N ew T r e n d s in T r a n s l ati on S tud i e s

N ew T rends in T ra ns lat io n S t udies

Vol. 14

This book focuses on a collection of British and French films selected

for the range of approaches that they adopt in portraying linguistic variation. Each chapter explores the challenges posed by the subtitling of such
linguistic difference in the given films and the corresponding solutions
offered by their subtitlers. Drawing on these findings and referring to contemporary thinking in the field of translation studies, this book argues that
with insight and skill, linguistic variation can be preserved in film subtitles.
Claire Ellender is Matre de Confrences in Translation at the Universit
de Lille III in France and is an academic member of the Institute of
Translation and Interpreting (ITI). She is the author of a number of
publications in the field of translation studies, including her recent
monograph, Preserving Polyphonies: Translating the Writings of Claude
Sarraute (Peter Lang, 2013). Alongside her teaching and research, she
also works as a freelance translator.

Ellender Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation

Subtitling films in another language becomes especially complex when the

original language deviates from its standard form. Films that feature nonstandard pronunciation, dialects or other varieties of language, especially
when juxtaposed with more standard uses, are said to display linguistic
variation. As language use is central to characters identities and to a films
plot, it is essential to retain the source language (SL) specificity as fully as
possible in the target language (TL) subtitles so the target audience can
experience the film as authentically as possible. Given its considerable
difficulty, subtitling in this manner is often advised against, avoided or,
when attempted, subjected to considerable criticism.

Dealing with Difference in

Audiovisual Translation
Subtitling Linguistic Variation in Films

Claire Ellender

ISBN 978-3-0343-1816-7

Peter Lang
www.peterlang.com

N ew T r e n d s in T r a n s l ati on S tud i e s

N ew T rends in T ra ns lat io n S t udies

Vol. 14

This book focuses on a collection of British and French films selected

for the range of approaches that they adopt in portraying linguistic variation. Each chapter explores the challenges posed by the subtitling of such
linguistic difference in the given films and the corresponding solutions
offered by their subtitlers. Drawing on these findings and referring to contemporary thinking in the field of translation studies, this book argues that
with insight and skill, linguistic variation can be preserved in film subtitles.
Claire Ellender is Matre de Confrences in Translation at the Universit
de Lille III in France and is an academic member of the Institute of
Translation and Interpreting (ITI). She is the author of a number of
publications in the field of translation studies, including her recent
monograph, Preserving Polyphonies: Translating the Writings of Claude
Sarraute (Peter Lang, 2013). Alongside her teaching and research, she
also works as a freelance translator.

Ellender Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation

Subtitling films in another language becomes especially complex when the

original language deviates from its standard form. Films that feature nonstandard pronunciation, dialects or other varieties of language, especially
when juxtaposed with more standard uses, are said to display linguistic
variation. As language use is central to characters identities and to a films
plot, it is essential to retain the source language (SL) specificity as fully as
possible in the target language (TL) subtitles so the target audience can
experience the film as authentically as possible. Given its considerable
difficulty, subtitling in this manner is often advised against, avoided or,
when attempted, subjected to considerable criticism.

Dealing with Difference in

Audiovisual Translation
Subtitling Linguistic Variation in Films

Claire Ellender

Peter Lang
www.peterlang.com

Dealing with Difference in

Audiovisual Translation

New Trends in Translation Studies

V ol ume 14

Series Editor:
Professor Jorge Daz Cintas

Advis or y Bo ard:
Profes s or S u san B assn et t
Dr Lynne Bowke r
Profes s or Frede r ic C hau me
Profes s or A lin e Re mael

PETER LANG
Oxford Bern Berlin Bruxelles Frankfurt am Main New York Wien

Dealing with Difference in

Audiovisual Translation
Subtitling Linguistic Variation in Films

Claire Ellender

PETER LANG
Oxford Bern Berlin Bruxelles Frankfurt am Main New York Wien

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at
http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ellender, Claire.
Dealing with difference in audiovisual translation : subtitling linguistic variation in
films / Claire Ellender.
pages cm. -- (New trends in translation studies; 14)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-3-03-431816-7 (alk. paper)
1. Sublanguage--Films for foreign speakers. 2. Dialectology--Films for foreign
speakers. 3. Motion pictures--Titling. 4. Dubbing of motion pictures. 5. Mass
media and language. I. Title.
P120.S9E45 2015
418.03791--dc23
2014034999
ISSN 1664-249X
ISBN 978-3-0343-1816-7 (print)
ISBN 978-3-0353-0738-2 (eBook)
Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2015
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
info@peterlang.com, www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,
and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.

Contents

List of Tables

vii

Acknowledgementsix
Introduction1
Chapter 1

Subtitling Scots: Translating Danny Boyles Trainspotting

and Ken Loachs The Angels Share into French

17

Chapter 2

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys:

Conveying British Dialects in the French
Subtitles of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

55

Chapter 3

Transporting the Aquarium: Overcoming the Challenges

of Subtitling Andrea Arnolds Fish Tank into French

83

Chapter 4

Police Patter: Retaining Linguistic Variation in the English

Subtitles of Mawenns Polisse

103

Chapter 5

The Trials of the Foreign: Preserving Linguistic Alterity

when Subtitling The Terminal into French

131

vi
Chapter 6

Dealing with Dialect:

The Subtitling of Bienvenue chez les Chtis into English

149

Conclusion171
Appendix199
Film Corpus

203

Bibliography205
Index213

Tables

Table 1 Accent/ Pronunciation

Table 2 Grammar
Table 3 Vocabulary
Table 4 Juxtaposition of language varieties
(heteroglossic nature of films)

181
184
187
192

Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to the following publishers for their granting me

permission to reproduce some of my previously published work:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing:
Ellender, Claire, 2015, Dealing with Dialect: The Subtitling of Bienvenue
chez les Chtis into English in Jorge Daz-Cintas, ed., 2015, Audiovisual
Translation: Taking Stock (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing).
Norwich Papers:
Ellender, Claire, 2012, Coping with Cockney: Subtitling Lock, Stock and
Two Smoking Barrels for a French-Speaking Audience, in Jean Boase-Beier,
ed., 2012, The Next Big Thing. Norwich Papers: Studies in Translation, 20
(Norwich: University of East Anglia Press), 85105.

Introduction

The particularities of subtitling

The subtitling1 of foreign-language films which consists in providing a
synchronized written translation of the films oral dialogue or narrative
and presenting this at the bottom of the screen is a highly specific and
notoriously difficult task whose multiple challenges have been widely
acknowledged and discussed in recent years. Unique in nature, the subtitling of foreign-language films can be theorized according to each of
Jakobsons three categories of translation (1959/ 2000: 114). It is interlingual (translates text from one national language to another), intralingual
(involves rewording or reducing the source language (SL) before interlingual translation can take place) and intersemiotic (transforms language
which is used orally in the SL into a written form of the target language
(TL)) (Boase-Beier 2012: v).2 Thus, in addition to handling the interlingual
challenges which are posed by translating the source text (ST), subtitlers
must respect rigid spatial and temporal constraints (Luyken et al. 1991:
156) in order to both synchronize their text with the films soundtrack
and image and to account for the reading capabilities of the TL audience

1
2

For comprehensive definitions of subtitling see Delia Chiaro 2009: 148; Jorge DazCintas and Aline Remal 2007: 8; Henrik Gottlieb 2001: 87.
Alexandra Assis-Rosa (2001: 21314) expands upon the concept of subtitling as
intersemiotic translation by discussing a number of changes which take place during
this process. There is a change of medium, as speech and gestures (audible and visual)
are recaptured in writing; a change of form of signal, as phonetic substance becomes
graphic substance; a change of code, as spoken verbal language (and non-verbal language) becomes written verbal language.

2 Introduction

(De Linde and Kay 1999: 47).3 Furthermore, when transforming the
oral SL into a written form of the TL, they must suggest orality in their
writing and ensure, at all times, that the TL corresponds to the images of
the original film. Subtitlers are, as Daz-Cintas points out (2003: 434),
particularly vulnerable as their translations can, potentially, always be
compared to the original (SL) text.

Linguistic variation in films

From an intersemiotic perspective, the transfer from oral SL to written
TL will always pose challenges regarding register. Even spoken language
which may be classified as relatively standard4 is typically more informal
than the written word, and this oral register is reflected in grammatical
and lexical uses. Clearly then, the more a film contains language which
deviates from a standard (oral) TL register, the more challenging the task
of subtitling becomes.5

3
4
5

For additional discussion of the constraints on subtitling, see Daz-Cintas and Remal
2007; Basil Hatim and Ian Mason 1997; Ian Ivarrsson and Mary Carroll 1998.
Arthur Hughes and Peter Trudgill, for instance, term a standard English accent
received pronunciation (RP) (1996: 3), and a standard dialect standard English
(SE) (ibid.: 9).
Marie-Nolle Guillot (2012: 106) rightly stresses that the language contained in films
is a representation of language rather than language itself. She writes: Film dialogues
[] are fabricated discourse and make-believe speech. Their text is projected orally,
but usually from a written script in which structural and narrative considerations,
and considerations of efficiency, loom large and have little place for features integral
to live verbal negotiations and the constraints or co-constraints of discourse. See also
Michal Abecassis (2005) and Christine Heiss (2004). While fully acknowledging
this, the present study will consider the discourse contained in the films which it
examines to be realistic representations of real-life speech.

Introduction

Characters in a TL film may display use of non-standard6 pronunciation (or accent), indeed dialect (accent, grammar and lexis) (Hughes and
Trudgill 1996: 3; Trudgill 2008: 8),7 or yet other varieties of language
including slang, specific jargon or excessive use of vulgarity which indicate
their belonging to a particular group (Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007: 191).
These uses can exist alongside, and be directly juxtaposed with, more standard registers of language. This phenomenon will henceforth be referred
to as linguistic variation.8

The multilingual film: A Bakhtinian perspective

Films containing linguistic variation may also be described as being multilingual in character. In recent years, much literature has been published on
the translation of such films which feature not only one or more national

Throughout the present study, the term non-standard will describe any use of language which is not classified as standard (see FN 4). The term substandard, which
carries negative connotations of linguistic and cultural inferiority, is deliberately
avoided in the present pages.
Peter Trudgill (2008: 8) concisely distinguishes between accent and dialect when he
explains that: The term dialect refers, strictly speaking, to kinds of language which
have differences of vocabulary and grammar as well as pronunciation. The term
accent, on the other hand, refers solely to differences of pronunciation. He also clarifies that: [] the term dialect can be applied to all varieties of language, not just to
non-standard varieties. The combination of RP (Received Pronunciation) a prestige
accent which is essentially that of those educated at public schools (Hughes and
Trudgill 1996: 3) and Standard English the dialect taught to learners of English
which is characterized by standard grammar and lexis (ibid.: 9), can thus also be
referred to as a dialect.
If the sociolinguistic concepts employed in this book were not originally intended to
be applied to the study of language representations, they will be used in the present
work on the basis of the assumption that the discourse in the films under examination are accurate representations of authentic language (see FN 5).

4 Introduction

languages, but also different dialects, sociolects and idiolects (Bartoll 2006;
Bran 2012).9 Whatever the particular manifestation of multilingualism, the
presence of this phenomenon provides significant information about the
social and cultural background of different characters (Federici 2009); it
thereby establishes the characters who belong to particular social or ethnic
groups in relation to each other, assists in constructing the narrative and,
fundamentally, helps the film to make sense.10
When seeking a paradigm which can assist in understanding texts
containing considerable linguistic variation, a prominent point of reference in mid- to late twentieth-century critical theory is the work of the
Russian philosopher, Mikhail Bakhtin, and the Circle of thinkers to which
he belonged.11 The Bakhtin Circles work is unified by the concept of dialogism, which draws on the notions of dialogue, interactivity and interrelatedness (Lodge 1990: 5). This concept first emerges in Voloshinovs 1929
treatment of spoken language in Marxism and the Philosophy of Language.
Beginning with the word, Voloshinov (1929/ 1973: 86) conveys the interactive, responsive character of this unit of language: A word is a bridge
thrown between myself and another []. [It] is a territory shared by both
addresser and addressee, by the speaker and his interlocutor. The Circles
more developed concept of dialogism can, in a number of respects, be

10
11

Sociolect: A variety or lect which is thought of as being related to its speakers social
background rather than geographical background (Trudgill 2003: 122). Idiolect:
The distinctive, and to some extent unique, configuration of language [] peculiar
to each person. It is our personal repertoire a kind of verbal fingerprint with the
difference that our verbal resources not only grow but also change in pattern over
the course of our lives. (Rob Pope 2013: 215).
For a brief discussion of the ways in which speakers of different dialects of British
English are perceived, see Trudgill (2000: 5).
Bakhtin was born in Orel, South of Moscow, in 1895. In 1918 he joined a group
of thinkers who were inspired by the study of German philosophers, and it
was in this group that he met his contemporaries, Pavel Medvedev (18921938) and
Valentin Voloshinov (18951936), who were later to become key figures in a distinct
group: the Bakhtin Circle. See David Lodge (1990: 14); Tzevetan Todorov (1939/
1995: 313).

Introduction

brought to bear on the corpus of films on which Dealing with Difference

in Audiovisual Translation focuses.
First and fundamentally, Bakhtin applies the principle of dialogism in
order to theorize the coexistence of, and interrelationships between, any
one national language and its sub-strata. This phenomenon, termed heteroglossia, is defined concisely as internal differentiation, the stratification
characteristic of any national language (1940/ 1981: 67). These internal
strata may take the form of various registers and codes within one national
language, or any subversive or non-standard use of that language. As such,
they represent social variety, which is certainly a prominent feature of all
multilingual films.
Second, in the opinion of the Bakhtin Circle, all language is ideological; it
reflects the opinions or world views of those who use it. As Bakhtin (19345/
1981: 291) explains: All languages of heteroglossia, whatever the principle
underlying them and making each unique, are specific points of view on the
world, forms for conceptualizing the world in words, specific world views,
each characterized by its own objects, meanings, values. Clearly, the different
linguistic strata which can be witnessed in the speech of a films characters
are always communicative of their particular ideologies and personalities.
Third, if, as the Bakhtin Circle believes, subjects are created through
the act of addressing language to others (In dialogue a person not only
shows himself outwardly, but he becomes for the first time that which
he is Bakhtin 1929/ 1984: 252), and if all language is inherently ideological, subjects who speak a particular variety of language may be considered to belong to a particular group. More contemporary thinking in
Sociolinguistics extends this concept and considers speaking a particular
variety of language as a marker of belonging to a social group. Conversely,
not speaking that variety of language may result in being excluded from
that group (Giles & Giles 2013).12 This phenomenon is a significant feature
of all of the films under examination in the present study.

12

See Giles and Giles 2013 discussion of in-groups and out-groups. An in-group is a
social category or group with which you identify strongly. An out-group, conversely,
is a social category or group with which you do not identify. (ibid.: 142).

6 Introduction

Fourth, when considering exchanges between all individuals, be these

members of the same or different social strata, between one or more
national languages, Voloshinov (1929/ 1973: 85) states that the language
which a speaker uses is always determined by the nature of their relationship with their addressee:
Utterance, as we know, is constructed between two socially organized persons [].
The word is oriented towards an addressee, toward who that addressee might be: a
fellow member or not of the same social group, of higher or lower standing (the
addressees hierarchical status), someone connected to the speaker by close social
ties (father, brother, husband, and so on) or not.

Thus, in all instances of linguistic exchange, individuals are positioned

discursively. Each act of communication is revelatory of the relationship
and power dynamic which exist between interlocutors. This observation,
which is developed by discourse analysts (Fairclough 1995; Hyatt 2006), is
particularly striking in a number of film scenes examined in Dealing with
Difference in Audiovisual Translation.
Finally, on a broader, indeed political, level, Bakhtin evokes the struggle between two tendencies in the languages of European peoples: one
a centralizing, unifying tendency, the other a decentralizing tendency
which stratifies language (19345/ 1981: 364). By identifying heteroglossia and referring to a struggle between centrifugal forces in language, and
by highlighting the existence of pure languages (a phenomenon which
he names polyglossia ibid.: 364), Bakhtin questions the notion that any one
unified, authoritative national language can exist. His thinking thus seems
both to reflect a desire for democracy in society and to work against the
principles of a totalitarian government which are, by contrast, founded
on the concept of absolute monologue. The films under consideration in
Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation all have an indisputably
political role as they popularize and valorize the non-standard language
varieties on which they focus.13 Nowhere is this more apparent than in

13

This stance is in line with that of Lawrence Venuti (1995: 1) who argues that translation
is politically motivated at two levels: first, in relation to the ways in which publishers

Introduction

Dany Boons 2008 Bienvenue chez les Chtis (Chapter 6), which transforms
stereotypical and often negative perceptions of Frances Nord-Pas-de-Calais
region and its language by presenting them with affection and humour.
Essentially then, Bakhtinian thought provides an eminently suitable
point of reference when examining a number of themes which can be
witnessed in one or more of the films under investigation in the present
study, namely: the presence of social variety in films; the communication
of contrasting ideologies through language; in-group/ out-group relationships; the existence of power dynamics between interlocutors; the role of
films in valorizing non-standard varieties of language.

The challenges of subtitling linguistic variation

Given the multiple connotations and functions of the presence of linguistic variation in films, it is clearly essential that such SL variety be retained
as fully as possible in the TL subtitles if the TL audience is to appreciate
as fully as possible the TL film. Nonetheless, given the evident difficulty
of this task, critics (Assis-Rosa 2001: 219; Bartoll 2006: 3; Heiss 2004:
16) observe that such variation is rarely preserved in TL subtitles; nonstandard features of speech are frequently eliminated and translation thus
displays un style zro (Lambert 1990 in Hatim and Mason 1997: 79).14 In
view of the strong social, cultural and indeed geographical connotations
of some (dialectal) varieties of language, other critics (Landers 2001: 117)

14

and editors choose works to be translated, commission translations and suggest the
translation method to be used; second, regarding the translation approach adopted
by translators which makes them more or less visible. This issue will be revisted in
some of Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translations principal chapters.
As Andr Lefevere (1992: 70) writes: flavoured translations that deviate significantly
from the dominant linguistic norms may be dismissed as incorrect. [] Indeed, the
decision to attempt to include oral features in a written TT is not without risk.
(Lefeveres emphases.)

8 Introduction

actively advise against even attempting to translate these. In his discussion of translating dialect contained in literary texts, Landers (ibid.) states
forcefully that: [] dialect is always tied, geographically and culturally,
to a milieu that doesnt exist in the target-language setting. Substitution
with an equivalent dialect is foredoomed to failure. The best advice about
trying to translate dialect: dont.
If the translation of dialect and indeed other non-standard language
varieties proves sufficiently difficult within one linguistic medium, that
is, from one written text to another, this task clearly becomes increasingly
complex in the already challenging context of subtitling (De Linde and Kay
1999: 47; Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007: 1912; Luyken et al. 1991: 156). One
much discussed, and heavily criticized, attempt to subtitle such non-standard
language is Alexander Whitelaw and Stephen OSheas 1996 translation of La
Haine (1995). This film, by French filmmaker and actor, Mathieu Kassowitz,
centres on three young friends from immigrant families who struggle to live
in an economically deprived, multi-ethnic cit (housing estate) in the suburbs
of Paris. La Haine was hugely controversial, both socially and linguistically.
The sensitive issues which it raised including youth culture, poor integration of ethnic minorities and urban violence triggered rioting in the
Parisian suburbs following the films release. It was also widely believed that
the characters misuse of standard French language challenged the French
establishment; this subsequently provoked much debate about language and
the political nature thereof ( Jckel 2001: 225). The language used by this
films protagonists is indeed very specific; a variety of French spoken in the
cits which incorporates verlan,15 non-standard forms, creative neologisms
and a wealth of slang, insults and vulgar uses. It is also heavily influenced by
Anglo-American culture. As Jckel writes (ibid: 224): [La Haines youth
speak a language which] offers an almost perfect example of every possible
deviation from standard French: sloppy language, bad grammar, misuse of

15

Verlan is an argot of the French language. It is formed by inverting the syllables of

words and is common in slang and youth culture. (See Vivienne Mla 1988; PierreAlexis Mvel 2007 & 2012).

Introduction

words, use of local colloquialisms, slang, verlan (back-slang), Americanisms,

Arabic, and all this intermingled with funk rhythm.
What is particularly significant about the language in La Haine is that
characters use it to build their own identity; it serves both to reinforce their
belonging to a group and to exclude others from it (Giles and Giles 2013;
Hamaida 2007; Mvel 2007). Subtitling this film thus poses a whole host of
linguistic and sociocultural issues. If some theorists acknowledge Whitelaw
and OSheas ambitious and consistent attempt to subtitle La Haine into
African-American Vernacular English (Mvel 2007: 6), critics are unanimous regarding the reasons why the American- English subtitles failed and
why the film was consequently not successful in the USA. In short, this
dialect-for-dialect approach resulted in a loss of the SL films characterization (Jckel ibid.: 228), or a relocation of the characters identities (Mvel
ibid.: 54). In other words, as La Haines original (ST) characters are made to
speak a particular variety of the TL, their identity is displaced. Furthermore,
the decision to adopt a domesticating approach (Venuti 1995: 20) and substitute all cultural references in the SL film with TL terms results in []
discrepancies [] between what the viewer reads and the picture he/ she
sees (Mvel ibid.: 55).

Choice of film corpus and objectives of this study

The case of La Haine is concrete evidence that the subtitling of the nonstandard varieties of language which feature in a SL film can pose considerable linguistic and cultural challenges. Against this background, Dealing
with Difference in Audiovisual Translation focuses on a collection of British
and French films which belong to a range of genres but were all released
within a relatively restricted timeframe (19982014).16 The films have
16

It is noteworthy that, in the collection of films on which Dealing with Difference in

Audiovisual Translation focuses, there are more English-language films subtitled into

10 Introduction

all been selected for their unique approach to portraying otherness, or

difference, through some characters specific, and on other occasions, idiosyncratic, use of language. If use of language contributes significantly to
characterization, and therefore narrative, in all of the SL films considered,
each film nevertheless considers linguistic variation from a slightly different angle. By adopting a specific focus,17 each of this books six chapters
intends to provide an indication of the different ways in which the presence of different linguistic varieties can be handled in film subtitles, and
what there is to learn from this.
Establishing how linguistic variation is important within the context
of the given film(s), each of this books chapters provides micro-level analyses of scenes in order to explore the range of translation challenges posed
by the subtitling of linguistic variation and the corresponding solutions
offered by the subtitlers. It subsequently seeks to determine the extent to
which such variation is retained for the TL audience. Ultimately, where
appropriate, it provides text-level suggestions of how this may be achieved
more fully. Essentially then, each chapter asks four key questions: i) How
is linguistic variation significant in the context of the given film(s)? ii)
How does this variation manifest itself in the film(s)? iii) What translation challenges does such language pose, and what solutions are offered to
these? iv) Could the linguistic variation, which is such a significant part
of the SL film(s), be retained more fully in the TL subtitles for the target
audience? Finally, the essentially linguistic approach adopted in each chapter will be complemented by a brief consideration of audience reception.
Drawing on a range of viewers reviews in order to gauge how the films

17

French than French-language films subtitled into English. This reflects the international film situation at large, in which more English-language films are translated
for export than vice-verse. Where the SL films are French, these are subtitled into
American English. Again, this is reflective of international practice; this latter strategy ensures that a single set of subtitles can be used for the entire English-speaking
world.
Given that all of the films examined are inherently heteroglossic (Bakhtin 1940/ 1981:
67) and that a number of them display diatopic variation (Flydal 1951), there are
clearly some areas of overlap between the chapters.

