'm sitting there,

12- and you know what?
...ْ‫ب‬١٤ ٌٌ٘‫ب عب‬٠‫ب أ‬ٝ١‫ث٭‬٦ ،٢‫ٌغؤ‬٦

،٣‫بٍج‬١ٝ٘‫ثب‬
11- Suddenly, and while I was sitting there,

12- by the way,
13- Know what they reckon now?

14- That these pills make you violent.
‫؟‬ٞ‫ اٮ‬ٞ٦‫مزّل‬٬ ‫بما‬ٜ ٛٙ‫ٗ رم‬٤

.٫٠‫ا‬٦‫ٓ لل‬ٙ‫ة رغم‬٧‫ ا٘ؾج‬٢‫ن‬٤ ٞ‫ ا‬ٞ٧٘٧ّ٬
13- Do you know what they think now?

14- They say that these pills make you violent.
15- Ray: You? You're not violent.

16- Mark: Not proper violent.
.٫٠‫ا‬٦‫ذ َ٘ذ لل‬٠‫ذ؟ أ‬٠‫ أ‬:‫راي‬

.ً‫ب‬ٜ‫ب‬ٝ‫ٌ ر‬٬ٖ :‫مارك‬
15- Ray: You? You‘re not violent.

16- Mark: Not exactly.
88
17- No, like weird s***,
18- like killing your mother.
٣ٍ‫ق٭‬ٜ ‫ كهعخ‬٩٘‫٘٭ٌ ا‬
.ٜٓ‫ّٔزٗ أ‬
17- Not to a scary extent...

18- like killing your mother.
19- Ray: Wanna kill my mother-in-law for me?

20- Mark: Yeah, f***ing she needs it.
‫؟‬٫‫بر‬ٝ‫ك ِزٗ ؽ‬٧‫ٗ ر‬٤ :‫راي‬

.ُ‫ب رَزؾ‬٥٠‫ ا‬،ٛ‫م‬٠ :‫مارك‬
19- Ray: Do you want to kill my mother-in-law?

20- Mark: Yes, she deserves.
21- And guess what they called them.

22- Everyone called them the "happy pill."
.‫ة‬٧‫ ا٘ؾج‬٢‫ن‬٤ ٞ٧َٝ٬ ‫بما‬ٜ ‫اؽيه‬

"‫ة اَ٘مبكح‬٧‫ب ة"ؽج‬٥٠٧‫لل‬٬ ‫٭ك‬ٝ‫ا٘غ‬
21- Guess what they call these pills?

22- Everyone calls them the ―happy pills‖.
23- I mean, that's a f***ing joke.

24- Happy pill? They was like c***s.
."‫ة اَ٘مبكح‬٧‫ "ؽج‬:٣٬‫َقو‬ٙ٘ ‫ض٭و‬ٜ ٍٛ‫نا اال‬٤

.٢‫ ا٘وكاء‬٫ٌ ‫خ‬ِٝ ‫ب‬٥٠‫ا‬
23- This name is funny: ―happy pill‖.

89
24- They are utterly bad.
25- You couldn't p***, you couldn‘t s*** you couldn‘t come.
26- F***ing happy pill?
.‫غ‬٧‫ ا٘زى‬٦ ٖ٧‫َزؽ٭ك ا٘زج‬٬‫ب ال‬٥٘٦‫ب‬١‫ز‬٬ ٌٟٝ

!٢‫ة ٍمبك‬٧‫ ؽج‬ٟٜ ‫ب‬٥٘‫ب‬٬
25- Whoever takes them will not be able to urinate or defecate.

26- What a happy pill!
………
In the dialogue above, the characteristics of Cockney are apparent. For instance,
regarding pronunciation, the word ‗happy‘ is pronounced as ‗æbi‘, ‗couldn‘t‘ is
pronounced as ‗kəʔnt‘ and so on. Moreover, in line 4, ‗that‘ is also left out in
translation. Likewise, the word ‗right‘ occurred seven times and was translated only
once. As far as grammar is concerned, in line 24 Mark says ―They was‖ but this is
not reflected in the translation, either. Another factor that distinguishes this language
variety from RP is swearing which occurs almost in every sentence in the source text
but almost disappears in the target text where omission and euphemism are used.
This is an example of how a dialect is dealt by translators. There is no doubt
that the characteristics of Cockney are lost in the target language where there seems
no effort for compensation. The same applies to the American film Good Will Hunting
(Sant, 1997) in which the working and middle class dialects of Boston appear clearly
just as they do in Educating Rita, our first case study into which we now turn.
Educating Rita (Gilbert, 1983) is a play written by Willy Russell and turned into
a film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters. It is a
story of a hairdresser with a sharp wit, who is married to Denny and at 26 does not
want a baby. She wants to discover herself so she joins the Open University where
she meets Dr, Frank Bryant who also needed a challenge. In this atmosphere, the
film tells the story of a teacher and a student who discover themselves through each
other.
90
4.2.2 Educating Rita: Social background
The Liverpool of that time, 1983, was a centre of severe economic depression and
urban decay with the highest levels of unemployment in the developed world with an
average 25% of the workforce out of work in which strikes played a major role. See
Taaffe and Mulheam (1988) and Simey (1996) for more on strikes as well as the
working class in Liverpool. This is in contrast to previous years when Liverpool was
one of the wealthiest cities due to the enormous trade through its large port and then
during the 1960's being branded 'the coolest place' due to the great development of
music through great groups such as the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Rita is a fine example of a working class citizen of the 1980's who came from
a city full of unemployment. We see her looking for choice and wanting to be
educated in order to gain a better quality of life by working hard. See Davies (1996)
for more details on politics and social unrest in Liverpool.
Liverpool in the eighties was also a place in which there were many artists.
They were able to express themselves and the arts thrived. Willy Russell is an
example of this and through his writing, he shows his own views. This is a humorous
work which explores the many issues relating to choice, relationships, class and
education. The play is written to highlight the difference in class between an upper-
class lecturer, and a working-class student. It shows how Rita changes her class, but
perhaps also loses some of her values as a result.
4.2.3 Dialects in the film
Altano (1988: 152) argues that dialects are used to enable the scope of
characterization. To highlight class difference, Russell adopts both the Liverpudlian
accent represented by Rita and her husband and the London accent represented by
Dr, Frank and his friends. According to Hughes and Trudgill (1996: 92-6), the
Liverpool accent, also known as Scouse, is the accent particular to the northern
English port of Liverpool and the adjoining urban areas of Lancashire and the Wirral
region of Cheshire. The Liverpool accent is highly distinctive, and wholly different to
the accents used in neighbouring regions of Lancashire and Cheshire. Lancashire is
believed by many to have the most diverse selection of accents of any English
91
county or district. This is considered to be due to the large amount of immigration
into the Liverpool area from Ireland, Wales, Scotland, the rest of northern England
and even the Caribbean in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some
characteristic features of the Liverpool accent (see Hughes and Trudgill, 1996: 92-4
for more details on this) include:
 A fast, highly inflected manner of speech, with a range of rising and

falling tones untypical of most of northern England.
 The final letters of many words are often lost: ―get‖ becomes ―gerr‖, ―all‖
(ɔ:l) becomes ―orr‖ (ɔ:r).
 ―th‖ (ð) is often pronounced as ―d‖, for example ―there‖ (ðɜ:)becomes
―dere‖ (dɜ:)as in the phrase ―oarite dere la!‖ (―all right there, lad!‖).
 The distinctive fricative ―ck‖ sound from the Welsh influence, as in the
phrase: ―gerr off me backk will yer!‖ (ger ɒf mi bækx)

 /h/ is usually absent, but is sometimes present: ―him‖: (im).
 Unlike in other northern urban accents (but in common with Newcastle),
the final vowel of words like city and seedy is /i:/.
Liverpudlians are blessed with a great sense of wit and humour. Furthermore, this
accent is popular as the soft regional accent is seen as friendly and helpful in
building relationships. There are many reasons why people like or dislike the
Liverpool accent. These could be linguistic in that they do not like the high pitch or
the tone and find it hard to understand.
Rita comes from the Liverpool working class. She talks with a heavy Scouse
accent and continuously uses colloquial speech. An example of this could be: ―D‘ y‘
get a lot like me?‖ or ―That‘s f***ing rubbish‖. At one point, Rita changes her voice
totally. She abandons her accent and adopts more formal speech. At this point the
audience sees another side of her character‘s disposition. Rita adopts an imitation of
RP. Frank notices and tells her that it is unnecessary to abandon her uniqueness to
be a ―proper student‖:
RITA: ―I know, Frank. I‘m terribly sorry. It was unavoidable.‖
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FRANK: ―Was it really? What‘s wrong with your voice?‖
RITA: ―Nothing is wrong with it, Frank. I have merely decided to talk properly.
As Trish says, there is not a lot of point in discussing beautiful literature in an
ugly voice.‖
However, even though Rita is now (at the end of the film) totally educated, she has
changed yet again. She is no longer using her posh voice, she has gone back to
using slang, and has started smoking again. Rita realised that she could never totally
fit in with the middle class, and she is who she wants to be. For example: ―Look at
those tits.‖, ―Haven‘t y‘ read it yet?‖, ―D‘y‘ wanna lend it?‖ These quotes highlight
Rita‘s inability, or unwillingness, to use Standard English. This reminds us of the
sentence Frank said to Rita towards the end of the film commenting on the change
she wanted in herself: ―You didn‘t sing a better song but you sang a different song‖.
Therefore, he wanted her to understand that the best anyone can be is him or herself
and since Trish tried to kill herself, Rita came to the conclusion that no one‘s life is
perfect. She has now dropped Trish‘s accent and has returned to being the old Rita
at the end of the film.
4.2.4 Subtitling Educating Rita into Arabic
Subtitling the film into MSA would not reflect the dialects and the change that takes
place in Rita when she becomes educated and when she tries to imitate the middle
class. This leads us to say that the difference in class which is so clear through the
accent and through the vocabulary that Rita uses disappears when the film is
subtitled into Arabic. As was mentioned before, many words (such as mate, lass, lad,
etc.) do not give the same effect when spoken in the native accent when they are
translated into Arabic. It is this which complicates the task for the translator. And as
Newmark (1995b: 77) suggests, the widest syntactic differences between languages
are often in colloquial language. They make translation difficult.
The film was subtitled into MSA in 1986 and the translation seems to be a
good one. However, the accent, the social class differences and the change that
occurs in Rita, part of which appears in her language, disappear in the Arabic
subtitles. In the following passages from a dialogue taken from the beginning of the
93
film, we will try to find how the translator dealt with the differences between Rita‘s
and Bryan‘s registers. The scene starts with Rita going to the Open University for her
first appointment with Bryan in his office. The dialogue, which we quote at length
(four pages) due to its importance, begins at minute 0.05.00 and ends at minute
0.12.30. Each Arabic translation will be followed by a back translation into English:
(Rita knocks on door)

Bryan: Er, come in.
ٗ‫اكف‬
Bryan: Come in.
Come in!
ٗ‫اكف‬
Come in.
For God's sake, come in!

ٗ‫٭ـٓ اكف‬ٙ‫ثبهلل ل‬
For God‘s sake, come in.
Rita: I'm comin' in, aren't I? You wanna get

that bleedin' handle fixed.
ٖ٧‫ٖ ا٘لف‬٦‫ذ أؽب‬١ٔ
‫ؼ ِجعخ ا٘جبة‬ٙ‫ رص‬ٞ‫ل٭ٓ أ‬
Rita: I was trying to come in.
You have to fix the door‘s handle.
Bryan: Er, yes, yes, I meant to.

‫نا‬٤ ٗ‫ ٌم‬٪٧٠‫ذ أ‬١ٔ
Bryan: I intended to do so.
Rita: No good meaning to,

you wanna get on with it.
٫ٍٕ‫٭خ ال ر‬١٘‫ا‬
ٓ٘‫ ٍ٘مٗ م‬٩‫ رَم‬ٞ‫٭ٓ أ‬ٙ‫ل‬
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Rita: Intention is not enough.
You have to do it.
One day you'll be shouting, "Come in,"

and it'll go on forever
‫ذ رصهؿ‬٠‫ أ‬٦ ْ‫و‬ٝ‫ ل‬٫‫ب ٍزّع‬ٜ ً‫ب‬ٜ٧٬
ٗ‫أكف‬
One day you‘ll spend your life shouting
come in!
cos the poor sod won't be able to get in

and you won't be able to get out.
ٗ‫ ٌزؼ ا٘جبة ٘٭لف‬ٟٜ ٟٕٝ‫ز‬٬ ٟ٘ ‫ اْ٘قص‬ٞ‫أل‬
‫ط‬٦‫ رَزؽ٭ك ا٘قو‬ٟ٘ ‫ذ‬٠‫أ‬٦
Because the person will not be able to open the door to come in
and you will not be able to go out.
Bryan: What is your name?

Rita: Me first name?
‫ٓ؟‬ٍٝ‫ ا‬٧٤ ‫ب‬ٜ
‫ٖ؟‬٦‫ األ‬٫ٍٝ‫ا‬
Bryan: What is your name?
Rita: My first name?
Bryan: Well, that would constitute

some sort of start.
‫خ ع٭لح‬٬‫نا ثلا‬٤ ٞ٧ٕ‫ ٍ٭‬،ً‫ال ثؤ‬
Bryan: Well, that would be a good start.
Rita: Rita.
‫زب‬٬‫ه‬
Rita
Bryan: Rita. Ah.

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Here we are.
‫زب‬٬‫ه‬
َ‫و‬١٘
Bryan: Rita!
Let us see…
Rita? It says here Mrs S White.

‫ذ‬٬‫ا‬٦ )ٟ‫ة اَ٘٭لح (ٍ٭‬٧‫ٕز‬ٜ ‫ب‬١٤ ٟٕ٘
But here it says Mrs. S. White.
Rita: Oh, yes, that's S for Susan.

That's just me real name.
ٞ‫ىا‬٧ٍ ‫نا افزصبه‬٤ .‫صؾ٭ؼ‬
٫ّ‫ ا٘ؾّ٭‬٫ٍٝ‫نا ا‬٤
Rita: True. That‘s S for Susan.
This is my real name.
But I'm not a Susan any more,

I've changed me name to Rita.
You know, after Rita Mae Brown?
‫زب‬٬‫ ه‬٩٘‫ ا‬٣‫٘ز‬٧‫ ؽ‬٫١١ٕ٘
ٞ٦‫ ثوا‬٪‫ب‬ٜ ‫زب‬٬‫بً ثو‬٥‫رْج‬
But I changed it to Rita.
After Rita Mae Brown.
Bryan: Who.
‫؟‬ٟٜ
Bryan: Who?
Rita: Rita Mae Brown

who wrote Rubyfruit Jungle.
Haven't you read it?
‫د‬٧ِ‫خ أكوبٖ ا٘٭ب‬٬‫ا‬٦‫ئٍ٘خ ه‬ٜ
‫ ِجٗ؟‬ٟٜ ‫خ‬٬‫ا‬٦‫ ا٘و‬٢‫ن‬٤ ‫ رّوأ‬ٛ٘‫أ‬
96
Rita: The writer of Rubyfruit Jubgle.
Haven‘t you read it before?
It's a fantastic book, you know.

Do you wanna lend it?
‫خ‬ٝ‫خ لف٭‬٬‫ا‬٦‫ب ه‬٥٠‫ا‬
‫ب؟‬٥‫ل اٍزمبهر‬٬‫ٗ رو‬٤
It is a great novel.
Do you want to borrow it?
Bryan: Yes, yes. Well, thank you very much.

OK.
ً‫ال ثؤ‬.
ٓ٘ ً‫ّٕوا‬.
Bryan: All right.
Thank you.
Rita: And what do they call you round here?

Bryan: Sir. But you may call me Frank.
‫ب؟‬١٤ ٓ٠٦‫بك‬١٬ ‫بما‬ٝ‫ث‬
٪‫ٍ٭ل‬
ٓ٠‫ ٌوا‬٫١٬‫بك‬١‫ ر‬ٞ‫ٓ أ‬١ٕٝ٬ ٟٕ٘
Rita: What do they call you here?
Sir.
Bryan: But you may call me Frank.
Rita: OK. Frank.

ً‫ب‬١َ‫ؽ‬
ٓ٠‫ٌوا‬
Rita: OK.
Frank.
That's a nice picture, isn't it, Frank?

Bryan: Er, yes, I suppose it is.
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‫ٓ؟‬٠‫ أ٘٭ٌ ٔن٘ٓ ٌوا‬،‫خ‬ٙ‫٭‬ٝ‫هح ع‬٧‫ ص‬٢‫ن‬٤
‫نا‬٤ ‫أٌزوض‬
Rita: This is a nice picture, isn‘t it, Frank?
Bryan: I suppose so.
Rita: It's very erotic.

‫ح‬٧٥ْٙ٘ ‫ض٭وح‬ٜ ‫ب‬٥٠‫ا‬
Rita: It is erotic.
Bryan: I don't think I've looked at that picture

in ten years.
But yes, it is, I suppose so.
‫اد‬٧١ٍ ‫ن لْو‬١ٜ ‫هح‬٧‫ ا٘ص‬٢‫ن‬٤ ٩٘‫فو ا‬٠‫ أ‬ٛ٘
٪‫آٌّ ا٘وأ‬٦‫ أ‬٫١٠‫ أ‬ٟ‫ أـ‬٫١١ٕ٘ ٦
Bryan: I have not looked into that picture for ten years
But I suppose that I agree with you.
Rita: There's no suppose about it,

look at those tits.
ً‫زؤٔلا‬ٜ ٞ٧ٕ‫ ر‬ٞ‫٭ٓ أ‬ٙ‫ل‬
ٟ٬‫ل‬٥١٘‫ ا‬ٟ٬‫ن‬٤ ٩٘‫فو ا‬٠‫أ‬
Rita: You should be sure.
Look at those breasts.
Do you mind me using words like that?

Bryan: Like what?
‫ األٍ٘بؾ‬٢‫ن‬٤ ٗ‫ض‬ٜ ‫ذ‬ٜ‫ك اما اٍزقل‬٠‫ب‬ٝ‫ٗ أالّ ر‬ٜ‫ آ‬-
‫ أٍ٘بؾ‬٪‫– أ‬
Rita: I hope that you do not mind me using such words.
Bryan: Which words?
Rita: Tits.
Bryan: No.
ٟ٬‫ل‬٥٠ -
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‫ ال‬-
Rita: Breasts.
Bryan: No.
Rita: You know, like, when I'm

in the hairdresser's, where I work,
‫ ا٘ؾالِخ‬ٞ٧٘‫ صب‬٫ٌ ٞ٧ٔ‫ب أ‬ٜ‫ل‬١‫ ل‬،ً‫ضال‬ٜ
ٗٝ‫ؽ٭ش أل‬
Rita: For example, when I am in the hairdresser‘s
Where I work
I'll say something like,

"I'm really f***ed," dead loud
ٖ٧ّ‫ٍؿ ث‬ٙ‫أر‬
'ٖ‫د لب‬٧‫ٕخ' ثص‬٥١ٜ ً‫ب ؽّب‬٠‫ أ‬،ً‫رجب‬
I will say something like
―Damn, I‘m really tired‖ in a loud voice.
and it doesn't half cause a fuss.

ٖ٧ِ‫ب أ‬ٝ٘ ً‫ٕزوس أؽلا‬٬ ‫ ال‬٦
and no one cares about what I say.
....................................
Rita: What's this like?
Bryan: Howards End.
‫نا؟‬٤ ‫ب‬ٜ -
‫هك‬٦‫ب‬٤ ‫خ‬٬‫ب‬٥٠ -
Rita: What‘s this?
Bryan: Howards End.
Rita: Howards End! Sounds filthy, doesn't it?

EM Foster.
ً‫٭مب‬١ّ ‫نا‬٤ ‫ا‬٦‫تك‬٬
‫ٍزو‬٧ٌ
Rita: That sounds filthy.
99
Foster.
Bryan: Forster.
Rita: Oh, yeah.
What's it like?
‫هٍزو‬٧ٌ -
‫؟‬٣‫ ِصز‬٫٤ ‫ب‬ٜ -
Bryan: Forster.
Rita: What‘s its story?
Bryan: Read it. Would you like to borrow it?

ٍَٓ١‫ب ث‬٥٬‫اِوأ‬
‫؟‬٣‫ اٍزمبهر‬ٟ٬‫ك‬٧‫ٗ ر‬٤
Bryan: Read it yourself.
Do you want to borrow it?
Rita: Yeah, all right. I'll look after it for you.

٣‫ ث‬٫١‫ ٍؤلز‬،ً‫ب‬١َ‫ؽ‬
Rita: Well, I‘ll look after it.
……………..
The seven and half minute dialogue introduces the two characters‘ backgrounds and
dialects through their way of speaking. But a close look at the Arabic translation
shows that there is hardly any difference between both characters in this regard
since the swear words are euphemized and ST vernacular expressions are
translated into standard Arabic. For example, ‗me name‘ is translated as ‗٫ٍٝ‫ ‘ا‬or ‗my
name‘. The same applies to ‗meself‘. Moreover, swear words such as ‗bleeding‘ and
‗bloody‘ are omitted in the translation and the phrase ‗f***ed up‘ is euphemized as ‗ً‫‘رجب‬
or ‗may evil befall on someone‘. Furthermore, although the translator‘s choice for
‗tits‘ ‗ٟ٬‫ل‬٥٠‘ (breasts) cannot be said to be euphemised, the word in Arabic is formal
and the English is vernacular.
Moreover, when Rita offers to lend ‗Rubyfruit Jungle‘ to Bryan she says: ‗Do
you wanna lend it?‘, whereas when he offers to lend her ‗Howards End‘ he says:
‗Would you like to borrow it?‘ The difference in register appears clearly between the
two utterances in English. While in Arabic, the first is translated as ‗ ‫ب؟‬٥‫ل اٍزمبهر‬٬‫ٗ رو‬٤‘
100
‗Do you want to borrow it?‘ and the second is translated as ‗ ‫؟‬٣‫ اٍزمبهر‬ٟ٬‫ك‬٧‫ٗ ر‬٤‘ ‗Would
you like to borrow it?‘ As both ‗lend‘ and ‗borrow‘ are used for the same purpose or to
ask the same question, although they have different meanings, they appear to be the
same in Arabic and the audience would not spot any difference.
Other examples that took place during the same dialogue also support the
argument. For instance, Rita uses ‗like‘ at the end of a sentence every now and then,
as is the habit of working class people. This word is omitted in the Arabic translation:
‗What‘s this like?‘ is translated as ‗‫نا؟‬٤ ‫ب‬ٜ‘ or ‗What‘s this?‘
In the following section, the aim is to find out if this translation helped the
audience understands the dialect versus social class dilemma by conducting an
experiment.
4.2.5 Experiment (I): Educating Rita
4.2.5.1 Introduction
Since the idea of subtitling English-language dialects into Arabic dialects was ruled
out due to the fact that colloquial was not meant to be used in writing because, as
Mazid (2006: 94) argues, they still lack the codification and orthographic
systematicity necessary for being used in writing (except in the case of using some
lexical item occasionally), and since the ability of dubbing to represent the dialects of
the source film will be discussed in the next chapter, there remains little to suggest
with regard to subtitling dialects. However, in order to minimize the gap between two
cultures when subtitling a film such as Educating Rita into Arabic, one may use a
simple, yet crucial technique. When we watch films, we sometimes notice that they
start with an introduction that aims at delivering information to the audience that is
important for the understanding of the film. Similarly, this technique can be used to
draw the attention of the spectators to the issue of social class and dialects. This
introduction, however, should not be a summary of the film but rather a clue that
highlights the issue of dialects. For example, a possible introduction to Educating
Rita could be the following:
101
ٟ٬‫خ ا٘ن‬ٜٙ‫ أٌواك ا٘ؽجّخ ا٘مب‬ٟٜ ‫م٭ِ إ٘ض٭و‬٬ ‫ٖ) ؽ٭ش‬٧‫خ (٘٭ٍوث‬٬‫٭ي‬ٕٙ٠‫بل٭خ اإل‬١‫خ ا٘ص‬١٬‫ل‬ٜٖ‫ ا‬٫ٌ ٛٙ‫نا اٍ٘٭‬٤ ‫رّك أؽلاس‬
.٩‫ٍؽ‬٧٘‫ ا٘ؽجّخ ا‬٫ٌ ‫غخ اَ٘بئلح‬٥ٙ٘‫ ا‬ٟ‫ً ل‬ٙ‫ رقز‬٫‫ ا٘ز‬ٛ٥‫غز‬٥ٙ‫ ث‬ٞ٦‫٭ي‬ٝ‫ز‬٬
٩‫ٍؽ‬٧٘‫ؽجّخ ا‬ٙ٘ ‫ب‬٥‫غبهار‬ٜ ٖ‫ فال‬ٟٜ ٗ‫ ؽ٭بح أٌع‬٩ٙ‫ٖ ل‬٧‫ؾص‬ٙ٘ )‫زب‬٬‫ (ه‬٩‫رَم‬
‫غبهاح؟‬ٝ٘‫ ا‬٢‫ن‬٥٘ ٌٟٝ‫بْ ص‬١٤ ٗ٥ٌ
The events of this film take place in the English industrial city Liverpool, where
many ordinary people live and who speak in an accent different from that
spoken by the middle class.
Rita tries to live a life similar to that of the middle class. But is there a price to
be paid for this?
As one can see, such simple introductions may fill the gap that MSA cannot fill. They
help compensate for the loss that results from failing to transfer spoken colloquial
English into written MSA. In order to see to what extent this method can be valid, an
experiment was conducted on this film by adding the above stated introduction.
4.2.5.2 Description of participants and experiments
Because it was done in Syria, the participants in this experiment were all Syrians
who came from different educational backgrounds as well as different age groups.
However, they all shared one thing: their English did not go beyond the intermediate
level. For the experiment, they were told that they were going to watch the same film,
Educating Rita, twice and were requested to choose the translation that helped them
understand the message of the film better. On the first occasion, participants were
requested to watch the film without the introduction suggested above; the second
time they were requested to watch the introduction. Afterwards, a short interview was
conducted to listen to their points of view and find out which translation they
preferred and why as we will see.
4.2.5.3 Results
When Sami, 23 years old, was asked which of the two translations had helped him
understand the story or the message which the film wanted to convey, he replied that
he had noticed no difference, and that the introduction in the second copy had not
102
added much to his understanding of the film. He said that he knew already that Rita
was a poor girl who was trying to have a better life by having a better future through
going to the University. Similarly, Adel, 35 years old, indicated that he noticed the
issue of class difference by noting the difference between Rita‘s and Frank‘s social
surroundings, especially where they both lived and worked. So, the introduction did
not matter a lot. But when both Sami and Adel were asked if they noticed any
differences in the dialects or even accents in the film, they said that they had not.
The rest of the participants have different point of view as we will see in the
following few examples. Omar, 28 years old, maintained that the introduction
enabled him to pay attention to the differences in the accents which passed
unnoticed in the first copy. Similarly, Zahir, 41 years old, argued that the introduction
in the second copy made all the difference for him because it increased his
understanding of the film. Moreover, Murad, 25 years old, insisted that the second
copy raised his awareness of an issue that he had not realized in the first copy. He
said that without the introduction he would not have known about the relationships
between class and dialects for they do not exist in Syria. The rest of the participants
shared similar opinions to this, too.
4.2.5.4 Conclusion
As was reported in the literature, section 2.3.1, and as Fawcett (1996),