Introduction

11

have actually been received by TL audiences, each chapter will suggest if

and how the linguistic variation, and related connotations, of the SL have
been appreciated by TL viewers.18

Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation:

Outline of chapters
The films under consideration in Chapters 1 and 2 are all dominated
by a regional accent and/ or dialect which is/ are, in turn, juxtaposed
with other national, or non-national, dialects. Chapter 1, Subtitling
Scots, focuses on two films, Danny Boyles Trainspotting (1996) and
Ken Loachs The Angels Share (2012) which are similar in terms of their
setting and content. Each of these films is based in Scotland and has
four main characters who belong to a particular social group and whose
use of language is both non-standard and distinctive, that is, an urban,
slang and vulgar variety of Scottish English, or Scots. This language is
18

Some scholars (Staiger 2005) have carried out detailed research into the ways in
which films are received by their intended audience. Others (Hall 1973: 12930)
have established the audiences active role in establishing a films meaning. While
the present study is fundamentally driven by examination of language rather than
reception, some consideration of the latter is helpful when seeking to establish if
pragmatic equivalence (Koller 1979: 1869) has been achieved in a films subtitles.
Importantly, if Eugne Nidas (1964) dynamic equivalence is often cited in discussions of how equivalent effect can be created for readers of a TT, Nida will not
be used as a point of reference in the present study. Not only does his work not
explicitly deal with films, but some serious criticisms of his equivalence theories
have also been formulated. His opponents suggest, notably, that dynamic equivalence cannot be based on the responses of any original readers since that data is not
available and that Nida operates in too binary a way, that is, his distinction between
formal equivalence (equivalence of message) and dynamic equivalence (equivalence
of effect) reduces the complexity of texts. For more detailed discussions of these
issues, see Pym (2008).

12 Introduction

central to the protagonists characterization and to their respective films

narratives; it is therefore desirable to preserve the essence of this, as far
as possible, when subtitling it into another language if the TL audience
is to have some appreciation of the linguistic and cultural specificity of
the films. Considering each of the two films in turn and focusing on
diatopic variation (linguistic variation according to place) (Flydal 1951),
this chapter details the nature of the language spoken by the films protagonists and the translation challenges to which this gives rise. It then
examines a scene dominated by accent, a further scene which features
use of dialect, and the presence of culture-bound vocabulary in the SL.
In its treatment of the latter, it applies Pedersens 2005 framework for
the analysis of ECRs (extralinguistic culture-bound references). The
chapter then proceeds to examine how the protagonists use of language
is contrasted with other national, or non-national, varieties. Drawing
on the information gathered from the two films, Chapter 1 seeks, in
its conclusion, to compare the approaches of the two films subtitlers,
to establish the extent to whichthe Scots language and other dialects
present in theSL films are retained in their subtitles, and ultimately to
suggest how the linguistic v ariation present in the ST may be preserved
more fully forthe TL audience.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) is a British crime film set
in the East End of London. This black comedy features many colourful
characters who speak the local Cockney dialect, and a number of nonindigenous individuals whose speech is characterized by other regional dialects. The use of these distinct language varieties contributes significantly to
the portrayal of the films various characters and its setting. Concentrating
on four key scenes from Lock, Stock which involve linguistic stereotyping,
Chapter 2, Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys, sets out to explore
how both Cockney and other dialects of British English are handled in the
films French subtitled version, Arnaques, Crimes et Botanique, produced
by the European Captioning Institute. It then suggests how these dialects
could be conveyed more powerfully in translation.
The films examined in Chapters 3 and 4 are both set in underprivileged urban contexts. Accordingly the characters, who belong to various

Introduction

13

social groups, speak a range of non-standard language varieties. Chapter3,

Transporting the Aquarium, centres on the challenges posed by subtitling
into French the diastratic variation (linguistic variation according to social
groups) (Flydal 1951) contained in Andrea Arnolds 2009 film, Fish Tank.
It concentrates on key scenes and songs from the film, considers the particular difficulties presented by the subtitling of these into French, and
examines the strategies employed in order to deal with these difficulties.
By adopting this approach, Chapter 3 intends to determine the extent to
which the linguistic and cultural specificity of this British film, which is
set in a socially deprived housing estate in Essex and contains much youth
slang, is preserved in its French-language subtitles.
The French film, Polisse (2011), focuses on the work of Paris Brigade
de Protection des Mineurs (BPM) [Child Protection Unit], and is based
on a range of harrowing, real-life cases handled by the team. Chapter 4,
Police Patter, defines the challenges which arise when subtitling Polisse
into English. It analyses three scenes in which members of the BPM interact with one another, and subsequently three scenes in which the officers
communicate with some very different subjects, from young children,
through Arab youths to homeless Black Africans. Concentrating on the
linguistic variation and code-switching (Blum and Gumperz 1972; Goffman
1981; Nilep 2006) present in the SL film, Chapter 4 examines the translation strategies employed, and the extent to which this linguistic variation
is therefore preserved and pragmatic equivalence (Koller 1979) achieved,
in Polisses English-language subtitles.
In Polisse, the characters whose use of French poses the greatest translation challenges are arguably non-native speakers. The issue of subtitling
the speech of a non-native SL speaker forms the focus of Chapter 5, The
Trials of the Foreign. Inspired by Antoine Bermans 1985 paper, Translation
and the Trials of the Foreign, which deals with the challenges of translating linguistic variation in literature, this chapter centres on the 2004 film,
The Terminal, and on its Eastern-European protagonist, Viktor Navorski,
who is played by Tom Hanks. Focusing on the communication problems
which arise through the use of broken language, the chapter identifies the
ways in which Navorskis linguistic otherness is communicated in the SL

14 Introduction

film, the corresponding challenges which arise when subtitling the film
into French, and the strategies implemented in order to overcome these
challenges. Its objectives are thus to establish the extent to which this characters linguistic alterity is preserved in the films French subtitled version,
Le Terminal, and in doing so, to situate itself in relation to the key tenets
of Bermans 1985 paper.
When characters in a film speak a particularly broad dialect of the SL
which is incomprehensible to most native speakers of the SL, they too may
be viewed as foreigners and their speech can pose considerable translation
challenges. Such is the case of the film examined in Chapter 6, Dealing
with Dialect. This chapter focuses on the French film, Bienvenue chez
les Chtis (2008), which is set in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France
and provides a humorous portrayal of the cultural peculiarities and dialect
of this regions people, les Chtis. Following its brief presentation of the
chti dialect, this chapter concentrates on scenes from the film in which
pronunciation, vocabulary, expressions and grammar result in confusion
and amusement in the original French version. Examining how this language has been rendered in English by subtitler Michael Katims, Chapter
6 explores the extent to which the translation of this film preserves the
linguistic specificity and the humour of the French ST in its corresponding English subtitles.
In its Conclusion, Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation
recalls its approach and objectives before summarizing its salient, text-based,
empirical findings, made in Chapters 1 to 6, in a series of tables which it
explains and expands upon. Drawing on these findings, it provides answers
to the key questions which it asked in its Introduction, namely: i) Why is
linguistic variation significant within the context of the given films? ii)How
does linguistic variation manifest itself in the films? iii)What translation
challenges does such language pose, and what solutions are offered to these?
iv) Could the linguistic variation which is such a significant part of the SL
films be retained more fully in the TL subtitles for the target audiences?
Ultimately, by exploring the range of practical approaches to the subtitling
of non-standard language which exist, this book challenges the commonly
held view that such language and linguistic varieties cannot be recaptured
effectively in TL subtitles.

Introduction

15

Throughout Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation, all

translations into French are back-translated into English. These translations are the present authors own.
In all chapters, phonetic transcriptions of non-standard sounds are
intentionally simplified so as to avoid becoming conversation analysis/
discourse analysis transcripts; they are thus intended to be immediately
accessible to those who are interested in AVT, but who do not have specialized knowledge of linguistics/ pragmatics.

Chapter 1

Subtitling Scots: Translating Danny Boyles

Trainspotting and Ken Loachs The Angels Share
into French

Introduction
This chapter centres on two films, Danny Boyles Trainspotting (1996) and
Ken Loachs The Angels Share (2012), and examines how each of these has
been subtitled into French. The two films were selected for their similar
settings and content. Each is based in Scotland and has four main protagonists who belong to an underprivileged milieu, are in trouble with the law,
yet aspire to build better lives for themselves. The speech of the principal
characters of each film also features much use of non-standard language:
urban, slang and vulgar varieties of Scottish English, or Scots (Bryson
2009: 104; Hughes and Trudgill 1996: 11617). In both Trainspotting and
The Angels Share, scenes are largely dominated by a Scottish accent, but
at times contain clear instances of dialect and, in connection with this,
numerous culture-bound lexical items.1 Also noteworthy are the ways in
which the language of both films protagonists is juxtaposed with that
of other speakers of Scots and English. Language variation within these
three films is thus inherently diatopic (Flydal 1951). As it will be witnessed
throughout this chapter, given that the language used by these individuals
is central to their characterization and to their respective films narratives,
it is clearly important to attempt to preserve some of the films linguistic
particularities when subtitling them into another language; this will enable
1

See Trudgills (2000: 8) definitions of accent and dialect (cf. Introduction).

18

Chapter 1

the TL audiences to appreciate both the linguistic and cultural specificity

of the films as fully as possible.
In view of the above, the present chapter sets out to explore the translation challenges posed by Trainspotting and The Angels Share, and the
solutions offered by each of these films subtitlers. In order to establish
how the approaches of the subtitlers compare, and the extent to which
significant linguistic features of the STs are preserved, the chapter will
examine each film in turn, adopting the following approach. After providing a brief summary of the plot, it will outline the nature of the language
spoken by the films protagonists, the significance of linguistic variation
in the film and the translation challenges to which this gives rise. It will
then focus on a scene which is dominated by accent and another which
displays use of dialect. Subsequently, it will consider how culture-bound
vocabulary is treated, before examining how the protagonists particular
use of language is juxtaposed with other national, or non-national, varieties. In its conclusion, the chapter will seek to respond to the three key
questions which it asks, that is: i) How do the approaches of the two films
subtitlers compare? ii) To what extent are Scots language and the other
dialects present in the films preserved in the subtitles? iii) Can recommendations be made to preserve the Scots accent/ dialect, and indeed
other accents and dialects present in these two films, more fully for the
TL audience?

Trainspotting
The film
Danny Boyles 1996 Trainspotting is a black comedy-drama based on Irvine
Welshs novel of the same name. Set in an economically depressed area
of Edinburgh in the late 1980s, the film focuses on the citys drugs scene
and alternative youth culture of the time. Trainspotting follows the lives
of four friends Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie the first three of

Subtitling Scots

19

whom are heroin addicts. The protagonists spend their time drinking,
thieving, buying drugs and taking them. Some of these characters are
sexually promiscuous, others are aggressive and violent. When Renton
narrowly escapes a prison sentence, he is placed on a drug intervention
programme and given methadone. After suffering from severe withdrawal
symptoms, he resolves to begin a new life and moves to London where
he is employed as a property letting agent. Shortly after, he is joined by
Begbie, who is on the run after being involved in an armed robbery, and
Sick Boy, who requires help with a drug deal. After agreeing to assist with
this heroin transaction, Renton again decides to make a fresh start. While
the others are asleep on his floor the following morning, Renton takes the
money and flees, leaving only some of the proceeds for Spud, who he feels
is deserving of a share. At all times, Trainspottings setting plays a major
role in conveying the deprived sector of inner-city Edinburgh which it
seeks to represent. Seedy bars and nightclub scenes are alternated with
the squalid bedsits of drug dealers.
Language in the film: Significance of linguistic variation/
Subtitling challenges
If many of its scenes are actually shot in Glasgow, for the purpose of
its narrative Trainspotting is intended to be set in Edinburgh and the
speech of its main characters belongs to the South-East central Scots
dialect grouping typically spoken by natives of Edinburgh. 2 In the majority of the films scenes, speech is marked by an unmistakable, yet mild,
Scottish accent and is relatively clear.3 This said, in certain scenes speech
2
3

For an in-depth explanation of this and other variants of Scots, see Adam Aitkens
Scottish accents and dialects (1984: 94114). See also <http://www.scots-online.
org/grammar/edinburgh.htm>.
Indeed, members of Edinburghs working class would undoubtedly speak with a
stronger accent. It is likely that the characters accent has been deliberately softened in order to make it comprehensible to English and US audiences. (Personal
communication: Catriona Parkin, former colleague and native of Edinburgh,

20

Chapter 1

is dialectal displaying marked accent, grammatical uses and lexis

and occurs at a rapid pace. On such occasions, it is therefore not easily
comprehensible to English speakers who are non-natives of Scotland. As
one critic commented amusingly ( Jahiel 1996: 1), French speakers may
have a better understanding of certain scenes than do English speakers
thanks to the French-language subtitles. As regards the films lexis, the
protagonists use of drug-related, culture-bound and vulgar vocabulary
assists in binding these characters to each other, as a tight-knit community within the citys drugs scene, and in setting them apart from other
characters who belong to other strata of both Scottish and English society.
In the SL soundtrack, the characters Scottish accent is significant as it
immediately enables them to be placed geographically and culturally.
Their use of non-standard features of language and of drugs-related
vocabulary makes it known that they belong to a particular, alternative
social group. Given the connotations which different accents and dialects
have, filmmakers can indeed use language deliberately to present prepackaged characters.4 By extension, the linguistic variation apparent in
Trainspotting is equally significant as it clearly flags up social and cultural
differences between characters. As will be witnessed in the following
pages, the use of language in Trainspotting lends itself to a number of
Bakhtinian analyses.
Given that the language used by the characters in Trainspotting plays
a crucial role in their characterization, in the depiction of their cultural
belonging and in the construction of the films narrative, it is important
that the Scottish essence of, and the linguistic variation present in, the
original soundtrack be preserved as far as possible in the TL if the TL

December 2013). This suggestion is fully in line with the work of Marie-Nolle
Guillot (2012: 106). Guillot stresses that the language contained in films is a representation of language rather than language itself.
Of the way in which the Scottish accent is commonly perceived, Pitts (2013: 1) writes:
Perhaps because of its association with the rough and tough North compared to
the metropolitan South, it has a no-nonsense, purposeful feel. The North-South
divide which is reflected in British accents and dialects will be revisited in detail in
Chapter 2.

Subtitling Scots

21

audience is to experience the film as fully as possible. In this connection,

Daz-Cintas and Remal (2007: 191) rightly comment that: In some scenes
[of Trainspotting] the language used by the protagonist friends is pitted
against the very proper standard English of straight others. From this
perspective, it is important that the contrast is conveyed.5
The challenges confronted, and solutions offered, by the subtitlers
in relation to accent, dialect, drug-related and culture-bound vocabulary
(guided by reference to Pedersen 2005) and juxtaposition of language varieties will now be examined. At no point in Trainspottings French-language
version is acknowledgement given to the person/ people or company
responsible for its subtitling. Therefore, for the purpose of the present
chapter, these individuals will henceforth be referred to as the subtitlers.
Scene One
In this scene, Sick Boy explains to Renton how he has obtained a large
amount of heroin from a contact in Scotland. Sick Boy would like his
three friends Renton, Begbie and Spud to help him sell the drugs in
London. In turn, he offers to share the ample profits with them. Initially,
this idea is met with reluctance by Renton.

Trainspotting the film is based on Irvine Welshs 1993 novel of the same name which
has been translated into both French and many other languages. The text of the
book is substantially longer than that of the film and the Edinburgh dialect and
drug-related jargon which are heavily present in the book are explained in a bespoke
glossary. Critics believe that, globally, translations of the novelistic text show no signs
of the dialect variation/ regional specificity apparent in the SL (Katherine Ashley
2010: 124). The text of the SL film is simplified in terms of its length, content, dialect
and jargon. This film thus poses proportionately fewer challenges for the subtitler
than does the novel for the literary translator, and clearly challenges which are of a
different nature (De Linde and Kay 1999; Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007; Hatim
and Mason 1997; Ivarrsson and Caroll 1998; Luyken et al. 1991).

22

Chapter 1

B = Begbie; R = Renton; SB = Sick Boy

Speaker

ST

TT

1) SB

Did you tell him, yeah?

Tu lui as dit?
[You told him?]

2) B

Why dont you go?

What?

3) SB

Theres this mate of Swanney.

You know the guy, Mikey
Forrester.

Le pote de Swanney,
tu le connais, Forrester
[Swanneys mate,
you know him, Forrester ]

4) SB

Well, hes come into some gear.

Il a rcupr de la came.
[Hes picked up some gear.]

5) SB

A lot of gear.

How much gear?

6) SB

About two kilos.

7) SB

So he tells me.

8) SB

He got drunk in a pub down at

the docks last week

Il sest torch dans

un pub
la semaine dernire
[He got bladdered
in a pub
last week]

9) SB

where hemet two Russian sailors.

et il a rencontr
deux marins russes.
[and he met
two Russian sailors.]

10) SB

Theyre fucking carrying the stuff

for sale then and there.

Ils la trimballaient
pour vendre sur-le-champ.
[They were lugging it round
to sell on the spot.]

Vas-y, toi.
[Go on, you.]
Quoi?
[What?]

Beaucoup de came.
[Lots of gear.]
Combien?
[How much?]
A peu prs deux kilos.
[About two kilos.]
Cest ce quil ma dit.
[Thats what he told me.]

23

Subtitling Scots
11) SB

So, he wakes up next morning,

realizes what hes done,

Le lendemain il se rveille,
ralise ce quil a fait
[The following day he wakes up,
realizes what hes done]

12) SB

gets very fucking nervous.

et flippe mort.
[and freaks out.]

13) SB

He wants rid of this, right.

Il veut sen dbarrasser.

[He wants to get rid of it.]

14) R

So?

15) SB

So, he met me.

Alors, il ma rencontr.
[So, he met me.]

16) SB

And I offered to take it off his

hands at a very reasonable price

Et je lui en ai propos
un prix raisonnable,
[and I offered him
a reasonable price for it]

17) SB

with the intention of passing it on

myself to a guy

18) SB

I know in London.

19) R

Whoah! Weve just come back

from Tommys funeral and youre
talking about a scag deal?

20) B

Aye!

Et alors?
[So what?]

pour ensuite
la refourguer un mec
[To then
shove it on to a bloke]
que je connais Londres.
[who I know in London.]
On revient de lenterrement et
tu nous parles dun plan dope?
[Were just back from the burial and
youre talking to us about a drug
deal?]
NO SUBTITLE

The principal feature of the language contained in this scene which marks
it as being Scottish is the characters accent; here, pronunciation is relatively
mild ye instead of you (lines 1 and 2), trilled r (very, line 12), clipped
endings fuckin (12) and is therefore easy for non-Scottish anglophone
viewers to understand. In the corresponding subtitles, no attempt is made
to recapture non-standard SL pronunciation in the TL. Similarly, as Sick
Boys use of grammar only features slight deviations from standard English

24

Chapter 1

structures (Theres this mate of Swanneys, 3), it does not require any
bespoke translation solutions.
As regards the vocabulary which the characters use, if this belongs
to a very informal register, it is not specifically Scottish.6 Frequently, this
is rendered with very close TL equivalents, be they more general words
mate [pote] (3), punt on [refourguer] (17) or drug-related terms
gear [came] (4/ 5), scag deal [plan dope] (19).7 At times, however,
instances of under-translation occur the term fucking is never preserved (10 and 11) and on yet other occasions the subtitlers clearly overtranslate SL words, employing terms which are much more colloquial
in the TL: drunk becomes torch (8); carry is translated as trimballer
(10) and got very fuckin nervous as flippe mort (12). This technique
may be interpreted as the subtitlers attempt to compensate for the lack
of Scottish accent and more general swearwords in their rendering of
the present scene.
Of additional interest in this scene is the intonation of the two main
interlocutors, which evidently remains present in the SL soundtrack against
which the subtitles are set. Sick Boy is hesitant as he explains the scenario
and attempts to persuade Renton to come on board. Renton is much more
authoritative and this is reflected in his abrupt comments and responses
(lines 5, 14, 19). He is obviously a more senior member of the gang and this
is very much apparent in the tone which he adopts. As Voloshinov (1929/
1973: 86) and subsequent Critical Discourse analysts posit (Fairclough 1995;
Hyatt 2006), language is highly revelatory of the power dynamic which
exists between interlocutors.

6
7

In practice, the language which the characters use is a mixture of English, Scots and
slang (Catriona Parkin, December 2013).
The drug-related subject-matter of this entire scene, which indeed dominates the
whole film, is particularly significant. As Bakhtin (19345/ 1981: 291) acknowledges,
all language is ideological and communicates specific world views. As these characters express their shared ideologies through their use of language, this binds them
together as a distinct social group and is indicative of their belonging to an in-group
(Giles and Giles 2013: 142).

25

Subtitling Scots

Scene Two
This scene takes the form of a monologue by Begbie, who is known for
his aggressive, violent nature and for his tendency to start fights. Here, he
is sitting in a nightclub, drinking beer, and is surrounded by a number of
friends. Enjoying being the centre of attention, he recounts his version of
a recent episode in a local pool club, The Volley. According to Begbie,
when he was about to win a game of pool, another man was intending to
begin a fight with him but, when he saw Begbies reaction, changed his
mind and fled. Begbie subsequently won the game of pool. In the scene
which follows the present one, his friend Tommy provides another version
of the story which is supposedly more truthful and accurate.
B = Begbie
Speaker

ST

TT

1) B

Picture the scene.

Imaginez la scne.
[Imagine the scene.]

2) B

The other fuckin week there,

down the fuckin Volley wi
Tommy playing pool.

3) B

Im playing like Paul fuckin

Newman, by the way,

4) B

giving the boy a tannin alright,

too.

Je donne une racle ce garon.

[Im giving this boy a thrashing.]

5) B

It comes to the last shot, the

deciding ball of the whole
tournament.

Cest la dernire bille,

celle qui dcidera du vainqueur.
[Its the last ball,
the one which will decide on the
winner.]

6) B

Im on the black. Hes sat in the

corner lookin all biscuit-arsed.

En train de jouer au billard

avec Tommy.
[Playing pool
with Tommy.]
Dailleurs, je joue
comme Paul Newman.
[Besides, Im playing
like Paul Newman.]

Il me reste la noire.
Il est effondr.
[The black one is left for me.
Hes in bits.]

26
Speaker

Chapter 1
ST

TT

7) B

When this hard c**t comes in.

Puis entre un gros dur.

[Then a big hard-case comes in.]

8) B

Obviously fuckin fancied himself,

like.

Du genre mas-tu-vu.
[A look-at-me sort.]

9) B

Starts starin at me. Lookin right

fuckin at me, as if to say:

Il se met me mater,
dans les yeux, comme
pour dire:
[He starts looking at me,
in the eyes, as if to say:]

10) B

Come ahead, square go.

11) B

You ken me. Im not the type of

c**t that goes lookin for

Vous me connaissez.
Je suis pas du genre chercher
[You know me.
Im not the sort to
look for]

12) B

fuckin bother, like, but er, at the

end of the day

des ennuis, mais

[trouble, but ]

13) B

Im er, Im the c**t with the pool

queue

Cest moi qui tenais

la queue
[Its me who was holding
the queue]

14) B

and he could have the fat end

in his puss any time he fuckin
wanted, like.

15) B

So I squares up, casual, like.

Je prpare mon coup.

[I prepare my shot.]

16) B

What does the hard c**t do?

Que fait le gros dur?

[What does the hard-case do?]

17) B

Or the so-called hard c**t?

Le soi-disant gros dur.

[The so-called hard-case.]

18) B

Shites it!
Puts down his drink, turns

Chie dans son froc.

Il pose son verre.
[Shits his pants.
He puts down his glass]

Allons-y.
[Lets go for it.]

et se la prenait dans
la chatte quand il voulait.
[and he took it in
his pussy when he wanted it.]

27

Subtitling Scots
19) B

and gets the fuck out of there.

et il fout le camp.
[and he fucks off.]

20) B

And after that

Aprs a
[After that ]

21) B

well, the game was mine.

ctait gagn.
[it was a given.]

In this scene, Begbies use of the Scots dialect and the speed at which he tells
his tale sometimes make his speech difficult for a non-native of Scotland
to understand. When viewing the films DVD version, this difficulty can
be overcome by opting for English (intralingual) subtitles for the Deaf and
Hard-of-hearing (SDH). As regards interlingual subtitling into French,
this scene clearly poses a greater range of translation challenges than did
the last scene examined.
Begbies accent is very pronounced. He omits the final sound from
words (th and g) wi, tannin, lookin, fuckin and lengthens vowels
last shot (5), staring at me (9) (Hughes and Trudgill 1996: 97). However,
no attempt is made to recapture, or even hint at, this in the French subtitles. For the most part, Begbies use of grammar is relatively standard and
therefore not problematic to translate. When he informally adds the letter
s to the first person singular verb-form I squares up (15), this is recaptured
with a TL expression of a similar register, Je prpare mon coup, which is
nevertheless grammatically accurate. This approach is clearly deliberate
on the part of the subtitlers; when working within the constraints of subtitling, use of ungrammatical turns of phrase may affect readability (De
Linde and Kay 1999).
The principal challenges to which subtitling this scene gives rise occur
at a lexical level. Begbie uses some informal, slang, vocabulary and expressions which are not specifically Scottish. Sometimes these are omitted in
the TL, as in [] down the Volley [] playing pool (2): En train de jouer
au billard, and the meaningless SL tag like (8, 12, 14, 15). Occasionally
they are rendered with TL equivalents: [] giving the boy a tanning (4):
Je donne une racle ce garon. When Begbies expressions are specifically
Scottish, the semantic content of these is fully maintained and they are
translated with idiomatic TL equivalents:

28

Chapter 1
[] looking all biscuit-arsed (6)8

Il est effondr
[Hes in bits]

[] come ahead, square go (10)9

Allons-y
[Lets go for it]

You ken me [] (11)10

Vous me connaissez
[You know me]

8910

Begbies use of vulgar, although not specifically Scottish, slang is also a

prominent feature of this scene. He uses the highly offensive SL term c**t
five times, but this is not once rendered in the TL subtitles. Furthermore,
he uses the slightly less offensive fuck six times and, on all but one of these
occasions, the term is also left untranslated. This said, when Begbie employs
more extended vulgar expressions, these are translated closely into French
and the nature of his original utterances is fully preserved:
He could have the fat end in his puss [] (14)

Il se la prenait dans la chatte []

[He took it in his pussy]

Shites it! (18)

Chie dans son froc []

[Shits his pants]

[] and gets the fuck out of there (19)

[] et il fout le camp
[[] and he fucks off ]

In sum, Begbies monologue is characterized by a strong Scottish accent,

an occasional use of non-standard grammar, English slang phrases, Scots
expressions and plentiful use of vulgar slang. While some of these particularities are not translated and the Scottish essence of this characters speech
is therefore undoubtedly lost in the TL, the films subtitlers fully preserve
its semantic content and a large proportion of its vulgarity.

8
9
10

To be biscuit-arsed: To be in a state of confusion (SW Scotland).<http://www.

urbandictionary.com> (accessed 05.12.13).
A square go: A fight/ fair fight. <http://www.urbandictionary.com> (accessed
05.12.13).
You ken: You know. <http://www.urbandictionary.com> (accessed 05.11.13).

29

Subtitling Scots

Culture-bound vocabulary
At various stages, Trainspotting is peppered with references to the British
social system, society and certain cultural items. The following discussion
of how these have been rendered in the TL subtitles will be guided by Jan
Pedersens 2005 framework for analysing ECRs (Extralinguistic Cultural
References).11 When rendering each of these, the subtitlers adopt an overwhelmingly TL-oriented translation approach. In Pedersens terms, they
substitute the SL references (or ECRs) with TL ECRs.
1213

[] theyll be onto the DSS

[] ils appellent lANPE12 tout de suite

[[] they call the ANPE straightaway]

[] your Giros fucking finished

[] et plus dAssedic13
[[] and no more Assedic]

Swanney taught us to adore and respect

the NHS

Swanney nous a appris vnrer la

scurit sociale
[Swanney taught us to venerate the
Social Security]

11

12
13

Pedersens 2005 How is Culture Rendered in Subtitles? sets out seven strategies
for rendering ECRs in TL subtitles and seven parameters which influence the decision-making of subtitlers. For a concise summary of the contents of this paper, see
Appendix.
ANPE: Agence Nationale Pour lEmploi. National employment agency (19672008).
A French government agency which provided counselling and aid to those in search
of work and housing. See also FN 13.
ASSESIC: Association pour lEmploi dans lIndustrie et le Commerce. Association for
Employment in Industry and Trade (19582008). A French agency which collected
and paid unemployment insurance contributions. In 2008 the ANPE and ASSEDIC
merged to form a comprehensive employment agency, the Ple dEmploi (<http://
www.pole-emploi.fr>).

30

Chapter 1

Go down the bookies [] for us

Va au PMU14 pour moi

[Go to the PMU for me]

Can I have one of those Pot Noodles []? Tas un Bolino15 pour moi?
[Have you got a Bolino for me?]

1415

The decision to adopt this approach and thereby domesticate these SL cultural references in the TL is arguably questionable. If use of TL ECRs facilitates the TL audiences immediate understanding of the film, it undeniably
results in a loss of source-culture information, a certain cultural displacement,
or credibility gap (Pedersen ibid.) and, perhaps more importantly here since
the issue is one of reception, an interruption of the suspension of disbelief.
One would not, for instance, go to a PMU or eat a Bolino in Edinburgh.
The most striking example of a TL-oriented approach to handling SL
culture-bound vocabulary can be witnessed in the subtitles of the following extract. Here, Renton explains how his friend, drug dealer Swanney,
has taught both Renton and the films other protagonists to be grateful to
the National Health Service; it is from the NHS that they have obtained,
illegally, much of their supply of drugs:
We took Morphine, Diamorphine,

On prenait du Skenan,
du Moscontin,
[We took ]

Cyclozine, Codeine, Temazepam,

du Nornison, du Nogaolon,

Nitrazepam,

du Gardenal,

Phenobarbitone, Sodium amytal,

Dextropropoxyphene,

de lAntaluic, du Nalbuphine,

Nalbuphine, Pethidine, Pentazocine,

du Fontal, du Dolosal,

Buprenorphine, Dextromoramide, Chlormethiazole.

du Tem, du Palfium.

14
15

PMU: Paris Mutuel Urbain. French state-controlled betting system which has
branches throughout the country (<http://www.pmu.fr>).
Bolino: A brand of instant savoury snack-food available in France which is prepared
by adding hot water.

31

Subtitling Scots

In this extract, the medicines listed in the original scene are principally British
brand-named drugs used to treat heroin withdrawal, analgesics and barbiturates/ sedatives. It is reasonable to assume that, even though some members
of the ST audience would not necessarily know this, they would be able to
infer it from the context. These medicines are rendered in the TL with the
names of currently-used French brands of similar drugs and all names are
italicized in the TL. As the TT list is abbreviated, the drugs listed in the
subtitles do not always correspond exactly to the SL brands referred to in
the original scene; this is of no great consequence as the essence of the SL is
preserved in the TL subtitles. Indeed, in this instance, the subtitlers decision
to domesticate the SL references is entirely judicious; it may enable the meaning of the lines to be more immediately comprehensible to the TL audience
and does not involve any significant loss of important cultural connotation.
Juxtaposition of dialects: Scottish vs others
The role which the Scottish accent and dialect play in the characterization
of Trainspottings protagonists is all the more apparent when these characters come into contact with speakers of other dialects of the English language. As different strata of society exist alongside, and in relation to, one
another, such scenes are inherently heteroglossic (Bakhtin 1940/ 1981: 67).
i) When Renton is in court on charges of shoplifting, the English judge
summarizes his case, demonstrating perfectly both Received Pronunciation
(RP) (Hughes and Trudgill 1996: 3) and Standard English (SE) (ibid.: 9)
(cf. Introduction). The latter is recaptured very accurately through use of
correct TL grammar and vocabulary of an appropriate, equivalent register:
J = Judge
Speaker
1) J

ST

TT

You know that shoplifting is theft

which is a crime, and despite what you
may believe,

Le vol ltalage est un dlit,

et quoi que vous pensiez
[Shoplifting is a crime,
and whatever you think]

32
Speaker

Chapter 1
ST

TT

2) J

there is no such entity as victimless

crime.

un dlit sans victime

nexiste pas
[a victimless crime
does not exist ]

3) J

Heroin addiction may explain your

actions but it does not excuse them.

Lhroine peut expliquer

vos actes mais non les excuser.
[Heroin may explain
your actions but does not
excuse them.]

ii) Conversely, the vulgar vernacular of Trainspottings protagonists sometimes

influences the language of characters in the film who speak other dialects.
In the following extract, a well-spoken London-based drug dealer negotiates
his purchase of the heroin previously obtained by Sick Boy (see Scene One).
The dealers grammar is very correct (under-translated in lines 2 and 4) and
his choice of vocabulary is correct and polite (translated closely 1, 9, 10, 11).
This contrasts starkly with Begbies usual vulgarity (again translated closely,
7). Amusingly, the dealer imitates this in the following line (8); his own language is affected, albeit intentionally, by the markedly different speech of his
interlocutor. Again, despite the fact that no distinction between SL accents is
recaptured, this contrast of SL registers is largely preserved accurately in the
TL subtitles. There is one occasion on which the SL register becomes slightly
more correct in the TL; haggle is translated as ngocier in the final line:
B = Begbie; DD = drug dealer
Speaker

ST

1) DD

Excuse me, gentlemen.

2) DD

So, how much would you like for

this?

3) B

Twenty thousand.

4) DD

Well, I dont think its worth much

more than fifteen.

TT
Permettez.
[Excuse me.]
Combien vous en voulez?
[How much do you want for it?]
20 000
[20,000]
a vaut pas plus de 15 000
[Its not worth more than 15,000]

33

Subtitling Scots
5) B

Nineteen.

19000
[19,000]

6) DD

Im terribly sorry, I cant go to

nineteen.

7) B

Well fucking sixteen then.

8) DD

Ok, well fucking sixteen it is, then.

9) DD

These, gentlemen, are twothousand-pound bundles.

Messieurs,
ce sont des liasses de 2 000 .
[Gentlemen,
these are bundles of 2,000.]

10) DD

Thank you very much, gentlemen.

Merci beaucoup, Messieurs.

[Thank you very much,
gentlemen.]

11) DD

Right, gentlemen, Id just like to

say its been a real pleasure haggling
with you.

a a t un plaisir de ngocier
avec vous.
[It has been a pleasure to negotiate
with you.]

Dsol, je ne peux pas.

[Sorry, I cant.]
Putain, 16 000 alors.
[Fuck, 16,000 then.]
Putain, 16 000,
a me va.
[Fuck, 16,000
suits me.]

Last, it is interesting to note that, in contrast to the previously discussed

TL-oriented strategy adopted in order to render most SL ECRs (British
social system, society and cultural items), the subtitles of the present scene
directly transpose the SL currency to the TL subtitles. This instance of
retention (Pedersen 2005: 4) is evidence of a much more SL-oriented
translation strategy. The reasoning behind this approach will be discussed
in this chapters conclusion.
Subtitling Trainspotting: Summary of findings
The first section of this chapter has considered the challenges posed by, and
solutions proposed to, the subtitling of Danny Boyles Trainspotting into
French. Based in Edinburgh, the majority of the films characters speak with
a local accent and, at times, their speech also displays dialectal features. If

34

Chapter 1

this language is often softened and its pace is reduced in order to make it
comprehensible to a non-Scottish, anglophone audience, it nevertheless
still raises a number of issues for the subtitler; indeed, translation challenges
vary significantly between scenes.
Certain scenes are dominated by a local accent; no attempt to recapture
this is made by creating non-standard pronunciation in the TL subtitles.
Such scenes often contain informal, drugs-related, but not specifically
Scottish vocabulary; this is therefore rendered closely with appropriate TL
equivalents. These scenes are also marked by excessive use of vulgar language
which is frequently under-translated, or indeed omitted, in French. Both
in these scenes and in other parts of Trainspotting, the subtitlers sometimes
employ the contrasting technique of over-translating the SL, using terms
which are much more colloquial in the TL. This may be considered as an
attempt to compensate for the lack of accent and expletives which they
preserve in their translation.
Scenes which display features of the Edinburgh dialect clearly present greater translation challenges. If the Scottish accent is slightly more
pronounced in these instances, the subtitlers still avoid attempting to
recapture this in the TL. Although the grammar used in these scenes is
relatively standard, greater translation challenges arise at a lexical level.
Informal, non-Scottish vocabulary and expressions are translated with
TL equivalents; specifically Scottish ones have their semantic content
preserved and are again translated into relatively informal French. As
regards vulgar expressions, these are under-translated or omitted in the
TL. This is often the case in subtitles and can be explained by a number
of factors, including the move from spoken to written language (Greenall
2011: 56), viewers sense of appropriateness and distributers regulations
(Zawanda 2011; see also Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007). If the Scottish
essence of these scenes is invariably lost in the subtitles, the latters semantic content and offensive nature is largely preserved (Landers 2001: 151).16
16

Some translators feel strongly about the importance of retaining such SL vulgarity
in the TL. As Landers (2001: 151) writes: What you cannot do is apply your own
standards of decency and morality, or those of any hypothetical audience to the task
[]. A prissy or sanctimonious translator, or an unscrupulous one, can totally scew
the TL readers perception []; as translators we do not have that right.

Subtitling Scots

35

The subtitlers face further lexical challenges due to the amount of

culture-bound vocabulary which is peppered throughout Trainspotting.
In most instances, they adopt a TL-oriented strategy, replacing original
references be these to social institutions, food or drugs with TL ECRs
(Pedersen 2005). At times, this approach is questionable, as it results in
some cultural displacement. At other times, however, it is judicious, as it
facilitates understanding in the TL and entails no significant cultural loss.
By contrast, it has been witnessed that occasional SL ECRs (currency) are
transposed directly into the TL, a strategy which is much more SL-oriented.
As Pedersen acknowledges, in practice subtitlers use a combination of
strategies (2005: 9), reflecting the parameters which have influenced their
decision-making processes. In the case of Trainspotting, the subtitlers global
translation strategy has certainly been guided by their assumptions regarding the amount of specialist/ cultural knowledge which the TT audience
posseses (ibid.: 15).
Last, when the Edinburgh Scots protagonists come into contact with
characters who speak other dialects of English (Trudgill 2000: 8) and scenes
are therefore heteroglossic (Bakhtin 1940/ 1981: 67), other issues arise. On
occasions, the Standard English (Hughes and Trudgill 1996: 9) of others
results in the protagonists speaking a more standard dialect,17 with clearer
pronunciation, more accurate grammar and vocabulary which belongs to a
more elevated register. Elsewhere, the non-standard, vulgar language of the
protagonists is imitated amusingly by speakers of RP (ibid.: 3)/ Standard
English (ibid.: 9). Although a distinction between different SL accents is
indeed absent in the subtitles, much of this linguistic variation is preserved
closely by Trainspottings subtitlers who employ many equivalent TL uses.

17

As was discussed in the Introduction to Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual

Translation, if such sociolinguistic concepts were not initially intended to be applied
to the representations of language contained in films, they are used in the present
study on the basis of the assumption that the discourse in the films under examination are accurate representations of authentic language.

36

Chapter 1

The Angels Share

The film
English film and television director, Ken Loach, who is famed for the social
realism of his work and his socialist attitudes (Seino 2010: 22),18 bases his
comedy-drama, The Angels Share (2012), in inner-city Glasgow. In this
film, a number of local young offenders are sentenced to community payback for a range of crimes. This work in the community, coordinated by
Mancunian Harry, brings together the films four protagonists Robbie,
Albert, Mo and Rhino. Harry soon befriends Robbie who has a history of
violent crime and who has just become a father for the first time. By way
of celebrating the birth, Harry introduces Robbie to whisky; he later takes
the community payback group to visit a distillery as a reward for their good
behaviour. It is here that Robbie learns about the angels share, that is, the
quantity of alcohol which evaporates from casks during fermentation.
When the group later attends a whisky-tasting session near Edinburgh and
learns about the priceless Malt Mill, Robbie is inspired. He hatches a plan
to siphon off some of the Malt with the help of his friends and to sell it
to a professional buyer, Thaddeus. Fully clad in traditional Scottish dress,
the four friends head to the Balblair distillery in the Scottish Highlands
where they successfully carry out the crime and take away their siphoned
Malt Mill in three IRN BRU bottles. After one bottle is smashed, Robbie
sells one bottle to dealer Thaddeus, sharing the proceeds with his three
friends, and gives the remaining bottle to Harry, to thank him for having
given him a chance in life. As the film ends, Robbie, his girlfriend Leonie
and their baby son leave to start a new life in Stirling, where Robbie will
also begin a new job with Thaddeus.

18

As Seino (2010: 22) writes: At the core of all of [Loachs] films are political statements
about people marginalized economically or politically within British society [].
His main concern is that the social system designed to help people in a predicament
nevertheless works in the opposite manner to oppress the people and create misery.

Subtitling Scots

37

This films visuals contribute significantly to setting the scene; deprived,

inner-city housing estates in Glasgow are contrasted with the stunning
Highland countryside and the wealthy world of successful whisky traders.
As producer Rebecca OBrien captures in the Extras of the films DVD
version: Its a film about all thats great in Scotland and all thats crap in
Scotland. Its all muddled together.
Language in the film: Significance of linguistic variation/
Subtitling challenges
The speech of the films four main protagonists and that of a number of
its other characters belongs to the West central Scots dialect grouping
typically spoken by natives of Glasgow (Aitkens 1984). This Glaswegian
Scots is entirely genuine; in line with his social-realist approach (Seino
2010), director Loach casts both actors and non-actors that is, real
people to play his characters. Glaswegian-born Paul Brannigan (Robbie),
whose real-life background has included fighting and spells in prison, is
a case in point.19
In The Angels Share, most scenes are marked by a pronounced
Glaswegian accent which is not always easily understandable to non-natives
of Glasgow. In other scenes, this difficulty is reinforced by the presence
of full dialect (pronunciation, grammar and lexis) and a rapid pace of
speech. The film also contains a wealth of culture-bound vocabulary and
the Glaswegian-Scots protagonists are positioned not only in relation to
each other, as friends who are bound by their geographical and cultural
origins as well as their criminal pasts, but also in relation to individuals
belonging to other strata of society, both Scottish and English, who speak
very different dialects of English. Certain scenes of the film consequently
lend themselves to Bakhtinian analyses.
As was the case in Trainspotting, in the SL soundtrack to The Angels
Share, the characters Scottish accent is significant as it immediately enables
19

See Extras section of the films DVD version.

38

Chapter 1

them to be placed geographically and culturally (Pitts 2013: 1). Their uses of
non-standard language and particularly vulgar language indicate that they
belong to a certain social group; in brief, language provides the audience with
pre-packaged characters. The diatopic (Flydal 1951) nature of the language
which features in The Angels Share is equally significant as it communicates
the characters belonging to geographical and cultural backgrounds.
If the TL audience is to experience the film as fully as possible, it is
thus clearly important to preserve the Scottish essence of the soundtrack,
and the linguistic variation which is present in the SL film, as far as possible in the subtitles. Bearing this in mind, the challenges confronted, and
solutions offered, by the films French-language subtitlers in relation to
accent, dialect, culture-bound vocabulary (Pedersen 2005) and contrasting dialects, will now be examined. The French-language subtitles to The
Angels Share, translated as La Part des Anges, were provided by the subtitling company, C.M.C. Their work is clearly acknowledged at the end of
the main films credits and at the beginning of the Extras section in the
films DVD version.
Scene One
The present scene is the opening one to The Angels Share. It serves as a
play-back of the crime for which Albert is subsequently trialled in court in
the following scene. Albert, who is clearly under the influence of alcohol
and is drinking from a bottle, is hanging around a small, empty railway station, walking along the platform edge and trying to maintain his balance.
When a railway employee who is manning the security cameras spots him,
he talks to him over the loud-speaker and warns him to stand back as a
train is approaching. Not understanding where the voice is coming from,
Albert takes a while to obey the instructions, but eventually steps back
onto the track. Panic-stricken, the employee begins to shout and swear at
Albert who has lost his glasses in the fall. The tone of the scene becomes
increasingly amusing as the two men rapidly become more annoyed with
one another. The scene ends as Albert manages to clamber back onto the
platform, seconds before the train passes through the station.

39

Subtitling Scots

A = Albert; RE = Railway employee

Speaker

ST

TT

1) A

Thats lovely.

Elle dchire, cette gnle.

[Its great, this booze.]

2) RE

Would all passengers stand back

from the edge of the platform.

3) RE

You with the trainers on. You with

the blue tracksuit.

4) RE

Get back. Theres a train coming

through here any minute.

5) RE

Stand back.

6) A

Is somebody taking the piss here?

Quelquun se fout de ma gueule?

[Is somebody taking the piss out
of me?]

7) RE

Would you do what youre told and

stand back!

Obissez! Reculez!
[Do as youre told! Move back!]

8) A

Stand back?

9) RE

Thats right, you heard me. Stand

back.

10) A

If you say so, pal.

11) A

Oh shit!

12) RE

Jesus! Look what youve done now

you fucking imbecile!

Les passagers doivent sloigner

de la bordure du quai.
[Passengers must move away
from the edge of the platform.]
Vous avec les baskets
et le survtement bleu.
[You with the trainers
and the blue tracksuit.]
Reculez. Un train arrive
dune minute lautre.
[Move back. A train is coming
any minute.]
Reculez-vous.
[Move back.]

Faut que je recule?

[Ive got to move back?]
Oui. Vous mavez entendu.
[Yes. You heard me.]
Si tu le dis, mec!
[If you say so, mate.]
Merde!
[Shit!]
Cest malin, espce de dbile!
[Thats clever, you dullard!]

40

Chapter 1

Speaker

ST

TT

13) RE

Get off that track, theres a train

coming through here any second.

Ne reste pas sur

les rails.
Un train arrive.
[Dont stay on the track.
A train is coming.]

14) A

What the fuck was that, you

arsehole?
I fucking nearly broke my bottle.

Mais putain, trouduc!

Jai failli casser ma
bouteille.
[Well fuck, arsehole!
I nearly broke my bottle!]

15) RE

Fuck the bottle! Get off the track.

Hurry up! Get a fucking move on!

16) A

I cannae find my glasses.

17) RE

This is God calling!

Cest Dieu qui te parle!

[This is God speaking to you!]

18) RE

Get off the fucking track, will you!

Remonte sur le quai!

[Get back up on the platform!]

19) RE

Get a fucking move on or youre

gonnae die!

20) A

Fuck me!

21) RE

Move it, you fucking aresehole!

22) A

Thank fuck. Holy shit!

On sen fout!
Remonte sur le quai!
Dpche-toi!
[We dont give a shit!
Get back up on the platform!
Hurry up!]
Je trouve plus mes lunettes.
[I cant find my glasses.]

Tu veux finir cras, abruti?

[Do you want to end up crushed,
moron?]
Putain!
[Fuck!]
Bouge-toi le cul!
[Move your arse!]
Super.
[Great.]

In this scene, the main linguistic feature which distinguishes these characters as being Scottish is their accent. This is easily identifiable, but entirely
comprehensible, for non-Scottish English speakers. No attempts are made
to recapture non-standard SL pronunciation in the TL subtitles.

Subtitling Scots

41

In line 16, Albert makes one specifically Scottish use of grammar I

cannae (I cannot),20 which is rendered with the informal je trouve plus
instead of je ne trouve plus (omission of negative ne). When the railway
employee uses the same construction youre gonnae die (line 19), this is
again translated with the oral question-form Tu veux ?, rather than the
more standard Est-ce que tu veux ?
Vocabulary is at no point specifically Scottish, but is dominated by
slang and vulgar terms which are a feature of all dialects of English. The
overwhelming use of fuck and its derivatives is sometimes translated
very closely (lines 6, 14, 15, 20, 21). At other times, it is not recaptured,
but the urgent tone of the original utterance is preserved very accurately
in the TL through use of abrupt interjections and exclamation marks
(12, 18, 19).
The most striking and amusing linguistic feature of this scene is the
railway employees switch of register; again, this is in no way related to
his Scottish accent or dialect. In line 2 he speaks as a professional, in a
relatively elevated register, even if the speed of his speech accelerates and
his tone therefore becomes increasingly agitated. However, after Albert
addresses him as pal (10, translated closely as mec) this changes. C.M.Cs
translation is particularly effective as it switches from the French formal
pronoun vous (19) to the informal, less respectful tu (13 onwards). Indeed,
throughout the scene, as the railway employee becomes more authoritative, less patient and less respectful, register is preserved very accurately
through use of equivalent lexical items (lines 12, 13, 15, 17).21 In only one
instance is there a discrepancy between ST and TT. In line 1, Alberts very
standard language is greatly over-translated into a much more colloquial,
20 In most Scottih dialects, negation is not formed with not but with no or with its
more typically Scottish form nae: I cannae go (Hughes and Trudgill 1996: 31).
21 Hyatts 2006 framework for providing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is based
on a set of criteria which allow a text to be analysed on a micro (lexico-grammatical)
level and a macro (semantic) level. Application of Hyatt to the present scene confirms that the pronouns, nouns, adjectives and verbal phrases used in this exchange
are highly indicative of the nature of the relationship between the two interlocutors.
See also Voloshinov (1929/ 1973: 86).