Karamitroglou, (1997), Jaskanen, (2001), and Assis Rosa, (2001) have maintained,
subtitling dialects into dialects does not solve the issue of rendering such dialects
comprehensible because they will be difficult to read. It is like creating a barrier while
trying to find a solution to another barrier. Therefore, the solution above tried to find a
middle ground in which the ST dialects are introduced to the target audience at no
cost. Although El-Hakim (see Appendix B) from VSI did not agree with such a
solution because it sounds as if it tells the audience about the message of the film
from the very beginning and therefore spoils the suspense element, most of the
participants as well as the rest of the practitioners who were interviewed thought that
it is practical and helpful since there is no other option, apart from dubbing.
Moreover, it should be remembered that there are many films that adopt this
technique to make the audience familiar with a certain aspect that a film cannot tell
for different reasons. For example, in the famous Spanish film Pan‟s Labyrinth (del
103
Toro, 2006) which was released in 2006, there is an introduction at the beginning
that sets the historical background of the film, mentioning the war between the
Spanish Maquis, guerrillas, who fought against the Franco regime in the region as
well as the place and time in which the story took place. The same can be applied to
Valkyrie (Singer, 2008) and other films.
Moreover, the fact that the majority of the participants voted for the idea of
introducing dialects shows that the first showing without the introduction did not help
them to understand Scouse and what it implies and that introducing the dialects in
the second showing did improve their understanding of the film. This means that the
issue of transferring dialects in films such as Educating Rita should not be ignored.
Although the technique suggested above is costless and does not take time, it is only
an attempt to bridge the gap between the ST and the target culture. Professionals
may also propose other methods that do the same job in a better way.
4.3 Swearing and taboo
4.3.1 Introduction
Swearing is the second issue in subtitling into Arabic that this thesis tackles in order
to answer the second thesis question about censorship and its effect on the
message of a film.
Swearing and culture are in fact interrelated. While swearing is more
acceptable in Western culture, it is less so in many other cultures such as the Arab
and Islamic ones. For example, Pakistani cricket umpire Shakoor Rana was quoted
in Hughes (1991: 32) as saying: ―Calling me a bastard may be excusable in England,
but here people murder someone who calls another man a bastard.‖ In many
English-language audiovisuals of different genres swearing is an essential
component. Turner (1999: 139) argues that film is a social practice that reflects
everyday lives through gossip, fashion, and the whole range of activities through
which cultural identities are formed. Moreover, according to Phillips (1975: 23), the
cinema has been forced to diversify from its traditional material. One of its more
successful reactions to this has been the injection of greater realism into pictures. In
104
the case of subtitled audiovisuals, translators, together with the moving picture,
share the responsibility of reflecting this realism to the target audience.
Karamitroglou (1996: 56) proposes that film translation in particular has an
immense potential to access and bridge peoples‘ lifestyles and thoughts, more
perhaps than any other mode of translation. Furthermore, Leppihalme (1997) and
Hatim (1996) suggest that translators need to be not just bilingual but bicultural in
order to fully understand the ST and be able to transmit it to the target audience. The
challenge begins there, in fact. For example, Nord (1994: 61) believes in the
untranslatability of some cultural aspects which Leppihalme calls ‗cultural bumps‘.
These aspects include cultural-specific or culture- bound elements such as the
translation of humour, including plays on words or puns, and the translation of strong
language or swear words. This is one of the reasons why censorship, according to
Hughes (1991: 191), has increasingly been less concerned with ideological or
political issues and has focused on the question of 'obscenity', usually taken to mean
the explicit depiction of sex and the use of 'dirty' or taboo words. But the debate
among translators as well as audiences remains about the extent to which the
translator can be faithful to the source text. In other words, how important swear
words and taboos are to the understanding of the message of an audiovisual
material is what these paragraphs are trying to answer, taking into consideration the
fact that people in the West nowadays tend to swear more than in earlier
generations. In 2006, a contestant on the UK‘s Big Brother TV show used the f-word
88 times in 20 minutes.
4.3.2 Why swear?
Montagu (1967: 3) suggests that swearing serves clearly definable social as well as
personal purposes. Its function is relief producing when there has already been a
sufficient amount of feeling. Moreover, Andersson and Trudgill (1990: 53) argue that
swearing can be used to show strong emotions. For them (ibid: 63) swear words are
words you use when you have no others better at your disposal. The argument here
is that swearing is a personal weakness - your vocabulary is so small that you have
to use these 'easy' and 'lazy' words. Fernández Fernández (2006) proposes that
people often feel they need to use swear words in order to release tension, to
express strong emotions and attitudes, such as anger, surprise, frustration or
105
annoyance. There are certain situations in which no other words are more
appropriate. Jay (2000: 9), moreover, argues that cursing serves the emotional
needs of the speaker as well as affecting listeners emotionally. It permits a speaker
to express strong emotions and/or produce an emotional impact on the listener.
The famous How Stuff Works webpage explains that many people think of
swearing as an instinctive response to something painful and unexpected (like hitting
your head on an open cabinet door) or something frustrating and upsetting (like
being stuck in traffic on the way to a job interview). This is one of the most common
uses for swearing, and many researchers believe that it helps relieve stress and
blow off steam, like crying does for small children. Beyond angry or resentful words
said in the heat of the moment, swearing is frequently used in social interactions. In
the past, researchers have theorized that men swear to create a masculine identity
and women swear to be more like men. More recent studies, however, theorize that
women swear in part because they are emulating women they admire. Similarly, the
use of particular expletives can establish a group identity, membership in a group,
express solidarity with other people, express trust and intimacy, add humour, and
attempt to camouflage a person's fear or insecurity. People also swear because they
feel they are expected to or because swearing has become a habit.
Finally, for Burnham (1993: 210) swearing is a direct assault on social
institutions that could conceivably be involved in taboos. Offensive religious and
sexual language, therefore, threatens religious and sexual institutions. Moreover,
Hughes (1991: 3) argues that swearing draws upon such powerful and incongruous
resonators as religion, sex, madness, excretion and nationality, encompassing an
extraordinary variety of attitudes, including the violent, the amusing, the shocking,
the absurd, the casual and the impossible. But regardless of the reasons why people
swear, it is worth remembering that the frequency of use of swear words, especially
sexual ones, depends on the social class of the swearer. For instance, McEnery
(2006: 55) maintains that the higher the social class the lower the usage of bad
language words.
Therefore, the above paragraphs suggest that swearing is necessary for self-
relief, and it is a psychological or even a biological need. This leads us to wonder
how people in some cultures where swearing is almost absent, at least in public,
satisfy or respond to this need, or at least what they do if they do not swear.
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4.3.3 Euphemism
Many people think that swear words are not really important for transmitting the
message that some audiovisuals try to convey since facial expressions can do the
job. This most happens in cultures that do not believe in swearing as a means for
expressing anger. One of these means is using words that are close to the taboo
ones and which have less effect on the listener. The Chinese, for example, shun
swearing. Kao (1994: 172) argues that the Chinese are well-known for their concern
for face and that they are good at indirectness of speech, whether with reference to
unpleasant realities or out of respect for one‘s elders and betters. Similarly, the same
thing can be said about Arabic-speaking cultures where swear words are hardly
spoken on TV.
Having said that does not mean that euphemism is only applied by certain
nations or cultures such as the Arab or Chinese ones. In Western culture which is
considered more liberal when it comes to swearing and taboos, one can find that
some people still euphemise swear and taboo words. For instance, ‗shoot‘ and
‗sugar‘ are euphemisms of ‗s***‘, ‗duck‘ is a euphemism for ‗f***‘ and so on.
Euphemism is the substitution of a less direct word or phrase that people
often use to refer to something embarrassing or unpleasant, sometimes to make it
seem more acceptable than it really is. Newmark (1995a: 172-3) argues that the
purpose of euphemism is to avoid giving offence and/or to conceal the truth. Kao
(1994: 174) considers euphemisms as part of idiomatic speech, born of the cultural
background, the customs and folkways, the manners and mores of people, and
peculiar to a particular time and place. Euphemisms embody synonyms, metaphors,
hyperbole, allusions, abbreviations, jargon, slang, puns and other forms of rhetorical
language. Moreover, Newmark (2002: 187) proposes that euphemisms reflect
linguistically a natural inherent psychological reaction, a type of self-defense. (‗I‘m
not bad‘ means ‗I think I‘m good, but I do not want to say so.‘)
According to Allan and Burridge (1991: 14) euphemism can be achieved
through antithetical means, such as by circumlocution and abbreviation, acronym or
even complete omission and also by one-to-one substitution; by general-for-specific
and part-for-whole substitution. In other words, Allan and Burridge (2006: 2) argue
that taboo and the consequent censoring of language motivate language change by
promoting the creation of highly inventive and often playful new expressions, or new
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meanings for old expressions, causing existing vocabulary to be abandoned. A quick
look at any Arabic subtitles on English-language audiovisuals will show that such
types of euphemisms are used, sometimes excessively, to hide swear and taboo
words. Different swear words are euphemized differently by translators depending on
their experience and the demands of the market. As we will see, there is no rule or a
pool of vocabulary that is agreed on by subtitlers for substituting the source texts‘
swear words. Using Standard Arabic, subtitlers find it easy to employ vocabulary
which is acceptable to the audience and which expresses, as much as it can, the
situation in which swear words are uttered. According to Mazid (2006: 94), using
Standard Arabic to replace obscene words in their colloquial version tends to take
away most of their obscenity. Words or phrases that are related to religion and sex
are considered as taboos in many societies, especially in Muslim ones. And as
Andersson and Trudgill (1990: 55) argue, taboos of different sorts are not just
isolated facts in a culture but important elements in the structure and social life of a
culture.
4.3.4 Case Study (B): London to Brighton
Censorship in the Arab world is not total in the age of globalization and the spread of
satellite and pre-paid TV cards. However, and in order to avoid being banned and to
satisfy their audience, satellite TV channels that broadcast from outside Arab
countries apply censorship to taboos. For those channels or cinemas that operate
from within these countries, censorship is usually controlled by a special office that
works under the ministry of information, which ensures that all political, religious and
sexual taboos are either omitted or euphemized. If a film, for example, does not
achieve this, it is then returned to the cinema or TV channel which in turn returns it to
the subtitling company to be amended. So, these companies are usually directed by
the client (TV channels, cinemas or distributors) about what to censor. But the
question here is how do these companies deal with the dilemma of censoring taboos
in a way that does not distort the message of the source audiovisual material?
Before we detail the translation of swear words into Arabic in London to
Brighton (Williams, 2006), we will stop at another famous film that was subtitled in
Egypt to see how Egyptian translators dealt with swear words. Con Air (West, 1997)
is a Hollywood action film directed by Simon West and starring Nicolas Cage.
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In the film, there are 143 swear words, 33 of which were omitted in the
subtitled version, while the rest were euphemized except in the case of ‗p***‘ word
which was translated as ٖ٧‫زج‬٬ or ‗to pass urine‘ and ‗hell‘ was translated as it is: ٛ‫عؾ٭‬.
The subtitler chose words such as ‫خ‬١‫م‬ٙ٘‫ا‬، ٟ‫٘م٭‬، ‫ول‬٦، ‫ؽّ٭و‬، ً‫رجب‬، ُٝ‫ أؽ‬or ‗damn‘ ‗damned‘
‗wretched‘ ‗fool‘ ‗vile‘ and ‗may evil befall on someone‘ to replace words such as ‗f***‘
and ‗s***‘ words and their derivatives, ‗punk‘, ‗p****‘, ‗d***head‘, ‗b****‘, bastard and
so on. (see Appendix G for more details on how all swear words in the film were
subtitled and how many of them were omitted) The religious taboos were
euphemized in a strange way. For example, ‗Jesus!‘ was subtitled as ً‫ رجب‬or ‗may evil
befall on you‘. The sentence about the existence of God which says: ―All l can think
about is like…there ain't no God; that He don‘t exist.‖ was translated as: ―All I can
think about is that God exists but He does not show.‖ or ‫ك‬٧‫ع‬٧ٜ ‫ اهلل‬ٞ‫ أ‬٧٤ ٞ‫ اٮ‬٣‫ب إٌٔو ث‬ٜ ٗٔ
‫و‬٥‫ف‬٬ ‫ ال‬٣١ٕ٘. This is an example of how taboos are translated in a Hollywood film that
was subtitled in Egypt. In Syria, censorship goes even further, as we will see in
London to Brighton.
London to Brighton is a film that was directed by Paul Andrew Williams in
2006 and which was rated 18 since it contains strong language and violence. It is an
abrasive thriller about a prostitute (Kelly) and a young runaway (Joanne) escaping
the grasp of a ruthless pimp and his shady underworld connections. Set within a
flashback structure where events are gradually pieced together, the film is filled with
one impossibly tense scene after another, heightened by the fact that you genuinely
cannot predict how characters will react to particular situations. The strong language
in the film reflects realism. The film paints a vividly realistic underground Britain
peopled by prostitutes, pimps, paedophiles and runaways. Despite that, it is believed
that the biggest detriment to the film is the language. While it is perfectly acceptable
to have characters who swear blindly throughout, especially if it is representative of
the world they inhabit, uttering the F word every other word cheapens the drama by
making it come across as a crude wannabe rather than a serious contender, which it
most certainly is, or rather should have been.
London to Brighton was subtitled in Syria in 2006 and, surprisingly enough,
the subtitler decided to omit two-thirds of the swear words. For instance, he
euphemized the ‗f‘ word 28 times out of 129 and omitted the rest. ‗C***‘ was
euphemized 9 out of 11 times and was omitted twice. ‗S***‘ was euphemized 6 out of
6 times. ‗P***‘ was also euphemized 3 out of 3 times and the words ‗bastard‘ and
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‗s***hole‘ were mentioned once each and were euphemized. The words ‗a**‘, ‗arse‘,
‗b****‘, and ‗a**hole‘ were mentioned once each in the ST and were omitted. The
word ‗bloody‘ occurred twice and was also deleted in both. Similar to Con Air, the
equivalents of the English swear words in Arabic ranged from ،ُٝ‫ أؽ‬،ٛ‫ عؾ٭‬،ٟ‫ رجبً ٘م٭‬،‫خ‬١‫م‬ٙ٘‫ا‬
‫ ظبعك‬،‫ ؽّ٭و‬،‫وح‬٤‫ لب‬to ‫ علاً اثزمل‬،‫٭ب‬٤ or ‗damn‘, ‗may evil befall on you‘, ‗damned‘, ‗hell‘, ‗fool‘,
‗prostitute‘, ‗vile‘, ‗slept with‘ and ‗come on‘, ‗very‘, ‗go away‘. They were used to
replace words such as ‗f***‘ and its derivatives, ‗bastard‘, ‗b****‘, ‗s***‘, ‗c***‘, ‗p***‘
and ‗a***‘. For more on the translation of swear words in the film, see Appendix H.
Omitting or euphemizing swear words is a requirement of the audience
regardless of whether this may affect the message of the audiovisual material or not.
Moreover, there are swear words that do not have equivalents in Arabic linguistically
speaking, such as ‗f***ing‘ when it occurs as an adjective. For example, ‗f***ing‘ in
‗I‘m f***ing angry‘ is usually treated in Arabic as a dummy adjective or is translated
into an adverb such as ‗very‘ or ً‫علا‬. Another alternative is to replace it by an adverb
such as ‗extremely‘ or ‫خ‬٬‫ىب‬ٙ٘, for instance. But regardless of whether omitting swear
words and taboos is done for ideological or linguistic reasons, Baradhi (see
Appendix C) maintains that omitting or euphemizing swear words does not affect the
message of the film but rather tones down the rhythm of these words. Hayek (see
Appendix E) argues that this does not affect the message of a film, especially if
swear words are not essential to that message. Similarly, Khuddro (see Appendix A)
proposes that the message is usually not affected by euphemism. Moreover, Kaadi
(see Appendix D) maintains that the message is unlikely to be affected, although this
may depend on the film. But El-Hakim (see Appendix B) had a different opinion. She
believes that euphemism does affect the message of film since it is impossible to
maintain the same effect as the original and thus some content may be lost. In order
to find out more about censorship of English swear words in films that are subtitled
into Arabic and whether this affects the message or not, an experiment on London to
Brighton was conducted as will be illustrated in the next section.
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4.3.5 Experiment (II): London to Brighton
Considering the number of swear words omitted, it is obvious that the subtitler of
London to Brighton decided to reduce obscenity as much as he could, thus he kept
47 words out of 154. In order to see whether this affected the plot and its intended
message, an experiment on the film was conducted in order to try to keep as many
swear words as possible, adopting skopos theory as a guideline to translate the film.
Although the film contains strong language that continues throughout, swear words
could still be rendered and make the film watchable in the target culture. Therefore,
the skopos (purpose or goal) in this case was to translate the strong language in a
way that would not offend the target audience and yet retained its function. This
meant euphemising and deleting swear words as one cannot talk about equivalence
in this regard. As a result, 99 swear words out of the 107 omitted were translated
and added to the 47 that had already been subtitled. Furthermore, other swear
words that were not used by the subtitler were also introduced to avoid as much
repetition as possible as Appendix H illustrates. Only 8 swear words were ruled out
in the modified version. Moreover, some of the already euphemized words were
toned up as much as possible to sound more realistic but remain inoffensive. For
example, the ‗f‘ word which was translated as ‗very‘ in ‗I‘m f***ing angry‘ which
became ‗I‘m very angry‘ was re-translated as ً‫َزبء علا‬ٜ ‫ب‬٠‫ أ‬,‫خ‬١‫م‬ٙ٘‫‗ ا‬Damn, I‘m very angry‘,
and so on.
4.3.5.2 Description of participants and experiment

Ten participants from different nationalities (mainly Syrian, Jordanian, Libyan,
Palestinian, and Saudis), different educational levels and age groups were chosen.
The experiment was done in the UK where the participants had come to either start a
language course or to visit relatives. For validity purposes, only participants who
usually rely on subtitles to understand audiovisuals were selected. In other words,
their command of English was checked to ensure it did not exceed upper
intermediate. The participants were asked to watch translations of London to
Brighton, the original one as well as that which was modified. After they had watched
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both copies, starting with the original translation and ending with the modified one,
the participants were asked which of the two translations better reflected the plot of
the film, and as a result, allowed them to enjoy the film more.
4.3.5.3 Results and discussion

Although the ten participants were expected to find the new modified translation
more reflective of the film‘s accelerating events, this was not the case. When it
comes to swearing and taboo, the Arabic-speaking audiences are not tolerant, even
if such words are euphemised. Euphemism is relative in the sense that what has
been euphemised, may still be considered too rude by others. For example, some
may not accept the ‗f‘ word (verb) being translated as ‗to sleep with‘ or ‗ ‫ك‬ٜ ٚ‫ب‬١٬‘ but
prefer it to be translated as ‗to have intimacy with‘ or ‗‫ُمبّو‬٬‘, and so on. It was
surprising that some of the participants preferred the first translation simply because
it was censored more than the modified one and it was easy to read as the subtitles
were shorter. This is what happened with Abdulaziz (aged 30) from Egypt, Fuaad
(27) from Jordan and Muhammed (36) from Saudi Arabia who preferred the first
translation for the reasons mentioned above, despite the fact that the modified
version still euphemised swear words to respect the audience‘s sensitivities. They in
fact remind us of one of the BBC viewers, Mr S J Redfern, who wrote to the Radio
Times in 1988 saying: ―Could I for one congratulate the BBC for removing offensive
language which neither enhances the quality of the film nor diminishes its powerful
effect‖ (cited in: Andersson and Trudgill, 1990: 14).
The seven other participants opted for the modified translation since it went
hand in hand with the plot and action of the film. The first, they argued, did not reflect
the characters‘ attitudes. In other words, when the events reach a fiery climax it is
noticeable that the translation does not go hand in hand with them. For instance,
Mostafa (20) maintained that he interacted with the second version more as it was
more realistic and expressive than the first. Similarly, Ibrahim (23) also found the
second film more interesting than the first because the subtitles synchronized with
the utterances, whereas the first translation ruled out some words. Finally, Amir from
Syria (29) maintained that the second translation helped him enjoy the film more
because the swear words reflected the rapid action in the film. The first translation,
according to Amir, felt cold in comparison to what went on screen.
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4.3.5.4 Conclusion
The issue of translating taboos is problematic simply because different people have
different backgrounds and, therefore, their perception of swear words, even when
euphemized, varies. An example of this is the 3 participants who preferred a more
conservative translation, although the modified translation took into account the
reaction of the audience. Nevertheless, the number of swear words that occurred in
the film seemed too great for some of the participants. However, the fact that 7
participants out of 10 were in favour of the second version proves that censorship,
when excessively done, can debase the intended message of the audiovisuals,
especially where swearing is part of the message. For this reason, the goal(s) of the
translation should be defined so that the translator knows what the message is that
the audiovisual material‘s distributor wants to deliver and how it should be delivered.
Another thing that should be learned from this experiment is that in order to
win over the three participants who voted for the first translation, the swear words
chosen to be toned up should be toned down again, especially those related to sex
such as the ‗f‘ words, the ‗c‘ word, ‗prostitute‘, etc. The danger does not in fact lie in
the number of swear words but in the way they are rendered into Arabic. After all, it
is audiences who give the final word for a success or a failure of a translation and,
therefore, it is they whom the translator should bear in mind in the first place when
translating.
To conclude, as was mentioned in section 2.3.2, Arab (Athamneh and Zitawi,
1999; Khuddro, 2000; Mazid, 2006), Asian (Chen, 2004) and Western (Krasovska,
2004; Scandura, 2004; Fernández Dobao, 2006; Taivalkoski-Shilov, 2008) cultures
euphemise and censor swearing and taboo words sometimes, although the degree
of such euphemism and censorship varies from one culture to another. The question
is how many words to censor and euphemise rather than whether to apply
censorship or not, something which is unquestionable, indeed. So, it is the amount of
swearing that should be euphemised is to which attention should be paid, especially
if swear words are part and parcel of the audiovisuals‘ message.
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4.4 Humour
4.4.1 Introduction
This section of the thesis will deal with the third translation obstacle in subtitling into
Arabic which is the subtitling of humour. It will examine what effect subtitled humour
may have on the target audience compared to that which the original text had on its
audience (Research question 4).
But before we proceed to define humour, it is worth attracting the attention of
the reader to what Diaz-Cintas and Remael propose (2007: 212). They argue that
defining humour is a tricky undertaking; that definitions of humour and approaches to
its study have accumulated over time, and that they continue to do so. Humour is
defined by Newmark (2003: 126) as ―a generic term for mirth, laughter and smiling. It
has elements of the surprising, the unusual, the irregular and the absurd. It is
evinced in vocal sound and/or facial expression… It acts as a release after tension. It
produces a sense of well-being and happiness‖. Moreover, Raskin (1985: 1)
maintains that laughter is more often than not the expression of a feeling of
funniness. Furthermore, Max Herzberg and Leon Mones who are quoted in
Raphaelson-West (1989: 140) argues that humour is an enjoyable juggling with
social taboos, with this or that forbidden action or custom. It is playing with illusions
until truth is illuminated as never before. Finally, the Oxford Dictionary (Hornby,
2005) defines humour as the quality in something that makes it funny or amusing.
Pun, joke, irony, and wordplay can be classified under verbal humour, which this
research is concerned about.
4.4.2 (Un)translatability of humour
For the sake of both research and the subtitling profession it would be useful to see
how humour is treated when subtitled into Arabic. Its translation needs special
attention for reasons that were discussed in section 2.3.3 and for reasons that will
become apparent soon. Vandaele (2002c) suggests that ―the dearth of serious work
on humour translation in translation studies suggests that humour translation is
qualitatively different from ‗other types‘ of translation and, consequently, one cannot
114
write about humour translation in the same way one writes about other types of
translation.‖ Similarly, Leibold (1989: 109) argues that the translation of humour is a
stimulating challenge as it requires the accurate decoding of a humorous speech in
its original context, the transfer of that speech in a different and often disparate
linguistic and cultural environment, and its reformulation in a new utterance which
successfully recaptures the intention of the original humorous message and evokes
in the target audience an equivalent pleasurable and playful response. Moreover,
Newmark (2003: 126) maintains that expression of humour may be modified by
cultural factors. Carrell as quoted in Bell (2007: 373) identifies two reasons for an
interlocutor‘s failure to recognize a joke as such: an inability to identify the form of
the joke text or a lack of the necessary scripts to interpret the text as a joke. But the
question that keeps repeating itself is whether humour, when translated, has the
same effect on the audience as the ST has. For this question to be answered, it is
important to investigate what both theorists and practitioners think about this issue,
then analyze the Arabic subtitles of the American sitcom Friends5 (Crane and
Kauffman, 1995) and after that carry out an experiment on 3 episodes of this famous
TV show.
4.4.3 Case Study (C): Friends
Taking into account what has been written in chapter 2 about the (un)translatability
of humour and the challenge(s) that cultural differences pose in this regard, subtitling
humour into Arabic is particularly challenging. The deeper the gap between any two
cultures, the more difficult it is to bridge it. For example, an Italian subtitler may face
fewer difficulties when subtitling the American sitcom Friends than one subtitling the
same series into Arabic as Hayek (see Appendix E) maintains. Hayek also argues
that ―It is impossible for the translated humour to have the same effect as that of the
original due to cultural differences.‖ Moreover, Baradhi (see Appendix C) and
5
Friends is based in Manhattan and is about 6 young friends who struggle to find success and
happiness in life when things never go straightforwardly. Due to its great success, Friends has been
subtitled into many languages, among which is Arabic.
115
Khuddro (see Appendix A) share a similar view point to each other. Likewise, El-
Hakim (see Appendix B) and Khuddro both believe that culture makes it impossible
for humour to have the same effect as it has in the source text. When Khuddro was
asked to subtitle Great Moments of Humour in British Comedy, for example, he could
not manage to translate more than 5% of the jokes due to culture.
In order to come up with a possible solution for the problem, the interviewees
were asked if the degree of faithfulness to the text and the space of freedom which
the subtitler has may affect the quality of humour. In other words, their task was to
discover if it makes any difference if priority is given to the joke rather than the text.
In this sense, El-Hakim argued that priority should be to try and marry the
message/joke with the initial script i.e. try and find the closest equivalent, and if this
is not possible, to come up with a local equivalent. However, for Khuddro and Kaadi
both the joke and the text are equally important, and both complement each other to
convey the message requested. Moreover, Hayek maintained that it all depends on
where the material is to be shown. If audiovisuals are subtitled for Saudi Arabia, then
the subtitler is completely restricted, but if they are subtitled for the Lebanese
market, then the subtitler has more freedom to express the humour of the ST which
will make it more effective. Baradhi believed that subtitlers are usually faithful to the
text rather than the joke, especially when they translate the script without watching
the audiovisual material.
In fact, regardless of the degree of freedom that the subtitlers may have,
culture will still pose a challenge, as the following examples from Friends will show.
There are many sitcoms which were also investigated by the researcher and which
are similar to Friends in the sense that they are full of wordplays, cultural and sexual-
based jokes. Saved by the Bell (Bobrick, 1989), Grace under Fire (Lorre, 1993), The
Golden Girls (Lorre, 1993) and City Guys (Corrigan et al., 1997) are all famous
sitcoms that were subtitled and broadcast on Arab TV channels. Nevertheless,
Friends remains the most popular series ever, and is rebroadcast year after year on
many TV channels, even at the time of writing these lines.
The jokes below are divided into jokes that rely on sexual references, jokes
that rely on puns and those that rely on cultural references. Each of the following
jokes will be followed by commentary (decision details) on the translation and
possible alternatives that could make the jokes funnier in Arabic. These alternatives
are based on skopos theory detailed in chapter 2.
116
Skopos theory allows the translator to function according to the skopos
defined: ‗be humorous‘ and ‗polite‘. The aim of Friends is to entertain its viewers and
make them laugh throughout the 20 minutes. In the same way, the Arabic translator
has the responsibility to entertain the Arabic-speaking audiences and make them
laugh, which is not as easy as it seems. The first barrier that s/he is expected to deal
with is taboo words. The second is cultural references including wordplays. So, in the
following three sections, we will find out more about how skopos theory helps
translator deal with such barriers.
4.4.3.2 Jokes with sexual connotation

Raskin (1985: 148) argues that sexual humour has been researched by
suppression/release-based theories6, and the prevalent thesis has been that sex,
along with other physiological functions and direct violence, is normally suppressed
and repressed, and humour provides an outlet for its release in a way which may be
more appropriate and socially and ethically acceptable than the more direct and
natural way. Moreover, (1992: 8) Chiaro maintains that in ‗civilized‘ societies dirty
jokes are considered amusing especially if they concern newly-weds or sexual
initiation. However, according to Chiaro, such jokes undergo variations from culture
to culture. Hayek (see Appendix E) proposes that ―the English-language humour
relies for a good deal on sexual language, something that does not suit the Arab
culture. For instance, if Friends is subtitled into Arabic, it will lose much of its humour
due to censorship. So, it would be a waste of effort to do so.‖
Jokes that can be classified under this category are many in Friends and are
always either omitted or euphemized, thus reducing the effect of the joke as Hayek
argued. In the following examples, we will look at the way such jokes are subtitled
and the extent to which the translation is able to elicit the same laughter in the target
language. It should be remembered that such types of joke can be considered
international and not restricted to a particular culture. However, censorship will still
interfere to make the jokes less effective or have no effect at all. The examples
below will be followed by a back translation from Arabic into English to show the
6
The advocates of this theory have maintained that a human being operates under a great
number of constraints- to be logical, to think clearly, to talk sense. For more on this theory, see Raskin
(1985: 38).
117
difference between the original and translated dialogue and, as a result, the changes
that are made on jokes. Moreover, each joke will be underlined in both texts to
identify the differences more easily. Then it will be followed by a commentary and a
suggestion for a more functional translation.
For instance, in joke number 8 below, Ross asks Mona to stop flattering
Rachel by saying to her ―don‘t kiss a**‖ which was translated as ―stop flattering‖
which does not sound funny. The closest euphemised equivalent to ‗a**‘ is ‗٩ٍِ‘ or
‗٢‫ئفو‬ٜ‘, both of which can be interpreted as ‗back‘. But it would still be offensive to say
that someone is kissing someone‘s back. Therefore, it can be translated functionally
as ‗don‘t kiss feet‘ to make it funnier than ‗stop flattering‘. To kiss someone‘s feet in
Arabic is said about someone begging for something which may work here since
Mona is in a way trying to become friend with Rachel but she exaggerates to do so.
As was mentioned, the functional approach permits paraphrasing and substitution
while trying to keep the speaker‘s intention which is, in the above example, to stop
Mona in a funny way. More examples of this type are discussed below.
SAMPLE 1: CONTEXT:7 Rachel gives birth to a baby girl (Emma) and she is worried
that she may have to raise her alone. Joey tells her that Ross, the father of the baby
and who has a new girl friend, will help her:
Joey: What about Ross?
Rachel: Oh, please! He‘ll be with his real family,
The twins and little miss boobs.
...‫ ا٘ؾّ٭ّ٭خ‬٣‫ز‬ٙ‫ك لبئ‬ٜ ٞ٧ٕ‫ ٍ٭‬،ْ٧‫ أهع‬:‫راشﯿم‬
.‫لح‬٬‫عخ ا٘غل‬٦‫ ا٘ي‬٦ ٟ‫٭‬ٜ‫أ‬٧‫ك ا٘ز‬ٜ
Rachel: Please! He‘ll be with his real family,
the twins and the new wife.
The subtitler chose ‗the new wife‘ to euphemize ‗Miss Boobs‘, removing any sense of
humour in the joke. With the same degree of freedom that the subtitler has given to
himself to change the word, he can replace it with a funnier expression such as:
‗‫ ماد ا٘صله إ٘ج٭و‬٣‫عز‬٦‫‗ ‘ى‬his wife with the big chest‘ or ‗‫بٖ اّ٘جبؽخ‬ٝ‫ٕخ ع‬ٜٙ‘ ‗Miss Ugliness‘ if he
wanted to sound more polite, and so on.
7
This joke is taken from season 8, episode 24 (2002), ‗The One Where Rachel Has a Baby‘.
118
SAMPLE 2: CONTEXT:8 Jim dates Phoebe for the first time. He is rather rude. While
they are in a restaurant, he starts looking at her and flattering her:
Jim: (to Phoebe) I‘m sorry, I‘m staring.

It is just that you have the most beautiful eyes…
and your breasts! Hmmm!!!.
،ٓ‫ أؽلَ ٌ٭‬٫١٠‫ آًٍ أل‬:‫جﯿم‬

...ٞ٪ٟ‫ٗ ل٭‬ٝ‫ٓ أع‬٬‫ ٘ل‬ٟٕ٘
.ٜٓ‫ا‬٧ِ٦
Jim: (to Phoebe) I‘m sorry, I‘m staring.

It is just that you have the most beautiful eyes…
and your figure.
‗Breast‘ which is a euphemism of ‗boobs‘ is still euphemized with the word ‫قوام‬
‗figure‘ and, therefore, humour is lost. Again, the subtitler may replace it with ‗ٖ٧٥ٙ٘ ‫ب‬٬٦‘
‗and oh, how terrible‘ which is considered a funny expression in Arabic and which
sounds like saying ‗what a hot woman you are‘.
SAMPLE 3: CONTEXT:9 Another boyfriend Phoebe breaks up with. They have a

short argument after which he leaves her flat. On his way out, Phoebe says to him:
Phoebe: So long! Don‘t let the best door in the world

hit you in the a** on your way out.
ٛ٘‫ ا٘مب‬٫ٌ ‫كاق! ال رلق أٌعٗ اةة‬٧٘‫ ا‬:ً‫فﯿب‬

.‫ط‬٦‫قو‬ٙ٘ ّٓ٬‫ ؼو‬٫ٌ ٜٓ‫صل‬٬
Phoebe: So long! Don‘t let the best door in the world

hit you on your way out.
8
This joke is taken from season 8, episode 17 (2002), ‗The One with the Tea Leaves‘.
9
This joke is taken from Season 8, Episode 18 (2002), ‗The One in Massapequea‘.
119
The joke ‗hit you in the a**‘ is omitted. The reason seems to be that the subtitler
could not think of an alternative, so he lost the joke. One option could be to say ‗ ٣‫زج‬٠‫ا‬
‫َٕو‬١‫ ٌ٭‬ٛ٘‫ ا٘مب‬٫ٌ ‫ أٌعٗ ثبة‬ٚ‫ ال رصل‬٫ٔ‘, ‗Careful not to hit the best door in the world so that it
does not break‘.
SAMPLE 4: CONTEXT:10 Chandler is at home playing with the gambling machine
he bought. His wife Monica asks him if he has become any better at the game. He
replies:
Chandler: I got good. I played this game

all day and now I rule at it.
They should change the name of it
to Mrs. Chandler.
‫ ٘مجذ ثبٮ٘خ‬،‫ذ‬١َ‫ ّ٘ل رؾ‬:‫جشاندنر‬

.‫ب‬٥‫ٓ ٌ٭‬ٙٝ٘‫ أصجؾذ ا‬٦ ‫به‬٥١٘‫اٖ ا‬٧‫ؼ‬
‫ب‬٥ٍٝ‫ا ا‬٦‫ى٭و‬٬ ٞ‫غت أ‬٬

."‫ل٘و‬٠‫َخ رْب‬٠‫ "اٮ‬٩٘‫ا‬
Chandler: I got good. I played this game

all day and now I am the king.
They should change the name of it

to Mrs. Chandler.
When Chandler said ‗now I rule at it‘, he looked at Monica with suspicion. He meant
to say to her, although he does not look sure, that he is the man of the house: he
wears the trousers. The subtitler translated this sentence as ‗now I am the king at it‘,
which means that he is top at playing the game and no one can compete with him, a
choice that does not elicit any laughter and does not indicate what Chandler aims at.
An alternative for the word ‗king‘ could be ‗ٗ‫‘ا٘وع‬, ‗the man‘, which will help the
audience get what Chandler means, especially when he says: ‗They should change
10
This joke is taken from Season 8, Episode 12 (2002), ‗The One Where Joey Dates Rachel‘.
120
the name of it to Mrs. Chandler.‘ This word will also help the audience find a
connection between the facial expression of Chandler and what he says: ‗I rule at it‘.
SAMPLE 5: CONTEXT:11 Joey and Rachel are at a restaurant. The following

conversation takes place:
Joey: Is it hot in here?