42

Chapter 1

indeed slang, register (Thats lovely: Elle dchire, cette gnle). This strategy
may serve to compensate for the absence of other non-standard (Scottish)
linguistic features in the TL.
Scene Two
The present scene is set in the flat of one of the protagonists. Having just
explained to his friends the value of Malt Mill three bottles could be
worth a million pounds Robbie gathers them around to explain how they
could siphon off some of the whisky from a cask at the Dornoch Firth distillery in the North of Scotland. If Robbie is full of enthusiasm, his friends
are initially sceptical and believe that the plan will be difficult to execute.
A = Albert; M = Mo; O = Other; R = Robbie
Speaker

ST

TT

1) M

What?

Quoi?
[What?]

2) A

No way!

3) A

A million smacker-roonies!

Un million de balles!
[A million quid!]

4) M

Ma body is pulsatin, honestl.

a me met en transe.
[Im tripping.]

5) A

If you were a man, youd have a

hard-on.

Si ttais un mec, tu banderais.

[If you were a bloke, you would have a
hard-on.]

6) R

Have a wee seat will you guys,

eh? Please.

Asseyez-vous.
[Sit down.]

7) R

Just till we have a serious think

about this.

On va rflchir srieusement.
[Were going to think seriously.]

8) A

I mean, what is that like, eh?

Quarter of a million each or
somethin?

Cest une blague.

[Its a joke.]

a fait quoi?
Un quart de million chacun?
[Whats that?
A quarter of a million each?]

43

Subtitling Scots
9) R

Like this is whats happenin.

Voli comment a va se passer.

[Heres whats going to happen.]

10) R

Theyre gonnae have the auction

where the cask is, away up
North in Dornoch Firth.

11) R

Then what theyll do is theyll

invite the richest collectors,
dealers

12) R

to come for a tasting session

with the grand master.

une sance de dgustation

avec le grand matre.
[to a tasting session
with the grand master.]

13) R

Thats followed by a selik in a

local hotel.

Cette sance sera suivie

dun stelid
[This session will be followed
by a stelid ]

14) M

A celidh, you mean?

Well a celidh, smart-arse.

15) R

In a local hotel. And thats 16th

June.

16) A

What the fuck is a Firth?

Dornoch Firth

17) A

Well probably need huskies or

even a boat, depending where
it is.

Il nous faudra des chiens

de traneau ou un bteau.
[Well need huskies
or a boat.]

18) O

Cos even if we did find this

place, how we gonnae get away
wi it?

Mme si on trouve le bled,

comment on fera pour entrer?
[Even if we find the Godforsaken place,
how will we get in?]

La vente aura lieu l o

est le ft,
Dornoch Firth, dans le nord.
[The auction will take place where the
cask is,
in Dornoch Firth, in the North.]
Ils vont inviter
les collectionneurs les plus riches
[Theyre going to invite
the richest collectors]

Un celidh, tu veux dire?

[A celidh, you mean?]
Un bal cossais, quoi!
[Well, a Scottish dance!]
Dans un htel. Le 16 juin.
[In a hotel. On 16th June.]
Firth, cest comme un lac, non?
[A Firth is like a lake, isnt it?
Dornoch Firth ]

44

Chapter 1

Speaker

ST

TT

19) M

Itll be like fuckin Alcatraz, or

somethin.

a doit tre Alcatraz.

[It must be Alcatraz.]

20) O

Aye, and then when we get it,

whos gonnae take it off scum
like us?

Mme si on vole le truc,

qui lachtera des nazes comme nous?
[Even if we steal the stuff,
wholl buy it from pratts like us?]

21) M

Speak for yourself.

22) O

Itd be like the equivalent of

having Mona Lisa in your
bedroom.

23) A

Mona who?

Parle pour toi.

[Speak for yourself.]
a serait comme avoir Mona Lisa
dans sa chambre.
[It would be like having Mona Lisa
in your bedroom.]
Mona qui?
[Mona who?]

This exchange between the four characters is marked by use of relatively

broad Glaswegian Scots. The combination of strong pronunciation, certain
grammatical and lexical uses and the speed at which speech occurs, results in
its sometimes being quite difficult for non-Scots to understand. This degree
of linguistic specificity is clearly difficult to preserve in the TL subtitles.
A strong accent is exemplified in lines 4 (Ma body is pulsatin, recaptured with the contemporary TL expression a me met en transe), 8 and 9
(somethin) and 18 ([] get away wi it) which are replaced with informal TL uses. There are also multiple heavily trilled rs (serious, 7; grand
master, 12) which, again, are not recaptured in the subtitles.
As regards specifically Scottish grammatical uses, gonnae (as opposed
to the standard going to) appears three times (lines 10, 18, 20). As it would
evidently be impossible to recapture such uses exactly, they are instead
rendered in a comparable TL register and with informal grammatical uses.
Use of vocabulary in the TL raises a range of interesting issues. When
it is familiar but not Scottish, it is translated into an equivalent TL register:
smacker-roonies (3)

balles
[quid]

scum like us (20)

des nazes comme nous

[pratts like us]

Subtitling Scots

45

Specifically Scottish words and expressions a wee seat (6), away up

North (10), aye (20) are not translated at all, but their meaning is
implied in the context in which they are used. As for vulgar language, the
term fucking (19, 19) is also under-translated, but Alberts sexual slang (5)
is recaptured very closely in the TL.
Last, the ways in which two highly culture-bound words in this scene
are translated are particularly noteworthy. In line 14, Robbie mispronounces
the Scottish dance celidh (pronounced kayley) as selik (13). This mispronunciation is retained (Pedersen 2005: 4), and misspelled as stelid,
in the TL. In the following line (14), Mo corrects Robbies misuse orally;
the corresponding subtitle contains accurate spelling of the Scottish word.
Rather than repeat this, as Robbie does in the SL, the TL then reads: un bal
cossais, quoi! [Well, a Scottish dance!]. This oblique translation strategy
(Pedersens addition, ibid.: 5) is a neat and effective way of explaining the
term to the subtitled films French audience. Similarly, in line 16, Albert
asks What the fuck is a Firth?. The answer to his question would be
obvious to British viewers of the SL film, but again, the subtitlers make
the wise decision to include an oblique explanation of the term for their
French-speaking audience: Firth, cest comme un lac, non? [A Firth is like
a lake, isnt it?].22
Culture-bound vocabulary
In addition to the cultural terms witnessed in Scene Two, the presence
of numerous other Scottish cultural objects in the films images and
soundtrack contributes significantly to creating the quintessentially
Scottish setting. On a visual level, bottles of IRN BRU, the Scottish carbonated soft drink, litter the protagonists flats where they gather, and
it is these bottles which the friends use to transport their siphoned Malt

22

As was the case in certain scenes of Trainspotting, the subject-matter which the protagonists discuss here illustrates their shared ideologies and binds them together as
a tight-knit social group (Bakhtin 1929/ 1984: 252). The four characters evidently
all belong to the same in-group (Giles and Giles 2013: 142).

46

Chapter 1

Mill. Clearly, these remain present in the films subtitled version and do
not pose any linguistic/ translation challenges. Multiple references to the
names of Scottish whiskies are also left untouched in the TL, maintaining
the local colour of the ST.
When the Glaswegians arrive in Edinburgh, intellectually challenged
Albert does not recognize the castle. In order to explain its significance,
Harry refers to the castle which features on the tins of shortbreads, the
Scottish speciality biscuits. Here, the term shortbread is transposed
directly onto the subtitle, which again reinforces the films Scottish
context:
Is there no shortbread in your house?

Tas jamais mang de shortbreads?

[Have you never eaten shortbreads?]

Next time you go home, check all the tins.

Y a le chteau sur chaque paquet!

[Theres the castle on each packet!]

As it is likely that the TL audience would recognize at least some of the

names of whiskies as well as the references to Edinburgh Castle and shortbreads (which are widely available in French supermarkets), it would seem
that that this SL-oriented approach is again influenced by the amount
of cultural knowledge which the subtitlers assume on the part of the TL
audience (Pedersen 2005: 15).
Juxtaposition of dialects: Scottish vs others
As was the case in Trainspotting, the Scottish protagonists in The Angels
Share not only exist alongside one another, but also in relation to characters
who speak with different Scottish accents and indeed in dialects of various
regions of England; some of the scenes are, then, inherently heteroglossic
(Bakhtin 1940/ 1981: 67).
i) When Albert is sentenced for the drunken behaviour which was
witnessed in Scene One, a judge who speaks very correct Scottish English
with only a very mild accent indeed, a barely audible lilt sentences him
to one hundred and eighty hours of community payback.

47

Subtitling Scots

A = Albert; J = Judge
Speaker

ST

TT

1) J

It seems to me, young man

Il me semblerait, jeune homme

[It would seem to me, young man]

2) J

that your profound stupidity is

matched only by your fortune.

3) J

I sentence you to one hundred and

eighty hours of community payback.

Je vous condamne 180 heures

de travaux dintrt gnral.
[I sentence you to 180 hours
of community payback.]

4) J

If you dont carry out the required

work, you will come back here before
me and receive a custodial sentence.

Si vous ne les effectuez pas,

vous serez incarcr.
[If you do not carry them out,
you will be imprisoned.]

5) J

Is that clear?

6) A

Nah, not really.

que vous soyez aussi stupide

que chanceux.
[that you are as stupid
as you are lucky.]

Cest clair?
[Is that clear?]
Pas trop.
[Not really.]

Although no hint of this accent or of Alberts much stronger Glaswegian

pronunciation is preserved, the difference between the judges very correct
register and Alberts informal and bewildered response, are closely recaptured in the TL. As is the case in the SL, the judges TL sentences include
standard vocabulary and grammar, are well constructed and semantically
very clear. By contrast, in the SL Albert uses a very brief, informal expression to communicate his lack of understanding. This is fully preserved in
the TL and reinforced, visually, by his perplexed expression (Tveit 2009:
87). Indeed, as the film is a polysemiotic text, one communication channel
supports and enhances others (Pedersen 2005: 13).
ii) Harry, who is responsible for supervising the community payback
work, greets the young workers at the mini-bus before driving them to
the community centre which they are to paint. In the following extract,
Albert arrives late:

48

Chapter 1

A = Albert; H = Harry
Speaker

ST

TT

1) H

Good morning, Sir.

2) A

Aye, Im here to report in for

community payback.

3) H

And your name is?

4) A

Albert Ridley.

5) H

Youre not on ere, son.

6) A

Are you sure? I should definitely be

on the list.

7) H

Are you sure its today?

Aujourdhui?
[Today?]

8) A

Aye. Wednesday.

Mercredi.
[Wednesday.]

9) H

Youre two days out, son.

10) A

What?

11) H

Youre two days out.

Two days out?

12) A

It must be I should definitely be

on it.

13) H

I tell you what, if you can tell me

what year it is, Ill let you come
with us.

Bonjour.
[Hello.]
Je viens
pour le travail dintrt gnral.
[Ive come
for community payback.]
Ton nom?
[Your name?]
Albert Ridley.
[Albert Ridley.]
Tes pas sur la liste.
[Youre not on the list.]
Ah bon? Pourtant, jy suis.
[Really? However, I am on it.]

Tas 2 jours de retard.

[Youre two days late.]
Quoi?
[What?]
Tas 2 jours de retard.
[Youre 2 days late.]
2 jours?
[2 days?]
Il doit y avoir
je dois tre dessus.
[There must be
I must be on it.]
Si tu sais en quelle anne on est,
tes accept.
[If you know which year it is,
youre accepted.]

49

Subtitling Scots
14) A

What year it is?

15) H

Yeah.

16) A

I feel as if Im on fuckin Who

wants to be a millionaire.

17) A

Can I phone a friend?

Quelle anne?
[Which year?]
NO SUBTITLE
On joue Qui veut gagner des
millions?
[Are we playing Who wants to be a
millionnaire?]
Je peux appeler un ami?
[Can I call a friend?]

Harry speaks with a strong Mancunian accent (Hughes and Trudgill 1996:
132); for instance, youre not on ere (line 5). He also uses certain expressions which are commonly used in the North of England (son 5, 9); informal English (yeah 15); and jokingly addresses Albert as Sir (1). This speech
contrasts starkly with Alberts strong Glaswegian accent and occasional use
of aye (2, 8). In the TL, no distinction whatsoever is made between different dialects. This said, with the exception of aye and yeah which they do
not translate, the subtitlers succeed very well at recapturing the informality of this dialogue in the TL. They elide TL vowels Tas (Tu as) (9); Tes
(Tu es) (13), use the French informal second person pronoun tu rather than
the formal vous in order to translate the ways in which Harry addresses
Albert and ensure that Harrys addresses are always relatively abrupt. At
times, this is more so in the TL than in the SL (lines 3 and 7). The authoritative and abrupt tone with which the judge (Scene One) and Harry both
speak to Albert is once again highly communicative of the power dynamics (Fairclough 1995) which exist between the characters. Their speech is
instrumental in positioning them in relation to one another.
Subtitling The Angels Share: Summary of findings
Mirroring the approach which it adopted to its examination of Trainspotting,
the second half of this chapter proceeded to consider the challenges posed
by, and solutions proposed to, subtitling Ken Loachs The Angels Share
into French.

50

Chapter 1

Many of this Glasgow-based films characters speak with a local

accent, and indeed dialect; as was the case of Trainspotting, scenes in
The Angels Share are of different degrees of comprehensibility to a nonnative audience, depending on the breadth of accent and/ or dialect,
and the speed at which the characters speak. When subtitling scenes
dominated by a Glaswegian accent, C.M.C. makes no attempt to recapture this in the TL. Occasional Scots uses of grammar are translated
with informal French uses. Vocabulary which is slang and vulgar, but
not specifically Scottish, is frequently recaptured with equivalent TL
lexical items. Switches in register, which are again unrelated to the Scots
dialect, are always preserved very accurately in French. Scenes which
feature Glaswegian dialect contain a greater concentration of linguistic
issues, and therefore of corresponding translation challenges. In brief, the
characters pronounced accent is never recaptured in the TL. Relatively
rare uses of grammar which are specifically Scottish are translated with
informal, but non-regionally specific, TL uses. A number of lexical issues
arise. When the SL contains general, informal vocabulary, this is recaptured with general, informal TL uses. Some specific Scottish uses are
entirely omitted in the French subtitles and vulgar language is rendered
selectively. Highly culture-bound SL vocabulary is frequently preserved
in the TL which serves to maintain a certain local colour in the TT, and
oblique explanations of the terms are provided in the given subtitles.
This is an extremely effective and reader-friendly means of ensuring
that the TL audience appreciates the cultural context and essence of
the original film. These conclusions are in line with the vast majority of
case studies which deal with linguistic variation in AVT (Daz-Cintas
and Anderman, eds, 2009).
Last, when the speech of the Glaswegian protagonists is juxtaposed
with other dialects and scenes can therefore be qualified as heteroglossic
(Bakhtin 1940/ 1981: 67), these alternative uses are often context-bound
and the contrasting registers of these other speakers is always preserved in
translation. However, at no point are any regional linguistic differences
conveyed in the TL; in the dialogue which took place in Scene Two, the
speech of both Mancunian Harry and Glaswegian Albert was, it was witnessed, all translated into the same standard, informal register of the TL.

Subtitling Scots

51

Conclusions and suggestions

This chapter has focused on the French subtitling of two British films,
Danny Boyles Trainspotting and Ken Loachs The Angels Share, which
share many similarities in terms of their setting and content. Both films
are based in one of Scotlands major cities and have four protagonists who
belong to an underprivileged social group and speak a non-standard variety
of language. These varieties of urban Scots are infiltrated with slang and
vulgar language and are juxtaposed with other national and non-national
dialects of English. Given the importance of language in contributing to
the protagonists characterization and the films narratives, it is clearly
important to attempt to preserve, as far as possible, the essence of this
language in the TL subtitles.
Against this background, the present chapter set out to examine the
translation challenges posed by the presence of accent and dialect in the two
films, and the solutions adopted by their respective subtitlers. At the outset,
it thus asked three principal questions. Drawing on the findings presented
throughout this chapter enables responses to these questions to be provided.
i) The approaches of the two films subtitlers have a number of points in
common. Neither attempts to recapture any non-standard accent in the TL
and both translate specifically Scottish grammatical uses with non-standard,
but non-regional, TL uses. At a lexical level, both employ TL equivalents to
translate slang and vulgar language and the informal, colloquial register is
thus preserved; indeed, in practice, the vocabulary which features in both
films is not purely Scots, but a combination of English, Scots and slang.
This said, the subtitlers differ, to some extent, in their treatment of
culture-bound terms. Drawing on Pedersen (2005), it was witnessed that, in
the French-language translation of Trainspotting, many SL ECRs are substituted with TL ECRs. If this strategy facilitates the TL audiences immediate
understanding of the film, it sometimes results in a loss of source culture
information and a certain credibility gap. This may have been avoided by
adopting more retention and paraphrasing techniques. However, other
cultural references, such as the names of drugs and currency are directly
transposed, or retained when the subtitlers consider that the meaning

52

Chapter 1

of the words are either immediately comprehensible to, or can be easily

inferred by, the TL audience. In the French subtitles of The Angels Share,
the subtitlers display more of a tendency to transpose culture-bound SL references onto their TT. At times, they provide concise, oblique explanations
of these terms which is an effective way of ensuring that the TL audience
fully appreciates the original films cultural connotations. Furthermore, in
the films Extras section, additional cultural information is provided and is
accessible to interested SL and TL viewers. One point which the subtitlers
of both films do have in common is their failure to make any distinction
between different SL accents and/ or dialects when these are juxtaposed in
the original film. Despite some differences in strategy, it nevertheless seems
that the approaches of both subtitlers are broadly influenced by the same
paradigm (Pedersen 2005), that is, their assumptions regarding the amount of
cultural knowledge which can be assumed on the part of their TL audience.
ii) There are many similarities between the approaches of both subtitlers and both succeed, to some extent, at preserving in the TL the essence
of the Scots language present in the respective films. However, neither of the
subtitlers succeeds in maintaining any juxtaposition between SL accents or
dialects, or even hints at these differences, in their TL. Given their approach to
rendering culture-bound terms, the subtitlers of The Angels Share are slightly
more successful at preserving the essence of Scottish culture in their TL.
iii) In order to preserve the Scots accent and other accents and dialects present in the two films, thereby ensuring that the TL audience has
a fuller appreciation of the linguistic particularities and Scottish essence
which are central to characterization and narrative, a number of recommendations can be made. In Trainspotting, it may be helpful to transpose
SL references (Pedersens retention technique), and to add linguistic and
cultural explanations, which are currently non-existent, to the DVD versions Extras, possibly in a particular section entitled Introduction. This
could constitute a particular (audiovisual) use of what, in Grard Genettes
terms (1987/ 1991: 2612), may be called a paratext.23 In the subtitled

23

In their treatment of literature, Grard Genette and Marie Maclean (1987/ 1991:
2612) define paratext as those things in a published work which accompany the

Subtitling Scots

53

versions of both films, it would be judicious to provide brief indications of

pronounced accents the first time each of the main characters appears accent
dEdimbourg [Edinburgh accent]; accent de Glasgow [Glasgow accent]; accent
de Manchester, nord-ouest Angleterre [Manchester accent, NW England]
providing that the characters first intervention does not exceed one or
two lines. It would additionally be helpful to include some more relevant
information regarding the social connotations of these in the Extras sections
(again, the Introduction), for interested viewers (Genette and Maclean
1987/ 1991). This would be instructive not only in scenes dominated by
the native Scots accent/ dialect but also in those which involve juxtaposition of language varieties, as it would clarify in the TL versions of the films
the significant role of the SL in pitting different characters in relation to
one other (Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007: 191). These recommendations
are further discussed in connection with a number of the films examined
in the subsequent chapters of this book.
Given that this chapter emphasizes the importance of preserving linguistic variation in the French-language subtitles of Trainspotting and The
Angels Share, it is interesting to consider how actual francophone viewers have received the French- subtitled versions of the English-language
films and the extent to which they have appreciated the particular nature
of the language used in the SL films. A large number of reviewers comments on the French- subtitled versions of both Trainspotting and The
Angels Share are available on <http://www.amazon.fr> and these are
overwhelmingly positive. Significantly, a number of viewers of both films
stress the importance of watching the films in English with French subtitles rather than the French dubbed versions, because of the importance of
the SL soundtracks, especially in their contribution to characterization.

text. These include the authors name, the title, preface, introduction and illustrations. Describing the unique nature of the paratext and its ability to influence and
assist the readers reception of a text, they write:
[The paratext is] a zone between text and off-text, a zone not only of transition but
also of transaction; the privileged site of a pragmatics and of a strategy, of an action
on the public in the service [] of a better reception of the text and a more pertinent
reading []. (My emphasis.)

54

Chapter 1

Two viewers of Trainspotting write: Je recommande fortement de le voir en

VOST. En franais, je trouve le film totalement dnatur! [I strongly recommend seeing the film in English with subtitles. In French, I find the film
totally distorted and unnatural!]; Trainspotting se savoure en anglais et
uniquement en anglais car toute la subtilit rside dans les diffrents accents
et les personnalits de ses personnages [Trainspotting should be enjoyed in
English and only in English because the films subtlety lies in the different
accents and the personalities of its characters]. In a similar vein, one viewer
of The Angels Share comments: A regarder de prfrence en VOST pour
se dlecter de laccent cossais: [To be watched preferably in English with
French subtitles, so that you can delight in the Scottish accent]. Thus, while
some viewers acknowledge the importance of the SL in the ST and already
appreciate the nuances of the SL soundtrack, such knowledge cannot be
presumed on the part of all members of the TL audience. Consideration of
audience reception therefore strengthens some of the arguments advanced
in Chapter 1, that is: language in these two SL films is key to portraying
the quintessentially Scottish nature of the films and to developing characterization within them and, given this, it is important that the particular
nature of, an variation within, the SL soundtrack be preserved as fully as
possible for the TL audience.

Chapter 2

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys:

Conveying British Dialects in the French Subtitles
of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Introduction
The present chapter explores how Cockney and other dialects of British
English are handled in the French subtitled version of Lock, Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels and subsequently establishes how these dialects may be
conveyed more powerfully in translation.1 In order to do so, it proceeds in
a number of stages. After introducing the film and briefly presenting the
Cockney dialect, this chapter first focuses on two scenes in which the indigenous peoples speech is central to the films characterization and setting. It
examines how various features of Cockney have been rendered, and therefore
the extent to which this distinctive SL dialect has been recaptured, in French.
Turning to two other SL dialects, one regional (Liverpudlian) and one social
(private-school English), the chapter briefly presents these. It proceeds to
examine two heteroglossic scenes (Bakhtin 1940/ 1981: 67; 19345/ 1981:
292), in which these dialects are each juxtaposed with Cockney, and considers
the extent to which the distinction between these SL varieties, which is so
apparent in the SL soundtrack, is preserved for viewers of Arnaques, Crimes

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys builds on and extends my article, Coping
with Cockney: Subtitling Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels for a French-speaking
audience (2012), which focuses uniquely on the ways in which Cockney is handled
in the films French subtitles. Coping with Cockney is reproducd, in part, with the
permission of Norwich Papers (May 2014).

56

Chapter 2

et Botanique. After recapitulating the relative merits and shortcomings of

the European Captioning Institutes French subtitling of these four scenes,
this chapter concludes by reasserting the importance of dialect in a films
characterization and setting. It then provides some practical suggestions
which may ensure that the dialects contained in the four scenes examined
are conveyed even more forcefully to the films French-speaking audience.

The film
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a British gangster film set in the
East End of London. It centres on the story of card-genius Eddy, who
loses 500,000 to Cockney crime lord and local sex-shop owner, Harry
Lonsdale, in a fixed game of three-card brag. In order to pay off his debts,
Eddy and his fellow East End friends Bacon, Soap and Tom plan to
rob his neighbours, a gang of thieves led by a man called Dog; Eddy has
heard that this gang is about to steal from some wealthy marijuana growers who operate under the protection of Dog. So as to appear fearsome
when they stage their robbery, Tom purchases two antique shotguns from
a dealer named Nick the Greek. Nick has bought these from two smalltime criminals from the North of England, Gary and Dean, who had stolen
them from a bankrupt lord while working for Harry Lonsdale. When local
gangster and sociopath, Rory Breaker, later discovers that some drugs
which he had planned to buy have actually been stolen from him, he and
his gang raid the flat and shoot the neighbours, killing all but Dog and
one of his flat-mates. After arriving at the flat where they intend to carry
out their robbery and finding everyone dead, Eddy, Bacon, Soap and Tom
are arrested in connection with the drugs but found to be innocent. The
four friends decide that they should dispose of the guns to fully remove
evidence that they were involved in the crimes. However, when Harrys
debt collector, Big Chris, reveals the value of the guns, Bacon, Soap and
Eddy make an urgent call to Tom, who is preparing to throw the weapons
into the River Thames. The viewer is left in suspense, wondering if Tom
will drop the guns or pause to answer his phone.

57

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

Language in the film: Significance of Cockney and linguistic

variation/ Subtitling challenges
The term Cockney was first used to describe those born within the sound
of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow church (the Bow Bells) in the East End of
London ( Jones 1971: 6). Linguistically, it refers to the form of English
spoken by these people. The Cockney dialect is characterized by distinctive pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary (Blunt 1994: 63, in line with
Trudgills (2008: 8) definition of dialect) and often includes the use of
rhyming slang. The construction of rhyming slang involves replacing a
common word with a rhyming phrase of two or three words then most often
omitting the secondary rhyming word, thereby making its meaning incomprehensible to non-speakers of Cockney. Better-known examples include:
telephone (dog and bone)

dog

eyes (mince pies)

minces

Rhyming slang has evolved over the centuries, drawing on various sources
of inspiration. Amongst these are locations in London:
tie (Peckham Rye)

Peckham

and, by the mid-twentieth century, the names of contemporary personalities:

curry (Ruby Murray Irish singer)

Ruby

Many original Cockneys were market traders and barrow boys in the market
places of the East End; their speech was fast and displayed quick-fire wit.
Indeed, for centuries, and in very different genres of text, Cockney has
therefore been stereotypically associated with dubious business dealings
and other criminal activity.2 These range from classical works of literature
2

Many believe Cockney rhyming slang to have begun in nineteenth-century Londons

criminal underworld as a secret means of communication (Humphreys and Bamber
2003: 2; Whitehead 2010: 24).

58

Chapter 2

(Charles Dickens Oliver Twist, 18378), through British television sitcoms

(Only Fools and Horses in the 1980s-1990s) and series (Minder, 197994), to
a whole host of crime films and capers including the works of Guy Ritchie
(Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,1998; Snatch, 2000; RocknRolla,
2008) and other celebrated classics (Get Carter, 1971; Ill Sleep When Im
Dead, 2003; Layer Cake, 2004). Many television advertisements for online
betting are, moreover, presented in a Cockney accent (365.com).
Lock, Stocks strong presence of characters belonging to the criminal
underworld and its setting in the East End are considerably reinforced
by the prevalence of the Cockney dialect in the film.3 At various stages
throughout Lock, Stock, Cockney, and its related linguistic stereotyping, is
further highlighted as it is contrasted with other British English dialects.
Given that the characters use of language is central to their belonging both
to geographical areas and to their respective gangs, it forms an integral part
of their identity, or characterization. Ideally then, subtitling of this film
into another language would make a determined attempt to preserve such
linguistic differences in the TL.

Scene One
This, the films opening scene, is set in a street in the East End. Bacon is
working illegally as a street trader. He is surrounded by potential customers, including friend Ed who is keeping a look-out for the police. When
he tries to drum up business, Bacons lively personality is reflected in the
rich, rhyming and humorous language which he uses.

The connection which is frequently made between Cockney and Londons criminal
underworld will be returned to in a subsequent discussion of Cockney rhyming slang.

59

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

B = Bacon; E = Ed
Speaker

ST

TT

1) B

Right, lets sort the buyers from the

spyers.

Acheteurs, pas dlateurs.

[Buyers, not informers.]

2) B

The needy from the greedy.

3) B

The ones who trust me from those

who dont.

4) B

Cos if you cant see value here today,

youre not happy shopping, youre
happy shoplifting.

Si vous voyez pas laffaire,

cest que vous tes voleur, pas
acheteur.
[If you cant see its a bargain,
youre a thief, not a buyer.]

5) B

You see these goods? Theyve never

seen daylight.

Regardez. Brillant comme un clair

de lune.
[Look. Its as shiny and
bright as
the moonlight,]

6) B

Moonlight, Israelite, funny by the

gas light.

7) B

Take a bag, come take a bag.

8) B

I took a bag home last night. It cost

a lot more than 10, I can tell you.

10 livres, cest mme

pas le prix
de mes courses dhiver.
[Ten pounds, thats not even the
price
of my winter shopping.]

9) B

Anyone like jewellery? Look at that

one there.

Qui aime les bijoux? Matez a.

[Who likes jewellery? Look at that.]

10) B

Hand-made in Italy, hand-stolen in

Stepney.

Fait main en Italie, vol main

Stepney.
[Hand-made in Italy, hand-stolen in
Stepney.]

Dans le besoin, pas rapaces.

[In need, not vultures.]
Ceux qui ont confiance, pas les
autres.
[Those who trust me, not the
others.]

comme le soleil de midi.

[as the midday sun.]
Prenez un sac.
[Take a bag.]

60

Chapter 2

Speaker

ST

TT

11) B

Its as long as my arm. I wish it was

as long as something else.

Aussi long que mon bras.

Mais le reste sait pas
[As long as my arm.
Nothing else ]

12) B

Because these boxes are sealed up

like antiques.

Ces botes sont loin dtre vides.

[These boxes are far from being
empty.]

13) B

The only man who sells empty

boxes is the undertaker.

14) B

And by the look of some of you lot

here today,

Et vu vos tronches,
[And given your mugs,]

15) B

Id make more money with my

measuring tape. Ere, one price, 10.

je gagnerais plus avec mon mtre.

Un seul prix, 10 livres.
[Id earn more with my measuring
tape.
One price, ten pounds.]

16) E

Did you say 10?

10 livres?
[Ten pounds?]

17) B

Are you deaf ?

Tes sourd?
[Youre deaf ?]

18) E

Thats a bargain. Ill take one.

19) B

Squeeze in. Left leg, right leg, your

bodyll follow. They call it walking.

Avancez. La jambe gauche,

puis la droite, le reste suivra.
[Move forward. The left leg,
then the right, the rest will follow.]

20) B

You want one as well? You do.

Thats it, were waking up.

Pour vous aussi? Bien, on se rveille.

[For you too? Good, were waking
up.]

21) B

Treat the wife. Treat someone elses

wife. Its a lot more fun

22) B

if you dont get caught.

Pas comme celles des croque-morts.

[Not like the undertakers boxes.]

a vaut le coup.
[Thats worth it.]

Pour votre femme, ou celle dun

autre.
Cest plus drle.
[For your wife, or somebody elses.
Its more fun]
si on ne se fait pas choper.
[if you dont get caught.]

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Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

23) B

You want one as well? OK darling,

show me a bit of life then.

Une pour vous? Allez, un peu

dentrain.
[One for you? Come on, get lively.]

24) B

Its no good standing there like 1

oclock half-struck.

Restez pas plante.

[Dont stay stood there.]

25) B

You better buy em. These are not

stolen.

Allez-y, cest pas vol.

[Go on, its not stolen.]

26) B

They just havent been paid for.

No danger. Theyve changed the
bloody locks.

Juste pas pay. Profitez-en.

Ils ont chang les serrures.
[ Just not paid for. Make the most
of it.
Theyve changed the locks.]

27) B

Ere

28) B

No good coming back later when

Ive sold out.

29) B

Too late, too late will be the cry,

when the man with the bargains has
passed you by.

30) B

If youve got no money now, youll

be crying tears as big as October
cabbages.

31) E

Bacon, the cozzers!

Tenez.
[Here.]
Pas la peine de revenir quand jen
ai plus.
[Not worth coming back when I
have no more.]
Trop tard lancera celui que vous
aurez fui.
[Too late will cry the man who you
ran away from.]
Si vous avez pas de liquide,
vous aurez plus qu pleurer.
[If you have no cash,
youll just have to cry.]
Les flics!
[The coppers!]

Bacons pronunciation is informal and, at times, relaxed. He contracts

some words (cos, line 4) and drops sounds (ere, 15, 27; ll, 19; em, 25), as
is commonly heard among speakers of Cockney. Non-standard pronunciation is, however, only rarely apparent in the French subtitles of this scene
(Tes as opposed to Tu es, 7). Such a feature of oral language is, admittedly,
challenging enough to convey in the transcribed SL lines, let alone recreate in TL subtitles. By contrast, Bacons non-standard use of grammar is
recaptured much more strikingly throughout the subtitles of this scene.

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Chapter 2

The French negative ne is repeatedly omitted (lines 4, 8, 11, 25, 28). This
has a cumulative effect and does, it could be argued, compensate for the
impression of more standard pronunciation in the subtitles. As regards
vocabulary, Bacons language is sometimes figurative (24, 30), which is not
recaptured in the TT. However, Eds cozzers4 (31) is aptly translated as
les flics, and the subtitles of the entire scene are peppered with colloquial
TL terms (Matez a 9; vos tronches 14; choper 22), which certainly ensures
that the informal register of the original lines is preserved in translation.
Much of Bacons sales banter has a pleasing, rhyming quality. If, at
times, this is not rendered in the TT (lines 2, 5, 6), on other occasions
clear attempts are made to recreate rhymes in the subtitles and these are
particularly successful:
Lets sort the buyers from the spyers (1)

Acheteurs pas dlateurs

Too late, too late will be the cry, when

Trop tard lancer celui que vous aurez fui
the man with the bargains has passed you
by (29)

Furthermore, Bacon uses humour throughout this scene in order to attract

potential customers. His jokes involve references to stealing (4, 10, 256),
body parts (11), infidelity (212) and audacious remarks which are directed
at his crowd (14, 17, 19, 20, 23, 24). In all of these instances, the content and
amusing quality of Bacons original lines are fully preserved by employing
relatively close translation techniques.
Equally significant here is the speed at which speech is delivered; archetypal market trader, Bacon, speaks extremely fast throughout this scene.
Given this speed, the amount of language which is used and the time-space
restraints of subtitling (Luyken et al. 1991), the subtitlers face the dual challenge of producing translations which are both concise and preserve in the
TL the witty, cheeky essence of Bacons banter. This is achieved by implementing a number of strategies: repetition in the SL is not translated (line

Cozzers: A word used in the South of England to refer to policemen.

Possible bastardization of the word copper. <http://www.urbandictionary.com>
(accessed 03.03.12). This is not, then, a specifically Cockney term.

63

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

7); elements of the TL which are tautological and therefore semantically

redundant are also omitted (end of line 19); the semantic content of the
SL is preserved using language which is more concise in the TL than in the
original lines (1, 11, 14).

Scene Two
In this scene, Tom is stood in a dimly lit bar. The barman recounts a recent
episode in a local pub in which Rory Breaker caused trouble. Rorys television had broken, so he went to the pub to watch a football match. He
changed the channel on the television, which upset another punter, and
Rory ultimately set light to this man. The language used in this scene is
much more specifically Cockney than that witnessed in Scene One. The
barmans monologue contains a dense, and very contrived, concentration
of rhyming slang, which is difficult for a non-native and, indeed, a native
of the East End to understand. This is so much so that the original SL
film contains intralingual subtitles ( Jakobson 1959: 114),5 translating the
barmans words into a more standard form of British English for the SL
viewer. In the following transcription, both the original audio soundtrack
and the intralingual subtitles are shown in the left-hand column.
B = barman; (A) = audio; (IS) = intralingual subtitle
Speaker

ST

TT

1) B

(A) A
 few nights ago, Rorys roger
iron busted.

Lautre soir, sa tl a grill.

[The other evening, his TV bust.]

2) B

(A) So hes gone down the battle

cruiser to watch the end of a
football game.
(IS) Hes gone to the boozer.

Il vient au pub voir la fin du match.

[He comes to the pub to watch the
end of the match.]

In his On linguistic aspects of translation, Jakobson (1959/ 2000: 114) defines

Intralingual translation as a form of rewording. (Also cf. Introduction.)

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Chapter 2

3) B

(A) No ones watching the

custard, so he switches the
channel over.
(IS) No ones watching the telly.

Personne regarde la tl,

alors il change de chane.
[Nobodys watching the TV
so he changes the channel.]

4) B

(A) A fat geezers North opens.

(IS) A fat chap opens his mouth.

Un gros se met louvrir.

[A fat man starts to open his mouth.]

5) B

(A) And he wanders up and turns

the Liza over.
(IS) H
 e wanders up and turns the
channel over.

Il se retourne et va zapper.
[He turns around and goes to switch
over the channel.]

6) B

(A) Now fuck off and watch it

somewhere else.
(IS) P
 lease remove yourself from
this bar.

Casse-toi et va la mater ailleurs.

[Get lost and go and watch it
elsewhere.]

7) B

(A) Rory knows claret is

Rory sait que a va saigner,
imminent, but he doesnt want
mais il veut pas larguer la fin.
to miss the end of the game.
[Rory knows that there will be
(IS) R
 ory knows blood could be
blood,
spilt.
but he doesnt want to miss the end.]

8) B

(A) Calm as a coma.

9) B

(A) H
 e picks up the fire
extinguisher.

10) B

(A) He walks straight past the jam

rolls
(IS) H
 e walks straight past the
arseholes

11) B

(A) who were ready for action

12) B

(A) and plonks it at the entrance.

et le plante lentre.
[and sticks it at the entrance.]

13) B

(A) He then orders an Aristotle of

the most ping-pong Tiddly in
the nuclear sub
(IS) H
 e then orders a bottle of the
strongest drink in the pub

Il commande lalcool le plus fort

[He orders the strongest alcohol]

Aussi calme quun mort.

[As calm as a dead man.]
Il prend un extincteur.
[He takes a fire extinguisher.]
Il dpasse les connards
[He walks past the bloody idiots]

qui lattendaient
[who were waiting for him]

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Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

14) B

(A) a nd switches back to his

footer.

et remet le match.
[and puts the match back on.]

15) B

(A)  Thats fucking it, says the

geezer.
(IS) Ive had enough.

a, cest trop dit le connard.

[Thats too much says the bloody
idiot.]

16) B

(A)  Thats fucking what? says

Rory.
(IS) Enough of what?

Trop de quoi? dit Rory.

[Too much of what? says Rory.]

17) B

(A) And he gobs out a mouthful

of booze, covering fatty.

18) B

(A) He flicks a flaming match

into his birds nest.
(IS) H
 e flicks a flaming match
into his chest.

19) B

(A) The geezers lit up like a

flaming gas pipe.

20) B

(A) R
 ory, unfazed, turns back to
his game.

Impassible, Rory retourne son

match.
[Impassive, Rory returns to his
match.]

21) B

(A) His teams won too. 4-nil.

En plus, son quipe a gagn 40.

[Whats more, his team has won
40.]

Il crache lalcool sur le gros.

[He spits the alcohol on the fat
man.]
Il lui balance une allumette.
[He chucks a match at him.]

Le type flambe comme

un tuyeau de gaz perc.
[The bloke blazes like
a burst gas pipe.]

Some of the challenges posed by the translation of the non-standard, informal language used by this East Ender are very similar to those considered
in the discussion of Scene One; the solutions employed are also comparable. Nevertheless, given that the dominant linguistic feature of this
scene is the presence of Cockney rhyming slang, the ways in which the
films French-language subtitlers have handled this particular challenge
will be the focus of the present analysis. The following table summarizes
uses of Cockney rhyming slang in this scene, their intralingual subtitles,
the origin of each of these terms in British English, and the ways in which

66

Chapter 2

they have been rendered in the scenes French subtitles. The letters F and
A in column three specify whether the rhyming slang term is used in full
or as an abbreviated version. Abbreviated terms are, arguably, even more
difficult to understand; it may be easier for non-speakers of Cockney to
infer the meaning of terms when they are heard in full.
Rhyming slang

Intralingual
subtitle

Origin of term

French subtitle

Roger (1)

Roger Mellie: telly.

Fictional character featured
in Viz magazine (A)

la tl
[the TV]

iron rusted (1)

iron rusted: busted (F)

battle cruiser
(2)

boozer

battle cruiser: boozer (F)

le pub
[the pub]

custard (3)

telly

telly: custard and jelly (A)

la tl
[the TV]

North (4) (His

North opens)

mouth

North and South: mouth

(A)

la (louvrir)
[it/ mouth (opens it)]

Liza (5) (He

turns the Liza
over)

channel

Liza Minnelli: telly.

American actress and
singer (A)

Il va zapper
[He goes to switch
over]

jam rolls (10)

arseholes

jam rolls: arseholes (F)

les connards
[the bloody idiots]

Aristotle (13)

bottle

Aristotle: bottle (F)

ping-pong
(13) (the most
ping-pong)

the
strongest

ping-pong: strong.
Alternative name for table
tennis (F)

le plus fort
[the strongest]

Tiddly (13)

drink

Tiddlywink: drink.
Tiddlywinks: An indoor
game played on a mat with
sets of small disks called
winks (A)

lalcool
[the alcohol]

a grill
[bust]

nuclear sub (13) pub

nucelar sub: pub (F)

birds nest (18)

birds nest: chest (F)

chest

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Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

Throughout the film, other isolated examples of rhyming slang can be

noted. When used sparingly, these terms appear much more authentic.
Rhyming slang

Origin of term

French subtitle

Keep yer Alans on!

Alan Whickers: knickers.

British television personality
(A)

Tnerve pas!
[Dont get worked up!]

In your skyrocket

Skyrocket: pocket (F)

Lets have a butchers

Butchers hook: look (A)

That whats going on

look slapped all over
your Chevy Chase

Chevy Chase: face.

American comedian, writer
and actor (F)

Avec ton air de pas y

toucher
[With your innocent
look]

Mr. Bubble and Squeak

Bubble and Squeak: Greek.

Traditional English dish made
with fried vegetables (F)

M. le Grec
[Mr. Greek]

I dont want everyone

Raspberry tart: fart.
blowing a raspberry at me Sign of disrespect (A)

En poche
[In your pocket]
Voyons a
[Lets see that]

Je ne veux pas quon se

foute de ma gueule
[I dont want people
taking the piss out of me]

Thus, as these examples illustrate, the Cockney rhyming slang which features in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is not recaptured as such in
the films French translation. In both the above-examined scene and isolated examples quoted, TL subtitles are based on the intralingual subtitles
which accompany the original SL film. On occasions, no translation of
individual terms is provided, where this is not essential to understanding the global meaning of a sentence (lines 13 and 18). For the most part,
however, the semantic content of these terms is accurately preserved in the
TL, but all notion of rhyming slang is understandably lost. This results in
some absence of cultural connotation and of information regarding both
the characters identities and films setting, in the films French-subtitled
version. It should nonetheless be acknowledged that Cockney rhyming

68

Chapter 2

slang was never going to be translated as such and, as was the case in the
subtitles of Scene One, the register of the present extract is successfully
preserved in the TT.

Other British dialects and their translation

In Lock, Stock, the films Cockneys at times come into contact with characters who speak other distinctive varieties of British English, namely the
Liverpudlian regional dialect and private-school English social dialect.6
Given this coexistence of different varieties of one national language in
Lock, Stock, this film assumes, in Bakhtinian terms, a distinctly heteroglossic
dimension (1940/ 1981: 67). Discussion of the following scene illustrates
how such heterolossia is created, what this juxtaposition of accents communicates to SL viewers (Bakhtin 19345/ 1981: 297) and how this therefore
helps the film to make sense.

Scene Three
The present scene is set in Harrys sex club. Barry, Harrys right-hand man,
is briefing Liverpudlians Gary and Dean on a job which they are about to
do for him; they are to steal some valuable antique shotguns from a stately

As it was seen in Chapter 1, Hughes and Trudgill distinguish explicitly between accent
and dialect, describing a private-school accent as received pronunciation (1996: 9), and
the dialect of educated people as Standard English (ibid.: 33). For the puropose of
the present chapter, dialect will continue to refer to uses of pronunciation, vocabulary
and grammar which are specific to a given region. The term private-school English
will refer to the social dialect which is juxtaposed with Cockney in Scene Four.

69

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

home. Throughout the conversation, Barry and the two thieves are impatient with, and sarcastic to, each other. In the last three lines of the following
transcription, which occur after the men have parted company, Cockney
Barry and Liverpudlian Gary clearly articulate their dislike of one another.
Their mutual insults make reference to each others geographical origin,
thus drawing attention to the existence of a North-South divide in England.
B = Barry; D = Dean; G = Gary
Speaker

ST

TT

1) B

Right, where was we?

O en tait-on?
[Where were we?]

2) G

Shot guns.

Les fusils de chasse.

[Hunting guns.]

3) D

What, like guns that fire shots?

Comme ceux pour chasser?

[Like those for hunting?]

4) B

Oh, you must be the brains here.

Thats right, guns that fire shots.

Tu dois tre le cerveau. Oui, pour

chasser.
[You must be the brain. Yes, for
hunting.]

5) B

Make sure you bring everything

from inside the gun cabinet.

Assurez-vous de bien nettoyer

larmonier.
[Make sure you clean out the gun
cabinet.]

6) B

Therell be a load of old guns,

thats what I want.

7) B

Everything else outside the

cabinet,

8) B

you can keep.

9) G

Oh thank you very much!

10) D

Thered better be something there

for us.

Y aura plein de vieux fusils. Je les

veux.
[Therell be lots of old guns. I want
them.]
Tout le reste,
[All the rest,]
est vous.
[is yours.]
Merci beaucoup!
[Thanks very much!]
Il vaut mieux quil reste des choses.
[There had better be some things left.]

70

Chapter 2

Speaker

ST

TT

11) B

Its a fucking stately home. Of

course therell be something.

Cest un chteau. Bien sr quil restera

plein de choses.
[Its a castle. Of course therell be
loads of things left.]

12) D

Like what?

Comme quoi?
[Like what?]

13) B

Like fucking antiques!

Des antiquits.
[Antiques.]

14) D

Antiques?

Des antiquits?
[Antiques?]

15) D

What the fuck to we know about

antiques?

16) D

We rob post offices.

17) G

And steal cars.

18) D

What the fuck do we know about

antiques, mate?

19) B

If it looks old, its worth money.

Simple.

Si cest vieux, a vaut de largent.

Cest simple.
[If its old, its worth money.
Its simple.]

20) B

So stop fucking moaning and rob

the place.

Alors, arrtez de geindre et faites-le.

[So, stop whining and do it.]

21) G

So whos the gov? Who are we

doing this for?

Qui est le chef ? On bosse pour qui?

[Who is the boss? Who are we
working for?]

22) B

Youre doing it for me.

23) B

Thats all you need to know. You

know because you need to know.

24) G

I see,

On y connat quoi?
[What do we know about them?]
On braque des postes.
[We rob post offices.]
Et vole des voitures.
[And steal cars.]
On y connat quoi?
[What do we know about them?]

Pour moi.
[For me.]
Vous avez pas besoin de savoir plus,
petits curieux.
[You dont need to know any more,
you nosey little things.]
Je vois,
[I see,]

71

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

Speaker

ST

TT

25) G

its one of those on a need-toknow basis things.

cest un de ces pas besoin de

savoir plus.
[its one of those dont need to know
any more things.]

26) G

Like one of those James Bond

films

Comme des James Bond.

[Like James Bonds.]

27) B

Careful. Remember whos giving

you this job.

Attention. Rappelle-toi
qui te file ce boulot.
[Careful. Remember
whos giving you this job.]

28) B

Right, Im off. Call me when its

done. Ta da.

Jy vais. Appelez-moi quand

cest fait.
[Im going. Call me when
its done.]

29) B

Fucking Northern monkeys.

Putains de dbiles du Nord.

[Fucking Northern morons.]

30) G

I hate those fucking Southern

fairies.

Je dteste ces pds du Sud.

[I hate those Southern poofs.]

31) G

Fucking Southern shandydrinking bastard.

Sale buveur de panach.

[Dirty shandy drinker.]