Rachel: No. Not for me, but why don‘t you take off your sweater?
Joey: I would, but this is a nice place and my T-shirt

has a picture of Calvin doing Hobbs.
Rachel: Oh, my God! Really? Can I see it?

Joey: Yea, sure.
Rachel: Huh, wow, I wouldn‘t think Hobbs would like that so much.
‫ب؟‬١٤ ‫ ؽبه‬٧‫ٗ ا٘غ‬٤ :‫جوي‬
٫٘ ‫َجخ‬١٘‫ ٘٭ٌ ثب‬،‫ ال‬:‫راشﯿم‬

‫يرٓ؟‬١ٔ ‫ك‬ٙ‫ ال رق‬ٛ٘ ٟٕ٘
ٛ‫ ٌق‬ٞ‫ٕب‬ٜ ٣١ٕ٘ ٗ‫ذ ألٌم‬١ٔ :‫جوي‬

)ٌ‫ث‬٧٤( ٦ )ٍٟ٘‫هح (ٔب‬٧‫٭ص ص‬ّٝ٘‫ ا‬٩ٙ‫ ل‬٦
‫ب؟‬٥‫ز‬٬‫ هإ‬٫١١ٕٝ٬‫! ؽّبً؟ أ‬٢‫ هثب‬:‫راشﯿم‬

.‫ أعٗ ثب٘ؽجك‬:‫جوي‬
.ً‫نا ٔض٭وا‬٤ ‫ثٌ) ٍ٭ؾت‬٧٤( ٞ‫ أ‬ٟ‫ ال أـ‬:‫راشﯿم‬
Joey: Is it hot in here?

11
This joke is taken from Season 8, Episode 16 (2002), ‗The One Where Joey Tells Rachel‘.
121
has a picture of Calvin and Hobbs.
Rachel: Oh, my God! Really? Can I see it?

Joey: Yea, sure.
Rachel: Huh, wow, I wouldn‘t think Hobbs would like that so much.
The phrase ‗Calvin doing Hobbs‘ (having sexual intercourse) is again euphemised
and even omitted and as a result omitting the humour. If the subtitler had substituted
it with ‗Calvin urinating on Hobbs‘, ‗ ٌ‫ث‬٧٤ ٩ٙ‫ٖ ل‬٧‫ج‬٬ ٟ‫‘ٔبٍ٘٭‬, or ‗Calvin vomiting on Hobbs‘,
‗ ٌ‫ث‬٧٤ ٩ٙ‫ّ٭ئ ل‬٬ ٟ‫‘ٔبٍ٘٭‬, ‘then it, and the joke that follows: ‗I would not think Hobbs would
like that so much‘ would make more sense in terms of humour.
SAMPLE 6: CONTEXT:12 Rachel in her office speaking to her colleague, Gavin, who
is attracted to Heather, the secretary who enters the office to pick up some files:
Rachel: I‘m just happy…I‘m sorry, obviously Heather‘s a** has

something more important to say,
so I‘ll just wait till it‘s finished.
Gavin: I was looking at the skirt. Or was it pants?

I did not really see what happened below the a** area.
Rachel: If you like looking at butts so much why don‘t you

just go look at a mirror?
...‫هح‬٦‫َو‬ٜ ‫ب‬٠‫ أ‬:‫راشﯿم‬

)‫٭نه‬٤( ٚ‫ا‬٧ِ ٨‫ ٘ل‬ٞ‫ أ‬٦‫جل‬٬ ‫منهح؟‬ٝ٘‫ا‬
‫ب‬٥٘٧ّ‫ ر‬ٛ٤‫أّ٭بء أ‬
12
This joke is taken from Season 8, Episode 8 (2001), ‗The Stripper‘.
122
.٫٥‫ز‬١‫ ر‬٩‫زفو ؽز‬٠‫٘ن٘ٓ ٍؤ‬
.‫ب‬٥‫هر‬٧١‫ ر‬٩٘‫فو ا‬٠‫ذ أ‬١ٔ :‫كﯿفن‬

‫االً؟‬٦‫ ٍو‬ٞ‫ٗ ٔب‬٤ ٚ‫أ‬
.ٚ‫ا‬٧ّ٘‫ب ؽصٗ رؾذ ا‬ٜ ‫ أه‬ٛ٘
‫ٕنا‬٤ ٚ‫ا‬٧ّ٘‫ ا‬٩٘‫فو ا‬١٘‫ذ رؾت ا‬١ٔ ٞ‫ ا‬:‫راشﯿم‬

‫وآح؟‬ٝ٘‫ ا‬٫ٌ ‫فو‬١‫ ر‬٦ ‫ت‬٤‫ ال رن‬ٛ٘
Rachel: I‘m just happy…I‘m sorry, obviously Heather‘s figure has

something more important to say, so I‘ll just wait till it‘s finished.

I did not really see what happened below her figure.
Rachel: If you like looking at figures so much why don‘t you

just go look at a mirror?
In this three-part joke, the word ‗a**‘ occurred twice and the word ‗butt‘ occurred
once. The subtitler replaced all these words with ‘ٚ‫ا‬٧ِ‘ ‗figure‘ which caused the loss
of the humour. If only he had put ‗٩ٍِ‘ ‗back‘ instead, then the humour would have
been rescued. The word ‗٩ٍِ‘ ‗back‘, is a euphemised word for ‗butt‘ or ‗a**‘ but a
polite one that can be used.
SAMPLE 7: CONTEXT:13 Phoebe and Rachel are in a restaurant with a guy that
Rachel is dating for the second time. He orders some wine but they get him the
wrong brand (‗74‘). He gets angry at the waiter. Rachel tries to calm him down but
Phoebe supports him saying:
Phoebe: The ‗74‘ is absolute p***.
.‫ ٍ٭ئ‬٣ٝ‫ ؼم‬1974 ‫ج٭ن‬٠ :ً‫فﯿب‬
Phoebe: The 1974 has a bad taste.
13
This joke is taken from Season 8, Episode 15 (2002), ‗The One with the Birthing Video‘.
123
Instead of saying ‘The 74 has a bad taste‘ which does not sound funny, it may be
funnier to say ‗ٍٗ‫ٖ ا٘ؽ‬٧‫ ٔج‬٣ٝ‫ ؼم‬1974 ‫ج٭ن‬٠‘ ‗the 74 tastes like a baby‘s urine‘.
SAMPLE 8: CONTEXT:14 Mona is expressing her admiration for Rachel as she has
heard a lot about her from Ross:
Ross: (To Mona) Oh, come on Mona, don‘t kiss a**.

.٫ّٙٝ‫) ال رز‬٩١ٜ( ‫ب‬٬ ٩ٍٔ :‫روس‬
Ross: Oh, come on Mona, stop flattering.
The subtitler avoids ‗a**‘ as usual by either omitting or euphemising it, paying no
attention to the humour behind it. ‗Flatter‘ is not equal to ‗kiss a**‘. So, ‗ٚ‫‘ٍٔبْ رّج٭ٗ أِلا‬
‗stop kissing feet‘ would be more humorous than ‗stop flattering‘.
4.4.3.3 Puns and wordplays

The following examples of puns and wordplays show another obstacle that subtitlers
face in translating humour and illustrate how wordplays are dealt with by subtitlers
and what methods are used to retain the same or a similar effect. Attardo (2002:
190) argues that each pun will consist of a set of different features which may or may
not be paralleled in the TL structure and/or text. Those puns that exhibit in the SL a
set of features which is consistent with a set of features in the TL, such that the
pragmatic goals of the translation are fulfilled, will be translatable. A pun that does
not will be untranslatable. Gottlieb attributed the loss (1997b: 216) in wordplay
translation to three factors: language-specific constraints, media-specific constraints,
and human constraints which relate to the subtitler. Moreover, according to El-Hakim
(see Appendix B), puns are mostly not translated into Arabic because they are
difficult to deal with. Hayek (see Appendix E) also believes that puns have to do with
culture and that the fact that the client requires a translation of a film in 24 hours
makes the task even more complicated. Moreover, Baradhi (see Appendix C) argues
that in most cases, puns are translated literally. Furthermore, Khuddro (see
Appendix A) maintains that if the translator is dynamic in his translation and uses
14
This joke is taken from Season 9, Episode 12 (2003), ‗The One with Pheobe‘s Rats‘.
124
equivalent wordplays, then it is doable. This reminds us of the complications of
translating humour which were summarised by Delabastita (1994) as follows:
When attempting to describe how wordplay is translated one obviously

needs to rely on an operational definition of the pun, including criteria for
describing and comparing puns in terms of (say) their formal structure,
semantic structure, underlying linguistic mechanism, textual function, and/or
any other aspect deemed relevant to comparison. (1994: 232)
In the following examples we will be looking at the extent to which the translator can
deal with the puns of the source text. Each of them will be followed by a commentary
as well as a suggestion for an alternative translation which will try to achieve three
aims: 1) be humorous, 2) retain as much of the pun as possible, and 3) be polite. The
priority is to retain humour rather than the quality of the pun which in most cases is
untranslatable, taking into consideration the linguistic as well as the cultural
differences between English and Arabic as the examples below will show.
SAMPLE 9: CONTEXT:15 Rachel goes to a private massage parlour for a massage

session. Surprisingly, she finds Phoebe working there. Phoebe had always criticised
such centres and refused to work at them as they harm small businesses.
Phoebe: (Giving Rachel an excuse why she lied about working there)
Because I was ashamed, ok?
I sold out for the cash!
And then they give me benefits like medical,
and dental, and a 401K.
.ٗ‫ذ أّمو ثب٘قغ‬١ٔ ٫١٠‫ أل‬:ً‫فﯿب‬

ٖ‫ب‬ٝ٘‫ أعٗ ا‬ٟٜ ‫بى٘ذ‬١‫ّ٘ل ر‬
‫خ ا٘صؾ٭خ‬٬‫ضٗ ا٘ولب‬ٜ ‫بٌك‬١ٜ ٫٘ ٞ٧ٜ‫ّل‬٬ ٛ٤ ٦

four oh wunk ٦ ٞ‫ب‬١ٍ‫لالط األ‬٦
15
This joke is taken from Season 9, Episode 21 (2003), ‗The One with the Fertility Test‘.
125
Phoebe spells this number as: four oh wunk. The subtitler apparently felt that it is
best to write it in English and as a result leave it to the audience who have
knowledge in English to interpret. The audience who relied on the Arabic translation
did not get the joke so there should be a compensation for this loss. An alternative
option could be to give priority to humour and loose the pun. So, if the word ‗‫‘ا٘صوق‬,
‗epilepsy‘ replaces 401K, then this will elicit more laughter than writing ‗four oh
wunk‘. The word ‗epilepsy‘ is usually used in Arabic to describe someone who
behaves irrationally. Thus, the joke would indicate that Phoebe, due to her
behaviour, may need treatment for this illness sometime in the future.
SAMPLE 10: CONTEXT:16 Phoebe goes to visit Monica at her workplace. While
working in the kitchen, Monica introduces her to Tim, her colleague:
Monica: Tim? This is Phoebe. Phoebe, this is Tim, my new sous chef.
Phoebe: (to Tim) Oh, so you‘re Monica‘ boss?
Tim: Actually, she‘s my boss. Sous is French for under.
Phoebe: Oh, I sous stand.
Would you say your Pesto is the besto?

Tim: I don‘t know, but I would say it‘s pretty goodo.
…
Phobe: Uh, Monica! Oh, my God! I had the best time
with Tim last night. He‘s so sweet.
Oh, I can‘t wait to get sousneath him.
)٫‫ ٘ٓ (ٌ٭ج‬ٚ‫) أِل‬ٛ‫ (ر٭‬:‫مونﯿكا‬

.‫بح‬٥‫َبلل هئ٭ٌ ا٘ؽ‬ٜ ،)ٛ‫نا (ر٭‬٤ )٫‫(ٌ٭ج‬
‫٭ٕب)؟‬٠٧ٜ( ‫و‬٬‫ل‬ٜ ‫ذ‬٠‫ اماً أ‬:ً‫فﯿب‬

٫‫ور‬٬‫ل‬ٜ ٫٤ ٨‫ ثبألؽو‬:‫جﯿم‬
"‫َبلل‬ٜ" ‫خ‬ٕٝٙ٘‫ ا‬٫١‫َ٭خ رم‬٠‫ثبٖ٘ىخ اٍ٘و‬

.‫ذ‬ٝ٥ٌ ٦ ٫١‫ ّ٘ل ٍبللر‬:ً‫فﯿب‬
16
This joke is taken from Season 8, Episode 5 (2001), ‗Rachel‘s Date‘.
126
‫ األٌعٗ؟‬٫٤ "٧‫ "ا٘ج٭َز‬ٞ‫ٖ أ‬٧ّ‫ٗ ر‬٤
.‫ب ع٭لح‬٥٠‫ٖ أ‬٧ِ‫ أ‬٫١١ٕ٘ ،‫ ال ألوي‬:‫جﯿم‬
…
!٫٥٘‫ب ا‬٬ !‫٭ٕب‬٠٧ٜ :ً‫فﯿب‬
)ٛ‫ك (ر٭‬ٜ ‫خ‬٬‫ىب‬ٙ٘ ً‫زمب‬ٜٝ ً‫ِزب‬٦ ‫ع٭ذ‬ٜ‫أ‬
.ً‫ ٘ؽ٭ً ٌمال‬٧٤

‫ٌ ي‬ٜ‫خ أ‬ٙ‫٘٭‬
.‫غلكاً ثٍبهن ا٘صجو‬ٜ ٣‫ز‬٬‫زفو هإ‬٠‫أ‬
Monica: Tim? This is Phoebe. Phoebe, this is Tim, my new sous chef.
Tim: Actually, she‘s my boss. Sous is French for assistant.

Phoebe: Oh, you assisted me to understand.
Would you say your Pesto is the best?

Tim: I don‘t know, but I would say it‘s pretty good.
…
Phoebe: Uh, Monica! Oh, my God! I had the best time
with Tim last night. He‘s so sweet.
Oh, I can‘t wait to see him again.
This is a wordplay that the subtitler succeeded in handling somehow. He translated

the French word ‗sous‘ as ‗‫َبلل‬ٜ‘ or ‗assistant‘ rather than ‗‫ ‘رؾذ‬or ‗under‘ as it should
literally be. If he had translated ‗under‘ literally, then the joke would have been lost.
So, the word ‗assist‘ gets the first joke: ‗I sous stand‘ which the subtitler translated as
‗You assisted me to understand‘. However, when Phoebe uses the same word for a
second time in the last three lines of the joke ‗I can‘t wait to get sousneath him‘, the
subtitler could not use the word ‗assistant‘ again to interpret the joke. He simply
translated it as ‗I can‘t wait to see him‘ instead of ‗I can‘t wait to be his assistant‘, ‗ ‫ال‬
٣‫َبللر‬ٜ ‫ أصجؼ‬٩‫زفبه ؽز‬٠‫‘أٍزؽ٭ك اإل‬, which preserves and Arabic equivalent the word ‗sous‘
as well as the humour and which will make the audience think that Phoebe is eager
to get married to him as soon as possible, something which sounds funny for her to
say.
127
Moreover, another wordplay that Phoebe makes during the same
conversation with Tim is unfortunately lost in Arabic. ‗Your pesto is the besto‘ is
translated as ‗Your pesto is the best‘, and therefore, the humour as well as the
wordplay are lost. Another option could be ‗Your pesto is pronto‘. ‘Pronto‘ (٧‫ز‬٠٦‫ )ثو‬is
an Italian word which is popular in the Arab world and which means ‗great‘ or
‗fantastic‘ and it all iterates with Pesto, too.
SAMPLE 11: CONTEXT:17 Rachel and Ross hire a male nanny to look after their
baby. Chandler is surprised at this decision.
Chandler: (to Ross and Rachel) You got a man as a nanny?

You got a manny?
‫وث٭خ؟‬ٝ٘‫ٗ ا‬ٝ‫ ل‬٪‫ئك‬٬ ً‫ب هعال‬ٝ‫ـٍز‬٦ :‫جشاندنر‬
‫وث٭بً هعالً"؟‬ٜ" ‫ب‬ٝ‫ـٍز‬٦
Chandler: You got a man to carry the job of a nanny?

You got a male nanny?
Again, the pun is lost and the subtitler chose a literal translation as we can see, but
with no compensation for the lost joke. One option could be to translate ‗nanny‘ into
Arabic as ‗‫ُوظمخ‬ٜ‘ which literally translates as ‗breast-feeding nanny‘, a job that
cannot be given to man. So, the translation will become: ‗ ‫وظمخ؟‬ٝ٘‫ٗ ا‬ٝ‫ ل‬٪‫ئك‬٬ ً‫ب هعال‬ٝ‫ـٍز‬٦
‫ُوظمبً؟‬ٜ ‫ب‬ٝ‫ـٍز‬٦‘, ‗You got a man as a breast-feeding nanny? You got a (male) breast-
feeding nanny?‘ The pun is lost but humour is preserved.
…
SAMPLE 12: CONTEXT:18 Joey introduces his sister, who is interested in the field
of fashion, to Rachel, who works as a designer at Ralf Lawrence:
Joey: Well, I‘ll let you two fash…ists get down to business.
.‫ظخ‬٧ٝ٘‫ب "ٌبّ٭زب" ا‬٬ ً‫مب‬ٜ ٞ‫ال‬ٝ‫ب رم‬ٕٝٔ‫ ٍؤرو‬،ً‫ب‬١َ‫ ؽ‬:‫جوي‬
Joey: Well, I‘ll let you two fashion fashitta work together
The word ‗fashitta‘ actually has no meaning but is derived from the word fashion. The
17
This joke is taken from Season 9, Episode 6 (2002), ‗The One with the Male Nanny‘.
18
This joke is taken from Season 8, Episode 10 (2001), ‗The One with Monica‘s Boots‘.
128
pun here is that Joey wanted to find the doer of the noun fashion, so he said
‗fashists‘, the same pronunciation as ‗fascists‘, thus showing that he is bad at
derivations and at the same time playing on words by indicating that Rachel and his
sister are authoritative or strong. The subtitler‘s choice misses this combination as
‗fashitta‘ carries no meaning. So, the following translation is probably funnier: ‗I‘ll let
you two fascists…of fashion get down to business‘, ‗‫ظخ‬٧ٝ٘‫ ا‬... ‫ب ٌبّ٭زب‬٬ ‫مًب‬ٜ ٞ‫ال‬ٝ‫ب رم‬ٕٝٔ‫‘ٍؤرو‬.
This sentence does the same job that the original one did. In other words, it leaves
the audiences to think about what Joey means by ‗fascists‘.
…
SAMPLE 13: CONTEXT:19 Rachel gets a new job in Paris, so she decides to leave.
She says goodbye to everyone except Ross. After she leaves, Ross complains
about what has happened saying:
Ross: (to the friends) Unbelievable. She says goodbye to everyone but me.
Monica: Well, maybe she thought that with all of your history it could be, you know,
implicit.
Ross: Well, it needs to be plicit.
.٪‫ب للا‬ٜ ‫٭ك‬ٝ‫كلذ ا٘غ‬٦ ‫ ّ٘ل‬.َ‫ أٔبك ال أصل‬:‫روس‬
...ً‫٭ب‬١ٝ‫ ظ‬...‫كاق‬٧٘‫ ا‬ٞ٧ٕ٬ ٞ‫ب أهاكد أ‬ٝ‫ هث‬:‫مونﯿكا‬
‫ب‬ٕٝ١‫٘ؽج٭مخ ا٘مالِخ ث٭‬

.ً‫٭ب‬١ٙ‫ ل‬ٞ٧ٕ٬ ٞ‫غت أ‬٬ ٟٕ٘ ،ً‫ب‬١َ‫ ؽ‬:‫روس‬
Ross: Unbelievable. She says goodbye to everyone but me.

Monica: May be she wanted the goodbye to be…implicit,
due to the history of your relationship
Ross: Well, it needs to be explicit.
The subtitler‘s choice for ‗implicit‘ is ‗ً‫٭ب‬١ٝ‫‗ظ‬. But to get the most from the joke, ‗implicit‘
can be translated as ‗ً‫٭ؾب‬ٝٙ‫( ‘ر‬also meaning ‗implicit‘. As a result, ‗plicit‘/‗ً‫٭ب‬١ٙ‫ ‘ل‬could in
this case be ‗ً‫ؾب‬٬٧ٙ‫ ‘ر‬which means waving or indicating and which rhymes with ‗ً‫٭ؾب‬ٝٙ‫‘ر‬,
and which sounds funny and rhymes with ‗‫٭ؾب‬ٝٙ‫‘ر‬.
19
This joke is taken from Season 10, Episode 16 (2003), ‗The One with Rachel‘s Going Away
Party‘.
129
…
20
SAMPLE 14: CONTEXT: Rachel visits Joey at his work place who introduces her
to his colleague Kash, a famous actor. The following conversation takes place:
Rachel: Y‘ know, Joey thinks I‘m some kind of a

soap opera nut - which I‘m not! I‘m not.
‫ٍخ‬٦٧٥ٜ ٫١١‫ف‬٬ ٪٧‫ ع‬:ٗ‫هاّ٭‬
...‫٭خ‬ٜ‫٭خ ا٘لها‬٠٧٬‫ٍي‬ٙ‫َالد ا٘ز‬َٙٝ٘‫ثب‬
.ً‫نا و٭و صؾ٭ؼ ٌمال‬٤٦
Rachel: Joey thinks I‘m some kind of a

soap opera nut - which I‘m not, indeed.
Once again the audience feels the irrelevance between the subtitles, the actors‘
facial expressions and the laughter they hear. Rachel plays on words claiming that
she is not a soap opera nut but in fact she means the opposite by repeating ‗I‘m not,
I‘m not‘. So, in order for the subtitle to make sense and sound funnier, although the
wordplay will be lost, the joke can be translated as: ‗Joey thinks that I‘m a soap
opera nut - which I am indeed. I am indeed‘, ‗ ‫ب‬٠‫أ‬٦ ... ‫٭خ‬٠٧٬‫ٍي‬ٙ‫َالد ا٘ز‬َٙٝ٘‫ٍخ ثب‬٦٧٥ٜ ٫١١‫ف‬٬ ٪٧‫ع‬
ٓ٘‫ب ٔن‬٠‫ أ‬... ً‫ٓ ٌمال‬ٙ٘‫‘ٔن‬. What makes this sentence funny is that when Rachel says that
‗Joey thinks…‘, it is assumed that he has a wrong perception about her and that she
wants to correct it. But one becomes surprised when she confirms, instead of
negating, what Joey thinks about her, something that elicits laughter.
…
SAMPLE 15: CONTEXT:21 Phoebe wants to get married and she asks Joey to stand
in for her father in the wedding since he has always been her closest and wisest
friend.
Phoebe: Yeah, you've... you know, sort of been like a dad to me. I mean, you've
always, you know, looked out for me and shared your wisdom...
Joey: I am pretty wisdomous.
20
This joke is taken from Season 8, Episode 5 (2001), ‗Rachel‘s Date‘.
21
This joke is taken from Season 10, Episode 12 (2004), ‗The One with Phoebe‘s Wedding‘.
130
.ً‫ علا‬ٛ‫ب ؽٕ٭‬٠‫ أ‬:‫جوي‬
Joey: I‘m very wise.
Joey‘s inability to derive nouns and adjectives is one source of wordplays in Friends.
The translation ‗very wise‘ does not cause a laugh like ‗wisdomous‘ which Joey
derives from the noun ‗wisdom‘ that proceeded in the previous sentence. Instead of
‗very wise‘, ‗ ‫ علاً؟‬ٛ‫ؽٕ٭‬...‫ب‬٠‫‘أ‬, we can say: ‗Me…wise?‘ or: ‗How happy I am…I am wise‘,
‗ ٛ‫ب ؽٕ٭‬٠‫أ‬... ٫‫ب َ٘مبكر‬٬‘. Both options sound as if Joey is surprised to know that he is wise
since he considers himself the opposite, but the wordplay is lost again.
4.4.3.4 Cultural jokes

In Friends, jokes that are based on cultural references outnumber those based on
puns or sexual connotations. But what distinguishes the cultural jokes from the rest
is that while in the sexual and wordplay jokes the subtitler has the chance to
compensate the ST humour depending on his experience, this chance almost
disappears in cultural jokes. The reason is that jokes that rely on culture presuppose
that the audience is familiar with the contexts of such jokes. For example, when
Phoebe says to Rachel ―You are like Ed McMahon…‖, it is presumed that the
audience are familiar with this character and what he did. To put it differently, Hay,
who is quoted in Bell (2007: 380), asserts that full support of humour implicates
agreement with the message, including any attitudes, presuppositions or
implicatures contained within it. Similarly, Raskin (1985: 180) argues that cultural
competence has to be acquired separately from linguistic competence which is
required for understanding wordplays. In this sense, cultural jokes are similar to
encyclopaedic knowledge. They capture stereotypes which are at best crude
approximations of reality. Lack of this encyclopaedic knowledge results in the feeling
that, as Raphaelson-West (1989: 132) expresses it, there are many jokes which may
mean the same thing semantically, but in terms of pragmatics and culture, there is
something sorely missing which makes the joke untranslatable. On the other hand,
jokes that depend on sexual or linguistic references require little or even no
knowledge of the context in which they are said.
In the following examples of cultural jokes, there will be no back translation
from Arabic into English as was done with the previous jokes since the translations
131
are almost exact copies of the originals. However, each joke will still be analysed
and substituted by a suggested translation which is supposed to elicit more laughter
than the first. As explained above, because of the lack of encyclopaedic knowledge
on the part of the target audience regarding cultural references, it was decided to
expand the joke by adding and/or deleting information that it helps it helps make
better sense and become funnier, as we will see in the following examples.
SAMPLE 16: CONTEXT:22 Rachel is pregnant and hesitant to tell the father. Phoebe
encourages her to go to his house and knock on his door and tell him:
Phoebe: (sarcastic) Yeah. You‘re just gonna knock on his door
and change his life forever.
You‘re like Ed McMahon
except without the big check,
or the raw sexual23 magnetism.
٣‫ ثبث‬٫ِ‫ رؽو‬ٞ‫ أ‬٨٧ٍ ٓ‫٭‬ٙ‫ب ل‬ٜ :ً‫فﯿب‬

.‫ ٘ألثل‬٣‫ ؽ٭بر‬٪‫رى٭و‬٦
)ٞ٧٤‫ب‬ٝٔ‫ب‬ٜ ‫ل‬٬‫ٓ (ا‬٠‫ٔؤ‬٦

،‫ اْ٘٭ٓ إ٘ج٭و‬ٞ٦‫ ك‬ٟٜ ٟٕ٘
.‫غوك‬ٝ٘‫غناة ا‬٠‫ اإل‬٦‫أ‬
Ed McMahon is an American comedian and game-show host and is famous for his
presentation of ‗American Family Publishing‘ sweepstakes. He arrives unannounced
at the home of the winners to give them a check. The joke will not be effective on the
Arabic-speaking audiences since they do not know who McMahon is and what the
big check is. If we want them to know what McMahon does, a possible solution could
be to say: ‗ ‫ص٭جخ‬ٝ‫ ا٘جبة ث‬ٟ‫ذ رؽوِ٭‬٠‫ أ‬٦ / ‫ب٘٭خ‬ٜ ‫ؽوَ ا٘جبة ثغبئيح‬٬ ٪‫ ا٘ن‬/) ٞ٧٤‫ب‬ٝٔ‫ب‬ٜ ‫ل‬٬‫ظ (ا‬ٜ‫ب‬٠‫‘ٔجو‬, ‗Just like
Ed McMohan‘s show/ in which he knocks at doors with a financial prize/ but you
knock at the door with a disaster‘. Here, the last English subtitle ‗or the raw sexual
magnetism‘ can be deleted to allow more space to introduce the audience to Ed‘s
programme so that they realize the joke.
22
This joke is taken from Season 8, Episode 2 (2001), ‗The One with the Red Sweater‘.
23
The word ‗sexual‘ was omitted in the translation.
132
SAMPLE 17: CONTEXT:24 Joey, an actor, wants his eyebrows trimmed as the
director of the soap opera he acts in asked him to do so in order to play the role of a
woman. He asks Chandler if he knows a good place. Chandler offers to do them for
him since he is used to do it:
Chandler: (to Joey) Ok, you know how most kids get their allowance
from mowing the lawn or taking out the garbage.
Well I earned mine by plucking the eyebrows
of my father and his ―business‖ partners.
Joey: Oh my God!
Chandler: Well, I guess you don‘t need my help Victor Victoria!
ٛ٥ٌ٦‫صو‬ٜ ٩ٙ‫ ل‬ٞ٧ٙ‫ؾص‬٬ ٖ‫ األؼٍب‬ٛ‫مف‬ٜ ٞ‫ أ‬ٛٙ‫ذ رم‬٠‫ أ‬:‫جشاندنر‬

...‫بد‬٬‫ٍب‬١٘‫ افواط ا‬٦‫عواء عي ا٘مْت أ‬
‫زياق‬٠‫ ا‬ٟٜ ٫ٌ٦‫صو‬ٜ ٩ٙ‫ذ ل‬ٙ‫ب ٌّل ؽص‬٠‫ب أ‬ٜ‫أ‬

.ٗٝ‫ ا٘م‬٫ٌ ٢‫ّؤبء‬٦ ٫‫ أث‬٫‫ّمو ؽبعج‬
!٫٥٘‫ب ا‬٬ :‫روس‬

.)‫ب‬٬‫ه‬٧‫ه ٌ٭ٕز‬٧‫ب (ٌ٭ٕز‬٬ ٫٘ ‫ٓ َ٘ذ ثؾبعخ‬٠‫ ألزّل أ‬،ً‫ب‬١َ‫ ؽ‬:‫جشاندنر‬
Victor Victoria (Edwards, 1982), according to The Internet Movie Database, is a

comedy film about Victor, a poverty-stricken soprano trying to find work in Paris in
the 1930s. With the help of a worldly-wise nightclub singer, she invents her alter-ego
Victor, a female impersonator who is hired to sing at a fashionable night spot: "You
want me to be a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman?" In
order to make sense of the joke, Victor Victoria should be defined. So, one may say:
‗‫ب‬٬‫ه‬٧‫ه ٌ٭ٕز‬٧‫ٌ٭ٕز‬ ‫َبئ٭خ‬١٘‫اه ا‬٦‫ص األك‬ّٝ‫ز‬ٜ ‫ب‬٬/ ٫١‫ذ ال رؾزبع‬٠‫‗ ‘اماً أ‬Then you don‘t need me/ female
impersonator Victor Victoria‘.
24
This joke is taken from Season 9, Episode 13 (2003), ‗The One Where Monica Sings‘.
133
SAMPLE 18: CONTEXT:25 A rumour goes around that Chandler is gay. Surprised,
people start ringing him to congratulate him. Monica picks up the phone:
Monica: Hello? No, he is not at here.

Yeah. This is his wife.
Yeah, well it came as quite as a shock to me, too.
I guess I should have known. Yeah,
I mean, he just kept making me watch Moulin Rouge.
.‫ب‬١٤ ٌ‫ ال ٘٭‬.ً‫وؽجب‬ٜ :‫مونﯿكا‬

٣‫عز‬٦‫ب ى‬٠‫ أ‬،ٛ‫م‬٠
.ٓ٘‫ ٔن‬٫٘‫َجخ ا‬١٘‫خ ثب‬ٜ‫ذ صل‬٠‫ ٔب‬.ٛ‫م‬٠
،ٓ٘‫موٌخ م‬ٜ ّ٫ٙ‫ ل‬ٞ‫ ٔب‬٣٠‫ألزّل أ‬

.)‫ط‬٦‫ ه‬ٞ‫ال‬٧ٜ( ‫لح‬٤‫ْب‬ٜ ٩ٙ‫ ل‬٫١ٝ‫ب أهو‬ٝ٘‫ؽب‬ٌٙ
Moulin Rouge (Luhrmann, 2001), as summarized on IMDb (The Internet Movie

Database), is the name of a night club where rich and poor alike come to be
entertained by the dancers, but things take a wicked turn for Christian as he starts a
deadly love affair with the star courtesan of the club, Satine. But her affections are
also coveted by the club's patron, the Duke. A dangerous love triangle ensues as
Satine and Christian attempt to fight all odds to stay together. But a force that not
even love can conquer is taking its toll on Satine. To compensate, the subtitler may
translate the joke as:
‗ٟ‫ ؽج٭ج٭‬ٟ‫يِخ ث٭‬ٜٝ ‫ذ‬٠‫ ٔب‬٫‫د ا٘ز‬
٢ٗ‫ثؽ‬٦ /)‫ط‬٦‫ ه‬ٞ‫ال‬٧ٜ( ٛٙ‫ ثٍ٭‬٣ٍ٧٤ ‫ذ ٍجت‬ٝ٥ٌ ٞ‫‘األ‬, ‗Now I understand
his obsession/ with Moulin Rouge/ and the heroine who was torn between two
lovers.‘ It is noticeable that the second Arabic translation is one word longer than the
first. Only now the audience is able to understand that Chandler‘s feelings, since he
is believed to be a gay, are torn between his love for Monica and his gay partner.
…
25
This joke is taken from Season 9, Episode 17 (2003), ‗The One with the Memorial Service‘.
134
SAMPLE 19: CONTEXT:26 The friends go to Barbados for a holiday. When they
arrive at the hotel, Monica‘s hair has grown in size:
Rachel: Alright, I don't wanna alarm anybody, but Monica's hair is twice as big as it
was when we landed!
Monica: Ok! When I go places with high humidity, it gets a little extra body, ok?!
Chandler: That's why our honeymoon photos look like me and Diana Ross!
،ٕٛ‫ل افبٌز‬٬‫ب ال أه‬٠‫ أ‬،ً‫ب‬١َ‫ ؽ‬:‫راشﯿم‬

ٟ‫ور٭‬ٜ ‫٭ٕب صبه أٔجو‬٠٧ٜ ‫ ّمو‬ٟٕ٘
.‫جػ ا٘ؽبئهح‬٥‫ ر‬ٞ‫ ِجٗ أ‬٣‫٭‬ٙ‫ ل‬ٞ‫ب ٔب‬ٜٝ
،‫ثخ ا٘مب٘٭خ‬٧‫ ا٘وؼ‬ٟٔ‫ب‬ٜ‫ أ‬٫ٌ ،ً‫ب‬١َ‫ ؽ‬:‫مونﯿكا‬
.ً‫٭ال‬ِٙ ٪‫زٍِ ّمو‬١٬
َٗ‫و ا٘م‬٥ّ ٫ٌ ‫ب‬٠‫ه‬٧‫ ص‬٦‫نا اَ٘جت رجل‬٥٘ :‫جشاندنر‬
.)ً٦‫ب ه‬٠‫ب‬٬‫ ثصؾجخ (ك‬٫١٠‫ٔؤ‬٦
Diana Ross is an American artist who has big hair. So, to avoid letting the audience
think who Diana Ross is and to help them think about the joke instead, they should
be given an idea about who she is: ‗) ً٦‫ب ه‬٠‫ب‬٬‫ (ك‬٣‫٭‬١‫ى‬ٝ٘‫ك ا‬ٜ ٫١٠‫ ٔؤ‬٦ / َٗ‫و ا٘م‬٥ّ ‫ه‬٧‫ ص‬٦‫نا رجل‬٤ٖ,
‗That's why the honeymoon photos/ look like me and singer Diana Ross.‘
…
SAMPLE 20: CONTEXT:27 Ross is trying to get a grant for his research project. His
colleague Charlie knows Professor Hobart who is responsible for giving grants to
researchers. So she suggests introducing them to each other at a restaurant:
Ross: (to Charlie) I can't believe I'm about to meet Benjamin Hobart.
I've always thought of him as one of the people
I'd invite to my fantasy dinner party.
You think there's any chance he'll bring
Christie Brinkley or C-3PO?
)‫ثبهد‬٧٤ ٟ‫٭‬ٜ‫غب‬١‫ ٍؤِبثٗ (ث٭‬٫١٠‫ ال أصلَ أ‬:‫روس‬

.‫خ لْبء ف٭ب٘٭خ‬ٍٙ‫ ؽ‬٩٘‫ ا‬٣‫ر‬٧‫ كل‬٫ٌ ‫ب ٌٕود‬ٝ٘‫٘ؽب‬
26
This joke is taken from Season 9, Episode 23 (2003), ‗The One in Barbados‘.
27
This joke is taken from Season 10, Episode 6 (2003), ‗The One with Ross‘ Grant‘.
135
٣‫م‬ٜ ‫ؾعو‬٬ ٞ‫بٖ ثؤ‬ٝ‫بْ اؽز‬١٤ ٞ‫ أ‬ٟ‫٭‬١‫ٗ رف‬٤
‫(؟‬C-3PO) ٦‫) أ‬٫ٕٙ١٬‫ ثو‬٫‫َز‬٬‫(ٔو‬
Christie Brinkley is an American model who is famous for her charity work and
supports different education bodies such as the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
at Yeshiva University and Ross High School in New York. C-3PO is a protocol droid
created by Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars universe. Apparently, Ross needs this
device for digging in his research project. Both names are translated literally and are
in fact unknown to the audiene. So, one option is to say:
‗‫)؟‬٦‫ أ‬٫‫ ث‬3 ٫ٍ( ٫٘‫ هعٗ ا٘ؾٍو اٮ‬٦ /)٫ٕٙ١٬‫ ثو‬٫‫َز‬٬‫خ (ٔو‬١َ‫ُؾ‬ٝ٘‫ ا‬٣‫م‬ٜ ‫ٗ ٍ٭ؾعو‬٤‘, ‗Will he bring the
beneficent Christie Brinkley/ and the digging robot C-3PO?‘ Since Ross is looking for
a grand for his project, the words ‗beneficent‘ and ‗digging robot‘ which define
Christie Brinkly and C-3PO, will make sense.
…
SAMPLE 21: CONTEXT:28 Still at Barbados, and still Monica‘s hair is big:
Monica: Phoebe?
Phoebe: Yeah?
Monica: I need to talk to you.
Phoebe: Are you leaving The Supremes?
‫؟‬٫‫ ٌ٭ج‬:‫مونﯿكا‬
.ٛ‫م‬٠ :ً‫فﯿب‬
.ٓ‫ل ا٘زؾلس ا٘٭‬٬‫ أه‬:‫مونﯿكا‬
‫"؟‬ٛ٬‫ثو‬٧ٍ" ْ‫ٗ ِوهد رو‬٤ :ً‫فﯿب‬
‗The Supremes‘ were an American female singing group which achieved mainstream
success with Diana Ross as lead singer during the mid-1960s. In 1967, Motown
president Berry Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & The Supremes and
replaced Ballard with Cindy Birdsong. Ross left to pursue a solo career in 1970 and
was replaced by Jean Terrell, at which point the group's name returned to The
Supremes. As the audience presumably does not know either Diana Ross or the
Supremes, it is best defining the phrase as: ‗ ‫ روْ اٍ٘وِخ؟‬ٟ٬‫ك‬٧‫ٗ ر‬٤ ،‫٭خ‬١‫ى‬ٝ٘‫ب ا‬٥٬‫‘أ‬, ‗singer, do
28
This joke is taken from Season 9, Episode 23 (2003), ‗The One in Barbados‘.
136
you want to leave the band?‘. The Supremes was deleted and replaced by ‗the band‘
and the noun ‗singer‘ was added to the sentence to make clear what Phoebe meant.
SAMPLE 22: CONTEXT:29 The friends are sitting together and discussing which is
more difficult to give up, sex or food:
Phoebe: Ross, how about you?

What would you give up, sex or food?
Ross: Food.
Phoebe: (to Ross) Ok, how about... uhm... sex or dinosaurs?
Ross: Oh my God. It's like Sophie's Choice.
‫ٓ؟‬١‫بما ل‬ٜ ،)ً٦‫ (ه‬:ً‫فﯿب‬

‫؟‬ٚ‫ ا٘ؽمب‬ٚ‫ٌ أ‬١‫ ا٘غ‬ٟ‫ ل‬٩ٙ‫ٗ رزق‬٤
.ٚ‫ ا٘ؽمب‬:‫روس‬
‫هاد؟‬٧‫بص‬١٬‫ ا٘ل‬ٚ‫ٌ أ‬١‫ ا٘غ‬،ً‫ب‬١َ‫ ؽ‬:ً‫فﯿب‬
)٫ٌ٧‫ضبثخ ف٭به (ص‬ٝ‫نا ث‬٤ :‫روس‬
Sophie‟s Choice (Pakula, 1982) is a drama film about a Jewish woman who is forced
by the Nazis to decide which of her two children will live and which will die. The
audience can be told what Sophie‘s choice was by adding a few words and omitting
‗Oh, my God‘ to create a space. So, the sentence becomes: ‗ ٫ٌ /)٫ٌ٧‫ضبثخ ف٭به (ص‬ٝ‫نا ث‬٤
‫ب‬٥‫٭‬ٍٙ‫ أؽل ؼ‬ٟ‫ ل‬٫ٙ‫‘ا٘زق‬, ‗This is like Sophie‘s choice to give up one of her two children‘. This
may make the joke funnier because the audience understands that choosing
between dinosaurs or sex is as hard to Ross as it is to Sophie to give up one of her
children. But before, the joke did not make sense because Sophie‘s choice was not
defined.
…
SAMPLE 23: CONTEXT:30 At the coffee house the friends are discussing whether to
tell Joey that his business manager has died or not. They agree not to. However,
they are worried that Phoebe may tell him.
Chandler: Unless Snoopy says it to Charlie Brown, I
think we are OK.
29
This joke is taken from Season 10, Episode 10 (2004), ‗The One with Sophie‘s Choice‘.
30
This joke is taken from Season 10, Episode 15 (2004), ‗The One where Estelle Dies‘.
137
،‫ق‬٧‫ظ‬٧ٝ٘‫) ثب‬ٞ‫ا‬٦‫ ثو‬٫٘‫) (رْبه‬٫‫ث‬٧١ٍ( ‫قجو‬٬ ٛ٘ ‫ب‬ٜ :‫جشاندنر‬
.‫ ثق٭و‬ٟ‫ؾ‬١ٌ
Charlie Brown has no real enemies aside from intangible misfortune, though
practically all his friends are blithely critical of him at some point. His dog Snoopy
seldom treats him with overt respect. Since the audience does not know who Snoopy
and Charlie are, the following translation is probably able to do this to a certain
extent: ‗ ‫ ثق٭و‬ٟ‫ؾ‬١ٌ /‫و‬ٜ‫) ثبأل‬٫٘‫ (رْبه‬٣‫) صبؽج‬٫‫ث‬٧١ٍ( ٫ّ‫ا‬٧٘‫ ا‬٦‫ُقجو ا٘غو‬٬ ٛ٘ ‫ب‬ٜ‘, ‗Unless the slanderer
poppy Snoopy does not tell his owner Charlie/ we are OK‘.
…
SAMPLE 24: CONTEXT:31 The friends are saying farewell to Rachel who is leaving
to France to start a new job there.
Ross: Oh, man! I can't believe she's actually leaving.

How am I gonna say goodbye to Rachel?
Chandler: I know, she's been such a big part of your life.
And it feels like…
when Melrose Place got cancelled.
.ٗ‫ب ٍزوؽ‬٥٠‫ أٔبك ال أصلَ أ‬،ٗ‫ب هع‬٬ :‫روس‬

‫كق هاّ٭ٗ؟‬٦‫ٔ٭ً ٍؤ‬
...ٓ‫ ؽ٭بر‬ٟٜ ٚ‫ب‬٤ ‫ب عيء‬٥٠‫ ألوي أ‬:‫جشاندنر‬
...ْ‫ ثنا‬٣‫زبثٓ اؽَبً ّج٭‬١٬
.)ً٦‫و‬ٙ‫٭‬ٜ ٖ‫ي‬١ٜ( ََٜٗٙ ًِ٧‫ب ر‬ٜ‫ل‬١‫ل‬
Melrose Place (Star, 1992) is a hit show created by Darren Star. It follows the lives
and loves of a small group of people living in a Californian apartment complex. The
friends are hinting that Melrose Place has been cancelled, Friends may also get
cancelled and that this episode could be the last. But the Arabic-speaking audiences
do not understand this message. Despite the fact that the subtitler added the words
‗soap opera‘, this did not make the picture complete. So, ‗friends‘ should be added to
‗soap opera‘ so that the audience knows what the Melrose Place soap opera is about
31
This joke is taken from Season 10, Episode 16 (2004), ‗The One with Rachel‘s Going Away
Party‘.
138
so that the joke makes sense: ‗It feels like when the friends‘ soap opera Melrose
Place got cancelled‘, ")ً٦‫و‬ٙ‫٭‬ٜ ٖ‫ي‬١ٜ( ‫َٗ األصلِبء‬َٜٙ ًِ٧‫ب ر‬ٜ‫ل‬١‫ ثناْ ل‬٣‫زبثٓ اؽَبً ّج٭‬١٬".
4.4.3.5 Discussion
The jokes above have tried to give further proof that subtitling is affected by the
ideological, cultural, and technical issues that restrict the subtitler to a certain extent.
As we saw, the subtitles had to be polite, concise and funny; something that is not
easy to achieve. Like the sexual jokes, those jokes that rely on wordplay and cultural
references were almost lost or at least they were not effective. Therefore, the lost
humour can be attributed to the fact that the subtitler restricted himself to the source
text and was imprisoned by it, taking into account the comparison that the audience
may have made between the two texts and sacrificing the harmony that should exist
between the subtitles, the actors‘ facial expressions and the laughter heard on the
soundtrack. Added to this, as Gottlieb (1997b: 216) put it, is the lack of
communicative translation which can be, but not necessarily is, attributed to the lack
of talent, interest, or experience on the part of the translator. No one can deny that
there are different issues in Friends that do not ring any bell in the Arab culture such
as pregnancy outside marriage, swear words, and names of celebrities, places,
films, sitcoms and cartoons which are the source of many jokes in the series.
As was mentioned, cultural references are harder to deal with than sexual
ones which can be compensated somehow. In other words, it would be easier to
elicit laughter from a translated sexual joke than to elicit laughter from a cultural one.
This is because the subtitler can manoeuvre around sexual jokes but it is harder for
him to do so with cultural ones. For example, ‗a**‘ can be translated as ‗back‘, ‗p***‘
as ‗urinate‘, ‗boobs‘ or ‗tits‘ as ‗breast‘ and so on. But how can a subtitler explain to
the audience the relationship between ‗Victor Victoria‘ or ‗Claire Danes‟, for instance,
and the context in which they are mentioned? In fact, he needs to tell them why such
names, for instance, are mentioned. To illustrate, when the friends were choosing a
name for the baby that Rachel was expected to give birth to, Rachel chose
‗Sandrine‘, a French name, if it was a girl and Ross chose ‗Darwin‘ if it was a boy.
Rachel objected to Ross‘s choice saying that her son would be beaten regularly in
his school. Phoebe commented on this by saying that he (the boy) will be beaten by
‗Sandrine‘. Generally speaking, the audience is not familiar with the English-French
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relationship and therefore the joke will not make sense for them. Concentrating on
giving more information about many of the cultural references was a priority in this
section in order for the jokes to make sense and sound funny.
The professionals interviewed agreed that translating humour was more
difficult than any other genre. Having said this, it does not mean that it cannot be
done, but the question is whether it can be done and still be funny. Depending on the
examples that were analyzed from Friends, the following recommendations can be
made. When skopos theory is used, it helps the subtitler define the purpose of the
ST and as well the function of the TT by defining the commission of the translation
which depends on the circumstances of the target culture and which can also be
modified accordingly. This means that all different kinds of transfer procedures that
lead to a functional target text such as cultural adaptation, paraphrase, expansion,
reduction, omission, transposition and substitution are likely to be used as we saw in
the examples above. The result is an approach that gives the translator a freedom of
movement which allows him to replace obscene words with less offensive ones; to
translate wordplays in a way that makes them funny, even if this means their loss; to
define or illustrate cultural differences so that jokes make sense. In order to see if the
suggested translations, and as a result the approach used in translating them, are
viable, the experiment discussed in the next section was conducted.
4.4.4 Experiment (III): Friends
In order to measure the effectiveness of the suggested translation approach, three
randomly selected episodes of Friends were resubtitled. They were then shown to 10
viewers who were requested to compare the new and the old translation of the three
episodes. Watching both translations should show which translation the audience
prefers. In other words, the aim is to learn if the audience favours a more literal
translation that is faithful to the source text, except when it comes to swear words, or
rather a translation that functionally modifies the ST jokes to make them as
humorous as possible in the TT.
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4.4.4.2 Data and participants
Three episodes were chosen for this experiment and which were consecutively taken
from Season 8, Episode 5: ‗The One with Rachel‘s Date‘ (2001), Season 8, Episode
16: ‗The One Where Joey Tells Rachel‘ (2002) and Season 9, Episode 12: ‗The One
with Phoebe‘s Rats‘ (2003). The reason for choosing three episodes is to guarantee
as many different types of jokes as possible, thus having jokes that vary from
wordplays to the sexualised and the cultural. The first translation was altered to
make it more functional and realistic to the Arabic-speaking audiences. The ten
participants that were chosen for the experiment were fans of Friends, and
audiovisual comedy in general. Their English was not good enough to rely on the
source text. Their age, education and nationality varied quite considerably. For
reasons of space, the jokes that were modified for the experiment can be found in
Appendix I.
4.4.4.3 Description of experiment

The experiment consisted of two stages: 1) observing the participants‘ response to
the jokes in both versions and comparing them afterwards; 2) conducting a short
interview with the viewers after they had watched both translations of each episode.
The short interview‘s aim was to find out which version the participants found funnier
and why, thus determining how effective the modified translation was. Before viewing
began the participants were told that they were going to watch two translations of the
same episode and that their task was to choose the one that they found more
humorous. The three episodes, in both translations, were shown on three
consecutive days; each day with an episode in both translations as watching them
on the same day would be hard and less fruitful.

During the showings, it was noticed that the participants interacted with the modified
translation more. When they were asked to explain the reason, they replied that the
second version made more sense than the first. In the first version, they could not
find a link between the translation and the reason for the laughter they heard on the
soundtrack. But in the second, modified one, the participants sensed the link
between the laughter and the subtitles, which is why they interacted with the jokes
more. Mohammed, 33, from Jordan, argued that it was funnier to say that Joey‘s T-
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shirt had a picture of Calvin peeing on Hobbs (see sample 5 above) rather than just
to say that the T-shirt had a picture of Calvin and Hobbs, which did not make sense
as a joke. Similarly, Mohammed, 23, from Libya, found the conversation between
Phoebe and Tim in Monica‘s workplace very funny. See Sample 10 above. When I
asked him why, he said that he liked the wordplay or the funny rhyming of the words
that they exchanged. Likewise, sample 11 appealed more to Izzat, 27, from Syria, in
its modified version than the first one. The rest of the participants shared similar view
points and gave examples about why they preferred the modified translation. None
of them was in favour of the original translation, even though it was more literal and
faithful to the source text.
Although the subtitler of the first version respected the audience by being
faithful to the original text and applying maximum censorship on sex and taboo
references, the audience was not impressed. There is no doubt that the subtitler took
into account both the comparison that the audience might make between the two
texts and the criticism that he would get for not censoring or euphemising sex and
taboo references according to the norms. It should be kept in mind, however, that
subtitles are usually, but not necessarily, made for those who do not understand the
original dialogue and not for those who are able to compare texts. This makes it
unlikely that the target audience who chose to watch the Arabic subtitled version of
Friends would be able or keen to spot the differences between the texts. Second,
there are euphemized words in Arabic that can still be used and yet be avertable to
the audience. For example, the word "ٖ٧‫ج‬٬" or ―urinate‖ is officially used in hospitals
and pharmacies; and the word "‫ئفوح‬ٜ", a euphemised word for ―a**‖, is also a polite
alternative which delivers the message.
The fact that the ten participants opted for the modified translation shows that
the translator can allow himself more freedom and bear in mind that the audience
s/he is translating for will mostly rely on the subtitles to understand the humour and
that using the existing euphemised common taboo words will not offend this
audience at all. Moreover, opting for the modified translation also indicates that the
functional approach or skopos theory adopted for the subtitling of the three episodes
managed to bridge the gap between the source and target texts and therefore make
the audience laugh. Although the first skopos of the modified translation was to
sound humorous, this was not possible until the intentions of the characters had
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been interpreted into the target text by means of addition, reduction, paraphrasing
and substitution.
To conclude, we saw in section 2.3.3 how there is almost a consensus (Nord,
1994; Barbe, 1996; Chiaro, 1992; Newmark, 2003; Taivalkoski-Shilov, 2008) on the
difficulty of translating humour, including wordplays, as was also confirmed in the
discussion above. The pragmatic Attardo, 1994; Vandaele, 2002b) and equivalence
(Leibold, 1989; Muhawi, 2002; Ghazala, 2007) approaches have been suggested by
theorists to facilitate the job of translators as we saw in section 2.2. However, the
experiments conducted here showed a good degree of the viability of the functional
approach, since applying equivalents does not seem to be practical in the sense that
it is difficult to find equivalences to cultural references or sexual jokes in Arabic, let
alone wordplays. The aim of translating such types of audiovisual material is to
bridge the gap between two cultures and entertain the audience, a task that the
translator is responsible for. And since humour is a social and a cultural
phenomenon, according to Jaskanen (1999: 30), a translator not only has to judge
whether the TL reader understands the humour in a given text but also to know or
guess whether the humour functions as humour in the target culture, something that
makes the whole process complex.
4.5 Conclusion
This chapter attempted to shed light on the barriers to subtitling into Arabic, mainly
the subtitling of dialects, swear words, taboos and humour. It has tried to indicate
how such barriers are dealt with by professionals through selecting some
audiovisuals as case studies. Educating Rita, London to Brighton and Friends
revealed to us the mistakes, at times, and the difficulties, at others, that result from
subtitling such genres. One should not always attribute such mistakes to subtitlers
who are torn between what the audience needs, the language available to them
(written MSA) and what the screen can bear in terms of time and space. The
interviewees made certain suggestions and clarified what can and cannot be done in
subtitling. The researcher persisted in his efforts, believing that such limitations
should not stop subtitlers from trying to find enhanced solutions to the problem, and,
therefore, improve the quality of the subtitles. As a result, he suggested a few simple
and handy techniques that might help to overcome these barriers. Then the
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experiments tried to examine the viability and practicality of such solutions and find
out the audience‘s needs and preferences in respect of translation.
Introducing the issue of dialects at the beginning of a film such as Educating
Rita as was suggested at the beginning of this chapter, may not bridge the gap
between the audience and the film but it can reduce it. In this way it can help in both
delivering the message and entertaining or educating the audience. Likewise,
reducing the number of omitted swear and taboo words and euphemising them using
words that are even used in daily life, as was illustrated in 4.5, also helps to offer a
more functional translation that expresses the mode and rhythm of the audiovisuals,
and as a result, reflects the dialogue and message they want to deliver. Similarly,
defining the skopos in humour translation and translating accordingly could be
effective as the examples and the experiments tried to prove. It has to be admitted,
however, that ―absolute translation is impossible in principle‖ (Attardo, 2002: 191).
But despite all the barriers, no translation of any type is impossible if a satisfactory
translation approach guides it. Dubbing is also argued as a perfect alternative to
such barriers. In dubbing, target dialects can be used to replace source ones and
swear words can be largely censored as we will see in the following chapter.
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Chapter 5
DUBBING
5.0 Overview
This chapter addresses dubbing as a solution to the obstacles that subtitlers face,
mainly the subtitling of dialects, swearing and taboo words, and humour. Discussion
of this issue was based on a questionnaire and an experiment and is supported by
data from interviews conducted with professionals.
5.1 Introduction
The previous chapter examined some of the problems that subtitlers are likely to
face when they subtitle English-language audiovisuals into Arabic. Some micro-level
solutions were suggested but another macro-solution remains possible. Dubbing as
we discussed in chapter two, can be a solution to some of the problems of subtitling.
Ferrari (2006: 124), for instance, argues that dubbing allows texts to become
culturally and nationally specific, not only reconfiguring ‗myths‘ for new audiences in
new contexts, but also recounting such myths in the very language (including
accents, dialects, and regional expressions) of the new audiences. Some of the
interviewees agreed with this and emphasised the importance of using dialects in
dubbing. Hayek (see Appendix E) from Pro Subtilting, Lebanon, maintains that
humour and dialects are best transferred through dubbing rather than subtitling; but
this might not be commercially wise as dubbing into dialects does not target the
wider audiences of the Arab-speaking world who may not like or even fully
understand another dialect.
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This chapter aims at examining the extent to which dubbing into colloquial
Arabic can be an alternative to subtitling or rather a solution to the particular
theoretical and practical problems of subtitling that were dealt with in the previous
chapter. This will be done in three stages. The first will examine the technical
barriers to dubbing in general and to dubbing into Arabic in particular. The second
will explore the mechanisms of the varieties of Arabic and the way they function by
highlighting some of the syntactic and semantic differences between such dialects,
mainly Egyptian, Syrian, Moroccan and Kuwaiti. This aims to bring to the surface the
complications that lie beneath these varieties. Finally, in the third stage we will be
examining how successful some of the audiovisuals dubbed into Arabic dialects are
in the hope of determining why or whether dubbing into dialects can be commercially
viable or not. But before we proceed it is important to have an idea about the history
of dubbing into Arabic.
5.2 Case Study (D): The Simpsons
5.2.1 Introduction
The aim of analysing The Simpsons which was dubbed into Egyptian in 2005 is to
look at 1) the way the translator, Amr Hosni, used this dialect to transfer the humour
and the dialect(s) of the series and see how successful he was, 2) the approach
which he adopted, and 3) the way the audience received the dubbed animations.
This animated cartoon was chosen because a large part of its humour relies on the
manipulation of language, a process which has to be examined in this study since
we are talking about the transfer of source dialects into target ones.
The Simpsons is an American animated comedy cartoons created by Matt
Groening first shown on Fox Network in 1989. The satirical sitcom is about an
American family comprising Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Other characters
are stereotypes of American society such as Mr, Burns, Krusty, Otto, Chief Wiggum,
Barney, Moe and various other characters. The popularity of the show made
Gleeson (1998: 1) claim that it will never be off the human race‘s screens as long as
there is still something left to watch it on. The quality characters, the humour, the
satire, the ambiguity and the creative language have all contributed to the popularity
of the animations. Gleeson (ibid: 4) argued that the inventive use of language is one
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of the reasons for the uniqueness of the programme. For example, the exclamations
made by Homer such as ―D‘oh‖ and ―Yoink‖ have become part of the English
language. Moreover, the bizarre language spoken by Moe as well as other
characters is used by the writers to reflect the bad educational system. For instance,
he called the garage a ‗car-hole‘ and asked Lisa ―If you‘re so sure what it ain‘t, why
don‘t you tell us what it am?!‖ Having said this does not mean that the show relies on
the vernacular alone to deliver the message. As has been mentioned, it is a lower
middle-class family show that uses a mixture of middle-class and working-class
American-English; and as language is one of the most important factors for the
success of the series, it would be interesting to see how translators dealt with this
when they translated the series into their target language(s).
5.2.2 The Simpsons in different languages
Lorenzo et al (2003: 288) discusses the dubbing of The Simpsons into Spanish and
concludes that due to the fact that the source and target cultures belong to the same
cultural macrosystem (the West), the cultural references did not constitute a
translation problem, although the tenor and register were altered on different
occasions, something which was not justified. However, they gave examples about
some of the techniques that are used to get the translation right. For instance, in the
following situation, Homer went to the Argentinian doctor, Riviera, to have a hair
transplant. While he was about to give Homer an injection, he said:
RIVIERA: These drugs will make the operation seem like a beautiful dream (singing)
Hello everybody.
(Back translation from Spanish into English):