In the present analysis, the Cockney and Liverpudlian dialects will be

considered with regard to pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. The
discussion will also focus on the attitudes which the characters display
towards each other.
Although the Cockney and Liverpudlian accents come across powerfully in the SL soundtrack and thus immediately differentiate between
Barry and his workers, there is no attempt to distinguish between different accents in the TL. This inevitably results in some loss of information
for the TL audience; the social and cultural stereotypes which different
British accents and dialects immediately conjure up for the SL audience
Cockney wide boys versus rough and tough or aggressive Northerners
(Pitts 2013) and the long-established North-South divide which exists

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Chapter 2

in the UK (Maxwell 2014) cannot be presumed to be immediately grasped

by francophone viewers.7
Barrys incorrect Cockney-English, Where was we? (1), is not recaptured with an incorrect TL grammatical construction. However, this is
compensated for in line 6 with the informal, truncated Y aura plein de
[]. In the French subtitles, Liverpudlian Deans speech features some
non-standard grammar: On y connat quoi? Nevertheless, once again, no
distinction is made between the non-standard grammatical uses of these
two men. In this respect, any sense of difference between their respective
geographical origins is therefore not preserved in translation. Both Barrys
and the Liverpudlians use of vocabulary is equally informal and colloquial.
This is conveyed in the translation of lines 21 and 27. Again, however, no
distinction is made in the TL between different regional SL uses. The
characters irritation and exasperation with each other is communicated in
the SL through repeated use of the expletive fuck(ing) Barry (11, 13, 20);
Dean (15, 18). In these particular lines, this term is not translated. Indeed,
it is usual in subtitling to avoid use of such offensive terms when space is
limited (Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007: 195) or when these are not totally
necessary to the meaning of the ST (ibid.: 197). As was the case in Scene
One discussed above, this exchange is very quick indeed. The subtitlers
therefore once again face a dual challenge; that of being both concise and
of preserving the aggressive tone of the SL in their translation.
Barry and the Liverpudlians display sarcasm towards each other
throughout this scene (4, 25, 26) which is successfully recaptured in the TL
through use of close translation strategies. Their dislike of each other culminates in the last three lines of the scene, when the men have parted company.
First, common insults relating to the North-South divide (Northerners as lacking intelligence, Southerners as soft and effeminate) are employed. In England,
there is a stereotypical view that those who live in the North of the country

North-South divide. This term refers to the perceived social, cultural and economic
differences which exist between the South-East of England and the rest of the United
Kingdom. It evokes numerous stereotypes and assumptions regarding class, political
allegiances and wealth (see Maxwell 2014).

73

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

are hardened drinkers, and that those who live in the South are not. In line
with this, it is sometimes suggested that Southerners drink shandy, whereas
Northerners drink full-strength, undiluted beer. These comments clearly
articulate their respective regional origins and, given their close tranlsation,
compensate in part for the absence of this information throughout the scene.
Second, Barry and Garys repeated use of fucking to reinforce their insults of
each other are rendered with the comparatively strong SL terms putain (29)
and pd (30). Implementation of this translation strategy fully retains the
characters mutual dislike in the TL. In this particular instance, it is therefore
not imperative that their accents be recaptured more fully in the subtitles.

Scene Four
In this, the final scene of Lock, Stock to be examined, Dog and his three
accomplices prepare to break into the premises of the four private-school
marijuana growers in order to steal large supplies of drugs and money. Dog
sends Plank to ring the doorbell and request to be let it, while he and the
others prepare to attack. The conversation between Plank and J takes place
first via an intercom, and subsequently at the entrance to the house. Hesitant
to let Plank in, J soon agrees to open the gate; Dog and his gang descend.
J = J; P = Plank
Speaker

ST

TT

1) P

I thought you were gonna leave me

out here all day.

Jai cru que tu allais me laisser

poireauter.
[I thought that you were going to
leave me standing around.]

2) J

I didnt know you were a removal

man, Plank.

3) P

Lives and learns, dont ya?

Tes dmnageur maintenant?

[Are you a removal man now?]
On en apprend tous les jours!
[You learn something new everyday!]

74

Chapter 2

Speaker

ST

TT

4) P

Keep the gates locked now, do ya?

Vous fermez clef ?

[You lock it?]

5) J

Yeah, sorry. Got to do business

like that now. Cant be too careful
nowadays.

On fait comme a maintenant.

Il faut pas prendre de risques.
[We do that now.
Shouldnt take any risks.]

6) P

I know.

7) P

Shut it. You say one word and your

right ear goes. You say another and
its your left.

8) J

What are you doing, Plank?

9) P

What do you think Im doing? Oy,

ang on. What are you doing?

A ton avis? Attends, tu fais quoi?

[In your opnion? Wait, what are you
doing?]

10) P

Unlock the gate! I said, unlock the

fucking gate!

Ouvre la porte! Putain, ouvre!

[Open the door! Fuck, open!]

11) P

Thats it! Go, go! Fucking run!

Je vois.
[I see.]
Si tu gueules, je te fais sauter les
oreilles.
[If you yell, Ill blast off your ears.]
Tu fais quoi?
[What are you doing?]

Cest bon, en avant!

[Thats right, onward!]

As was the case in the previous scene, these characters speak two very different dialects of British English regional Cockney (Plank) and social
private-school English ( J). Discussion of this inherently heteroglossic
scene (Bakhtin 1949/ 1981: 67) will deal with the ways in which Planks
and Js speech is rendered in the scenes French subtitles. In the films
original soundtrack, Planks Cockney accent contrasts starkly with Js
received pronunciation, or RP (Hughes and Trudgill 1996: 9). As it was
acknowledged in the discussion of Scene One, it is challenging enough to
convey different SL accents when transcribing these in the SL, let alone
when translating these into another language and also working within
subtitling constraints. However if, in the transcription of this scene, it is
clear that Planks pronunciation is much less correct, or standard, than
that of J (gonna 1; ya 3, 4; ang on 9), no sense of relaxed pronunciation is hinted at in the TL. Furthermore, and slightly confusingly, Js

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

75

yeah (5) is not recaptured in French, but one instance of elision can be
witnessed in the second subtitle Tes dmnageur?, when translating Js
extremely correct RP. As was the case in the subtitling of the previous
scene, the clear distinction between the two varieties of pronunciation
heard in the present SL scene is not at all preserved in its French subtitles.
Translation of the grammar used by the characters in this extract is also
similar to that featured in Scene One. Here, Plank uses one unusual construction lives and learns (3) which is translated with a standard On
en apprend tous les jours, but most of his lines include relatively standard
uses of SL grammar. By contrast, in lines 5 and8, Js words are translated
with more informal grammatical constructions than are used in the SL.
Again, in the TL no distinction is made between the different speakers
uses of language. As regards vocabulary, Planks idiomatic words in line
7 are translated with a comparatively idiomatic TL expression and, in
this scene, his angry use of fucking (10) is closely translated as putain,
which conveys the full force of his tone. These SL uses are not specifically
Cockney and, from a lexical point of view, no distinction can be witnessed between the speakers uses of language in either the SL or the TL.
This said, what is also interesting in this particular extract is that
Plank is very aggressive (lines 7, 9), abrupt (3, 4) and bossy (10) with
J. Here, he is reversing the social order which, elsewhere in the film, is
reinforced by the characters accents (Voloshinov 1929/ 1973: 85).8 If
the protagonists intonation remains present in the SL soundtrack, the
tenor of this exchange is also recaptured perfectly thanks to the short,
sharp sentences which the subtitlers use and the lexical choices which
they make (lines 710).

As Pitts (2013) observes, Standard English is stereotypically associated with the

upper classes; it is thought to be spoken by those who are posh and who belong
to high society. According to Pitts (ibid.), speakers of Standard English can be
perceived positively as [] potentially intelligent, from expensive schooling and
respectable. However, negative associations may include vanity, being unsympathetic and aloof .

76

Chapter 2

Summary of findings
In the above discussions of Scenes One and Two, it has been demonstrated that the translation of Cockney presents a range of challenges for
the subtitler of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and that these have
been handled in the following ways by the European Captioning Institute.
Distinctive Cockney pronunciation is challenging to capture when transcribing lines from the original SL film. Clearly, reproducing this oral
SL accent in written TL subtitles is even more onerous, and perhaps not
surprisingly, is not achieved. Uses of non-standard grammar, which are
not always specific to Cockney speakers, are rendered much more successfully, as are a large number of the colloquial but again, not necessarily
Cockney terms used by Lock, Stocks characters. Some attempts are made
to recapture market trader Bacons rhyming banter (Scene One), and all
of the humour of his original lines is communicated admirably through
use of close translation strategies. Such preservation of rhyme and humour
in the TL is particularly important as it ensures that the personality of
this East End market trader is communicated to the films French audience. The challenges posed by the presence of Cockney rhyming slang in
the second scene examined are not, however, dealt with as successfully.
Although the semantic content of the SL lines is preserved in translation the TL is based on explanations provided in the films intralingual
subtitles ( Jakobson 1959: 114) the real sense of rhyming slang and its
cultural connotations are lost, albeit understandably, in the TL. The East
End barmans character and the setting of the scene are, as a consequence,
somewhat diluted in the French subtitles.
The third and fourth scenes examined were particularly interesting for
their heteroglossic nature (Bakhtin 1940/ 1981: 67), that is, the ways in which
they juxtapose different dialects of the SL Cockney and Liverpudlian
(Scene Three) and Cockney and private-school English (Scene Four).
Each of these varieties of language communicates certain world views and
ideologies (Bakhtin 19345: 291) and therefore contributes significantly to
the construction of the characters personalities. Despite some successful
rendering of relaxed, non-standard pronunciation in the French subtitles

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

77

of these scenes, there is no sense of differentiation between accents in

the TL. Although this would admittedly be very difficult to achieve, a
lack of differentiation results in a loss of cultural connotation for the TL
audience; it excludes vital information regarding the characters different geographical origins, and therefore their respective identities. If the
TL subtitles do contain some informal and incorrect uses of grammar
and colloquial items of vocabulary, once again, no distinction between
different uses by speakers of different SL dialects is made, or even hinted
at, in the TL. This is partially compensated for in the final lines of Scene
Three, as the characters make specific, and very critical, reference to each
others geographical origin; this information is, therefore, made explicit
by the narrative itself.

Conclusions and suggestions

At this juncture, it is appropriate to consider how the SL dialects contained
in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels may be conveyed more powerfully
in the films French subtitles. As was acknowledged in the Introduction to
Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation, dialect is notoriously
difficult to translate within one linguistic medium, that is, from one written text to another (Berman 1985: 294; Hatim and Mason 1990: 405).
Such challenges are evidently multiplied in an audiovisual context (De
Linde and Kay 1999: 47; Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007: 1912; Luyken
et al. 1991: 156). Nevertheless, as it has been suggested above, some failure
to recapture SL dialects in Lock, Stocks French subtitles results in a loss of
cultural information relating to the characters, the setting and therefore
the plot.9 Speakers of Cockney are stereotypically associated with dubious
business dealings and other criminal activity. In Lock, Stock, it is indeed the

Bartoll (2006: 34) makes some similar observations in his discussion of the
intralingual subtitling of the film, My Fair Lady.

78

Chapter 2

Cockneys and other protagonists from the South of England who dominate
scenes and are, globally, in positions of power when dealing with characters
from the North. Throughout the film, the long-established North-South
divide which exists in the UK and the related connotations of RS and SE
as being superior to Northern dialects of British English are striking. As
these are immediately familiar to a British SL audience, the characters
social, cultural and geographical backgrounds, and their roles in the film,
can be easily understood by SL viewers. In the BBCs Online Subtitling
Editorial Guidelines Ford-Williams (2009: 22) suggests that:
Subtitles should [] indicate accent [] where it is relevant for the viewers understanding []. Where a characters accent is crucial to the plot or enjoyment, the
subtitles must establish the accent when we first see the character and continue to
reflect it from then on.

As the accents, and indeed dialects, of Lock, Stocks various characters are
undoubtedly crucial to the films plot, greater attempts to communicate
in the films subtitles the linguistic stereotyping which is apparent in the
SL would arguably enhance the French audiences experience of this film.
If Bartoll suggests that SDH (Subtitling for the Deaf and Hardof-Hearing) features, such as brackets and brief explanations, could be
used in order to convey dialects in the subtitling of multilingual films
(2006: 34), Daz-Cintas (2005: 11) expresses reservations about such
an approach when he writes: [] space and time limitations [] explain
why subtitlers cannot resort to metalinguistic devices such as footnotes,
prologues or afterwords in order to justify their solutions. He also stresses
(ibid.: 12) that:
The interference and presence of the translator through metatextual intervention
in the film itself, be it in the form of footnotes or glosses, has always been out of
the question in our field. SDH has always resorted to the use of labels, in order
to convey information that would otherwise exclude the deaf or hard-of-hearing
viewer. In interlingual subtitling, the imperative of having to synchronize original
dialog and subtitles, the need to stay within a maximum of two lines per subtitle,
and the widespread belief that the best subtitles are the ones that are not noticed,
seem to confirm the idea that it is actually impossible to add any extra information
alongside the translation.

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

79

While fully acknowledging this advice, in the same vein as Chapter 1, the
present chapter ventures to suggest that a small exception to the above
could be made. Providing that any given subtitle does not exceed a maximum of two lines and that the amount of characters (letters) is proportional to the amount of time that the subtitle remains on the screen, it
may be helpful to include a headnote with the first subtitled line of a
character (person) whose speech is marked by a distinctive accent or
dialect, in order to set the scene. Ford-Williams (2006: 22) suggests the
following presentation:
AMERICAN ACCENT
All the evidence points to a plot
Describing the subtitling of DVDs, an area in which dynamic and innovative developments are taking place, Daz-Cintas adds that: From a technical point of view, there is no obstacle to the incorporation of more precise
information on the translation as part of the bonus material (2005: 11). In
view of the above, the following paragraphs seek to provide some simple
and practical solutions which may ensure that Cockney and the other SL
dialects featured in the four above-discussed scenes are conveyed more
powerfully to the francophone audience of Arnaques, Crimes et Botanique.

Scene One
It may be helpful to add a metalinguistic headnote Accent Cockney, de lest
de Londres [Cockney accent, East End of London] to the first subtitle of
this scene. Bacon is the main character to speak here, and one headnote
would be sufficient to set the scene. This strategy would also avoid the
need to attempt to create any unusual phonetic transposition of his accent,
vocabulary or sentence constructions. The DVD version of this subtitled
film would also benefit from including some brief supplementary material

80

Chapter 2

on the Cockney dialect for interested TL viewers (See reference to Genettes

(1987/ 1991: 2612) concept of a paratext, as explained in Chapter 1).10

Scene Two
Again, it may be advisable to add a metalinguistic headnote to the first
subtitle of this scene. As the geographical origin of Cockney would have
been specified in a previous headnote (see discussion of Scene One), a
more concise headnote may be appropriate here (Accent Cockney [Cockney
accent]). As the barman is the only character to speak, one headnote would
suffice. A more detailed explanation of the specific nature of Cockney
rhyming slang may be appropriately included in the DVDs bonus material. It would clearly be impossible to do justice to rhyming slang in brief
TL subtitles. Even if an appropriate equivalent of this did exist in the TL,
use of it would detract hugely from the original SL characterization and
cultural setting (Landers 2001: 117).

Scenes Three and Four

These two scenes can be considered together as they present a very similar
translation issue, that is, how to preserve a distinction between different
SL dialects in the TL subtitles. Once again, the first line of each of the

10 As it stands, the French-language version of this film only provides the SL films
existing bonus materials with subtitles. These materials consist of the films trailer, a
number of interviews with the writer (Guy Ritchie) and producer (Mathew Vaughn),
which focus on the content and genre of the film, and with the cast, in which the
members each discuss the character which they play in Lock, Stock.

Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys

81

characters in each of these scenes could be accompanied by a headnote

to set the scene:
Scene Three: Accent Cockney [Cockney accent]/ Accent de Liverpool,
nord-ouest de lAngleterre [Liverpool accent, North-West England];
Scene Four: Accent Cockney [Cockney accent]/ Accent cole prive
[Private-school accent].
In addition to these initial headnotes, other visual techniques could
be employed in order to preserve the distinction between the different
characters voices throughout these scenes. These may include subtitling in
different colours (a commonly used strategy in SDH) or using characters,
or lettering, of different sizes, thicknesses and angles.11 It was acknowledged
that the way in which Cockney Barry and the two Liverpudlians insult each
other at the end of Scene Three is translated closely and successfully in the
TL subtitles. The information conveyed in an initial headnote and use of
different type-faces would reinforce the content of these final lines. Again,
such strategies could be supplemented with further information on these different SL dialects in the DVD versions bonus material. This could include
an explanation of the North-South divide in the UK, what these accents
mean in relation to each other that is, how they reflect the North-South
divide and what the film communicates by juxtaposing them as it does.
All of the above suggestions regarding additional supplementary materials for the TL audience may be complemented by a brief explanation of
the linguistic difficulty of subtitling this film, and a justification of the
translation strategies which were consequently implemented. Although
such material may indeed have a limited audience, it would undoubtedly be
of interest to some viewers (Daz-Cintas 2005: 11). An particular approach
to providing such supplementary material may be to present it as an Extras
section entitled Introduction. This would still enable viewers to decide
whether or not they were interested in receiving further information, while
ensuring that they had access to this before watching the film in order to
fully benefit from it.

11

The subtitling of the American series, Royal Paris, on French television made use of
this strategy in an episode which contained multilingual scenes. La Trois (30.01.12).

82

Chapter 2

Bearing in mind all of the above, it is apt to conclude by considering how this film has been received by TL viewers. As was the case of the
films examined in Chapter 1, the francophone audiences experience of the
French-subtitled version of this English-language film was overwhelmingly
positive. Those who contributed reviews on <http://www.amazon.fr>
praised Arnaques, Crimes et Botanique for many things, amongst which
lhumour anglais [the English humour] and latmosphre trs British [the
very British atmosphere]. Again, one viewer with knowledge of the English
language expressed a preference for watching the EL version of the film
with French subtitles rather than a dubbed version of the film [] pour
voir les Anglais londoniens [] une bouffe dair frais, sal de cet accent inimitable [] to see the Londoners [] a breath of fresh air spiced up with
that unimitable accent. The general tenor of these reviews again supports
the recommendations made in the present chapter. Implementation of
these suggestions would not only assist the understanding of those viewers
with little or no appreciation of the Cockney accent, it would also further
enhance the experience of viewers who already display some linguistic
awareness, by enabling them to have a greater appreciation of the difference between distinct varieties of British English.

Chapter 3

Transporting the Aquarium: Overcoming the

Challenges of Subtitling Andrea Arnolds
Fish Tank into French

Introduction
Andrea Arnolds Fish Tank is set in a council estate in the county of Essex,
England, and provides a gritty portrayal of the social deprivation and personal problems which its characters face. After introducing the film and
outlining the challenges to which its subtitling gives rise, the present chapter focuses firstly on four representative examples of character interaction
in Fish Tank, and secondly on three key songs from the films musical
soundtrack.1 Considering the particular difficulties presented by the subtitling of these extracts into French and examining the strategies employed
in order to deal with these, this chapter sets out to establish the extent to
which Emmanuelle Boillot and Nicola Haughtons translation preserves
the linguistic and cultural specificity of this quintessentially British film
in its corresponding written French subtitles.

This chapter is based on my article of the same name which was originally published
in <http://www.translationjournal.com> ( July 2011).

84

Chapter 3

The film
Fifteen-year-old Mia lives on a socially deprived council estate. Excluded
from school, she spends her days fighting with other girls on the estate, arguing with her mother, Joanne, and younger sister, Tyler, drinking and practising hip-hop dancing. When Joanne brings home her new Irish boyfriend,
Connor, Mias life changes. Following a sexual encounter between Connor
and Mia, Connors relationship with Joanne ends and he leaves. Mia tracks
down Connor, discovers that he is married with a daughter and, by way of
revenge, kidnaps the little girl. After returning her, Mia makes peace with
her mother and sister and leaves to begin a new life in Wales with her boyfriend, a local traveller. Arnolds film, the title of which is metaphorical for
the oppressive, claustrophobic environment in which the characters live, and
which the audience observes unrestrictedly, is firmly set in a social-realist
tradition and has been likened to the films of Ken Loach (Fuller 2010).

Language in the film: Significance of language

used/ Subtitling challenges
Both the non-standard, colloquial and vulgar language which Fish Tank
contains and its accompanying musical soundtrack contribute significantly
to the portrayal of the social class and culture, or fish tank, which this film
seeks to represent. Fish Tanks main protagonists speak English with a pronounced Essex accent which may be termed Estuary English;2 this variety

Estuary English: A milder form of the London (Cockney) accent which was originally
thought to be predominant along the Thames Estuary. It is characterized, notably,
by the dropping of some dipthongs (right is pronounced as roight), shortening
of some elongated words (been becomes bin) and dropping of the sound l (old
is heard as owd). For a detailed account of various features of the pronunciation of

Transporting the Aquarium

85

of English is often viewed unfavourably by members of the British public.3

Moreover, the presence of Irish Connor ensures that diastratic variation
(Flydal 1951),4 and therefore a certain sense of heteroglossia (Bakhtin 1940/
1981: 67; 19345/ 1981: 292) are evident throughout the film. Through its
difference, Connors Irish lilt draws attention to the Essex-accented English
spoken by the films principal characters.
The translation challenges posed by attempting to transport this
aquarium from one linguistic and cultural context to another, and thereby
preserve in the TT both the characters identities and the films narrative,
form the focus of the present chapter. These challenges, and the strategies
adopted in order to meet them, are firstly considered with reference to
character interaction, and secondly in relation to the translation of some
of the soundtracks songs.

Character interaction
The use of language in Fish Tank is colloquial, local and colourful; it could
therefore aptly be defined as marked speech (Daz-Cintas and Remal
2007: 187):

3
4

Estuary English, see Coggle (1993) and Maidment (1994). However, some linguists
claim that there is no such thing as a homogenized, regional variety of Estuary (see
Maidment ibid.). They suggest, rather, that it is a non-regional accent which has arisen
due to the spread of some linguistic features of the English used in London to other
parts of the country and that this phenomenon can be explained by geographical
mobilization and social change.
In his paper, Maidenment (1994) quotes a number of negative descriptions of Estuary,
including lazy speaking that grates on the ear and [] debased London: slack-jawed,
somnambulant, London.
Diastratic variation: linguistic variation which occurs in different social groups
(according to age, sex, profession). See Flydal (1951).

86

Chapter 3
[] speech characterized by non-standard language features, or features that are not
neutral. Speech can be marked by style or register, and it can also be [] bound to
socially and/ or geographically defined population groups. Besides, marked speech
includes taboo words, swear words and emotionally charged utterances such as
interjections and exclamations.

Indeed, the language which dominates Fish Tank is unmistakably associated

with users who belong to a specific social group a socially deprived housing estate and geographical area Essex. As such, most of the characters
speak the same dialect. The following definition of dialect (Trudgill 2004:
2) complements those which are referred to in the previous chapters of the
present book (Hughes and Trudgill 1996: 3; Trudgill 2008: 8):
[] social and geographical kinds of language are known as dialects. [] Dialect is
the particular combination of words, pronunciations and grammatical forms that
you share with other people from your area and social background and that differs in
certain ways from the combination used by people from other areas and backgrounds.

With reference to the above definition of marked speech, this chapter will
examine four representative examples of character interaction from Fish
Tank which feature taboo words, swear words and non-standard grammar. The extracts to be examined also include distinct accents, cultural
references and instances of humour and irony which are linguistically and
socially bound. By adopting this approach, the chapter will draw attention
to the specific challenges which the subtitling of such language poses, and
examine how these are handled by Boillot and Haughton.

Scene One
In this scene a gang of girls from the local housing estate, including Mias
former best friend, Keeley, do a dance routine to pop music which they
perform to some local boys. The style of dancing and music is very different to that which Mia likes. Mia watches the girls with a critical expression
on her face and this results in a confrontation.

87

Transporting the Aquarium

G = girl, K = Keeley; M = Mia; OG = other girl

Speaker

ST

TT

1) G

What the fucks your problem?

2) M

Your terrible dancings my

problem.

Tu danses comme une bouse.

[You dance like a cowpat.]

3) K

Quit it, Mia. Dont start.

Fais pas chier, Mia.

[Dont piss people off, Mia.]

4) M

You can talk, Keeley. Since when

did you have such ugly friends?

Alors, Keeley, tu tranes avec des

thons?5
[So, Keeley, you hang out
with dogs?]

5) G

You can talk, you skanky little

pikey!

Tu tes vue, sale gitane?

[You seen yourself, dirty gypsy?]

6) M

(Mia headbutts girl)

What you gonna do about it?

7) G

Fuck off !

8) OG

Get away, bitch!

9) M

If you want some fucking more,

you know where I am!