RIVIERA: This drug will make the operation seem like a dream of the Pampa!
(singing) Goodbye boys, my lifelong friends…
Lorenzo et al (ibid: 287) maintains that the improvement which the translator made
on the ST by naming a well known region of Argentina and by introducing a fragment
of the lyrics of a tango song was a good choice, and can be considered easier to
understand than that of the source text.
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In 2006 Nigel Armstrong wrote an article about the translation of The
Simpsons into French under the title: ‗Translating The Simpsons: how popular is
that?‘ Armstrong‘s answer to this question can be summarised as follows:
The translations of The Simpsons are indeed popular in the sense of being
widely practiced. From a popular-cultural perspective, we can answer the
question, taken as a genuine request for information, of how popular a
translation of the show is by reiterating that the English-French translations
we have discussed here show an increase in ‗popularity‘ if by this we mean
greater simplicity, or a shift in the direction of ‗mass culture‘, through the
loss of the multiple layers that the ST allusions provide. (2006: 214)
Dore (2009) discusses the translation of The Simpsons into Italian and came to the
conclusion that the translators were able to create quality dubbing because of their
creativity and expertise. Their introduction of language specific features like accents,
dialects and sociolects for humorous purposes and which in turn proved the validity
of this target-culture approach was a success, although it could be offensive 32. Dore
asks a Spanish friend of hers about whether accents had been used in the Spanish
version of The Simpson. She replied they had not but hastened to add that using
such accents could be seen as highly politically incorrect because of the great many
problems of identity and unity that Spain suffers from.
5.2.3 The Simpsons and Egyptian Arabic
This popular animation series has been successfully dubbed into many languages
and continues to be, although translators have adopted different translation methods
that suit their target language and culture even if this has incurred some changes or
losses. We saw above how the French and Spanish renderings of The Simpsons
opted for simplicity while the Italian translation tried to retain and compensate for
many regional aspects of the original cartoons that could be said to be complicated.
So, it would be interesting to see what strategies the Egyptian translator adopted to
dub the series into Egyptian Arabic.
32
It could be offensive in the sense that in some cases certain people of certain societies may not
approve the idea of using the dialect they speak to represent them as a working class or uneducated.
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There is no doubt that the task which the Egyptian translator had to carry out
when translating The Simpsons was not easy, taking into consideration the different
factors that contributed to the success of the American version. After all, as Ferrari
(2009: 34-5) put it, The Simpsons represents a challenge for adaptation because it is
deeply rooted in American popular culture. According to the business development
director at MBC, Michel Costandi (ABCNews, 2005), when the executives at MBC
TV (Middleeast Broadcasting Centre) decided to dub The Simpsons, they thought
that the cartoon ―will open a new horizon‖. The aim was to attract teenagers as well
as children. So, what MBC did was to alter certain cultural references in the show to
suit the Arab culture: donut became cake, beer became soda, and hot-dogs became
beef sausages, and so on. They also hired famous Egyptian actors and actresses to
dub the cartoons. The most important decision which they took was to choose the
language or dialect into which The Simpsons was to be dubbed.
The importance of deciding on a language variety comes from the fact that the
show was supposed to target the younger generation which constitutes 60% of the
Arab population. Thus choosing the vehicle that would carry The Simpsons was
crucial to reach the vast majority of this audience. It is the habit to dub children and
young adult cartoons into MSA. However, as Whitaker (2005) believes, the challenge
of rendering expressions such as "doh!" and "scrumdidiliumptious" into the formal
classical tongue proved just too daunting. In this case, and since the humour in The
Simpsons is largely dependent on vernacular English, there was no choice but to
compensate the humour through another vernacular, notwithstanding the fact that
this approach is not very common. Lindsay Wise of the Adham Centre for Television
Journalism at the American University in Cairo is quoted in Whitaker (Whitaker,
2005) arguing that the decision to have the characters of the show speak in Egyptian
dialect is unusual: "Dubbed foreign cartoons tend to be put into classical Arabic for
educational purposes. This is much more casual." In the following paragraphs we will
be looking into the strategy which the translator adopted to compensate for the
humour of the TT and how effective this strategy was.
To begin with, the Egyptian translator tried to retain the humour of the source
text by retaining the tone and register of the characters, using what is supposed to
be vernacular and funny words and expressions that are used in daily Egyptian. For
example, in the episode ‗Oh, Brother, Where art Thou?‘, Herbert, Homer‘s brother,
asks Lisa if she is the little hell-raiser that Homer told him about:
149
HERBERT: So, Lisa, are you the little hell-raiser your father told me about?
‫ب؟‬٥١‫ ل‬٫٘‫ ؽٕب‬٪ْ‫ ثجب‬٫ٙ٘‫ََ٭َؾَخ ا‬ِٝ٘‫ح ا‬٧ٙ‫ ا٘ج‬٩ّ‫ذ ث‬٠‫ ا‬،‫ ث٭َخ‬،٢‫ آ‬:ً‫هان‬
HERBERT: So, Bisa, are you the big-trouble maker your father told me about?
As we can see, hell-raiser was replaced by ‗‫ََ٭َؾَخ‬ِٜٖ‫ح ا‬٧ٙ‫ ‘ا٘ج‬or ‗big trouble maker‘ which is
a good vernacular Egyptian equivalent for hell-raiser. However, the adjective ‗‫ََ٭َؾَخ‬ِٝ٘‫‘ا‬
is not popular outside Egypt, although the word ‗‫ح‬٧ٙ‫ ‘ا٘ج‬or ‗trouble‘ is used daily by all
Arabs. The translator added the word ‗‫ََ٭َؾَخ‬ِٝ٘‫ ‘ا‬to compensate for the humour that lies
in the colloquial expression ‗hell-raiser‘ and which the word ‗‫ح‬٧ٙ‫ ‘ا٘ج‬alone does not
compensate. This does not mean that the word ‗‫ََ٭َؾَخ‬ِٝ٘‫ ‘ا‬is the only option achieve.
There are other words that are understood by a wider audience and which can still
be funny.
In another example taken from ‗Homer Defined‘, Bart uses the informal verb
‗shaft‘ to describe his disappointment with his best friend Milhouse who did not invite
him to his birthday party:
BART: (Complaining to Otto) My best friend shafted me. I‘ll never get over this Otto-
man.
.٧‫ر‬٧‫ب ر‬٬ ٛٔ ‫ص‬٠ ‫ك‬ٙ‫ ؼ‬.٫١ْ١‫ ؼ‬٫‫ ألي صؾبث‬:‫بدر‬
BART: My best friend ignored me. He turned out to be dishonest, Otto-man.
As the word ‗٫١ْ١‫ ‘ؼ‬or ‗ignored me‘ is not as strong as ‗shafted me‘, the translator
sacrificed the second half of the original utterance to add the purely Egyptian
colloquial adjective ‗ ٛٔ ‫ص‬٠‘ ‗dishonest‘, or literally ‗half-sleeved‘, which means that
someone is ‗incomplete‘ in terms of honesty or far away from it. So, another extra
word was added to the main one ‗٫١ْ١‫ ‘ؼ‬in order to retain the same influence that the
situation has on Bart and which he expresses by using the verb ‗shaft‘. Again, it has
to be stressed that this is a purely Egyptian term that is only used by Egyptians.
The following example is taken from ‗Dead Putting Society‘. Following a lost
bet on who will win in the baseball match Bart or Todd, Homer and Ned are cutting
the grass of their gardens wearing their wives‘ dresses. While Ned chuckles as the
situation reminds him of the stunts at his college days, Homer feels humiliated:
HOMER: (Furiously) Oh, my God; he‘s enjoying it.

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.‫خ‬٬‫م٭بد ا٘ق٭و‬ٝ‫مَٕواد ا٘غ‬ٜ ٚ‫ب‬٬‫ ثؤ‬٫٠‫ ث٭ٍٕو‬،ُ‫ٍوأ‬٬ ‫ب‬ٜ ٌ‫ ث‬،٪٦‫ اؽَبً لغ٭ت أ‬،‫و‬ٝ‫ب ل‬٬ ‫ رموي‬:ً‫شافع‬
.‫يأؼػ‬ٜ٦ ‫غ‬٧َ‫ج‬ٜ ‫ كا‬،‫ئػ‬١‫بر‬٤ ‫َب‬٠َ‫ ك‬:‫عمر‬
NED: You know Homer, a strange feeling, indeed. But it does not matter. It reminds
me of the days of charity organizations‘ camps33.
HOMER: I‘m going to have a heart attack and yet he is delighted and overjoyed.
So, ‗Oh, my God; he‘s enjoying it‘ is replaced by ‗I‘m going to have a heart attack.
He‘s delighted and overjoyed‘. The translator replaced ‗Oh, my God‘ with ‗I‘ll have a
heart attack‘ and ‗He‘s enjoying it‘ with ‗He‘s delighted and overjoyed‘. ‗Oh, my God‘
is not translated, and this could be overlooked. But the addition of ‗‫ئػ‬١‫بر‬٤‘ ‗I‘ll have a
heart attack‘ and ‗‫يأؼػ‬ٜ‘ ‗overjoyed‘ seems redundant and too colloquial as the two
expressions do not ring a bell outside Egypt. In this case, ‗Oh, my God‘ could have
been replaced by the Egyptian ‗What‘s this!‘ or ‗!‫ كا‬٣٬‫ ‘أ‬and ‗He‘s enjoying it‘ with ‗He‘s
too delighted‘ or ‗ ٪٦‫غ أ‬٧َ‫ج‬ٜ ‫‘كا‬, both of which are understandable to the Arabic-
speaking audiences and still able to retain the humour of the ST.
Another example where the translator adds to the ST in order to retain its
humour is taken from ‗Krusty Gets Busted‘. Krusty, the clown is accused of robbing a
shop, so his reputation is ruined. People decide to burn the dolls and games that
they bought from him. Homer does the same but Bart, who is a fan of Krusty, tries to
convince his father not to do so as he thinks that Krusty is innocent. Homer replies:
HOMER: (To Bart) Now, come on son, get with the winning team.
.ُ‫ل‬٠‫ب رمب‬ٜ ٦ ‫عخ‬٧ٝ٘‫ اهٔت ا‬،‫ب ثله‬٬ ‫بهلل‬٬ :‫عمر‬
HOMER: Come on Bart, get with the winning team and do not be stubborn.
‗Do not be stubborn‘ or ‗ُ‫ل‬٠‫ب رمب‬ٜ‘ is added to the original sentence. But what attracts
the attention is the translation of ‗Get with the winning team‘ which is ‗ ‫عخ‬٧ٝ٘‫‘اهٔت ا‬.
33
The translator translated ―fertility days‖ in the original text as ―charity organizations‘ camps‖.
Probably, Ned meant the days when he was younger and he had more energy than now. It is also
possible that the expression could also have a sexual implication and therefore the translator decided
to euphemise it. But in fact it is not clear why he decided to translate it as such. The researcher tried
to contact the translator to ask him but he did not respond.
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This colloquial Egyptian expression literally means ‗to ride the wave‘. Although the
term is becoming more popular outside Egypt day by day, it is still not very common.
The above examples show how the translator tried to compensate for the
source text humour by adding more colloquial expressions. In the following
examples, we will see how the translator changes the register of the characters by
replacing the formal with the informal for the sake of humour. It is undeniable that
Egyptian has many expressions which convey a sense of humour and which reflect
the nature of people; but despite the fact that Egyptian Arabic is inventive in this
regard, many of these expressions are not understood by non-Egyptians. In the
following example from ‗Black Widower‘, Homer finds that his shirts which he goes to
work in and which Marge has washed have turned from white to pink because Bart
put his red cap with them in the washing machine:
HOMER: (To Marge) Oh, give me, give me, give me. Oh, no, pink, pink, pink. It is all
over Marge. It is all over. No…
.‫ىح‬٦‫ ٔبى‬٫ٌ ‫ هؽذ‬.٩١ٜ ‫ب‬٬ ُ‫ هؽذ ثال‬.٫‫ج‬ٜ‫ ثب‬،٫‫ج‬ٜ‫ ثب‬،٫‫ج‬ٜ‫ ثب‬.ٗ‫َزؾ٭‬ٜ ...٢٦‫ أ‬.٫‫بر‬٤ ،٫‫بر‬٤ ،٫‫بر‬٤ :‫عمر‬
HOMER: Give, give me, give me. Oh, impossible, pink, pink, pink. I‘m doomed
Marge. I‘m finished.
Once again, the two Egyptian expressions that replace ‗It‘s all over‘ are colloquial
and metaphorical so that translating them literally back into English would be
pointless as they do not make sense. For example, ‗ُ‫ ‘هؽذ ثال‬literally means ‗I went
for free‘. The second option is ‗ ‫ىح‬٦‫ ٔبى‬٫ٌ ‫ ‘هؽذ‬which literally means ‗I went for for a
bottle of coke‘. Both simply mean ‗I‘m finished‘, but this is Egyptian: funny and
creative.
In ‗Homer Alone‘, Homer looks after Maggie while Marge is away but she
goes missing. Chief Wiggum finds her and brings her back. Homer gets excited
when he sees her, but Chief Wiggum tells him not to feel happy as he intends to sue
him for negligence:
CHIEF WIGGUM: (To Homer) Not so fast. You‘re wanted on three counts of criminal
neglect.
.ٖ‫ب‬ٝ٤‫ ِع٭خ ا‬٫ٌ ُ‫زؾّ٭‬ٙ٘ ‫ة‬٧ٙ‫ؽ‬ٜ ‫ذ‬٠‫ ا‬.‫ها‬٦ ّٗ‫ ا٘ض‬،٩١‫ اٍز‬:ً‫انشرط‬
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CHIEF WIGGUM: (To Homer) Wait, still more to come. You‘re wanted on criminal
neglect.
The expression ‗still more to come‘ or ‗ ‫ها‬٦ ّٗ‫ ‘ا٘ض‬is an addition here which literally
means ‗the weight is behind‘ and which is added by the translator to make the
situation funnier. This is because Chief Wiggum‘s ‗Not so fast‘ is not compensated
by ‗Wait‘ alone; thus the addition was necessary. However, it will take some time for
the non-Egyptian to interpret it. The translator could have replaced the original ‗Not
so fast‘ with a more understandable expression such as ‗Do not be very happy‘ or ‗ ‫ب‬ٜ
٪٦‫‘رٍوؽِ أ‬.
In another example from ‗Dead Putting Society‘, Homer is training Bart to be
ready for the Baseball competition with the Flanders. He is teaching him how to hit
the ball to get it into the hole:
HOMER: Keep your head down, follow through…OK. That did not work.
.ٓ١ٌْ ‫مذ‬ٙ‫ ؼ‬،٫ّ‫ب‬ٜ ...‫ ربثك إ٘وح‬،‫ هآٍ رؾذ‬٫ٙ‫ ف‬:‫عمر‬
HOMER: Keep your head down, follow the ball… OK. It did not work.
Actually, the word ‗ٓ١ٌْ‘ ‗did not work‘ is used to indicate that something is ‗nothing‘, a
term that is not familiar to the Arabic-speaking audiences at all.
Finally, Bart‘s register is a mix of formal and informal English depending on
the situation. In the following dialogue taken from ‗Moaning Lisa‘, Bart uses the
American informal verb ‗scoff‘ which means to eat a lot of something quickly. To
compensate for this vernacular American word in order to retain the humour, the
translator added the word ’‫ ‗ى٘ػ‬which is supposed to be colloquial. The word is yet
formal and means to swallow food without chewing. The word is not familiar and is
rarely used, even in MSA, although phonetically speaking it sounds funny, which is
why the translator chose it. Moreover, ‗ٞ٧‫٭‬ِّٙ‫‗ ‘ك‬a lot‘ which replaces ‗enough‘ is also
unknown outside Egypt:
MARGE: I‘m sorry everybody but I‘ve only got two cupcakes for the three of you.
BART: Well Mom, one of us has scoffed more than enough cupcakes over the past
three decades to keep his…
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.‫ رالرخ‬٧‫ز‬٠‫ا‬٦ ٟ‫ِ و٭و ٔ٭ٕز٭‬٬‫ل‬١‫ب ل‬ٜ ،٪٦‫ب آٍٍخ أ‬٠‫ أ‬:‫منى‬
...٧٠‫ؾزبط ا‬ٜ ِٜ٦ ‫ ٌبرذ‬٫ٙ٘‫خ ا‬١ٍ ٟ‫ٖ ا٘زالر٭‬٧‫ ٔ٭ٕخ ؼ‬ٞ٧‫٭‬ِّٙ‫ب ى٘ػ ك‬١‫اؽل ٌ٭‬٦ ٣‫ ٌ٭‬٧٤ ‫ب‬ٜ ،ُ‫غوا‬٬ ‫ب‬ٜ :‫بدر‬
MARGE: I‘m very sorry, I‘ve only got two cupcakes and you are three.
BART: It‘s OK. One of us has swallowed a lot of cupcakes over the past thirty years
and does not need…
Had the translator replaced the word ’‫ ‘ى٘ػ‬with ‘ًٙ‫ ‘ل‬which means ‗to feed the
animals‘, and ‗ٞ٧‫٭‬ِّٙ‫ ‘ك‬with ‗ٞ٧‫٭‬ٜٙ‘ ‗million‘, the sentence would have been funnier since
the words are more familiar to the Arabic-speaking audiences, and ‘ًٙ‫ ‘ل‬is also used
by Lisa in the same episode.
We have seen how the translator tried to compensate the humour through his
manipulation of the vernacular Egyptian, changing the registers and tones of the
characters when he needed to do so. Generally speaking, he has tried to tone up
humour by adding extra colloquial vocabulary and expressions or by transferring the
formal into the informal. Ferrari (2006: 130) argued that the Italian adaptation of The
Nanny (Drescher and Jacobson, 1993) drastically changed the original US
stereotypes and re-constructed the ethnic and linguistic elements in a new ‗all-Italian‘
manner, modifying culturally specific situations into a new set of national jokes and
ironies. However, the above examples from The Simpsons show that the translator
used vocabulary and expressions that were too Egyptian in the sense that they were
difficult to understand by other Arabs. He did this excessively in all dubbed episodes.
The aim was obviously to try to have a humorous show in an Arabic equivalent to
that of an American. In order to ascertain audiences‘ response, it was thought to
conduct a questionnaire to examine the extent to which the approach was successful
and whether it contributed to the failure of the dubbed cartoon series or not.
5.2.4 The Simpsons: Questionnaire
5.2.4.1 Rationale
The idea of the questionnaire emerged when it was not possible to do an
experiment. It was not possible to suggest a certain translation, as was done in
subtitling, and then dub it. So, an alternative had to be found which could help to
154
investigate if dialects can successfully be used in dubbing without creating barriers.
In other words, the questionnaire aimed at a) trying to examine the extent to which a
certain language variety can be a barrier in dubbing, and therefore; b) discovering if
Egyptian was the reason for the failure of the cartoon series or not; and c) finding out
if the translation approach which the translator followed was helpful in delivering the
source text‘s message to the Arabic-speaking audiences.
El-Rashidi (2005) claims that the failure of the dubbed series is in fact cultural
despite all efforts to adapt the scripts to make the show more accessible and
acceptable to the Arabic-speaking audiences. Homer's beer, for example, is soda
and his hot dogs are barbecued Egyptian beef sausages to fit in a Muslim culture.
Moreover, El-Rashidi summarizes what people, mainly bloggers in chat rooms, said
about the cartoons: ―They've ruined it! Oh, yes they have, sob...Why?‖ (Noor from
Oman); ―It was just painful. ...The guy who played Homer Simpson was one of the
most unfunny people I ever watched. Just drop the project, and air reruns of Tony
Danza's show instead‖ (Prof. As'ad AbuKhalil, California State University,
Stanislaus); ―Hi-diddly-ho, neighbors!' How the h -- are they going to translate that?‖
(Blogger's name not mentioned); ―I am sure the effort (of) the people who made this
show to translate it to Arabic could have made a good original show about an
Egyptian family living in Egypt, dealing with religion, life and work and trying to keep
a family together. That way they can proudly say Made in Egypt, instead of Made in
USA, Assembled in Egypt‖ (Niqab).
Similarly, Al Jean, the executive producer for The Simpsons argues that ―If he
(Homer) does not drink and eat bacon and generally act as a pig, which I know is
also against Islam, then I don‘t think it‘s Homer‖ (ABCNews, 2005). Moreover, a
report that was broadcast on BBC4 about the dubbed series seems to prove what Al
Jean maintains. We quote at length what the report said about the issue:
An Arabic version of the cult cartoon The Simpsons is receiving a mixed

reaction in the Middle East. Al-Shamshoon, as it‘s been renamed, has been
launched in the Arab world with a local twist. It uses the original Simpsons‘
animation with the voices dubbed into Arabic by popular Egyptian actors.
Bear and bacon have been replaced by soda and Egyptian beef sausages.
But local fans complain that much of the humour has been lost in the
translation. (BBC4, 2005)
155
Be it culture as argued above or language as suggested, the questionnaire intended
to explore which of the two is the reason for the failure of the animations. The
reason(s) for choosing The Simpsons early series, is because 1) it is mainly dubbed
into Egyptian; 2) the Sudanese dialect is also used, though partially; and 3) because
the humour in it relies to a great extent on the use of language such as formal vs.
vernacular. Therefore, the ability of a dialect such as Egyptian to retain the humour
of the original dialogue was also put to the test. It is worth reminding the reader that,
in reply to one of the questions, the professionals interviewed all agreed that dialect
is better than MSA for reflecting the humour of the original.
5.2.4.2 Audience and data

Since the early series of The Simpsons were directed at children and teenagers, the
target audience of this questionnaire were school students who were below 18 years
old. For the best results, only those children over 10 were included in the
questionnaire, as students at this age are more able to understand other dialects
than those who are younger. To target a wide-ranging audience, 200 participants
from different Arab countries, except Egypt, who were studying at different Arabic
schools34 in the UK were requested to participate. The participants were asked to
respond to the following nine Egyptian sentences or expressions which were taken
from ‗Treehouse of Horror‘, season two (7F04), which was aired in 1990. They were
also requested to write under each expression what they understood from that
expression whether in MSA, in their spoken dialect or even in English. The
expressions were read aloud to them and they were told that this was not a test but
simply a questionnaire.
It should be mentioned that the reason for choosing the following expressions
from one episode rather than from different ones was that if different expressions
from different episodes had been selected, it could be argued that the researcher
had chosen the most difficult terms from a variety of episodes where there was a
significant likelihood of occasionally finding such a culture-specific term. Table 5.1
shows the results and table 5.2 details the nine expressions.
34
Arabic schools in the UK usually open at weekends. The most popular schools are the Saudi,
Libyan and Egyptian ones that accept students from different Arab countries. The Saudi schools in
Durham and Newcastle where chosen to conduct this questionnaire.
156
As we saw from the examples in the previous section and as Table 5.2 shows, the
translator opted for everyday spoken Egyptian which is rich in specific words and
metaphorical expressions. Consequently, Egyptian can be said to have a unique and
modernised colloquial lexicon different from that of other Arabic varieties; a lexicon
that mixes MSA, colloquial and English vocabulary in order to create something new
that sometimes does not make sense when translated literally. For instance, in
example (7) the word ‗ُ‫ٍو‬٬‘, which means ‗to spread‘ or ‗to cover‘ and which is
usually used for furniture, is used here to indicate that someone is ‗spreading‘
information as an introduction to his topic. Moreover, in (8) the word ‗٣‫ ‘اّؽ‬or ‗cream‘
means here that something is nice or spot on, and the word ‗ٞ‫ب‬ٜ‘ ‗man‘ is English and
is commonly used in Egypt together with many other English words. Similarly, words
such as ‗ٟ‫ٕم٭‬ٕٜٙ‘ ‗stubborn‘ or ‗complicated‘ and ‗ِ‫ ‘اْ٘٭‬or ‗blinds‘, have no roots in
Arabic and are not used in other Arabic varieties. Therefore, these were the results:
Table 5.1: Results of questionnaire
Expressions No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 Total
Participants
who
understood
them
19 1 55 31 0 12 10 29 8 147
Participants
who could
not
understand
them 181 199 145 187 200 188 190 171 192 1653
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Table 5.2: The sentences used in the questionnaire
Source text Target text Back translation
1- MARGE: What on earth was that? ‫ت كا؟‬٬‫د ا٘ىو‬٧‫ ا٘ص‬٣٬‫ أ‬:‫ انزوجة‬- 1 1- MARGE: What‘s that strange voice?
HOMER: Probably the house was settling. .‫ّؼ‬٬‫ ا٘قْت ث٭و‬ٟٕٝ٬ :‫انزوج‬ HOMER: May be the wood is cracking.
2- That last story was just a warm-up. .‫ه‬٦‫َؼ ى‬ٜ ‫ذ‬٠‫ ٔب‬٪‫خ ك‬٬‫ ا٘ؾٕب‬- 2 2- This story was dead easy.
3- Cool man! .ٞ‫ب‬ٜ ‫ب‬٬ ٣‫ اّؽ‬- 3 3- That‘s nice, man!
4- Mother! Pork chops. !ٛ‫ لبٍ٘ؾ‬٫٠‫ِ ظب‬٬‫ ه‬- 4 4- Barbecued lamp breast.
5- For a superior race, they really rub it in. .‫ لبٮفو‬ٟ‫ٕم٭‬ٕٜٙ ‫ا‬٧‫م‬ٙ‫ ؼ‬- 5 5- They are very complicated.
6- While I nodded nearly napping, suddenly there .‫ٌؤّه‬٦ ‫ّط‬ٝ‫ة أو‬٦‫ب ك‬٬ ‫ كا‬- 6 6- I was nearly napping.
came a tapping.
7- LISA: Bart, he‘s establishing mood. .‫ق‬٧‫ظ‬٧ٝٙ٘ ُ‫ ث٭ٍو‬٣َ٘ - 7 7- He is introducing the topic.
8- HOMER: I guess I‘ll have no trouble getting to .‫ اٍَ٘٭قخ‬٪‫به كا ى‬٥١٘‫ ا‬ٚ‫ب‬١٤ ٫ّٕٙ - 8 8- I‘ll be sleeping like a dead animal.
sleep tonight.
9- Surely that is something my window lattice. .‫ اإلىاى‬٦ ِ‫ها اْ٘٭‬٦ ‫د‬٧‫ كا ص‬- 9 9- This voice is coming from outside
the blinds and the window.
158
Had the researcher been stricter in selecting exact interpretations for the
expressions, the number of those who understood the expressions would have
dropped further. In fact, it was not surprising that only 147 interpretations out of a
possible 1800 responses from the 200 students were correct or close to correct. This
result was brought about by the translators‘ use of the vocabulary and expressions
that were too colloquial and rarely had a common root in MSA, the reference point
for all Arabic varieties. As has already been mentioned, words such as ،ِ‫ اْ٘٭‬،ٟ‫ٕم٭‬ٕٜٙ
ٞ‫ب‬ٜ ‗stubborn‘, ‗blinds‘, ‗man‘ have no roots in Arabic. Moreover, the roots of words
such as ٣‫ اّؽ‬، ‫ه‬٦‫َؼ ى‬ٜ ،ُ‫ ث٭ٍو‬which mean in Egyptian ‗introducing a topic‘, ‗very easy‘,
‗cool‘ are Arabic but they are not used in their normal MSA sense where they usually
mean ‗spreading‘ or ‗covering‘, ‗easy swallow‘, and ‗cream‘. In other words, Egyptian
makes use of words to create new vivid expressions that are unique and
characteristic of the Egyptian variety.
But uniqueness does not mean popularity. Since the aim of the dubbed
cartoon series was to target as wide an audience as possible, the translator should
have taken into consideration the non-Egyptian viewers who, although Egyptian
Arabic might be familiar to them, are likely to find such vernacular expressions
difficult to understand. The translator‘s strategy to compensate humour by seeking
equivalent colloquial and humorous expressions made him forget that his audience
needed simpler and more understandable Egyptian Arabic. It seems that humour
was the first priority for the translator rather than the audience who seem to come
second on the list of priorities.
That these nine expressions were not fully understood by many participants
was only the tip of the iceberg. In other words, these are only nine expressions taken
from one of 29 dubbed episodes. The participants found a large gap between their
spoken dialect, or even MSA, and Egyptian. One of the participants (a 16 years old
Saudi student) wrote on the questionnaire sheet: ―If the expressions were in Arabic,
we could have been of much help to you.‖ Other participants wrote: ―Sorry! I do not
understand anything.‖ Some others interpreted 'ٟ‫ٕم٭‬ٕٜٙ‘ ‗complicated‘ as ‗drunk‘, ‗drug
addicts‘, ‗impolite‘, ‗stupid‘, and ‗mad‘ and so on. The majority left the sheet empty.
This brings us back to the functional approach discussed in chapter 3. In the
case of The Simpsons, skopos theory, unlike the equivalence approach adopted by
the translator, avoids the trap of looking for equivalence. It concentrates rather on
the spirit of the source text‘s message while at the same time taking into account the
159
skopos or the functions that the translation aims at. This twist from the text to the
audience in such a context (Arab culture) is in fact crucial to the success of a
translation as was explained in the case of London to Brighton and Friends. The
skopos shows the essential priority is to use Egyptian Arabic to deliver the source
text‘s message to an audience that has, given their age group, little knowledge of
this language variety. This will eventually mean using vocabulary that is closest to
standard or at least as simple and direct as possible. The second skopos should
then be to entertain and amuse the audience using this lexicon.
Perhaps, sounding too Egyptian in order to elicit laughter equals that of the
source text was a basic reason for the failure of The Simpsons which MBC has since
stopped dubbing. It seems that, the translator thought that by doing so, he would
preserve the humour of the original text since Egyptian is able to successfully
replace vernacular English and still be polite. However, MBC was thinking to target
the wider Arab world not just Egypt. Table 5.2 suggests that the failure of The
Simpsons is largely linguistic rather than cultural as El-Rashidi (2005) claims, despite
a culture‘s ability to change the source text‘s message as was discussed by Barbe
(1996: 216) and Maluf (2005) in section 2.5.
5.2.4.4 Conclusion
Cultural differences have always existed in audiovisuals before and after The
Simpsons and have been successfully adapted to fit into a conservative ethos.
However, the issue seems to be different here as different understandings of words
seem to have been a contributory factor in the viewers‘ failure to appreciate the
expressions used. This reminds us of what The Independent, as cited in Jackel
(2001: 227), wrote about the subtitles of the French film La Haine which it described
as being too American to the degree ―that the authenticity of the dialogue was almost
entirely lost‖. Therefore, the linguistic or dialectal barrier, if we can call it so, makes
dialects in dubbing as a solution to some obstacles of subtitling risky or not
recommended, especially if a dialect sounds too local or too colloquial. For example,
in one of his articles about dubbing Turkish soap operas into Syrian, Mans our
(2008) maintains that there are some specifically local Syrian expressions that do not
go hand-in-hand with the Turkish social setting in the show . In other words, if a
dialect is misused in dubbing, there is a likelihood that this dialect will fail to deliver
160
its message. Indeed, the misuse of a dialect usually has to do with the translation
approach which the translator decides to adopt. In this case, it seems that the
equivalence approach which the translator adopted did not help much.
To conclude, if Egyptian Arabic, the most popular dialect in the Arab world
cannot be understood by such an audience, regardless of the reason(s), then there
is little chance that other Arabic varieties could be used for dubbing. It was claimed
that culture rather than Egyptian dialect could have been responsible for the viewers‘
failure to pick up on the humour of the screenings. It was mentioned at the beginning
of this chapter that dubbing these animations did not start until care had been taken
to make sure that the scripts had been adapted to suit Arab culture and that the gaps
had been bridged. Moreover, if culture is to blame, then why did various foreign
cartoons and animations that were dubbed into MSA enjoy success? Some of them
have been broadcast again and again for years. In this light, the belief that Arabic
varieties are better able than MSA to reflect the humour of the source text has to be
reconsidered or investigated further. A further attempt to investigate this hypothesis
was through the experiment discussed in the following section.
5.3 Case study (E): Con Air
5.3.1 Introduction
Taking the nature of this film into consideration, one may expect a lot of strong
language. Since the film was popular at its time, the Egyptians chose to dub it to
reach as large an audience as possible. But one may also assume that one of the
aims dubbing the film was to make it easier to censor swearing and taboo words. To
check if dubbing was in fact used for this purpose, the translations of both the
dubbed and subtitled versions were compared.
In brief, the number of swear words and how many had been euphemised or
censored in both the dubbed and subtitled versions were counted. The result
confirmed the fact that dubbing assists in toning down the quality and quantity of
swearing because the audience has no idea about what was being said in the
original dialogue, unlike the situation with subtitling where there is the risk of
comparing between the original and subtitled dialogues. May be this is one of the
161
reasons which made the subtitler retain at least 110 swear and taboo words (see
Appendix G). Despite the fact that the translator of Con Air in the dubbed version
(see Appendix J) managed to omit 86 swear and taboo words out of 143, and
despite the fact that the 57 euphemised ones were toned down to a great extent
such the translator, for example, felt free to substitute ‗f***er‘ with ‗ً٬‫ ‘ـو‬or ‗nice‘ and
‗dirty naked freaks‘ with ‗‫اد‬٧ٙ‫ ‘ٍزبد ؽ‬or ‗beautiful ladies‘, this is not an indication that
dubbing is preferred to subtitling as we will see in the following sections.
The main aim of this case study is to see how the Arabic-speaking audiences
(mainly adults) interact with a film that is dubbed into a popular dialect such as
Egyptian. In other words, the ability of Arabic dialects to replace a source language
will be examined. Also to be investigated is the ability of dubbing to hide swearing
and taboo words and whether this can make any difference to the success or failure
of a film such as Con Air which contains strong language.
5.3.2 Experiment (IV): Con Air
Once again, this film was selected for adoption in the experiment because 1) it is one
of the very few films that was both dubbed into Egyptian and subtitled into MSA and
has been available on the market, and because 2) it also uses the Sudanese dialect
to reflect the black American English spoken by the lady who works at Carson city
airport. Like the other experiments, 10 participants were asked to watch the film both
in its dubbed and subtitled versions and then to judge which of the two versions they
found more interesting and say why. As mentioned in chapter 2, the participants
were of different ages and came from different educational and geographical
backgrounds. This helped target a wider audience, and thus seek objective and valid
results.
5.3.2.1 Description of experiment

The 10 participants who took part in the experiment were shown the subtitled film
first and after a break of 15 minutes, they were shown the dubbed version. But
before that, they were told that they were going to watch both copies and then judge
which one they found more interesting. While they were watching, participants were
observed and notes on their reactions were taken down, especially during showing
162
the dubbed copy. Then each participant was asked individually for his opinion so that
no one else heard what he said. This was done in order for the participants not to be
affected by each other‘s viewpoints.

The participants who came from different Arab countries and who had different
educational backgrounds responded differently to the two versions. For example, two
of them laughed occasionally when they were shown the dubbed version while they
did not do so with the subtitled one. When they were asked about which version they
favoured and why they were laughing, their answers were similar. Eyad, 32, from
Palestine and a holder of a PhD in computer science, found the dubbed version
more interesting than the subtitled one because ―The dubbed version was funny and
entertaining. The use of the Egyptian dialogue made the film more touching and
interactive. The dubbed voices suited the characters of the film.‖ Similarly,
Mohammed, 22 from Libya, who was doing a course in English, also found the
dubbed version better than the subtitled one because ―The Egyptian version was
funnier. I liked it because it made me laugh. But of course the subtitled version
retained the message of the film better in the sense that it sounded more real as you
can hear the original voices of the characters‖.
(2008) argued above with regard to the use of expressions that are very local in
dubbing and which create a humour that is irrelevant to the plot and situation.
The rest of the observers were in favour of the subtitled version, although their
reading skills were not excellent. They found it more realistic and, as a result, more
interesting, despite the fact that the dubbed one was easier to understand. For
example, Khalid, 40, from Sudan, argued that ―The English version was more
interesting and enjoyable because it was more realistic, whereas the dubbed one
sounded funny, something that did not help deliver the message of the film‖.
Moreover, Salah, 27, from Libya who was doing an elementary course in English,
maintained that ―Although the dubbed version helped me in understanding the film, it
did not sound real.‖ Similarly, Basim, 33, from Jordan, found the subtitled version
better since the dubbed one ―distorted the film‖. Furthermore, Mohammed Abdullah,
24, from Saudi Arabia, argued that he preferred the subtitled version simply because
it was more authentic as one could listen to the original dialogue and see the
163
subtitles. This, in his opinion, made the subtitler more careful not to diverge from the
original dialogue; whereas in the dubbed version the translator had more freedom
and probably changed the original text as s/he wished. Finally, Fuad, 20, from
Lebanon, argued that the English version of the film was more exciting. The quality
of sound production in the Arabic dubbed version was poor and the voices
themselves did not reflect the characters‘ feelings and passion. This brings us back
to the technical obstacles of dubbing such as the cultural and aesthetic ones
including character synchrony mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.
It can be noticed that those who preferred the dubbed version did so because
they like humour regardless of whether it is related to the message of the film or not,
as long as they laugh. One reason for their laughter could be attributed to the fact
that as Reid argues (1978: 428): dubbing a film ignores the existence of the non-
verbal components of a language and that is why dubbed films are sometimes very
funny to a person who is aware of them. Although the film shows humour every now
and then, it cannot be classified as a comedy since there is constant violence
through. This is another reason why the other eight participants did not prefer the
dubbed version, as they did not find in it what they expected: an action film that
would keep them entertained throughout the 110 minutes.
These results show that character synchrony was a factor that influenced the
participants‘ choices. Even if MSA was used to dub the film, this would not guarantee
that it would be successful, although this needs to be investigated. This confirms
what Fodor (1976), Dries (1995), and Meyer-Dinkgräfe (2006) stress with regard to
the importance of character synchrony and its contribution to the success and failure
of a dubbed film as we saw in the literature review. Therefore, the suggestion that
dubbing can be a solution to some of the obstacles in subtitling such as the transfer
of English-language dialects into written Arabic on this experiment has proved not to
be viable. Moreover, what can also be learned from the experiment is the fact that
dubbing can indeed be more efficient than subtitling in terms of euphemising and
censoring swear words and taboos. But this is still not significant for the success or
failure of dubbed audiovisuals that contain strong language, unless we are talking
about cartoons. One can also notice that none of the participants mentioned
anything about censorship or swearing which means that this issue did not affect
their opinion, even though the dubbed version had been rendered anodyne.
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5.4 Conclusion
Taking into consideration the obstacles to subtitling that have been discussed and
examined in the previous chapter, this chapter looked into the possibility of using
dubbing as an alternative and effective language transfer method to deliver the
message of the original text. Although the idea seems to be feasible in theory, it
does not seem to be so in practice. Both the questionnaire and the experiment
showed that dubbing into colloquial distorted rather than preserved the message. It
goes without saying that dubbing into MSA remains more commercially viable than
dubbing into colloquial, especially when it comes to cartoons, since using MSA
reaches a larger audience. But again, this needs to be investigated.
This does not mean, however, that dubbing does not have any advantages; it
is, for example, able to hide taboo and swear words that may offend the audience,
such as the case with Con Air, and to adapt the plot of the film to suit the target
culture, as was the case with The Simpsons. It can also be helpful in using different
dialects to reflect the dialects of the source text as is the case with the two studies
above where Sudanese was used to replace Indian English and Black English.
These are some of the reasons for choosing dubbing over subtitling, although the
issue of faithfulness to the source text may still be questioned in this case. After all,
taking the risk to dub into a dialect for whatever reason does not seem to make
business sense, even when it is done for children. Moreover, in the case of dubbing
into a dialect for cartoons, careful consideration should be taken regarding the
approach which the translator should adopt to deliver the message to his audience.
Simple language is necessary so that it can be understood by all Arab children.
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Chapter 6
CONCLUSION
6.1 Introduction
The methodology facilitated access to understanding the perceptions of participants

of audiovisual translation into Arabic. The qualitative research methods enabled the
audience to play an important role in reaching the findings through revealing their
thoughts and ideas. The case studies which were conducted and analysed allowed
us to put forward some objective answers to the five main questions.
6.2 Findings: summary and discussion
The findings are related to the participants‘ reactions to Experiments I (Research

Question 2), II (Research Questions 1 and 3), III (Research Questions 1 and 4), IV
(Research Questions 2 and 5), and to the questionnaire (Research Question 5).
6.2.1 Rendering ST dialects into the TT
Since colloquial Arabic tends not to be used in subtitling English-language

audiovisuals into Arabic, the translation of source language dialects into Standard
Arabic inevitably has an effect on the transmission of the source audiovisuals. The
investigation thus centred on how to make up for this loss. Despite the fact that all
companies agreed that subtitling dialects of an English-language audiovisuals into
MSA is not bound to change or affect its message, even if these dialects are crucial
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to the understanding of this message, there was a need to know what the audience
thought in this regard Thus the idea of carrying out Experiment I emerged.
The participants who took part in the experiment acknowledged how
significant it was for them to perceive the role of the different dialects that shaped the
message of the film. For some, this realisation was sparked by the introduction (as
seen in 4.3.6.1) that they saw at the beginning of the film when they watched it for
the second time. They only felt that there was something missing when they read
this introduction about the English working and middle classes‘ distinctive dialects.
They realised that the first translation by no means raised their awareness about the
issue of social class, which is a unique feature of English society and of the film in
particular. This proved to the interviewees that the failure to interpret the dialects of
the source film into the target language meant that, for them, the film failed to deliver
its meaning.
The importance of this limitation stems from the fact that the companies which
subtitle and dub English-language audiovisuals into Arabic were unable to resolve
this particular matter, and, as a result, deprived the audience of their hope to be
entertained by a film which they paid for or spent their time watching. The finding
also indicates that there is a need to investigate this translation problem further in
order to find an alternative solution. Moreover, what also adds to the importance of
the findings is the fact that the solution suggested is simple, costless, and practical.
As a matter of fact, it provides the audience with the basic information that they need
to understand the moral lesson of a film. When a dialect becomes the sign post for
someone‘s social class or background, it becomes necessary to tell the audience of
the different culture that other cultures have their own, and often internally differing,
standards and norms.
6.2.2 Censorship and the message of the source film
The experiment showed the influence of cultures and ideologies on the message of
the subtitled film, revealed the extent of omissions and euphemisms, and the fact
that the audience was unhappy with ‗exaggerated‘ censorship that diminishes the
film‘s tone and rhythm, and proved that the claim that censorship tends not to affect
the message of audiovisuals needs to be reconsidered.
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These findings can help professionals improve the quality of subtitling by reducing
the number of omitted swear words and by toning up some of the already
euphemised words. Translating a sentence such as ‗Get the f*** off me‘ as ‗Get off
me‘, or to interpret ‗I‘m screwed‘ as ‗I‘m upset‘ in a situation when events in the film
are reaching a peak, does not in fact have the same effect on the target audience as
it has on the source one. Euphemism can be exploited to the full in order for the
subtitles to be deemed logical and expressive of what is taking place on the screen.
While euphemism respects the audience, omission does affect the message of
audiovisuals.
6.2.3 Subtitling humour into Arabic
This section aimed at finding out if humour is retained when subtitled into MSA. The
data which were analyzed, the interviews that were conducted as well as the
experiments helped in reaching some critical conclusions in this regard. The analysis
of the 66 episodes from seasons 8, 9, and 10 of the famous sitcom Friends gave an
idea about the approaches that the subtitlers use in order to subtitle such series. The
fact that they are faithful to the text rather than to the spirit of the text shows that
humour has no priority over the text. This could be due to different reasons such as
the fact that fidelity is the number one priority for the translator (taking into
consideration euphemising offensive words) because s/he believes in it, or s/he is
asked to do it, or s/he fears comparison between the source and target texts on the
part of the audience, or because s/he cannot find equivalent jokes in the target
culture. Furthermore, the analysed episodes revealed that there were omissions and
euphemisms of taboo and swear words, something which can only add insult to
injury as many jokes are sexually oriented.
Moreover, the interviewees from the professional world raised this point
claiming that culture is a mammoth barrier that can sweep away a joke, let alone a
technical problem such as synchronization and space on screen. Yet, when they
were asked if they use any approach or kind of translation theory to overcome such
difficulties and to avoid literal translation, the interviewees said ‗No‘. This can only
remind us of what Hayek (see Appendix E) from Pro Subtitling argued in reply to a
question about the subtitling of puns which are part and parcel of humour: ―Puns
have to do with culture. If we do not find equivalent puns, then we translate them
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literally, doing our best to align them to the original. In addition, and frankly speaking,
how can we find equivalents to puns when the film has to be translated in 24 hours?‖
This answer is enough to reveal the difficulty of subtitling humour into Arabic.
In addition, the experiments confirmed what the data analysis revealed, and
what the interviewees alluded to, that is none of the participants was in favour of the
original translation of the three episodes shown. Respondents rather preferred a
more functional approach that paid more attention to the joke than to the text.
6.2.4 Dubbing as a possible solution to the barriers of subtitling
The fact that the dubbed version of Con Air was not preferred to the subtitled one
(refer to section 5.3.2.2) rules out dubbing as a complete solution to interpreting
source dialects. The audience preferred the subtitled version over the dubbed one
because it sounded more factual and interesting as they could listen to the actors
speaking their own language. Moreover, another indication of the complications of
opting for the use of dialect in dubbing is confirmed by the responses to the
questionnaire which revealed that the children and young adults hardly understood
anything of the Egyptian expressions and thus the dubbing of The Simpsons was not
successful.
These findings are important not only because they cast doubt on the view
that dubbing is better than subtitling in transferring the message of the ST
audiovisuals, but also because they show that the barriers to dubbing are as
complicated as those to subtitling. They also reinforce the solution suggested in this
regard. Moreover, the fact that the two participants who found the dubbed version of
Con Air more interesting because it was funny indicates that dubbing can also help
translators, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to change part of the message of
the audiovisual material or to add more to it. Con Air is not a comedy, although it has
some funny and sarcastic situations that occur every now and then. But it seems that
the Egyptian dialect, together with the Sudanese, could make it so. Finally, the
results of the questionnaire revealed that the dubbing of The Simpsons into Egyptian
Arabic should encourage TV channels either to dub into MSA or request their
translators to use simpler Egyptian Arabic to make the TT more accessible and
understandable.
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It is inarguable that dubbing can hide swearing and taboo words since the
audience is unaware of the original dialogue. A comparison between the subtitled
and dubbed versions of Con Air showed that dubbing gives more freedom to the
translator to censor and euphemise words in the way s/he likes as was argued by
Zitawi (1995; Athamneh and Zitawi, 1999; Zitawi, 2003), section 2.5. Although this
finding cannot be considered as new, it shows how strong censorship is and how
free translator or agent can be in this regard whenever they can. It should be
mentioned here that if dubbing proved to be efficient in delivering a polite dialogue
that suits the audience, it does not necessarily mean that this is what the audience
wishes. Despite the fact that Con Air is full of swearing and even taboo words, not
one of the participants expressed any concerns in this regard when they watched the
subtitled version. Nor did anyone mention that the dubbed version had the
advantage of censoring swearing even though the ten participants came from
cultured backgrounds where politeness prevails. If this shows anything, it only shows
that using dubbing to censor swearing and taboo words is not a necessity.
It was argued that in dubbing colloquialisms and varieties of one country could
be replaced by another‘s, and therefore, the likelihood of eliciting laughter is higher
than when MSA is used as is the case of subtitling. The data supporting this came
from the interviews, an analysis of 29 episodes of The Simpsons, and a
questionnaire. We saw how the failure of the audiences to appreciate the humour in
The Simpsons had been due to cultural differences. However, the results of the
analysis and the fact that it was not the first time that cartoons had been adapted to
suit the target culture refuted this claim and indicated that the failure of the animation
was due to the Egyptian dialect being unsuitable or too poor.
These results are as they seem to suggest that dialect does not necessarily
appeal to audiences and make them laugh, taking into consideration that jokes are in
many cases local or culture-specific. It should also be pointed out that subtitling is
not a good alternative to dubbing such series for such age groups as they have not
yet developed the skills to read the subtitles fast enough. This leaves dubbing as the
only option. Moreover, as experience shows, MSA has never failed in animated films
or cartoons. We know, for example, that the famous American comedy animation
film Ice Age, I and II, was dubbed into Standard Arabic and was a big success. But
The Simpsons is different in terms of the dialects used in it and its complicated social
context. However, this does not mean that a dialect such as Egyptian has to be ruled
170
out. For a dialect to take the role of MSA in this case and be understood to all Arab
children, it has to be as close to Standard Arabic as possible. In this sense, it has to
be easy to understand and unsophisticated as we saw in chapter five. That is why
the functional approach was suggested to replace equivalence. This is not to deny
that there would be some purely Egyptian terms every now and then which could be
subtitled with their definitions for the Arabic-speaking audiences.
6.2.5 Applying the functional approach: (skopos theory)
The aim of suggesting a theoretical framework for translators to work on is to help

practitioners move from a purely pragmatic approach to a stage where they are able
to define their objectives more systematically and be clearer about why a particular
ST is going to be translated and for whom. This is hoped to lead to improved
translation outputs. To simply look for an equivalent text is not practical when we
take into consideration the cultural as well as the technical factors involved in the
process. Therefore, a functional approach (skopos theory) may be more effective in
this respect in the sense that it gives more attention to the target text and its
audience (the Arabic-speaking audiences). This is crucial because it has to be taken
into consideration that the dialogue of an English-language audiovisual may
experience some modification (which may include omission, euphemism and
rephrasing) due to the fact that it is written in the first place for an audience that has
its own ideological, cultural, political and religious characteristics different from the
ones which the target audience believes in. The Arab culture is less tolerant when
taboos are involved.
6.3 Implications and recommendations
This research has implications for the translation methods that are used by subtitlers.
Recommendations are mainly related to the subtitling and dubbing companies, to
their professional translators, to theorists, and to the TV channels and production
companies. More general recommendations can also be made about subtitling and
dubbing and which of the two methods is preferred in the Arab world and why.
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6.3.1 The role of the subtitling and dubbing companies
The findings that have been presented above with regard to subtitling dialects,
swearing and humour into Arabic indicate that companies pay little attention to their
audiences, and as a result, to the message of the audiovisuals. They claim that they
only have 24 hours to subtitle a film, for example, and that MSA as well as the
limitations of the medium are all restrictions upon them. But in fact, this is not always
true. The experiments in this study show that with little effort the quality of subtitling
and dubbing can be enhanced. The solutions suggested for case studies A, B, C and
D cannot be said to be costly in terms of money and time. So, what companies can
do is conduct research about the audience‘s preferences, which can be realized
through carrying out further experiments. For example, as far as dubbing is
concerned, the relative efficiency of MSA versus Egyptian Arabic can be compared
through conducting a pilot study in which a film or an episode of a sitcom or cartoon
is dubbed into both colloquial and Standard Arabic and then shown to the trial
audience to decide. Then the results of any research and experiment can be used to
amend or substitute material judged to be unsatisfactory.
Moreover, since translators contribute significantly to the quality of subtitles as
argued by Mueller (2001) and Diaz-Cintas (2005) in section 2.4, it is the duty of the
companies to train their translators not only with regard to technical issues that are
related the appearance of the subtitles on the screen, but also with regard to the
translation approach(es) that should be used and which should also be the outcome
of the research suggested above. The translators may not use a certain approach
unless they are told and trained to do so. But what happens is that they are required
to convey the message of audiovisuals in the fewest words possible that fit the space
on screen. This general rule does not mean that translators are free to make
changes to improve the effectiveness of the message as is the case in the
translation of humour (refer to section 4.4.2). Nevertheless, the functional approach
adopted to conduct the experiments may appeal to some companies and
professionals.
Finally, companies should also consider training their translators to work
together as a team. This has several advantages such as saving time and producing
a better translation. High quality translation can be guaranteed through a team of
qualified translators who know what best suits the target audience. In the case of
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subtitling humour, it would be more efficient if strategies for compensating the
humour of the source text were agreed upon by different subtitlers to decide what
works and what does not. But when work is done individually, it is more likely that the
translation will encounter criticism because it is made from only one point of view.
6.3.2 The role of professionals and theorists
The literature showed that there are only a few articles that were written by a
professional about subtitling into Arabic and they do not deal with the issues of
translating dialects, swear words and humour. Moreover, what Zitawi (1995) (2003)
and Mazid (2006) wrote were articles that analysed certain subtitled films and
dubbed cartoons to spot grammatical mistakes or mistranslations. They also
concentrated on censorship. Only Maluf (2005) discussed dubbing into MSA versus
colloquial from a theoretical point of view by interviewing some professionals in this
respect. In brief, one can say that there have been around seven published articles
and one Master‘s thesis so far since subtitling and dubbing into Arabic started
decades ago.
With only this number of articles available, two of which alone are critical, one
can say that the standard of audiovisual translation into Arabic may not witness a big
improvement in the near future, until and unless new literature is published,
especially by professionals. Furthermore, new translation models should be
generated and existing ones subjected to more rigorous evaluation. When ideas or
models are suggested by theorists, it is the responsibility of professionals to prove or
disprove them, reflecting on their experience. Here emerges also the role of
companies to encourage their staff to participate. But it has to be confessed that
companies, at least those which are located in the Arab world, would rather keep
their experience to themselves than offer it on a plate to others! Instead, a number of
major big companies refused to be interviewed.
6.3.3 The role of TV channels
Although there is little that TV channels can do, they can contribute positively to the
improvement of subtitling and dubbing. Usually they purchase highly popular
audiovisuals and then commission outside companies to subtitle or dub them. They
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normally give such companies guidelines with regard to the amount of censorship
that should be applied and into which language variety to dub them, Standard Arabic
or colloquial. Apart from this, they do not interfere in how translators interpret the
message of audiovisuals. So, it appears that TV channels are the ones who are held
responsible for the failure of any subtitled or dubbed material since it is they who
chose it, chose whether to dub or subtitle it, and chose the language variety into
which it should be dubbed. Luckily, companies escape blame, even partially, when
they should not.
For MBC to choose to subtitle The Simpsons into Egyptian Arabic was not a
mistake. The failure was to deliver that particular Egyptian dialect to a non-Egyptian
audience. That is why conducting pilot studies for such programmes or audiovisuals
can minimise such risks in the future. Last, in case of dubbing long series, TV
channels can require companies to provide a sample of one or two episodes to
conduct a market research programme on or to consult their executives in this
regard.
6.3.4 The role of producing companies
Different writers such as Minchinton (1987) Zabalbeascoa (1996) James (2001)

Diaz-Cintas (2001a) and Taivalkoski-Shilov (2008) highlight the importance of a
good dialogue list for audiovisuals as was illustrated in section 2.4. A good dialogue
list explains culture-specific references, dialects and jokes, and facilitates the
translator‘s work. Despite its importance, it is not always produced. This will create a
challenge for the translators to deal with the source text and thus affect the quality of
the translation. But what is even worse is that sometimes not even a script is
provided. Kaadi (see Appendix D) argues that it often happens that subtitlers do not
receive a dialogue list or even a script of a film, something that makes the task more
difficult and time-consuming for the translator, and therefore affects the quality of
translation.
6.3.5 Dubbing versus subtitling
Section 2.6 in the literature review chapter presented the debate about dubbing
versus subtitling and questioned which one of the two audiovisual language transfer
174
methods is better able to render the source message into the target text in a way that
does not impair the aesthetics of audiovisuals. It was clear that there is a preference
for subtitling over dubbing in general for financial as well as character synchrony
reasons. The former concerns the companies and the latter concerns the audience.
The experiment on Con Air confirmed that the participants preferred subtitling to
dubbing. They found the subtitled version more authentic and realistic and therefore
enjoyable, as illustrated in section 5.3.2.2. The result suggests subtitling is dominant,
that it will remain so, and thus more attention should be concentrated on improving
its quality.
6.4 Limitations
There were some issues that were not explored in this study because of financial
and technical constraints which limited the research to a certain extent. These
limitations included carrying out more experiments and the difficulty of involving
women. Other difficulties are related to the number of participants in the
experiments.
There was an intention to extend the experiments further to enrich and
complete the findings but this was difficult to do for a variety of reasons. For
example, when the questionnaire for The Simpsons was done, it would have been
most useful if an experiment was conducted instead by dubbing the same episode
that was selected to carry out the questionnaire and showing it to the participants. As
was mentioned, the idea was to use the functional approach in dubbing the episode
into Egyptian Arabic. It is unfortunate that such a procedure had to remain theoretical
and not tested. For financial and logistical reasons, it was impossible to implement
this idea. Moreover, there would also be a need to dub Con Air into MSA to further
investigate the reasons why the participants did not prefer the Egyptian dubbed
version. If this had been done, it would have revealed if the participants rejected the
dubbed version because of Egyptian Arabic or because the whole idea of dubbing is
unattractive to them. Furthermore, dubbing The Simpsons or Con Air into Syrian
might have also uncovered new horizons regarding dubbing into Arabic in general.
As for the participants who were involved in the experiments, they were all
men. This is because asking some women to be part of a group and watch a film
such as London to Brighton or Con Air, which could be regarded as offensive to
175
many viewers, was not easy. In addition, it would also be inappropriate for male
participants to attend a film or sitcom in the presence of female participants and vice
versa. Therefore, to seek more objective results, one solution could be for a group of
female participants to watch the film or sitcom separately without the presence of
men.
If female participants were included, not only would the types of participants
vary but also the number would increase. The ten participants were the maximum
number that could be persuaded to complete the experiment. For reasons of time
and budget, and the fact that there were 4 experiments each of which had to be
watched twice, it proved impossible to increase the number. Although ten would still
give valid result, it would have been even better if this number had been twenty, for
instance.
6.5 Directions for future research
It is still necessary to further explore and justify subtitling into Arabic and dubbing
into MSA and Syrian dialect. Moreover, various issues that have to do with the
design of the methodology need to be varied. A few of these issues are related to
extending the findings of this research while others are crucial issues that have yet to
be investigated. For example, there is a need to do more research to find new
techniques for both subtitling humour and dubbing animated humour into MSA.
6.5.1 Extending the findings by varying the methods
This study has mainly adopted a qualitative research method through conducting
interviews and experiments. The study also relied partially on the quantitative
method by doing a small questionnaire. Despite the fact that conducting interviews is
an effective method, it was felt that there is no guarantee that the interviewees would
not try to sound perfect and shy away from giving a straightforward answer. For
example, when El-Hakim (see Appendix B for interview) was asked if one can render
the dialects of the source dialogue into written MSA she answered: ―We do our best‖.
Then when the interviewee was asked how, she replied: ―We find a way to do so‖.
Added to this is the fact that there were major companies in the Arab countries that
did not cooperate in this regard, such as Anis Ebeid in Egypt. So, it was impossible
176
to know how they dealt with the issues that needed to be investigated. Therefore, the
methods should be totally audience-oriented rather than waste time and money
contacting audiovisual translation companies and travelling to them. This can be
done by carrying out more questionnaires, asking the audience about their opinion
with regard to the quality of subtitling and dubbing and how they would like it to be,
especially when it comes to humour, dubbing into Standard Arabic vs dialects, and
swear words.
6.5.2 Exploring new techniques for subtitling humour
We saw in Friends how humour relies to a large extent on cultural references that
relate to names of celebrities, TV programmes, films, soap operas, and cartoons,
many of which are unknown to the Arabic-speaking audiences. As a result, the
strategy in this study was to illustrate such references whenever possible rather than
to translate them literally (refer to section 4.4.3.4). But one thing which is still worth
investigating is putting celebrities‘ photos at a corner of the screen for the audience
to be able to link between the joke and the reference. For example, when Chandler
compares his wife‘s hair to Diana Ross‘s (refer to sample 19, section 4.4.3.4), a
photo of the famous artist could be put in a corner to enable the audience know why
Chandler mentioned this celebrity in particular. This might be a more efficient method
than for instance explaining who Diana Ross is, which might not be possible given
space and time limitations on screen. Add to this is the fact that such a solution can
be applied only to celebrities.
6.5.3 Further exploration of dubbing animated humour into Arabic
This type of audiovisual comedy is now as popular as ever due to some blockbuster
series such as The Simpsons which constitute a challenge to subtitling and dubbing
companies. The challenge lies in the language into which such humour is dubbed.
MSA is probably too formal to express the colloquialisms of the series, although, it
must be admitted, it has never been tried; and Egyptian Arabic failed for the reasons
we mentioned in section 5.2.4. So, what needs to be explored here are three issues.
First, it should be tested if MSA works in dubbing this kind of animation. MSA has
been successful in dubbing many cartoons and animations for children and young
177
adults. Second, a ‗mild‘ Egyptian dialect that is not too colloquial might work. Indeed,
there is no reason why it should not, unless the audiences prefer MSA. Third, Syrian
might be an alternative option due to the fact that it has a high acceptance level and
is now more popular than Egyptian. These three experiments can be done and
compared, although costs could be a barrier unless the research is funded by some
academic or professional institution.
6.6 Conclusion
This thesis has investigated ways in which key technical features of audiovisual
translation combine with the particular expectations and constraints characteristic of
Arabic-speaking target cultures to generate widespread translation loss across a
range of audiovisual products. Using both producer-focused and audience-focused
research methods, underpinned by an appropriate framework of translation theory,
the study demonstrates how the quality of subtitling and dubbing into Arabic could be
improved through suggesting simple techniques that incur little cost in terms of time
and money. Companies need to set clear translation guidelines that direct their
translators‘ work, and to train them to use them efficiently when dealing with humour,
dialects and swearing. The framework for these guidelines should be informed by a
theoretical model which takes into consideration the full range of technical, cultural
and linguistic factors involved in this type of translation. A more functional approach
is therefore required to bridge the cultural and linguistic gaps within certain technical
and linguistic conditions and yet reach large audiences, enhancing translation quality
and engaging in a more sophisticated way with the expectations and responses of
target audiences. While the findings of the present study constitute a sound basis for
the kind of training that needs to be offered by employers, further research will be
required in order to develop a more complete understanding of the application of
these principles to other audiovisual genres and different parts of the Arabic-
speaking world.
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Kingdom of Heaven. Dir. Ridley Scott. Prod. Twentieth Century-Fox
Film Corporation. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, 2005.
La Haine. Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz. Prod. Canal+. Atalanta Filmes, 1995.
Lion of the Desert. Dir. Mostafa Akkad. Prod. Filmco. Filmco, 1981.
London to Brighton. Dir. Paul A. Williams. Prod. Steel Mill Pictures.
Ascot Elite Entertainment Group, 2006.
Lord of the Rings, The. Dir. Peter Jackson. Prod. New Line Cinema.
New Line Cinema, 2001.
Melrose Place. By Darren Star. Prod. Darren Star Productions. Fox
Network, 1992.
Message, The. Dir. Mostafa Akkad. Prod. Filmco. Filmco, 1977.
Monty Python's Flying Circus. By Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and
Terry Gilliam. Prod. BBC. BBC, 1969.
Moulin Rouge. Dir. Baz Luhrman. Prod. Angel Studios. 20th Century
Fox Italia, 2001.
Nanny, The. By Fran Drescher and Peter M. Jacobson. Prod. Columbia
Broadcasting System. TriStar Television, 1993.
Nil by Mouth. Dir. Gary Oldman. Prod. SE8 Group. Fox Film
Corporation, 1997.
Pan's Labyrinth. Dir. Guillermo Del Toro. Prod. Tequila Gang. Culture
Publishers, 2006.
192
Police Academy. Dir. Hugh Wilson. Prod. Ladd Company, The.
Argentina Video Home, 1984.
Rock, The. Dir. Michael Bay. Prod. Hollywood Pictures. Buena Vista
Pictures, 1996.
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. By Nell Scovell. Prod. Hartbreak Films.
Paramount Television, 1996.
Saved by the Bell. By Sam Bobrick. Prod. NBC Productions. NBC
Productions, 1989.
Simpsons, The. By Matt Groening. Prod. 20th Century Fox Television.
Fox Film Corporation, 1989.
Sophie's Choice. Dir. Alan J. Pakula. Prod. Keith Barish Productions.
CBS/Fox Video, 1982.
Tempted. Dir. Bill Bennett. Prod. Golden Circle International. TF1
International, 2001.
This is England. Dir. Shane Meadows. Prod. Big Arty Productions. A-
Film Distribution, 2006.
Trainspotting. Dir. Dany Boyle. Prod. Channel Four Films. Channel
Four Films, 1996.
Troy. Dir. Wolfgang Petersen. Prod. Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner
Bros. Pictures, 2004.
Valkyrie. Dir. Bryan Singer. Prod. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. United
Artists, 2008.
Victor Victoria. Dir. Blake Edwards. Prod. Artista Management. Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer, 1982.
193
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix (A): Interview conducted with Ahmed Khuddro, SSS, London.
- TRANSLATION THEORY