10) G

C**t!

11) OG Walk away!

Cest quoi, ton problme?

[Whats your problem?]

Tu vas porter plainte?

[Are you going to make
a complaint?]
Casse-toi!
[Get lost!]
Dgage, sale pute!
[Clear off, dirty whore!]
Si vous en voulez encore, venez me
chercher!
[If you want some more, come and
look for me!]
Sale pute!
[Dirty whore!]
Tire-toi!
[Beat it!]

Thon: Literal translation: a tuna fish. Here: a dull, unattractive girl or woman; a
dog.<http://www.interglot.com> (accessed 26.05.14).

88

Chapter 3

This scene centres on the fact that the gang of girls want Mia to stop
watching them and leave. The principal translation challenges which the
scene poses centre on the need to render culturally specific taboo words,
swear words and non-standard grammar in the TL in such a way that the
French-speaking audience can still appreciate their force. If the range of SL
expressions used to convey this fuck off (line 7), get away (line8) and
walk away (line 11) is preserved in the TT casse-toi, dgage, tire-toi
the force of line 7 is certainly lost in translation. Indeed, fuck is used
three times in this scene, but is not once translated into French. As this
language is central to the characters identities, some loss occurs in the TT
(Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007: 197). Attempts are nevertheless made to
compensate for this elsewhere in the TT. In lines 2, 3 and 4 the vocabulary
used bouse, chier and thons is more vulgar than that in the corresponding
ST. Bitch (line 8) and c**t (line 10) are both translated with an offensive
TL term, sale pute, which preserves the aggressive nature of the exchange.
However, as the second term is far more offensive in the SL than the first
one, there is again a sense of loss in the TT. Furthermore, when the slang
and highly derogatory you skanky6 little pikey7 (line 5) is rendered as
sale gitane, another case of under-translation occurs. Manouche [gippo/
pikey] would have been a preferable alternative to the more conventional
gitan(e) [gypsy].
The use of non-standard grammar is a noteworthy feature of the translation of this scene. In line 1, Cest quoi, ton problme? compensates in part
for the fact that the vulgarity of the ST is sometimes under-translated and,
in line 3, omission of the French negative ne helps to preserve the colloquial quality of Keeleys Quit it, Mia. This said, when Mia asks, What
you gonna do about it? (line 6), the French translation, Tu vas porter
6
7

Skanky: The act of looking cheap, dirty and nasty. Also acting slutty. <http://www.
urbandictionary.com> (accessed 03.07.10).
Pikey: From the English turnpike, the place where itinerant travellers and thieves
would camp near a settlement. Pikey is not a racial group; the term is used to
describe anyone who lives in a caravan or shares the same values and culture of
the travelling community []. <http://www.urbandictionary.com> (accessed
03.07.10).

Transporting the Aquarium

89

plainte?, is much more correct in terms of its lexis; this results in a definite
neutralization of the ST style.
Given that this is an audiovisual text, any such losses are, however,
minimal. It is not only the lexis and grammar which convey the aggressive nature and informal register of this scene. As was discussed in the
Introduction to this book, films are inherently multi-model in character
and the process of subtitling is consequently intersemiotic in nature (AssisRosa 2001: 21314). In the present case, multiple aural clues tone, volume
and speed of voice and constant interjections and visual ones facial
expressions, body language and violent gestures are available to the TT
audience. These contribute significantly to the sense of acrimony which
pervades the scene.8
In brief, if instances of loss in translation and under-translation can
be witnessed in the subtitling of this scene, these are, for the most part,
successfully compensated for, both lexically and grammatically. Moreover,
when translation results in a neutralization of the style of the source language, aural clues play an important part in preserving the aggression and
informality of the original scene in its subtitled version.

Scene Two
In this scene, Mia meets Connor for the first time. She is in the kitchen,
dressed in her pyjamas, waiting for the kettle to boil and dancing seductively to music on the television. Connor sees Mia dancing as her enters
the room. Taken by surprise and embarrassed, she is defensive and rude to
him. Nevertheless, the camera shots, which show Mia watching Connor,
suggest her immediate interest in, and attraction to, this new man.

Tveit (2009: 87) also acknowledges that [] tone of voice, stress and intonation
[] contribute to conveying information across language barriers [].

90

Chapter 3

C = Connor; M = Mia
Speaker

ST

TT

1) C

Dont mind me, girl. Carry on.

Toccupe pas de moi,

continue.
[Dont bother about me. Continue.]

2) C

I was enjoying it.

3) M

As if.

4) C

You making eggs?

5) M

No.

6) C

Whats the water for?

7) M

Im making tea.

8) C

Im a friend of your mother. You

dance like a Black.

9) C

Its a compliment.

10) M

What do you know?

11) C

I watch videos, like everyone else.

Je regarde des clips,

comme tout le monde.
[I watch video clips, like everyone.]

12) M

And that makes you some kind of

expert, does it?

a fait de toi un spcialiste?

[That makes you a specialist?]

13) C

Youve got a mouth on you!

a me plaisait.
[I was enjoying it.]
Cest a.
[Thats it.]
Tu te fais des oeufs?
[Are you making yourself
some eggs?]
Non.
[No.]
Cest pour quoi, leau?
[Whats the water for?]
Je me fais du th.
[Im making myself some tea.]
Je suis un ami de ta mre.
Tu danses comme
une Black.
[Im a friend of
your mother.
You dance like a Black.]
Cest un compliment.
[Its a compliment.]
Do tu sors a?
[Where do you get that from?]

Tas rponse tout?

[You got an answer for everything?]

91

Transporting the Aquarium

14) C

What should I call you, anyway?

15) M

Whatever you like.

16) C

Thats a charming personality

youve got there!

17) C

See you later.

Tu tappelles comment?
[What are you called?]
Comme tu veux.
[As you like.]
Tu sais charmer ton monde.
[You know how to charm people.]
A plus tard.
[See you later.]

The key challenge which this scene presents concerns the translation of
accent, the sociocultural implications of which are not immediately available to the French audience. The most noteworthy linguistic feature of this
scene is the clear distinction between Mias Essex accent and Connors Irish
lilt; an accent which is somewhat musical and pleasant to listen to (Pitts
2013).9 The recapturing of this in translation is handled in a number of
ways. First, both of these non-standard SL accents (Hughes and Trudgill
1996: 3) are partially compensated for in the TT through less accurate use
of TL grammar. Mias What do you know? (line 10) becomes Do tu
sors a? rather than a lengthier and more correct Quest-ce que tu en sais?.
Similarly, Connors use of girl (line 1) is recaptured by the non-standard
Toccupe pas de moi (omission of negative ne) (Strutz 1999: iv).
More significant, and easier to preserve in the TT, are the characters
very different attitudes. If Mia is somewhat snappy, her speech is less aggressive than usual and she uses no vulgar language. Her defensive responses
are successfully preserved by using relatively close translation strategies
(lines 3, 5, 12, 15). By contrast, Connor is not only of another culture but
also has a very different personality. His relaxed manner is reflected in his
voice, both in his use of non-aggressive language and in the slow pace of his
speech. This is easily preserved in the TT, given that the subtitles evidently
accompany the original soundtrack (Tveit 2009: 87). Last, Connors gentle
use of irony, which serves to diffuse the slight tension in the atmosphere

As was the case of the films examined in Chapters One and Two, Fish Tank clearly
has a distinctly heteroglossic quality (Bakhtin 1940/ 1981: 67; 19345/ 1981: 292).

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Chapter 3

(line 16), is fully maintained in the TL through use of a more concise, but
perfectly equivalent, expression: Thats a charming personality youve got
there!: Tu sais charmer ton monde.
Thus, although it would be impossible to fully recapture Connors
Irish accent in translation, Boillot and Haughton partially compensate
for this through their use of non-standard TL grammar. Again, the presence of the original soundtrack, against which the subtitles are set, allows
the relaxed pace of his speech to be preserved. The use of equivalent TL
expressions also enables the ironic tone of the ST to be recaptured in its
subtitles. It can thus be argued that, by employing a combination of translation strategies and relying on the presence of the original SL soundtrack,
the films subtitlers manage to preserve the different, contrasting qualities
of Mia and Connors voices for the TL audience.

Scene Three
In this, the penultimate scene of Fish Tank, Mia is about to leave home to
begin a new life with her traveller boyfriend. In the lounge, Joanne is dancing to one of Mias CDs, which is in fact the theme tune of the film. The
music is very different to that which Joanne usually listens to; this scene
therefore suggests her eventual attempt to connect with her daughter.
Following the dialogue below, Mia responds to Joanne. The pair dance
together in synchrony, are joined by Tyler and are watched closely by their
pet Staffordshire bull terrier, Tennents.
J = Joanne; M = Mia
Speaker

ST

1) M

Im going then.

2) J

Its one of your CDs.

3) M

Yeah.

TT
Jy vais.
[Im going.]
Cest un de tes CD.
[Its one of your CDs.]
NO SUBTITLE

93

Transporting the Aquarium

4) J

Sorright.

5) M

Yeah, its Nas. Hes good. You can

keep it.

6) J

Go on then, fuck off. What are

you waiting for?

Cest pas mal.

[Its not bad.]
Oui, cest Nas. Cest bon. Garde-le.
[Yes, its Nas. Its good. Keep it.]
Vas-y, casse-toi! Tattends quoi?
[Go on, get lost! What are you waiting
for?]

The overriding translation issue to which the present scene gives rise is
again the recapturing of accent. The way in which culture-bound terms
are handled also proves interesting. The language which accompanies this
scene is typically informal and the characters regional accent comes across
strongly. The challenges of rendering this in the TL are dealt with variously. In line 4, Joannes slovenly pronunciation of Its alright (Sorright)
is partly recaptured by an omission of the French negative ne. Mias yeah is
not translated in line 3, as the meaning of this internationally understood
word is self-evident. However, in line 5, her Yeah, its Nas. becomes Oui,
cest Nas.10 Boillot and Haughton opt for a standard spelling in their subtitle, avoiding the non-standard French equivalent of yeah, ouais.11 This,
in turn, is compensated for in line 6 when Joannes standard SL question,
What are you waiting for?, becomes a very informal Tattends quoi? as
opposed to a more standard Quest-ce que tu attends?
This is an emotionally charged scene; Joanne is upset and has obviously
been crying. Her listening and dancing to Mias CD and her giving approval
to this music are the only signs of affection which she shows her daughter
in the entire film. Despite this, Joanne ultimately tells Mia to fuck off
(line 6), which is once again under-translated as casse-toi. Joanne is so used
to addressing her daughter aggressively that she seems unable to talk to her
in any other way. In sum, despite some instances of under-translation, the
non-standard register of the language which pervades this scene is largely
recaptured through the use of non-standard, informal TL grammar.

10 This is the only explicit reference which is made to Nas in Fish Tank. The films
theme tune, sung by Nas, will be discussed at a later stage in this chapter.
11 The predominance of written-register features in subtitles has been investigated and
demonstrated by other researchers in the field (Assis Rosa 2001: 21516).

94

Chapter 3

As was previously mentioned, the familys pet dog witnesses this scene.
Due to the drinking culture which prevails on this housing estate, alcohol
assumes considerable importance; the characters are seen drinking at home,
in the street, while dancing and at parties. In this spirit, the familys pet is
named Tennents, after the famous Scottish lager. Thus, the issue of translating cultural allusions arises. As Luyken (1991: 157) comments aptly: If
language consisted of just words, subtitling would be easy. The problem
lies in the fact that behind the words lies a world of associations, customs,
institutions: in short, a whole culture. When Mia returns home in one scene
and the dog growels, she says: Its only me, Tennents, stupid dog. This
name is directly transposed from the ST to the TT: Cest moi, Tennents,
gros dbile. To the ST audience, this name is very funny. By contrast, the
source-oriented translation strategy used here results in a loss of humour
in this TT. In order to achieve similar amusement in the TT, it would be
necessary to substitute this name with a brand of French lager, which is
nevertheless well-known in anglophone countries, such as Kronenbourg
or Stella. As Boillot and Haughton do not make this choice, it is perhaps
a lost opportunity to render the humorous name of the dog amusing to a
French-speaking audience.

Scene Four
Throughout Fish Tank, Mias interaction with her sister, Tyler, is characterized by bitching and nastiness.12 However, before Mia gets in to the car to
go to Wales with her boyfriend, she and Tyler share an affectionate hug.

12

In one scene, Tyler asks Mia What are you doing? [Tu fais quoi?]. Mia replies Mind
your own, fuck face [Toccupe-toi, petite ptasse], to which Tyler retorts If Im a fuck
face, youre a c**t face [Toccupe toi-mme, grosse pute]. The translation of this short
exchange is particularly effective as the second insult is even more offensive than the
first in both the the SL and the TL.

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Transporting the Aquarium

As the car pulls away, Tyler runs after it, shouting. These two characters
are not used to being nice to each other; the sentiment which they show
here is therefore masked by use of apparently hostile language.
M = Mia; T = Tyler
Speaker

ST

TT

1) T

I hate you.

Je te dteste.
[I hate you.]

2) M

I hate you too.

3) T

Bye you scank. Dont forget to

text me!

Salut ptasse. Envoie-moi un SMS.

[See ya, you tart. Send me a text.]

4) M

Say hello to the W(h)ales for me!

Dis bonjour aux galeux de ma part.

[Say hello to the scruffs from me.]

Moi aussi.
[Me too.]

When translating this scene, Boillot and Haughton again confront the
issue of translating humour and irony which is linguistically and culturally
bound. This scene is underpinned by a strong sense of affection. Due to the
audiovisual context in which the speech is set viewers witness the two
sisters hugging the irony of lines 1 and 2 is immediately apparent. This
is recaptured closely and concisely in the TL. In line 2, Tyler calls Mia a
skank. In the above discussion of Scene One, it was seen that skanky can
be defined as cheap, dirty, nasty or slutty. Ptasse (slut) is therefore an
apt translation of this SL insult. The offensiveness of this term is, however,
mitigated; in the second part of line 3, Tyler reminds Mia to keep in touch.
Her Dont forget to text me is translated by the contracted and equally
effective TL structure Envoie-moi un SMS [Send me a text].
The wordplay contained in line 4 ensures that this scene ends on a
lighter note. In Tylers Say hello to the W(h)ales for me!, it is unclear whether
this young girl thinks that the Welsh are called the Wales, or whether she is
deliberately referring to these people as animals. In any case, the SL viewer
hears the noun whales, which has a gently humorous effect. Translation of
this term as galeux (shabby/ scruffy) instead of the phonetically similar
Gallois (Welsh), has an equally amusing effect on the TT audience; in

96

Chapter 3

this instance, Boillot and Haughtons creation of an alternative TL pun

enables similar humour to be created. In brief, use of equivalent TL insults,
recreation of SL wordplays and reliance on audiovisual context enable the
humour and irony of this scene to be successfully transferred across cultures.

Musical soundtrack
As this chapter mentioned at the outset, it is not only the character interaction which Fish Tank contains but also its musical soundtrack which contribute significantly to the portrayal of the social class and culture which
the film seeks to represent. In their discussion of the subtitling of songs,
Daz-Cintas and Remal (2007: 20710) suggest that the translation of
certain tracks may be necessary. These include songs: which are long and
which would leave viewers wondering about their meaning if they were
left untranslated; which constitute the essence of a film; which support the
narrative more or less explicitly; which suggest mood or create atmosphere.
Daz-Cintas and Remal also posit that, when the decision to translate has
been made, three issues should be considered; those of content, rhythm
and rhyme (ibid.: 211). Bearing in mind these points, three of the films
key songs will be examined. The first two are the only ones in the film to
have been subtitled. The third, somewhat surprisingly, is not translated.
Me & U
Me & U (2006) is sung by Cassie, an American singer, model and dancer
whose music is in the mould of that of Janet Jackson or Jennifer Lopez. It
features in the second of the eight previously discussed scenes; a gang of
girls from the housing estate are performing a dance to some local boys,
and Mia is watching them critically. If the above criteria are applied, the
decision to translate these lines, which constitute approximately one fifth
of the songs entire lyrics, is entirely founded. The song is relatively long;

97

Transporting the Aquarium

non-anglophone TL viewers would therefore need to understand its meaning. The sexual nature of the lyrics also explicitly supports the seductive
dance which is performed; these lyrics therefore contribute to creating
an atmosphere of sexual enticement. In sum, the message of the scene is
certainly enhanced by this use of intertextuality.
Line

ST

TT

1.

Youve been waiting so long.

Tu as attendu si longtemps.
[You have waited so long.]

2.

Im here to answer your call.

Maintenant, je suis l.
[Now Im here.]

3.

I know that I shouldnt have

Je sais, jaurais pas d

[I know I shouldnt have]

4.

had you waiting at all.

5.

Ive been so busy

6.

but Ive been thinking bout what I

wanna do wit you.

7.

I know them other guys

8.

they been talking bout the way I

do what I do.

9.

They heard I was good.

Ils savent que je suis bonne.

[They know that Im good.]

10.

They wanna see if its true.

Ils fantasment sur moi.

[They fantasize about me.]

11.

They know youre the one I wanna

give it to.

12.

I can see you want me too.

te laisser attendre si longtemps.

[left you waiting so long.]
Jai eu beaucoup faire
[Ive had a lot to do]
mais jai imagin tout ce que je veux te
faire.
[But Ive thought about everything that
I want to do to you.]
Je sais que tous les mecs
[I know that all the guys]
racontent que jassure comme aucune
autre nana.
[say that Im great [in bed] like no
other girl.]

Mais tu es le seul que je veux

aujourdhui.
[But you are the only one I want today.]
Et tu me veux aussi.
[And you want me too.]

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Chapter 3

The above translation is not always exact; simplifications are made (lines
2, 7, 9, 12), as are some slight modifications (8, 10, 11). This said, the song
is, at all times, couched in a perfectly equivalent TL idiom and the content
of the ST is fully preserved in the subtitles. The rhythm is also maintained
as the subtitles are set against the songs melody on the SL soundtrack.
Nevertheless, whereas alternate lines of the ST rhyme (call/ all, you/
do, true/ too), such is not the case in the TT. This is, however, of no real
consequence. Content and rhythm take precedence over the rhyme of
the song and an absence of the latter entails no real linguistic or cultural
loss in translation; this song is successfully transferred across cultures.
Indeed, the decision to subtitle this particular track enhances the TL
audiences appreciation of both the message and the mood of the scene.
California Dreamin
The films second translated song, California Dreamin, was first released
in 1965 by the Mamas and the Papas, an American vocal group. However,
when Joanne and Connor discuss his CD collection in his car, it becomes
apparent that the track which features in Fish Tank is in fact Bobby
Womacks 1968 cover version of the song.
California Dreamin features three times in Fish Tank: first, when
Connor takes Joanne and her two daughters for a drive in the countryside;
second, when Mia is practising a dance which she intends to perform at an
audition; third, as she is about to perform her dance at the audition, before
she changes her mind and leaves. Again, the decision to translate these
lyrics was particularly appropriate. The song is lengthy and is repeated;
an explanation of its meaning is therefore necessary. It supports the narrative very explicitly and the words describe an exotic and better world in
America. In the car, the song helps to create a relaxed atmosphere on the
family day out. At the audition, it may be seen to encourage Mia to accept
a challenge and to aspire to something which is preferable to her current
situation. Thus, in both of these contexts, this use of intertextuality contributes to, and enhances, the film.

99

Transporting the Aquarium

Line

ST

TT

1.

All the leaves are brown

Les feuilles sont brunes

[The leaves are brown]

2.

(All the leaves are brown)

3.

and the sky is gray.

4.

(And the sky is gray).

5.

Ive been for a walk

6.

(Ive been for a walk)

7.

on a winters day.

8.

(on a winters day).

NO SUBTITLE

9.

Id be safe and warm

Il ferait plus doux

[It would be milder]

10.

(Id be safe and warm)

NO SUBTITLE

11.

if I was in L.A.

si jtais L.A.
[if I was in L.A.]

12.

(if I was in L.A.)

13.

California dreamin

14.

(California dreamin) on such a

winters day.

15.

Stopped in a church I passed

along the way.

Jai vu une glise, je my suis arrt.

[I saw a church, I stopped there.]

16.

Well I got down on my knees

Je me suis agenouill
[I knelt down]

17.

(got down on my knees)

18.

and I pretend to pray.

19.

(I pretend to pray).

20.

You know the preacher likes the

cold.

NO SUBTITLE
et le ciel est gris.
[and the sky is grey.]
NO SUBTITLE
Je marche sans but
[Im walking aimlessly]
NO SUBTITLE
par un jour dhiver.
[on a Winters day.]

NO SUBTITLE
Je rve la Californie
[Im dreaming of California]
par ce jour dhiver.
[on this Winters day.]

NO SUBTITLE
et jai commenc prier.
[and I started to pray.]
NO SUBTITLE
Le prtre bnit le froid.
[The priest blesses the cold.]

100

Chapter 3

Line

ST

TT

21.

(Preacher likes the cold).

NO SUBTITLE

22.

He knows Im gonna stay.

Car il sait que je vais rester.

[Because he knows that
Im going to stay.]

23.

(Knows Im gonna stay).

NO SUBTITLE

If the translation of this part of the song, which constitutes approximately

two thirds of the entire lyrics, contains some simplifications (line 1) and
inaccuracies (lines 5, 9, 18), it does largely preserve the content of the ST;
the latters global message is not compromised. The songs rhythm is also
maintained as the subtitles are set against the original soundtrack; a device
which, in this instance, serves to reinforce the foreign colour and quality of
this intertext. As was the case of the previous song, the alternate rhyming
lines of this ST are not preserved in the TT, yet this does not in any way
detract from the translation. The song has the same function in the TL as it
does in the original film.
Lifes a Bitch
The third song to be considered in the present chapter is Lifes a Bitch (2007)
by the American rapper, Nas, who was referred to explicitly in the third
scene discussed above. This song is heard during the film as Mia practises
her hip-hop dancing and as she dances in synchrony with Joanne in the
penultimate scene of the film (Scene Three, discussed above). It is also the
films theme tune. Although its lyrics contain a certain amount of rap slang
which would have been extremely difficult to translate, the decision to subtitle not even the songs chorus is surprising; the latter recurs, contributes
to the films atmosphere of rap culture and supports Mias own narrative:
Lifes a bitch and then you die, thats why we get high
Cause you never know when youre gonna go
Lifes a bitch and then you die, thats why we puff lye
Cause you never know when youre gonna go.

Transporting the Aquarium

101

Life is indeed something of a bitch for Mia; she takes her own refuge from
it in her dancing and drinking. It could be argued that subtitling these
four lines, possibly during the previously examined third scene or as an
accompaniment to the theme tune, would enhance the non-anglophone
TL audiences appreciation of both the relevance of this track and the film
as a whole.

Conclusion
Transporting the Aquarium has focused on Andrea Arnolds 2009 film,
Fish Tank, which is set in a socially deprived council estate in Essex and
contains much non-standard, colloquial and vulgar language. This chapter
has considered some of the key difficulties presented by the subtitling of
Fish Tank into French and has examined the strategies employed in order
to deal with these difficulties. It has thereby sought to establish the extent
to which the translation of this film preserves the linguistic and cultural
specificity of the ST, an English soundtrack, in its corresponding written
French subtitles; that is, how the fish tank, or aquarium, is transported
from the source environment to the target environment.
In its analysis of the subtitling of four significant instances of character interaction, including some presence of diastratic variation (Flydal
1951) and heteroglossia (Bakhtin 1940/ 1981: 67; 19345/ 1981: 292),
and three songs, the chapter has identified certain slight losses which
occurred in translation. Much of the vulgar language of the ST is, for
instance, either omitted or toned down, which results in some neutralization of the SL style and loss of character identity (Daz-Cintas and
Remal 2007: 197). This, however, is subtly compensated for by making
more selective use of vulgar TL terms, lowering the register from the SL
to the TL and relying on audiovisual clues which are available, such as
aggressive facial expressions and violent gestures. As Luyken (1991: 29,
my emphasis) suggests:

102

Chapter 3
Any method of Language Transfer will inevitably interfere with the original film []
but it should attempt to be as unobtrusive as possible so that, ideally, the new viewers experience [] will differ as little as possible from that of the original audience.