I can put it this way: I translate 20% of the source text literally and the rest is the
general meaning of the message. The meaning is what matters for me rather than
the literal translation of the text.
B- Do you agree that film translation is an adaptation rather than

translation?
No. It is not adaptation. In adaptation you can change quite well in the source text
but in translation you can change very little.
- DIALECTS
C- How can English dialects be subtitled into equivalent Arabic ones and is
it important to do so?
Yes, it is important to do so but it is extremely difficult. May be you can colour it a
little bit to show that there is a difference if necessary.
D- Since the only language used in subtitles is MSA, how does this affect
the message of a film? If there is any loss in message, how can this loss be
compensated?
It all depends on the message of the film. If the dialect issue is part of the plot, then
not rendering it can affect the message. The issue of compensation depends on the
subtitler‘s reserve of vocabulary. If you have a huge reserve, then you can actually
colour subtitles in such a way to show the different dialects. I have never done it
before, though.
- EUPHEMISM
194
E- To what extent does euphemizing swearing and taboo words tend to
affect the messages of the translated films?
It really depends on the actual message of the film itself. If the subject of the film is
not affected in anyway, then it is fine to use euphemism. In any case, I do not think
that the message of a film would be affected by euphemism. It is only a matter of
being sensitive about certain words hoping that nobody from the children notices
them. If we are, for example, translating films for children, then there is no need to
translate swear words, especially if you do not want children to learn these words.
Children films aim at teaching or entertaining. So, there is no need to translate swear
words. Moreover, we use euphemism in the Arab world in particular because of the
fact that it has got something related to the ethical and religious censorship because
we do not want things that would not be ethically acceptable. Of course, if you are
translating from English into German, for example, you would not need to
euphemize.
Euphemism helps avoid any clash of cultures. If, on the other hand, you are
watching an action film and an actor starts swearing, you as a translator would use
one or two words that show that he is swearing because he is in a difficult situation.
It really makes no difference if you euphemize things and give the audience an idea
that the actor is swearing. I can give you an example from my experience when I
worked at MBC TV (owned by a Saudi business man). They used to monitor my
translation and swear words in particular. When the monitor came across a swear
word such as ‗son of the b****‘, he used to put it as ‗son of….‘ to indicate that there is
a swear word. I was a bit more liberal about censorship. I have seen things that are
really ridiculous. For instance, a word such as ‗paradise‘ cannot be used because
this is a religious word. Rather they would use a word such as ‗garden‘. Similarly, we
were not allowed to use the word ‗hell‘ in a sentence such as ‗Go to hell‘. Instead, we
used to translate this sentence as ‗Go away‘. The educated audience who know
English will realise these discrepancies and spot the differences between the two
texts. This is not in the favour of the subtitler, but it is the censor or monitor who
decides or you can say the client.
F- Taking into consideration the fact that we are living the age of
globalization, is it really important to euphemize?
195
The satellite cable technology reaches all Arabic audience worldwide; an audience
that is so varied and vast that you cannot actually choose not to euphemize. Again,
euphemism does not affect the story. It only affects the message when swear words
are used as a way of mannerism indicating different meanings. For example, the
word f****** can come in different contexts and be interpreted in various ways. For
instance, it could be a swear word and could also mean beautiful such as in the
expression ‗Oh, what a f****** house‘.
- HUMOUR
G- Is translated humour able to have the same effect that the original text
has on the audience and how?
The first thing which you need to ask is whether one can translate humour. I was
asked once to translate Great Moments of Humour in British Television and I really
could not actually translate more than 5% of it. I could not understand what they
were trying to say. If I translate it, no one will laugh at it because it is not something
that you can laugh at. Humour is a subject that is specific to a certain culture and its
translation rarely succeeds unless if you use dynamic translation. Dynamic
translation might work as you bring the equivalent of it.
H- To what extent can the translator be free in order to deliver the

message? In other words, which has the priority, translation or humour?
I would say both are equally important, humour and translation. The picture assists
the subtitles in getting the message through to the audience.
Arabic?
Colloquial is much closer to reality than standard. So, you dub into Egyptian,
Lebanese or Syrian, for example.
J- Depending on your experience, are puns translatable into Arabic?

Yes. It can be translatable even if you have to use dynamic equivalent. For example,
‗sea shells on the sea shore‘ can be translated dynamically into Arabic by finding its
equivalent.
196
- DUBBING
K- Can dubbing solve the problem of subtitling English dialects by dubbing

those dialects into colloquial Arabic such as Egyptian, for example?
Dubbing can solve the problem a bit since you can use different dialects.

between the two texts, the source and the target, can dubbing do a better job
with regard to censorship?
It definitely can. In fact, this is part of the reason why some countries prefer dubbing
to subtitling.
successfully transfer the humour of English films?
Here you have to do dynamic translation to get the message through which is not
easy to do unless the translator is creative in this regard.
- DIALOGUE LIST
N- Do you usually get a dialogue list together with the film script?
Unfortunately, despite the importance of a dialogue list, it is not always available,
something that affect the quality of translation.
197
Appendix (B): Interview conducted with Sherine El-Hakim, VSI, London.

No. We do not think that there is a need to do so.

translation?
Yes. It is really an adaptation rather than translation.
- DIALECTS
We try to do our best. It is not really. The audience picks up the message throughout
the film. It is very difficult to convey the differences between dialects in subtitling, in
the case of Arabic. The reason being that dialects are spoken while the Arabic used
in subtitling is standard Arabic, which is a written version and hence doesn‘t carry the
differences in dialect. In general (in all languages), we discourage the use of
dialects, even in dubbing, as they can seem ridiculous to the target audience and
must only be used with care. We try to render whatever message the original creator
wished to convey by using dialects in another way.
compensated?
Yes, of course, any translation – not only subtitling – is bound to lose some of the
spirit of the work in the process. All endeavours to ‗compensate‘ this loss aim at
conveying the spirit or the core message as closely as possible in the localized
version.
198
- EUPHEMISM

It depends on the film or on what is being subtitled. But, in general, yes it does,
because you cannot get the same mood of the original film. You loose part of the
message.
You have to take into consideration that the written word is stronger than the spoken
one. In addition, the culture is so influential and it has to be taken into consideration.
After all, this is the wish of the client. If the client wants this then we have to do it
regardless of whether this is important or not. S/he gives instructions and we stick to
them. It is worth mentioning though that euphemising or censorship is less than it
was 9 years ago for example.
- HUMOUR
Not much. You cannot translate the humour as it is. Each language has its own way
when it comes to the sense of humour, and the message will be given in a way that
people who cannot read will count mostly on the body language.

Usually, the client gives the translator a free hand to version the comedy in the best
way in order to relay the essence of the jokes. On very rare occasions did we have
clients who cared more about delivering a ‗translation‘ rather than a ‗message‘. In my
199
opinion, the priority is as follows: (a) to try and marry the message/joke with the initial
script i.e. try and find the closest equivalent, and if not possible, come up with a local
equivalent.
Arabic?
Colloquial is more able than standard to elicit laughter for different reasons such as
because it has a wider range of lexicon which the translator can chose from to
render the joke of the ST.

Mostly not. Puns represent one of the main difficulties that face subtitlers or
translators.
- DUBBING

Dubbing can solve part of this problem, although I wouldn‘t call it a problem per se,
because any attempt at reproducing a work is bound to lose some of its spirit. So, it‘s
really just a fact. Anything other than the original version cannot match the original
100%. With this in mind, we can say that dubbing can solve part of the dialect
problem. But, you have to take into consideration that a well dubbed version is much
more expensive to produce than a subtitled one. Also see earlier answer about
dialects in general.

Yes, it can be a solution of course.
200
We cannot really tell. Naturally, this is the client‘s choice. We have been asked by
clients to dub into standard and by others into colloquial. In colloquial, Egyptian and
Lebanese come out on top, as they‘re the dialects that are widely understood in the
Arab world, thanks to the huge film and music industry present in the two countries.
- DIALOGUE LIST
Most of the times translators work without the script or dialogue list. So, there tends
to be some mistakes in translation usually related to gender where the pronoun ‗you‘
is not clear whether it refers to a male or female. We work with professional
translators and we double check the translation three times before we release the
film.
201
Appendix (C): Interview conducted with Alain Baradhi, Gulf Film, Dubai.

Not really. There is no need for that.

translation?
Yes. Of course it is. This is because it involves euphemism, omission and
condensation of text.
- DIALECTS
They cannot be subtitled and it is not important to do so simply because the
audiences follow the story and they can get the message.
compensated?
Not at all. This does not affect the message of the film. The audience will still
understand what the film wants to say and there would be no loss in the moral
lesson.
- EUPHEMISM

Euphemizing doesn't affect the message; you don't change the meaning but the
word in nice way that doesn't affect the meaning.
202
As for the GCC area (Muslim Countries) doesn't accept swearing to be translated
into Arabic without euphemism. Also, any religious or political taboos should also be
euphemized or deleted. For example, notice the following sentence and the way it
was euphemized:
I assure you that the kings are not respectable people
ٟ‫٭‬ٜ‫ؾزو‬ٜ ً‫ا أّقبصب‬٧َ‫ْ ٘٭‬٧ٙٝ٘‫ ا‬ٞ‫ أإٔل ٘ٓ ا‬-
I assure you that kings do not fulfill their promises

ٛ٤‫ك‬٧‫ل‬٧‫ا ث‬٧ٍ٬ ‫ ال‬ٛ٥٠‫ أإٔل ٘ٓ ا‬-
- HUMOUR
Humour is difficult to translate but it is not impossible to achieve.

As in previous they will translate faithful to the text and especially they do translation
following the script without watching the film.
Arabic?
Colloquial, of course. It is more realistic.

If we can find equivalent in the target language, yes we do, but most of the time they
are translated literally.
- DUBBING
203
Not at all, because hearing is worse than reading. Second, the majority of people
knows English and knows the actors and their voices. Dubbing will not make them
watch it, because it will loses Sense and effect of the film itself.

It is useful for euphemism purposes, of course.
I would not really go for dubbing films at all. Just imagine ‗Adel Imam is dubbed by
Sean Connery, for example. It would not be successful since each has his own
charisma which cannot be dubbed.
- DIALOGUE LIST
Most of the times translators work without the script or dialogue list. So, there tends
to be some mistakes in translation usually related to gender where the pronoun ‗you‘
is not clear whether it refers to a male or female. We work with professional
translators and we double check the translation three times before we release the
film.
204
Appendix (D): Interview conducted with Omar Kaadi, Tanweer, Damascus.

No, we don't rely on a particular theory, as the standards of the TV channels are not
the same, but in general, the important and the main things we take care of are the
following:
- Accuracy and quality of translation.
- Trying to convey the message in lesser words as much as possible so that the
viewer can read the subtitles easily.
- The subtitles remain on screen for duration of time enough to be read easily.

translation?
Yes, this is true, as in subtitling we don't just translate, but rather we translate, edit,
change, modify, euphemize... etc..
- DIALECTS
Yes, they can be subtitled and of course it is important. After all, they are part of the
whole dialogues.
compensated?
Sometimes they can be translated into similar dialects (i.e. to be given the
spirit of the Arabic language) and sometimes they can't. This doesn't usually
affect the message, and even if it does, it won't be that important.
- EUPHEMISM
205
Most of the cases it doesn't affect the message. This is due to the cultural
differences and backgrounds between the two languages. When someone wants to
convey a certain message in English (or in any other foreign language), this doesn't
mean necessarily that the messages is conveyed in the same manner and words
literally. Another thing is that euphemism is not applied to the translation of all
programs, as this is related to the censorship standards of each TV channel. For
example, a channel like Showtime has a completely different standards that those of
Kuwait; TV or Saudi TV.
Sometimes it is really important to euphemize, because what is socially allowed to
be broadcasted on an American or European TV channel, is not necessarily allowed
in Arab TV channels. Again, the cultural differences and backgrounds are not the
same. Yes, it is true that the majority of people know swear words, but still they can't
be shown on TV literally. Again, this is related as well to the standards of the TV
channel itself.
- HUMOUR
Generally speaking it is not able to have the same effect because of the cultural
differences. What can make an American or European person laugh doesn't
necessarily make an Arab person laugh. Sometimes there are some mutual or
similar ideas or ways.
In fact, both are important, and both complete each other to convey the message
requested and we can't separate between them.
Arabic?
206
The colloquial humor will be more welcome because it is usually related to the daily
problems and issues that people face in their life and this is better expressed in
colloquial.

It depends on the words themselves. Sometimes, equivalents can be found and
sometimes they are translated literally.
- DUBBING

Yes, in most of the cases, dubbing can solve this problem, and especially if it was
done in dialects (Syrian or Egyptian).

In general, yes dubbing can do better job. Technically speaking, any program can
be dubbed into Arabic, but not every program can be suitable for dubbing. Dubbing,
may cause the program to lose something of its spirit and attraction and sometimes
can't convey the message as requested, especially in certain programs, like musical
programs or certain literary programs. On the other hand, dubbing costs money and
takes time more than subtitling, and not all the TV channels are willing to bear such
expenses.
No, dubbing can't convey the same message and even if it does it won't be exactly
the same message. It will be a little bit different.
- DIALOGUE LIST
207
Sometimes we receive the programmes with script (dialogue list) and sometimes we
don't receive scripts (in this case we translate the program by listening to the
dialogue from the CD). Sometimes the scripts have some useful information (like the
location of the scene, the meaning of some difficult or slang words, description of the
segments... etc.), and sometimes the scripts have the dialogue list only (the words
spoken by the actors only) without any additional information or explanation.
208
Appendix (E): Interview conducted with Fady Hayek, Pro Subtitling, Beirut.

I can only say that any literally translation will mean the failure of any film. So, the
concentration should be on the message that the film wants to deliver rather than the
words.
B- Do you agree that film translation is rather an adaptation than

translation?
Yes, that is right, especially when you subtitle into Arabic but if you are subtitling into
a European language, then it is not.
- DIALECTS
No, it is not possible to subtitle dialects however this is important to the message of
the film.
compensated?
I do not think that the message of ST will be affected. But if it will, then the sound
track and the moving image will complete the picture.
- EUPHEMISM

209
Sometimes, swearing is not a major factor in the film and it is used only to show that
someone is angry for a reason, but in times it may affect the message of the film. But
in general, it does not affect the message of the film.
We use euphemism because the audience in the Arab world will not tolerate
swearing. The Western culture is different from the Eastern one. We have also to
take into consideration children and teenagers. Parents would not want their children
to learn swear words, especially if the swear words are strong.
- HUMOUR
G- Is the translated humour able to have the same effect that the original
text has on the audience and how?
It is impossible for the translated humour to have the same effect of that of the
original humour due to cultural differences. The English humour relies for a good
deal on sexual connotations, something that does not suit the Arab culture. For
instance, when Friends is subtitled into Arabic, it looses much of its humour.
Moreover, what makes me laugh may not make an English laugh.

message? In other words, which has the priority, translation or humour and
why?
It depends. If the film is subtitled for Saudi Arabia, then the subtitler is completely
restricted. On the other hand, if the same film is subtitled for the Lebanese market,
then the subtitler has more freedom to express the humour of the ST.
Arabic?
Colloquial is much better in this regard and can elicit more laughter than standard
Arabic.
210
Puns have to do with culture. If an equivalent is not found then they are translated
literally doing our best to bring it closer to the original. Moreover, and frankly
speaking, how can we find an equivalent to puns when the film has to be translated
in 24 hours? This can only be done by a professional translator.
- DUBBING

It depends on where the client wants to show the film. For example, if a film is
dubbed into Lebanese for the Lebanese market, then I think that it will be a hit and if
you dub a film into Syrian for the Syrian market then it will also be a hit and so on.
Colloquial is more able than standard to express the humour of the ST. But what has
to be considered here is that dubbing into dialects may not be commercially
practical.

Generally speaking, in dubbing a lot of the original message will be lost. I believe
that dubbing takes away 30% of the message of the film due to the aesthetical
reasons such as those related to character synchrony. But yes, in dubbing you hide
whatever you want and the audience would not know.
Dubbing will not actually solve the problem of humour. The problem of humour is in
finding an equivalent joke whether in dubbing or subtitling.
- DIALOGUE LIST
Not always.
211
Appendix (F): Contacts of subtitling and dubbing companies
Company Location Contact details Some of the films they translated
Gulf Film Dubai Al-Khabissi Rd. - Iron Man (2008)

Deira - Speed Racer (2008)
P.O Box 81956 - Son of Rambow (2007)
Dubai - Mamma Mia (2008)
Tel: + 971 (0) 4 2623964 - Step up 2 (2008)
Fax: + 971 (0) 4 2694476 - The Bank Job (2008)
Email: [email protected]
Silver Screen England Weller, Tenison House, - The Haunted (1991)

Subtitling 45 Tweedy Road, - Bridgit Jones Diary (2001)
Limited Bromley, - The Italian Job (2003)
(SSS) BR1 3NF - Pride & Prejudice (2005)
KENT - Brother Bear (2003)
Tel: +44 1322 271 194 - Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Fax: +44 1322 271 194
212
VSI England Aradco House - Scary Movie 4 (2006)
International 132 Cleveland Street - Parenthood (1989)
London - American Dreamz (2006)
W1T 6AB - CB4 (1993)
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 76927700 - Today You Die (2005)
Email: [email protected] - Bandidas (2006)
Tanweer Syria Free Zone - Final Descent (1997)
Enlightenment Damascus - Hidden Agenda (1990)
Syria - Money For Nothing (1993)
Tel: + 963 (0) 11 2117041 - I‘ll Be Home For Christmas (1998)
Fax: + 963 (0) 11 88279120 - Mr, Wrong (1996)
Pro Subtitling Lebanon Mkallas Roundabout - Rambo (2008)
John Stephan Bldg 2ed Floor - Che (2008)
Te: + 961 (0) 1 483535 - Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Fax: + 961 (0) 1 492895 - Warlords (2008)
Email: [email protected] - Christina Barcelona (2008)
- King of California (2007)
Al- Anwar Syria Al-Jamilieh - London to Brighton (2006)
DVD Aleppo - Educating Rita (1983)
Centre Syria - Friends (1994-2004)
Tel: + 963 (0) 21 2211002 - Casino Royale (2006)
Website: www.alanwardvd.com - This is England (2006)
213
Appendix (G): Swear words in the subtitled version of CON AIR.
Number Number Number of

of times of times times
Swear and taboo words occurred omitted translated Translation(s)
1- S*** 33 8 25 - (‫ُواء‬٤/ُٝ‫ أؽ‬/‫بِخ‬ٝ‫ ؽ‬: foolishness/fool).
- (‫خ‬١‫م‬ٙ٘‫ ا‬/ٟ‫ ٘م٭‬: damn/damned)
- (‫ٍـ‬٦ /‫ ِناهح‬: rubbish )
- (ٗٔ‫ْب‬ٜ : troubles)
- (ٗ‫ رمؽ‬: broke)
- S***ters 1 0 1 - (ٟ‫الل٭‬ٜ : damned)
- S*** eating pecker head 1 0 1 - (‫ت‬ٕٙ٘‫ ا‬ٟ‫ اث‬: son of dog)
- Deadly s*** 1 0 1 - (ٟ‫ ٘م٭‬: damned)
- Horse s*** 1 1 0 -
- Chicken s*** 1 0 1 - (ٟ‫ ٘م٭‬: damned)
- Holy s*** 1 0 1 - (‫خ‬١‫م‬ٙ٘‫ ا‬: damn)
- Dirty crack head s*** 1 1 0 -
- - Stinking piece of s***/piece of s*** 2 0 2 - (٣١‫ز‬٠ /ٟ‫الل٭‬ٜ : damned/stinking)
2- Son of a b****/b**** 7 5 2 - (ٍٗ‫ى‬ٜ : idiot)
214
- (‫ت‬ٕٙ٘‫الك ا‬٦‫ أ‬: sons of the dog)
3- Crackhead 2 1 1 - (ُٝ‫ أؽ‬: fool)
4- Pussies 1 0 1 - (٩ّٝ‫ ؽ‬: fools)
5- A**es/ wisea**/ a**holes 3 1 2 - (ٟ‫زَٕم٭‬ٜ : beggars)
- (٩ّٝ‫ ؽ‬: fools)
6- Punk 3 0 3 - (ُٝ‫ أؽ‬: fool)
7- Pig(s)/ piggy 7 0 7 - (‫و‬٬‫ي‬١‫ ف‬: pig)
8- P***ed off/ p***/ P***ing his pants 4 1 3 - (ٖ٧‫زج‬٬ : urinate)
- (ٓ١‫ا ل‬٧١‫ اٍزى‬: give you up)
9- Bastard 1 0 1 - (ٍٗ‫ و‬ٚ : fool)
10- Naked party freaks/dirty naked 2 0 2 - (‫و هائك‬ٜ‫أ‬: Nice thing)
freaks. - (‫اد لبثوح‬٦‫ي‬٠ : temporary pleasures)
11- Hell 9 1 8 - (ٛ‫ ثؾُ ا٘غؾ٭‬: for hell‘s sake)
12- D*** head/d***/ p**** 4 1 3 - (ُٝ‫ أؽ‬: fool)
- If your d*** comes out of your - (‫٭خ‬ٙ‫الثَٓ ا٘لاف‬ٜ ٟٜ ‫ ٍِيد‬: you jump out of your pants)
pants.
13- F***er 3 1 2 - (ٟ‫الل٭‬ٜ : damned)
215
- Motherf***er/ motherf***ing 3 1 2 - (ٟ‫الل٭‬ٜ : damned)
- F*** (v) (someone/something) 7 1 6 - (ً‫ رجب‬: damn)
- (‫ب‬١‫ فُلل‬: tricked)
- F*** off 2 1 1 - (٫٥‫ع‬٦ ٟ‫ اثمل ل‬: get off my face)
- F*** (n): what/who/shut/the f***… 14 5 9 - (ٛ‫ ؽُ ا٘غؾ٭‬/ٟ‫م٭‬ٙ٘‫ا‬/ً‫ افو‬: shut up/for hell‘s sake/damn)
- F***ing (adj) 10 2 8 - (ُٝ‫ أؽ‬: crap)
- (ِ٤‫ل‬ٜ : amazing)
- (ٟ‫ ٘م٭‬: damned)
- (‫ ألجش‬: mess up)
- Unf***ed (It should be…) 1 0 1 - (٩ٙ‫ ل‬٩‫ُّع‬٬‫ ال‬: unfinished)
14- Goddamn 5 0 5 - (ٟ‫م٭‬ٙ٘‫ ا‬: damned)
- Damn 8 2 6 - (ٟ‫ ٘م٭‬/‫خ‬١‫م‬ٙ٘‫ ا‬: damn/ damned)
15- Christ in a cartoon 1 0 1
- The weeping mama of Christ 1 0 1 - (ٌ‫ذ ا٘وئ٭‬١‫ ث‬: The daughter of the president)
- Christ!/ Jesus Christ/ Jesus 3 0 3 - (٫٥٘‫ ثب ا‬/ً‫رجب‬: damn/ Oh, my God)
Numbers in total 143 33 110
216
Appendix (H): Swear words in London to Brighton.
Swear and taboo words Number of Number Number of Examples of translations Examples of new added
times of times times in original translation swear words in modified
occurred omitted translated version
1- F***ing (adj) 102 87 15 - (ٟ‫الل٭‬ٝ٘‫ا‬: Damned) - (ٓ‫ؾ‬٬٦: Vow on you)
- (‫ا٘ؾّ٭و‬: Villain) - (ً‫رجب‬: May evil befalls)
- (ٛ‫ثؾُ ا٘غؾ٭‬: For hell‘s sake) - (‫واء‬٤: idle talk)
- (ُٝ‫األؽ‬: Fool) - (ٌٗ‫ٍب‬: mean)
- (ً‫علا‬: Very) - (‫ٍـ‬٦: dirty)
- (‫خ‬١‫م‬ٙ٘‫ا‬: Damn) - (٣ٌ‫رب‬: silly)
- F*** off (vp) 14 9 5 - (‫اثزمل‬: Go away) - (‫ول‬٦: scoundrel)

‫ ا‬: Come on)
- (٫٤ - (٫‫وج‬: stupid)
- (‫خ‬١‫م‬ٙ٘‫ا‬: Damn)
- F*** (v) 5 0 5 - (‫رَٕك‬: To hang out with) - (‫ك‬ٜ ٚ‫ب‬١٬: sleep with)
- (‫ظبعك‬: To lie in bed with)
- F*** up (vp) 4 3 1 - (‫ٍَل‬٬: To mess up/ To spoil
- F*** (n) 4 2 2 - (‫خ‬١‫م‬ٙ٘‫ا‬: Damn/ ٛ‫ا٘غؾ٭‬: Hell)
217
2- C*** 11 2 9 - (‫وح‬٤‫لب‬: Prostitute) - (ٖ‫ن‬٠: vile)
- (ٞ٧١‫غ‬ٜ: Crazy) - (‫ؾػ‬١ٜ: low)
- (‫ؽّ٭و‬: Villain)
3- S*** (n) 6 0 6 - (‫ثْك‬: Ugly) - (‫ِنه‬: Filthy(
- (‫ّوي‬ٜ: Disgusting)
- (‫فؽو‬: Danger)
- (‫خ‬١‫٘م‬: Curse/ Damn)
- S***hole - (‫ؽّ٭و‬: Villain)

4- P*** (v) 1 0 1 - (ٚ‫ب‬ٝ‫ ا٘ؾ‬٩٘‫ت ا‬٤‫ن‬٬: Go to bathroom)
- P***ed (adj) 2 0 2 - (‫يلظ‬١ٜ: Upset)
- P*** (n) 1 0 1 - (‫قبكق‬ٜ: Cunning)
5- A**hole 1 1 0
6- Bloody 2 2 0 - (ً‫ٍؾّب‬: to hell with…)

7- Arse 1 1 0
8- B**** 1 0 0
Numbers in total 154 107 47
218
Appendix (I): Friends: Jokes chosen for experiment (III)
A- Stage (I): Season 8. Episode 5: ‘The One with Rachel’s Date’ (2001)
1- Monica: Uh, Tim? This is Phoebe. Phoebe, this is Tim, my new sous chef.
Tim: Actually, she‘s my boss. Sous is French for under.
Phoebe: Oh, I sous stand.35
…
Phoebe: Would you say your Pesto is the besto?
Tim: I don‘t know, but I would say it‘s pretty goodo.
Original translation Modified translation

)٫‫ ٘ٓ (ٌ٭ج‬ٚ‫) أِل‬ٛ‫ (ر٭‬:‫مونﯿكا‬ )٫‫ ٘ٓ (ٌ٭ج‬ٚ‫) أِل‬ٛ‫ (ر٭‬:‫مونﯿكا‬
.‫بح‬٥‫َبلل هئ٭ٌ ا٘ؽ‬ٜ ،)ٛ‫نا (ر٭‬٤ )٫‫(ٌ٭ج‬ .‫بح‬٥‫َبلل هئ٭ٌ ا٘ؽ‬ٜ ،)ٛ‫نا (ر٭‬٤ )٫‫(ٌ٭ج‬
‫٭ٕب)؟‬٠٧ٜ( ‫و‬٬‫ل‬ٜ ‫ذ‬٠‫ اماً أ‬:ً‫فﯿب‬ ‫٭ٕب)؟‬٠٧ٜ( ‫و‬٬‫ل‬ٜ ‫ذ‬٠‫ اماً أ‬:ً‫فﯿب‬
٫‫ور‬٬‫ل‬ٜ ٫٤ ٨‫ ثبألؽو‬:‫جﯿم‬ ٫‫ور‬٬‫ل‬ٜ ٫٤ ٨‫ ثبألؽو‬:‫جﯿم‬
"‫َبلل‬ٜ" ‫خ‬ٕٝٙ٘‫ ا‬٫١‫َ٭خ رم‬٠‫ثبٖ٘ىخ اٍ٘و‬ "‫َبلل‬ٜ" ٫١‫‘ رم‬٧ٍ‘ ‫َ٭خ‬٠‫ثبٖ٘ىخ اٍ٘و‬
.‫ذ‬ٝ٥ٌ ٦ ٫١‫ ّ٘ل ٍبللر‬:ً‫فﯿب‬ .‫ذ‬ٝ٥ٌ ٦ ٫١‫ ّ٘ل ٍبللر‬:ً‫فﯿب‬
… …
‫ األٌعٗ؟‬٫٤ "٧‫َز‬٬‫ "ا٘ت‬ٞ‫ٖ أ‬٧ّ‫ٗ ر‬٤ :ً‫فﯿب‬ ‫؟‬٧‫ز‬٠٦‫ ثو‬٫٤ "٧‫ "ا٘ج٭َز‬ٞ‫ٖ أ‬٧ّ‫ٗ ر‬٤ :ً‫فﯿب‬
.‫ب ع٭لح‬٥٠‫ٖ أ‬٧ِ‫ أ‬٫١١ٕ٘ ،‫ ال ألوي‬:‫جﯿم‬ .٧‫ز‬١َ‫ب األؽ‬٥٠‫ٖ أ‬٧ِ‫ أ‬٫١١ٕ٘ ،‫ ال ألوي‬:‫جﯿم‬
Monica: Uh, Tim? This is Phoebe. Monica: Uh, Tim? This is Phoebe.
Phoebe, this is Tim, my new sous chef. Phoebe, this is Tim, my new sous chef.
Phoebe: (to Tim) Oh, so you‘re Monica‘ Phoebe: (to Tim) Oh, so you‘re
boss? Monica‘ boss?
Tim: Actually, she‘s my boss. The word Tim: Actually, she‘s my boss. Sous is
35
Another play on words that the subtitler succeeded to handle somehow. He translated the French word
‗sous‘ as ‗‫َبلل‬ٜ‘ or ‗assistant‘ rather than ‗under‘ as it should be. The word assist gets the first joke: ‗I sous stand‘
which he translated as ‗You assisted me to understand‘ which is not bad. However, and when Phoebe uses the
same word in another pun (4) ‗I can‘t wait to be sousneath him‘, the subtitler could not use the word ‗assistant‘ to
interpret the joke. He simply translated it as ‗I can‘t wait to see him‘ instead of ‗I can‘t wait to be his assistant‘,
‗٣‫َبللر‬ٜ ‫ أصجؼ‬٩‫زفبه ؽز‬٠‫‘ال أٍزؽ٭ك اإل‬, which preserves the word ‗sous‘ or assistant as well as the humour.
219
is French for assistant. French for assistant.
Phoebe: Oh, you assisted me to Phoebe: Oh, you assisted me to

understand. understand.
… …
Phoebe: Would you say your Pesto is Phoebe: Would you say your Pesto is
the best?36 pronto?
Tim: I don‘t know, but I would say it‘s Tim: I don‘t know, but I would say it‘s
pretty good. the besto
2- Phobe: Uh, Monica! Oh, my God! I had the best time

With Tim last night. He‘s so sweet.
Oh, I can‘t wait to get sousneath him.
Original Translation Modified translation
!٫٥٘‫ب ا‬٬ !‫٭ٕب‬٠٧ٜ :ً‫فﯿب‬ !٫٥٘‫ب ا‬٬ !‫٭ٕب‬٠٧ٜ :ً‫فﯿب‬

)ٛ‫ك (ر٭‬ٜ ‫خ‬٬‫ىب‬ٙ٘ ً‫زمب‬ٜٝ ً‫ِزب‬٦ ‫ع٭ذ‬ٜ‫أ‬ )ٛ‫ك (ر٭‬ٜ ‫خ‬٬‫ىب‬ٙ٘ ً‫زمب‬ٜٝ ً‫ِزب‬٦ ‫ع٭ذ‬ٜ‫أ‬
.ً‫ ٘ؽ٭ً ٌمال‬٧٥ٌ ٌٜ‫خ أ‬ٙ‫٘٭‬ .ً‫ ٘ؽ٭ً ٌمال‬٧٥ٌ ٌٜ‫خ أ‬ٙ‫٘٭‬
.‫غلكاً ثٍبهن ا٘صجو‬ٜ ٣‫ز‬٬‫زفو هإ‬٠‫أ‬ .٣‫َبللر‬ٜ ‫ أُصجؼ‬٩‫زفبه ؽز‬٠‫ال أٍزؽ٭ك اإل‬
Phoebe: Uh, Monica! Oh, my God! I had Phoebe: Uh, Monica! Oh, my God!
the best time with Tim I had the best time with Tim
last night. He‘s so sweet. last night. He‘s so sweet.
Oh, I can‘t wait to see him again. Oh, I can‘t wait to become his
assistant.37
36
‗Your Pesto is the besto‘ is translated as ‗Your Pesto is the best‘. Another option could be ‗Your Pesto is
pronto‘. ‘Pronto‘ (٧‫ز‬٠٦‫ )ثو‬is an Italian word which is popular in the Arab world and which means ‗Great‘ or ‗fantastic‘
and it will rhyme with Pesto, too.
37
This is another play on words using ‗sous‘. Since the word was translated as ‗assistant‘ before, then it
would be logical to keep it. This sentence ‗I cannot wait to become his assistant‘ will be interpreted differently by
the Arab audience. One of these interpretations is that Phoebe cannot wait to become his wife. The original
translation on the other side chose ‗see‘ for ‗sousneath‘, something that did not sound funny.
220
3- Rachel: (to Kash: an actor) Y‘ know, Joey thinks I‘m some kind of a
soap opera nut- which I‘m not! I‘m not.
‫ٍخ‬٦٧٥ٜ ٫١١‫ف‬٬ ٪٧‫ ع‬:‫راشﯿم‬ ‫ٍخ‬٦٧٥ٜ ٫١١‫ف‬٬ ٪٧‫ ع‬:‫راشﯿم‬

...‫٭خ‬ٜ‫٭خ ا٘لها‬٠٧٬‫ٍي‬ٙ‫َالد ا٘ز‬َٙٝ٘‫ثب‬ ...‫٭خ‬ٜ‫٭خ ا٘لها‬٠٧٬‫ٍي‬ٙ‫َالد ا٘ز‬َٙٝ٘‫ثب‬
.ً‫نا و٭و صؾ٭ؼ ٌمال‬٤٦ ٓ٘‫ب ٔن‬٠‫ أ‬...ً‫ٓ ٌمال‬ٙ٘‫ب ٔن‬٠‫أ‬٦
Rachel: Joey thinks I‘m some kind of a Rachel: Joey thinks I‘m some kind
soap opera nut- of a soap opera nut-
which I‘m not, indeed.38 which I am, indeed. I am.
4- Ross: (to Chandler) Hey, sorry I kept you waiting so long.
Chandler: Hey, that‘s okay. So, where do you want to go?
Ross: Oh, I think you know where I want to go.
Chandler: The Hard Rock Café.
Ross: Yeah.
Chandler: Again?
Ross: Yeah, I‘m telling you, I like the food.
Chandler: You like ‗Purple Rain‘ display39!
38
Once again the audience feels the irrelevance between the subtitles, the actors‘ face expressions and the
laughter they hear. Rachel plays on words claiming that she is not soap opera nut but in fact she means the
opposite. So, in order to make the subtitles more relevant and funnier, it can be translated as: ‗Joey thinks that
I‘m a soap opera nut- which I am indeed, I am indeed‘, ‗ٓ٘‫ب ٔن‬٠‫ أ‬...ً‫ٓ ٌمال‬ٙ٘‫ب ٔن‬٠‫أ‬٦ ...‫٭خ‬٠٧٬‫ٍي‬ٙ‫َالد ا٘ز‬َٙٝ٘‫ٍخ ثب‬٦٧٥ٜ ٫١١‫ف‬٬ ٪٧‫‘ ع‬.
39
Neither The Hard Rock Café nor the Purple Rain displays are known to the Arab audience, let alone the
fact that many people do not even know what hard rock is. Moreover, a Café in the Arab culture is a place where
people go to drink tea or coffee and sometime play cards. As we can see below, the original translation does not
clarify the nature of the café or of the display, the modified translation took this into consideration.
221
ٓ‫ز‬ٙ‫ عم‬٫١٠‫ آًٍ ألا‬:‫روس‬ ٓ‫ز‬ٙ‫ عم‬٫١٠‫ آًي ألا‬:‫روس‬

‫خ‬ٙ٬٧‫زفو ٍ٘زوح ؼ‬١‫ر‬ ‫خ‬ٙ٬٧‫زفو ٍ٘زوح ؼ‬١‫ر‬
‫بة؟‬٤‫ل ا٘ن‬٬‫ رو‬ٟ٬‫ أ‬.ٓ‫٭‬ٙ‫ ال ل‬:‫جشاندنر‬ ‫بة؟‬٤‫ل ا٘ن‬٬‫ رو‬ٟ٬‫ أ‬.ٓ‫٭‬ٙ‫ ال ل‬:‫جشاندنر‬
.‫بة‬٤‫ل ا٘ن‬٬‫ أه‬ٟ٬‫ٓ رموي أ‬١‫ أـ‬:‫روس‬ .‫بة‬٤‫ل ا٘ن‬٬‫ أه‬ٟ٬‫ٓ رموي أ‬١‫ أـ‬:‫روس‬
‫ْ"؟‬٦‫بهك ه‬٤" ٩٥ّٜ :‫جشاندنر‬ ‫ ا٘صبفجخ"؟‬٩ّ‫ٍ٭‬٧ٝ٘‫ "ا‬٩٥ّٜ :‫جشاندنر‬

.ٗ‫ أع‬:‫روس‬ .ٗ‫ أع‬:‫روس‬
‫غلكاً؟‬ٜ :‫جشاندنر‬ ‫غلكاً؟‬ٜ :‫جشاندنر‬

.ٗ‫ أع‬:‫روس‬ .ٗ‫ أع‬:‫روس‬
.ْ‫ب‬١٤ ٚ‫ب أٍزَ٭ه ا٘ؽمب‬٠‫ أ‬٫١ِ‫ صل‬:‫روس‬ .ْ‫ب‬١٤ ٚ‫ب أٍزَ٭ه ا٘ؽمب‬٠‫ أ‬٫١ِ‫ صل‬:‫روس‬
.)ٟ٬‫هثٗ ها‬٧‫ذ رؾت لوض (ث‬٠‫ ثٗ أ‬:‫جشاندنر‬ .‫) ا٘واِص‬ٟ٬‫هثٗ ها‬٧‫ذ رؾت لوض (ث‬٠‫ ثٗ أ‬:‫جشاندنر‬
Ross: (to Chandler) Hey, sorry I kept Ross: (to Chandler) Hey, sorry I kept you
you waiting so long. waiting so long.
Chandler: Hey, that‘s okay. So, where Chandler: Hey, that‘s okay. So, where
do you want to go? do you want to go?
Ross: Oh, I think you know where I Ross: Oh, I think you know where I want
want to go. to go.
Chandler: The Hard Rock Café. Chandler: The Hard Music Café.
Ross: Yeah. Ross: Yeah.
Chandler: Again? Chandler: Again?
Ross: Yeah, I‘m telling you, I like the Ross: Yeah, I‘m telling you, I like the
food. food.
Chandler: You like ‗Purple Rain‘ Chandler: You like dancing ‗Purple Rain‘
display! display!
5- Rachel: (to Joey, before she went out to a date with Kash) Hey, what do you
think is a better excuse for why I‘m not drinking on this date tonight.
222
Umm, I‘m a recovering alcoholic.
I‘m a Mormon40,
or I got so hammered last night I‘m still a little drunk?
‫ٖ اْ٘واة‬٦‫ب‬١‫ ر‬ٚ‫ أٌعٗ لنه ٘مل‬٧٤ ‫ب‬ٜ :‫راشﯿم‬ ٖ٦‫ب‬١‫ ر‬ٚ‫ أٌعٗ لنه ٘مل‬٧٤ ‫ب‬ٜ :‫راشﯿم‬
‫ب؟‬٠‫لل‬٧ٜ ٫ٌ ‫خ‬ٙ‫٭‬ٙ٘‫ا‬ ‫خ؟‬ٙ‫٭‬ٙ٘‫اْ٘واة ا‬
ٖ٧‫خ ٔؾ‬١ٜ‫ل‬ٜ ‫ب‬٠‫ أ‬٩ٌ‫رزمب‬ ‫؟‬٩ٌ‫ٖ رزمب‬٧‫خ ٔؾ‬١ٜ‫ل‬ٜ ‫ب‬٠‫أ‬
‫٭خ؟‬٠٧ٜ‫ه‬٧ٜ ‫ب‬٠‫ أ‬٦‫أ‬ ‫ؼ؟‬َٝ٬ ‫ ال‬٫١٬ ‫ك‬
‫خ ا٘جبهؽخ‬ٙ‫ ّوثذ ٔض٭واً ٘٭‬٦‫أ‬ ‫خ ا٘جبهؽخ‬ٙ‫ ّوثذ ٔض٭واً ٘٭‬٦‫أ‬
‫خ؟‬ٙٝ‫ ال ى٘ذ ص‬٫١٠‫ كهعخ أ‬٩٘‫ا‬

‫خ؟‬ٜٙ‫ ال ى٘ذ س‬٫١٠‫ كهعخ أ‬٩٘‫ا‬
Rachel: Hey, what do you think is a Rachel: Hey, what do you think is a
better excuse for why I‘m not drinking better excuse for why I‘m not drinking
on this date tonight. tonight.
Umm, I‘m a recovering alcoholic?. Umm, I‘m a recovering alcoholic?

I‘m a Mormon? My religion does not permit?
Or I got so hammered last night Or I got so hammered last night

I‘m still a little drunk? I‘m still a little drunk?
B- Stage (II): Season 8. Episode 16: ‘The One Where Joey Tells Rachel’
(2002)
1- Joey: (to Rachel, in a restaurant) Is it hot in here?

40
The Mormons are not known in the Arab countries. The original translation does not clarify what Mormon
is whereas the second does.
223
Has a picture of Calvin doing Hobbs.

‫ب؟‬١٤ ‫ ؽبه‬٧‫ٗ ا٘غ‬٤ :‫جوي‬ ‫ب؟‬١٤ ‫ ؽبه‬٧‫ٗ ا٘غ‬٤ :‫جوي‬
،٫٘ ‫َجخ‬١٘‫ ٘٭ٌ ثب‬،‫ ال‬:‫راشﯿم‬ ،٫٘ ‫َجخ‬١٘‫ ٘٭ٌ ثب‬،‫ ال‬:‫راشﯿم‬
‫يرٓ؟‬١ٔ ‫ك‬ٙ‫ ال رق‬ٛ٘ ٟٕ٘ ‫يرٓ؟‬١ٔ ‫ك‬ٙ‫ ال رق‬ٛ٘ ٟٕ٘
ٛ‫ ٌق‬ٞ‫ٕب‬ٜ ٣١ٕ٘ ٗ‫ذ ألٌم‬١ٔ :‫جوي‬ ٛ‫ ٌق‬ٞ‫ٕب‬ٜ ٣١ٕ٘ ٗ‫ذ ألٌم‬١ٔ :‫جوي‬
)ٌ‫ث‬٧٤( ٦ )ٍٟ٘‫هح (ٔب‬٧‫٭ص ص‬ّٝ٘‫ ا‬٩ٙ‫ ل‬٦ )ٌ‫ث‬٧٤( ٩ٙ‫ٖ ل‬٧‫ج‬٬ )ٍٟ٘‫هح (ٔب‬٧‫٭ص ص‬ّٝ٘‫ ا‬٩ٙ‫ ل‬٦
‫ب؟‬٥‫ز‬٬‫ هإ‬٫١١ٕٝ٬‫! ؽّبً؟ أ‬٢‫ هثب‬:‫راشﯿم‬ ‫ب؟‬٥‫ز‬٬‫ هإ‬٫١١ٕٝ٬‫! ؽّبً؟ أ‬٢‫ هثب‬:‫راشﯿم‬
.‫ أعٗ ثب٘ؽجك‬:‫جوي‬ .‫ أعٗ ثب٘ؽتق‬:‫جوي‬
.ً‫نا ٔض٭وا‬٤ ‫ثٌ) ٍ٭ؾت‬٧٤( ٞ‫ أ‬ٟ‫ ال أـ‬:‫راشﯿم‬
ً‫نا ٔض٭وا‬٤ ‫ثٌ) ٍ٭ؾت‬٧٤( ٞ‫ أ‬ٟ‫ ال أـ‬:‫راشﯿم‬
Joey: (to Rachel, in a restaurant) Is it Joey: (to Rachel, in a restaurant) Is it hot

hot in here? in here?
Rachel: No. Not for me, but why don‘t Rachel: No. Not for me, but why don‘t
you take off your sweater? you take off your sweater?
Joey: I would, but this is a nice place Joey: I would, but this is a nice place
and my T-shirt and my T-shirt
Has a picture of Calvin and Hobbs.41 Has a picture of Calvin peeing on Hobbs.
Rachel: Oh, my God! Really? Can I Rachel: Oh, my God! Really? Can I see
see it? it?
Joey: Yea, sure. Joey: Yea, sure.
Rachel: Huh, wow, I wouldn‘t think Rachel: Huh, wow, I wouldn‘t think
Hobbs would like that so much. Hobbs would like that so much.
41
Similar to ‗would do her‘, ‗Calvin doing Hobbs‘ is again euphemised and even omitted and as a result
omitting the humour. If the subtitler has substituted it with ‗Calvin urinating on Hobbs‘, ‗‫‘كالفين يبول على هوبس‬, or
‗Calvin vomiting on Hobbs‘, ‗‫‘كالفين يقيئ على هوبس‬, ‘then it, and the joke that follows: ‗I would not think Hobbs
would like that so much‘ would make more sense in terms of humour.
224
2- Joey and Rachel are still at the restaurant and they are the last ones. Two
waiters are waiting for them to finish hugging. Meanwhile, this conversation between
the waiters takes place:
Waiter 2: What‘s the matter with them?
Waiter: I don‘t know. I think may be one of them is dying.
I kinda hope it‘s the girl.
The guy is really cute.
‫ب؟‬ٝ٥‫ب فؽج‬ٜ :2 ‫اننادل‬

‫ب؟‬ٝ٥‫ب فؽج‬ٜ :2 ‫اننادل‬
‫ؾزعو‬٬ ‫ب‬ٝ٤‫ أؽل‬ٞ‫ أ‬ٟ‫ أـ‬،٪‫ ال أكه‬:1 ‫اننادل‬
‫ؾزعو‬٬ ‫ب‬ٝ٤‫ أؽل‬ٞ‫ أ‬ٟ‫ أـ‬،٪‫ ال أكه‬:1 ‫اننادل‬
‫وأح‬ٝ٘‫ ا‬ٞ٧ٕ‫ ر‬ٞ‫ٗ أ‬ٜ‫آ‬
‫وأح‬ٝ٘‫ ا‬ٞ٧ٕ‫ ر‬ٞ‫ٗ أ‬ٜ‫آ‬
.ٗ‫ ثب٘وع‬ٚ‫ىو‬ٜ ً‫ب ؽّب‬٠‫ٌؤ‬
.ً‫ً ٌمال‬٬‫ا٘وعٗ ـو‬
Waiter 2: What‘s the matter with

Waiter 2: What‘s the matter with
them?
them?
Waiter: I don‘t know. I think may be
Waiter: I don‘t know. I think may be
one of them is dying.
one of them is dying.
I really fancy the guy.
The guy is really cute.
C- Stage (III): Season 9. Episode 12: ‘The One with Phoebe’s Rats’ (2003)
1- Rachel: (speaking to her colleague Gavin who is looking at the beautiful

secretary)
I‘m just happy…I‘m sorry, obviously Heather‘s a** has

something more important to say,
so I‘ll just wait till it‘s finished.
225
I did not really see what happened below the a** area.
Rachel: If you like looking at butts so much
why don‘t you just go look at a mirror?

...‫هح‬٦‫َو‬ٜ ‫ب‬٠‫ أ‬:‫راشﯿم‬ ...‫هح‬٦‫َو‬ٜ ‫ب‬٠‫ أ‬:‫راشﯿم‬
)‫٭نه‬٤( ٚ‫ا‬٧ِ ٨‫ ٘ل‬ٞ‫ أ‬٦‫جل‬٬ ‫منهح؟‬ٝ٘‫ا‬ )‫٭نه‬٤( ‫ئفوح‬ٜ ٨‫ ٘ل‬ٞ‫ أ‬٦‫جل‬٬ ‫منهح؟‬ٝ٘‫ا‬
‫ب‬٥٘٧ّ‫ ر‬ٛ٤‫أّ٭بء أ‬ ‫ب‬٥٘٧ّ‫ ر‬ٛ٤‫أّ٭بء أ‬
.٫٥‫ز‬١‫ ر‬٩‫زفو ؽز‬٠‫٘ن٘ٓ ٍؤ‬ .٫٥‫ز‬٠‫ د‬٩‫زفو ؽز‬٠‫٘ن٘ٓ ٍؤ‬
.‫ب‬٥‫هر‬٧١‫ ر‬٩٘‫فو ا‬٠‫ذ أ‬١ٔ :‫كﯿفن‬ .‫ب‬٥‫هر‬٧١‫ ر‬٩٘‫فو ا‬٠‫ذ أ‬١ٔ :‫كﯿفن‬
‫االً؟‬٦‫ ٍو‬ٞ‫ٗ ٔب‬٤ ٚ‫أ‬ ‫االً؟‬٦‫ ٍو‬ٞ‫ٗ ٔب‬٤ ٚ‫أ‬
.ٚ‫ا‬٧ّ٘‫ب ؽصٗ رؾذ ا‬ٜ ‫ أه‬ٛ٘ .‫ئفوح‬ٝ٘‫ب ؽصٗ رؾذ ا‬ٜ ‫ أه‬ٛ٘
‫ٕنا‬٤ ‫ئفوح‬ٝ٘‫ ا‬٩٘‫فو ا‬١٘‫ذ رؾت ا‬١ٔ ٞ‫ ا‬:‫ راشﯿم‬ٛ٘
‫ٕنا‬٤ ٚ‫ا‬٧ّ٘‫ ا‬٩٘‫فو ا‬١٘‫ذ رؾت ا‬١ٔ ٞ‫ ا‬:‫راشﯿم‬
‫وآح؟‬ٝ٘‫ ا‬٫ٌ ‫فو‬١‫ ر‬٦ ‫ت‬٤‫ال رن‬
‫وآح؟‬ٝ٘‫ ا‬٫ٌ ‫فو‬١‫ ر‬٦ ‫ت‬٤‫ ال رن‬ٛ٘
Rachel: I‘m just happy…I‘m sorry, Rachel: I‘m just happy…I‘m sorry,
obviously Heather‘s figure obviously Heather‘s back
has something more important to say, has something more important to say,
so I‘ll just wait till it‘s finished. so I‘ll just wait till it‘s finished.
Gavin: I was looking at the skirt. Or Gavin: I was looking at the skirt. Or
was it pants? was it pants?
I did not really see what happened I did not really see what happened
below her figure. below her back.
Rachel: If you like looking at figures so Rachel: If you like looking at the back43
much why don‘t you Just go look at a so much why don‘t you Just go look at a
42
mirror? mirror?
42
In this three-part joke, the word a** occurred twice and the word butt occurred one. The subtitler replaced
all these words with ‘‫ ‘قوام‬which caused the loss of the humour.
43
The word ‗back‘ or ‗‫‘‘مؤخرة‬, is a euphemised word for ‗butt‘ or ‗a**‘ but a polite one that can easily be used
in this context to make the conversation and the joke meaningful.
226
Appendix (J): Swear words in the dubbed version of CON AIR
Number Number Number of

Swear and taboo words of times of times times Translation(s)
occurred omitted translated
1- S*** 33 23 10 1- (٣‫ؾ‬٬‫ ه‬: smell).
2- (٪٦‫ ثال‬: troubles)
3- (ً‫ افو‬: shut up)
4- (٣٘‫ ىثب‬: rubbish )- (3)
5- (‫ ىٌذ‬: crap)
6- (٣‫ص٭ج‬ٜ : trouble)
7- (ٗ‫ رمؽ‬: broke)
8- (ٍٗ‫ى‬ٜ : idiot)
- S***ters 1 0 1 - (‫ عواث٭ك‬: rats)
- S*** eating pecker head 1 0 1 - (‫ت‬ٕٙ٘‫ ا‬ٟ‫ اث‬: son of dog)
- Deadly s*** 1 1 0 -
- Horse s*** 1 0 1 - (ً٬‫ رقو‬: hallucination)
- Chicken s*** 1 0 1 - (‫ت اَ٘ذ‬ٙٔ : the lady‘s dog)
- Holy s*** 1 0 1 - (٣ٙ‫٭‬٠ : bad)
- Dirty crack head s*** 1 0 1 - (٣٘‫ ىثب‬: rubbish)
- Stinking piece of s***/piece of s*** 2 1 1 - (٣ٙ‫٭‬١ٜ ٣‫ ىٌز‬: stinking and unpleasant )
2- Son of a b****/b**** 7 5 2 - (ٍٗ‫ى‬ٜ : idiot)
- (‫ت‬ٕٙ٘‫الك ا‬٦‫ أ‬: sons of the dog)
3- Crackhead 2 0 2 - (‫ ىثب٘خ‬: rubbish)
4- Pussies 1 0 1 - (‫ت‬٠‫ أها‬: rabbits)
5- A**es/ wisea**/ a**holes 3 1 2 - (ٟ‫٭‬ٜ‫غو‬ٜ : criminals)
- (٣ْٙ٘‫ ا‬: friends)
6- Punk 3 1 2 - (ُ‫وْب‬/‫قبكق‬ٜ : cheater)
7- Pig/ piggy 7 3 4 - (ً٧ٜ‫ عب‬: female cow)
- (٢٦‫ب ؽال‬٬ : how sweet (sarcastic))
- (‫ ىٌذ‬: crap)
- (‫و‬٬‫ي‬١‫ ف‬: pig)
8- P***ed off/p*** 3 2 1 - (‫قخ‬٬‫ اٍ٘وفخ ا٘لا‬٪‫ ث٭زولِ ى‬: shivering like an
- P***ing his pants unconscious chicken)
9- Bastard 1 0 1 - (ٍٗ‫ى‬ٜ: fool)
10- Naked party freaks/dirty naked freaks. 2 0 2 - ( ‫اد ٍزبد‬٧ٙ‫ ؽ‬: beautiful ladies)
11- Hell 9 8 1 - (‫ذ‬١١‫ رغ‬: have you become crazy)
12- D*** head/d***/ p**** 4 2 2 - (ٟ‫٭‬ٜ‫غو‬ٜ : criminals)
- If your d*** comes out of your pants. - (..‫ذ‬ّٙ٬‫ ه‬٧٘ : if you slobber..44)
44
The translator means by slobber that if the prisoner feels hot and wants to sleep with the girl. This is the common word used in Egypt to euphemize
such words.
228
13- F***er 3 0 3 - (‫ ىثب٘خ‬/‫خ‬ٜ‫ب‬ٝ٘ : rubbish)
- (ً٬‫ ـو‬: nice)
- Motherf***er/ motherf***ing 3 3 0
- F*** (v) (someone/something) 7 3 4 - (َ‫ذ ا٘صبك‬٠‫ ا‬: you are honest45)
- (٫ّّ : miserable)
- (ٗ‫ ثّز‬: kill)
- (‫ك‬ٜ ‫يػ‬ٝ٬ : joke with)
- F*** off 2 0 2 - (٫٥‫ع‬٦ ٟ‫ اثمل ل‬: get off my face)
- F*** (n): what/who/shut/the f***… 14 10 4 - (ً٬‫ـو‬/ٗ‫٭‬١‫ار‬/ً‫ افو‬: shut up/funny)
- F***ing (adj) 10 9 1 - (‫ ىٌذ‬: crap)
- Unf***ed (It should be…) 1 0 1 - (ٗ‫ُؾ‬٬ : sorted/solved)
14- Goddamn 5 4 1 - (٩ّ‫ ثؽّٗ ث‬: stop it)
- Damn 8 8 0
15- Christ in a cartoon 1 0 1 - (‫ه‬٧‫َم‬ٜ ٓ٬‫ كا ك‬: This is a mad crock)
- The weeping mama of Christ 1 0 1 - (ٌ‫ذ ا٘وئ٭‬١‫ ث‬: The daughter of the
- Christ!/ Jesus Christ/ Jesus 3 2 1 president)
- (‫ك‬٧ٍ‫به أ‬٥٠ ‫ب‬٬ : what a bad day)
Numbers in total 143 86 57 -
45
‗You are honest is an expression used to politely correct a wrong information that someone said. Here, it is also used for this purpose but in a sarcastic way.
229

Final TammamAlkadi Thesis

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Durham E-Theses

ISSUES IN THE SUBTITLING AND DUBBING OF

ALKADI, TAMMAM (2010) ISSUES IN THE SUBTITLING AND DUBBING OF

PROF. PAUL STARKEY

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................. ix

SCHEME OF TRANSLITERATION ...................................................................... x

COPYRIGHT ....................................................................................................... xii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................... xiii

DEDICATION ...................................................................................................... xiv

2.3.1.2 Styles of English .......................................................................... 25

2.3.1.4 Literature on the subtitling of dialects .......................................... 27

2.3.2 Subtitling swearing and the influence of censorship on translation 30

2.5.1.2 Aesthetic barriers ......................................................................... 49

2.5.1.3 Synchronization in dubbing .......................................................... 50

2.5.2 Arabic varieties and the possibility of dubbing ............................... 54

2.5.2.2 Syntactic differences between Arabic dialects ............................. 58

2.5.2.3 Semantic differences between dialects ........................................ 61

2.5.3 Literature on dubbing ..................................................................... 62

4.2.5.2 Description of participants and experiments .............................. 102

4.2.5.3 Results ....................................................................................... 102

4.2.5.4 Conclusion ................................................................................. 103

4.3 Swearing and taboo ............................................................................ 104

4.3.5.2 Description of participants and experiment ................................ 111

4.3.5.3 Results and discussion .............................................................. 112

4.3.5.4 Conclusion ................................................................................. 113

4.4 Humour ............................................................................................... 114

4.4.3.2 Jokes with sexual connotation ................................................... 117

4.4.3.3 Puns and wordplays .................................................................. 124

4.4.3.4 Cultural jokes ............................................................................. 131

4.4.3.5 Discussion ................................................................................. 139

4.4.4 Experiment (III): Friends............................................................... 140

4.4.4.2 Data and participants ................................................................. 141

4.4.4.3 Description of experiment .......................................................... 141

4.4.4.4 Results and discussion .............................................................. 141

4.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 143

5.2.4.2 Audience and data ..................................................................... 156

5.2.4.3 Results and discussion .............................................................. 157

5.2.4.4 Conclusion ................................................................................. 160

5.3 Case study (E): Con Air ...................................................................... 161

5.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 165

LIST OF FILMS AND TV PROGRAMMES ....................................................... 191

LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................... 194

LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................

AVT…………………………………………………………….….Audio Visual Translation

‫ب‬.. ………………………………...….………… b Short Vowels

‫…خ‬..………………………….……...………... kh Long Vowels

‫………………………… ذ‬.………...…………. dh ‫… ﻲ‬..……………...………………….……ī

‫ ر‬..…………………….……………...……….… r ‫…………………………………… ﻭ‬..……ū

candidature for any other degree or diploma.

to my second supervisor Michael Thompson who made good contribution to the

Program, La Trobe University, Australia; Arthur Berger, Broadcast and Electronic

Gustard in MLAC, thank you for your administrative assistance.

ALKADI, T. (September, 2007a) Subtitling Film Dialects into Standard Arabic.

ALKADI, T. (September, 2007b) Teaching Subtitling at Universities in the Arab

1.0 Overview of chapter

1.1 Objectives of the study

1.2 Research questions