Retaining the culture-bound term Tennents does indeed result in a loss of

humour in the TT and the decision to provide no subtitles to the admittedly challenging theme tune, Lifes a Bitch, entails indisputable semantic
loss. In these instances, the new viewers experience differs indisputably
from that of the original audience. This said, as it has been demonstrated
throughout the present chapter, for the most part, Fish Tanks subtitles,
which contain close, accurate and concise translations and are evidently
set against the original audiovisual context (Tveit 2009: 87), succeed very
well at preserving the films representation of this social class and culture.
Reception-related evidence confirms that the force of Arnolds film has
been grasped by members of the subtitled films audience. Among the
appreciative comments provided by viewers and which appear on <http://
www.amazon.fr> are the following: Un magnifique film dans le style de
Ken Loach [a magnificent film in the style of Ken Loach]; Le film montre
sans ornement la vie dune adolescente de la banlieue anglaise [The film
shows, simply and directly, the life of a teenage girl from an English council
estate]; Cest pre, rauque, tendu; cest terriblement raliste sans oublier dtre
potique [Its rough, harsh and tense; its terribly realistic while at the same
time poetic]. Indeed, Arnolds Fish Tank is not transformed in its translation from the SL to the TL; rather Boillot and Haughton ensure that it is
transported, intact, from one linguistic and cultural context to another.

Chapter 4

Police Patter:1 Retaining Linguistic Variation

in the English Subtitles of Mawenns Polisse

Introduction
Author-director Mawenns 2011 film, Polisse, is based on real-life cases handled by Paris Brigade de Protection de Mineurs (BPM) [Child Protection
Unit]. After introducing the film, this chapter defines the particular challenges to which subtitling Polisse into English gives rise. It then concentrates
on three scenes in which members of the BPM interact with one another,
and subsequently on three scenes in which the team deals with a range of
distinct subjects. Focusing on the linguistic variation present in the SL film,
this chapter examines the translation strategies employed, and the extent
to which Polisses linguistically variegated character is therefore retained,
in its English-language subtitles.

The film
Polisse, the title of which is a childs misspelling of the word police, is a
powerful pseudo-documentary of the BPMs daily activities. Photographer
Mlissa (Mawenn) is assigned by the Ministry of Justice to document some

Patter: The special language or jargon of a profession or other group. The New
Oxford Dictionary of English (1998: 1361).

104

Chapter 4

of the Units work, which includes dealing with child molesters, teenage
prostitutes, abused children and foreign people in difficulty. The emotional
strain under which the BPM work is extreme, and Polisse illustrates vividly
how this impacts on the personal lives of the team. The film ends dramatically as female officer Iris, who has just been informed of her promotion,
can no longer handle the pressure and jumps from the window of the room
in which a meeting with her colleagues is being held.

Language in the film: Significance of linguistic

variation/ Subtitling challenges
The language contained in Polisse contributes significantly to the portrayal
of those aspects of Parisian life which the film seeks to represent.2 Members
of the BPM argue amongst themselves, interact with their superiors and
enjoy banter, both with their equals and with new members of their team.
As it will be witnessed in the following pages, the characters are, at times,
acutely aware of the language which they use; indeed, their metalinguistic
discussions become the focus of some scenes. The team also has contact with
a wide variety of subjects, from paedophiles, through teenage prostitutes
and abused children, to foreign people in distress. Not only does the language used by these subjects vary enormously, so too does that used by the
police as they respond. As such, the script of this SL film is richly textured,
inherently heteroglossic (Bakhtin 1940/ 1981: 67; 19345/ 1981: 292) and
poses a range of challenges for the translator. As is the case of all subtitled
films, the presence of the original soundtrack and images in the TL version
of this film is invaluable in helping to preserve the content and flavour of
the original film (Tveit 2009: 87). While acknowledging this, the present
chapter sets out, first and foremost, to examine the specific challenges posed

As was suggested in previous chapters, it is important to acknowledge that, given that

this film is fiction, the language used by the characters is not real-life conversation;
it is a representation thereof (Guillot 2012: 106).

Police Patter

105

by the subtitling of Polisse, the translation strategies employed to deal with

these challenges, and the extent to which the films English subtitles therefore succeed at retaining the linguistic variation which is such a significant
feature of the SL soundtrack. In order to do so, Police Patter examines a
range of issues, focusing on three scenes in which members of the BPM
interact with one another, and three scenes in which they deal with some
very different subjects. For both intra-police interaction and police-subject
exchanges, a scene depicting aggression, one showing embarrassment and
related laughter, and one displaying kindness and compassion will be examined. In some of these scenes, and between scenes, instances of code switching (Goffman 1981: 128) and changes in footing can be observed; these are
particularly revelatory of the nature of the relationships between characters
(Voloshinov 1929/ 1973: 85).3 Interestingly, the English-language subtitlers
of Polisse are nowhere named or acknowledged in the films French TL version; henceforth, they will thus be referred to as the subtitlers.

Scene One
In this scene, the police officers demonstrate a high degree of linguistic
awareness; indeed, this tendency dominates the following extract. Here, a
number of officers are gathered in the staff cantine and are eating lunch.
The officers chatter excitedly and loudly, often talking over one another.

In the field of Sociocultural Linguistics, which examines the social and cultural functions and meanings of language use (Nilep 2006: 2), the concept of code switching
refers to the practices of using different languages or language varieties in different
social situations and of switching varieties in order to mark a change in situation.
According to Goffman (1981: 128), such shifts in language, which may be accompanied by changes in pitch, rhythm, stress and tone, are indicative of changes in footing,
that is, of the stance or position which an individual adopts within an interaction.
These may reflect changes in purpose, context or the roles of participants. Close
observation of discourse therefore helps to clarify the function of language variation
within social interaction (Nilep ibid.: 14).

106

Chapter 4

When the new, well-spoken officer, Gabriel, wishes to have his say, he is
criticized and belittled by the older and more established officer, Bamako;
the latter is annoyed by, and fails to understand, some of Gabriels more
refined uses of language. When ultimately asked by Bamako why he does
not speak normally, Gabriel resorts to an amusing and exaggerated imitation of the vulgar language, non-standard uses and hand-gestures used by
Bamako and some other colleagues, explaining that he chooses not to use
the same language as them because he finds it annoying.
B = Bamako; G = Gabriel; N = Nora
Speaker

ST

TT

1) G

Laisse-moi parler!
[Let me speak.]

Let me get a word in.

2) B

Mais oui, je te laisse parler. Tu parleras

quand tu seras grad!
[But yes, Im letting you speak. Youll
speak when youre a sergeant!]

Youll have your say

when youre an officer.

3) G

Cest compltement ridicule, ce

que tu dis!
[Its completly ridiculous, what youre
saying!]

Thats pathetic.

4) B

Mais oui, cest ridicule, cest comme a.

[But yes, its ridiclous, its like that.]

Like it or lump it.

5) G

Est-ce que tu te rends comptes Est-ce

que tu as conscience de la btise que tu
viens de dire?
[Do you realize Are you aware of the
stupidity of what you have just said?]

Have you any idea

how ridiculous that is?
No offense.

6) G

Je nai pas envie de toffenser, mais

franchement, parler de mon statut quand
je suis juste en train davoir un point
de vue
[I dont want to offend you, but frankly,
speaking of my rank when Im just having
an opinion ]

Ive no desire to offend you,

but pulling rank
when Im merely expressing
an opinion

107

Police Patter
7) B

Sais quoi? Tu parles bien.

[Know what? You speak well.]

Know what? Youre a good

talker.

8) B

Cest parfait, tas les bons mots et tout

[Its perfect, youve got the right words and
eveything]

Youve got the gift

of the gab,
the right words

9) B

mais tu vois, tes arguments sont bidon.

[but you see, your arguments are phoney.]

but your arguments are

phoney.

10) G

Je nai pris aucun argument.

[I havent adopted any argument.]

11) G

Cest toi qui as mis une espce dargument

massue depuis tout lheure.
[Its you who have been putting forward
a sort of sledgehammer argument since
earlier.]

12) N

Cest ce qui arrive,

[Thats what happens,]

13) N

ds quon ne parle pas de cul, cest

inintressant!
[as soon as people arent talking smutty, its
not interesting!]

14) G

Vous tes en train de mostraciser parce

que
[Youre ostracizing me because ]

15) B

Je comprends pas!
[I dont understand!]

16) N

Il comprend pas ostraciser.

[He doesnt understand ostracize.]

17) G

Vous misolez
[Youre isolating me ]

Youre sidelining me.

18) B

Voil, dis a!
[Thats right, say that!]

Say sideline not ostracize!

19) N

Je suis sa traductrice.
[Im his translator.]

20) G

Je suis dsol,
[Im sorry,]

NO SUBTITLE
Youre the one
with the killer argument.

This is what happens

when its not about sex. Hes
bored.

Youre ostracizing me just

because
Dont understand!
He doesnt understand
ostracize.

Im his translator.
Im sorry,

108
Speaker

Chapter 4
ST

TT

21) G

mais vous avez tous votre identit dans le

groupe,
[but you all have your identity in the group,]

you all have your own

identity,

22) G

vous tes tous super diffrents,

[youre all really different,]

23) G

vous avez tous des rapports les uns avec

les autres et vous vous respectez par votre
identit.
[you all have contact with each other and
respect each other by your identity.]

you all respect each others

identity.

24) G

Je suis dsol, je ne vois pas pour quelle

raison le fait que je mexprime bien
[Im sorry, but I dont see why the fact that
I express myself well]

I dont see why the way I talk

25) G

mempche dtre respect par vous.

[prevents me from being respected by you.]

stops you respecting me.

26) B

Pourquoi tu ne parles pas normal?

[Why dont you speak normal?]

27) G

Pourquoi je ne parle pas normalement?

[Why dont I speak normally?]

Talk normally?

28) G

Parce que, eh, vas-y, tu vas me pomper,

viens, viens!
[Because, hey, go on, youre going to give
me a blow-job, come on, come on!]

Hey, blow me right here.

Cmon man!

29) G

Eh, on va se niquer, etc!

[Hey, were going to get laid!]

30) G

La putain, cest super!

[That slut is great!]

31) G

Moi, cest juste, a me fatigue, quoi.

[Me, its just, it annoys me, you know.]

youre all different,

Talk normal!

Were gonna get laid!

Check out that clit shit!
Fine, but it gets on my
nerves.

As this self-conscious discussion contains very distinct, contrasting uses

and registers of the SL, the principal challenge faced by the subtitlers of this
scene is clearly one of preserving these linguistic variations which alternate
throughout. Bamakos aggression and supposed superiority (Voloshinov
1229/ 1973: 85) is reflected in the pitch, rhythm and tone of his voice

Police Patter

109

(Goffman 1988: 128). In line 2, this character is abrupt and his words are
closely translated in the TL. Gabriel defends himself (lines 3 and 5), again
somewhat abruptly, and the curtness of his response is also closely preserved
in the corresponding subtitles. In line 6, Gabriels words are polite, and his
register is much more elevated. This is again fully and closely recaptured in
its English translation. This line contrasts with Bamakos very colloquial
language (7 and 9). The subtitlers ensure that the switch between, and
contrast of, registers is fully preserved here and through the remainder of
the scene. Towards the end of the exchange, Bamako and Gabriels nonstandard and correct adverbial uses (26 and 27) are also translated closely.4 By contrast, Gabriels ultimate annoyance and amusingly exaggerated
imitation of vulgar slang5 (28 to 31), which mark a change of his footing
in this interaction (Goffman 1981: 128), do not lend themselves to such
close renderings; instead the subtitlers use a number of (American) TL
equivalents. If the decision to use very colloquial American expressions
when subtitling the French film, La Haine, into English has been heavily
criticized (cf. Introduction), the limited use of this translation strategy in
the subtitling of the present scene does seem acceptable; it is employed only
very selectively and therefore does not entail any real linguistic or cultural
displacement of the SL films original scene.
Juxtaposed, self-conscious uses of language throughout this scene are
thus accurately recaptured by the films subtitlers through the use of close, and
sometimes literal, translation strategies and some TL equivalents. Acrimony,
growing tension and annoyance are also very apparent in the tone of the SL
soundtrack, as are the facial expressions and hand gestures of both officers
throughout the scene (Tveit 2009: 87). From the outset, Gabriel speaks
calmly but firmly (3, 5, 10, 11), maintaining eye contact with his colleague,
until the point at which he deliberately alters the tone and speed of his
4

The use of normal (adjective) rather than normalement (adverb) has been
described by Gadet (1996; 1998) as a feature of popular, banlieue French. While
non-standard, this use is also systematic amongst these speakers (as can be witnessed
in the dialogue of La Haine, cf. Introduction), so cannot necessarily be described
as incorrect.
See also discussion of largot des cits [slang used on underprivileged urban housing
estates] (George Pilard 2002: 90).

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Chapter 4

speech to mimic that of certain other officers (27 to 30). By contrast, Bamako
stares confontationally at Gabriel, uses fast and aggressive hand gestures,
constantly speaks with a raised tone (2, 7, 8, 9) and shouts loudly when he
does not understand (15, 18, 26). The fact that these audiovisual clues are
still present as a backdrop to the subtitles is of considerable help in ensuring that the flavour of the scene is fully preserved in the TL version of the
film. As the latter is a multi-semiotic medium (Tveit: ibid.), linguistic and
audiovisual modes constantly work together and complement each other.

Scene Two
Here, female officer, Chrys, and her male colleague, Mathieu, who have
been questioning a man accused of molesting his young daughter, talk to
their boss and head of the BPM, Beauchard. If Beauchard suspects that the
accused man is guilty of child abuse, Chrys and Mathieu argue his innocence. Early in the conversation, Mathieu incorrectly uses the word prototype instead of stereotype. Chrys promptly corrects her colleague, but finds
the mistake amusing. In the remainder of the scene, Chrys and Mathieu
speak in broken sentences as they attempt to address their superior sensibly and to recover from their respective amusement and embarrassment.
B = Beauchard; C = Chrys; M = Mathieu
Speaker

ST

TT

1) B

Je crois quil vous trimballe compltement

et quil ne veut pas vous dire quil a eu du
plaisir sexuel avec sa fille.
[I think that hes totally playing you along
and that he doesnt want to tell you that he
got sexual pleasure from his daughter.]

Hes playing you. He cant

admit
he got sexual pleasure from
his daughter.

2) M

Tout ce que je peux dire, cest que ce nest

pas le prototype quon voit dhabitude, quoi.
[All that I can say, is that he isnt the
prototype that we usually see, you know.]

All I can say is,

hes not the usual prototype.

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Police Patter
3) C

Prototype?
[Prototype?]

Prototype?

4) C

Prototype, non. Tu veux dire strotype!

[Not prototype. You mean stereotype!]

Stereotype!

5) M

Oui, mais, enfin Cest pareil.

[Yes, but, well Its the same.]

6) M

Bref, ce nest pas le strotype de

[In short, hes not the stereotypical ]

7) C

Oui, cest un grand type

[Yes, hes a tall bloke ]

8) C

Il fait nounours, un peu

[He looks like a teddy, a bit ]

a cuddly bear type of guy.

9) M

Il na pas lair, il est plutt beau, il nest pas

moche
[He doesnt look, hes rather handsome, he
isnt ugly ]

I dont know. Hes not an

ugly,

10) M

Il nest pas vilain, quoi.

[Hes not nasty, you know.]

11) C

Voil, il fait
[Thats right, he looks ]

12) C

Il fait sain.
[He looks sound.]

13) B

Daccord.
[OK.]

14) B

Bah, coutez, on va quand mme

demander des tests psychiatriques avant de
le lcher dans la nature, daccord?
[Er, listen, all the same, well carry out
some psychiatric tests before we let him
loose, alright?]

15) C

Oui, bien sr.

[Yes, of course.]

Same difference.
All right, hes not your
stereotypical
Yeah, hes a tall guy

nasty-looking kind of guy

Yeah, he seems really
Wholesome.
OK.
But well run psychiatric tests
before we let him go.

Of course.

Throughout the conversation, Beauchard uses relatively informal language

as he speaks to the two members of his team. This is particularly apparent in
lines 1 and 14. In the former, il vous trimballe is translated effectively with the
TL equivalent hes playing you. In the latter, the very informal and oral Bah,

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Chapter 4

coutez, on va quand mme [] is recaptured very concisely with the TL But,

well . Chrys and Mathieus language is of the same informal register, and
this is in fact reinforced in subtitles 7 and 11 through use of the TL yeah. The
distance between Beauchard and his officers (Fairclough 1995; Hyatt 2006;
Voloshinov 1929/ 1973) is, then, not so much apparent in the language as in
the tone of this scene (Goffman 1981: 128). Chrys and Mathieus sniggering
and embarrassment strongly suggest their discomfort in the presence of their
superior. While Mathieus misuse of vocabulary (line 2) and Chrys correction of it (4) are translated closely and the pairs subsequent broken sentences
(lines 6 to12) are also recaptured perfectly in the TL, the tone of this scene
is largely preserved thanks to the presence of the films original audiovisual
context, that is, both its soundtrack and images (Tveit 2009: 87). In lines 1 and
2, the tone is professional and serious. However, following line 3, this changes
markedly; Chrys sniggers and covers her mouth (4) and Mathieu smiles with
embarrassment as he continues to speak (5). The pair then glance amusedly
at each other (6 to 8), before Mathieu begins to speak faster and recovers his
composure (9 and 10). With a mildly amused expression, Beauchard concludes
the conversation in a professional, collected manner.
In sum, superior-subordinate police interaction in this scene does not
pose considerable translation challenges. Here, the subtitlers have succeeded in preserving the flavour of the original scene by employing both
close translation strategies and some equivalent TL uses. This is supported
significantly by the presence of the films original soundtrack and images
in the TL version of Polisse.

Scene Three
This, the final scene of the present chapter to focus uniquely on interaction
between members of the BPM, centres on another self-conscious discussion of a different aspect of the officers speech. In the following dialogue,
Chrys explains to new colleague, Gabriel, how the team is sometimes creative with language, thereby inventing new words. A case which is neither

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Police Patter

a rape [viol], nor an act of love [acte damour] is, for instance, termed a
miol. The officers apply this principle more broadly, adding the letter m
before other SL nouns. Gabriel quickly grasps the concept, which amuses
and pleases Chrys.
In the following transcript, back translations are not provided for
certain words in the SL lines but instead appear as ***. As will be discussed
below, given that certain SL words are not standard, they cannot be translated literally.
C = Chrys; G = Gabriel.
Speaker

ST

TT

1) C

Ah, tu vois, ce que tu viens de voir,

a sappelle un miol.
[Ah, you see, what you have just
seen, is called a ***.]

Youve just seen your first ever

rave.

2) G

Daccord.
[OK.]

3) C

Daccord. Donc, cest ni un viol, ni

un acte damour.
[OK. So, its neither a rape, nor an
act of love.]

Its neither rape nor love.

Its a rave.

4) C

Il y a des maffaires, les mardes vue,

les mictimes.
[There are ***, ***, ***.]

We also have rarrests. Rustody.

Rictims.

5) G

Je pense que jai compris.

[I think that Ive understood.]

I think I get the picture.

6) G

A priori, le concept nest pas hyper

compliqu, on met un M devant.
[In principle, the concept isnt really
complicated, you put an M in front.]

Its not that complicated.

You put an R in front.

7) C

Voil, cest un gnie!

[Thats it! Hes a genius!]

NO SUBTITLE

The boys a genius!

Whereas the previous two scenes examined could be rendered in English

by employing close and sometimes literal translation strategies and TL
equivalents, accurate subtitling of the present scene requires a more creative

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Chapter 4

approach. Thus, in the SL viol + acte damour = miol, and in the TL rape
and love become rave (line 1). The letter r is then retained in order to
render subsequent creative additions of the letter r which are used either
as prefixes to, or to replace the first syllable of, TL words (line 6). Hence:
maffaires (m + affaires) becomes rarrests (r + arrests);
mardes vue (m + gardes vue) becomes rustody (r + (c)ustody);
and mictimes (m + (v)ictimes) is rendered as rictims (r + (v)ictims).

Thus, the subtitlers of Polisse undoubtedly succeed at recapturing this

self-conscious SL creativity in the TL. In order to do so, they are, however, required to use a different and more playful strategy to that which
they employed when subtitling the previous two scenes. Once again, the
essence of this scene is reinforced by the original audiovisual soundtrack
which accompanies it. The tone of the conversation is friendly and jovial,
the protagonists body language is open and their eye contact is frequent.
Although Chrys may be considered to be in a position of authority, at no
point does she assert this aggressively.
Much of the BPMs work evidently involves contact with a broad range
of troubled subjects. At this juncture, it is now apt to examine three scenes
which are based on officer-subject interaction in order to assess the extent
to which the linguistic specificity and variation present in the SL version
of Polisse are captured in its English subtitles.

Scene Four
This scene is set in a police car. Two members of the BPM, Frd and Nora,
both of North-African origin, are accompanying a teenage girl, also of
North-African descent, to the police station. As Frd drives, Nora is sitting in the back of the car next to their subject; she asks the girl if she
understands the seriousness of her actions. Annoyed at the interrogation,

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Police Patter

the girl becomes angry, offensive and argumentative. As Nora goads her,
the argument becomes heated.
N = Nora; S = Subject
Speaker

ST

TT

1) N

Mais tu ralises que tu as aid des mecs

violer une copine toi?
[But you realize that you helped some
blokes to rape a friend of yours?]

You realize you helped

guys
rape your friend?

2) N

Tas pas honte?

[Arent you ashamed?]

3) N

Tu ten prends conscience?

[Youre aware of that?]

4) N

Tu te rends pas compte de ce que tu as fait?

[You dont realize what youve done?]

5) S

Ferme ta gueule.
[Shut your gob.]

6) S

Depuis tout lheure, tu me suces la chatte.

Je tai demand de me parler, l?
[Since earlier, youve been sucking my pussy.
Did I ask you to speak to me, then?]

7) N

Je te suce la chatte?
[Im sucking your pussy?]

Sucking your pussy off ?

8) N

Parce que tu crois que de tes 14 ans, tu me

fais peur?
[Because you think that at 14 years old, you
scare me?]

Youre 14. Ooh, scary!

9) S

Parce que tu crois que de ton 1 mtre 50, tu

me fais peur?
[Because you think at 1 m 50 (~ 5 ft), you
scare me?]

Youre five feet tall. Ooh,

scary!

10) S

Sale vendue!
[Youre past it!]

11) N

Quoi vendue? Quoi vendue?

[Past it? Past it?]

Arent you ashamed?

You realize?
You see its serious?
Shut your face.
Stop sucking my pussy off !

You sellout!
Sellout?

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Chapter 4

Speaker

ST

TT

12) S

Fais chier!
[You piss me off !]

Skank bitch.

13) S

Tu nas qu me demander. Tas qu garder

la pche.
[ Just ask me. You just need to chill out.]

You ask my opinion? Take

a chill pill!

14) N

Garde la pche? a veut dire quoi, garde la

pche?
[Chill out? What does that mean, chill
out?]

Take a chill pill? Whats

that mean?

15) S

L, tu kiffes parce que cest marqu police.

Mais o jhabite, tu vas voir.
[Youre getting off on it because it says
police. But where I live, youll see.]

You big up cos it says

police.
Come by where I live.

16) N

Daccord, tu habites o?
[OK, where do you live?]

17) S

Je suis de Rbeval.
[Im from Rbeval.]

Rbeval.

18) N

Rbeval?
[Rbeval?]

Rbeval?

19) N

Mais cest le pays des nounours, Rbeval.

[But thats teddy bear country, Rbeval.]

20) S

Mais tu vas voir ce qui va tarriver. Tu vas te

faire dfoncer, tu vas voir.
[But youll see whats going to happen to
you. Youre going to get smashed in. Youll
see.]

21) N

Daccord, je vais te donner mes horaires, cest

9 h17 h tous les jours.
[OK. Ill give you my hours. Its 95 every
day.]

22) S

Tu vas voir. Je vais revenir sur le Quran. Je

vais niquer ta grand-mre. Sale pute.
[Youll see. Im going to go back to
the Quran. Im going to fuck your
grandmother. Dirty bitch.]

And where do you live?

Thats teddy bear country.

Your skank assll get it.

OK. I work 95 every day.

On the Quran, Ill come

and fuck you up.

Police Patter

117

This scene is particularly challenging to subtitle, due to the linguistic

specificity of the soundtrack. First, when Nora addresses this subject, her
French is colloquial and informal. In lines 2 and 4, she omits the French
negative ne; Tas pas honte, instead of Tu nas pas honte and Tu te rends pas
compte, as opposed to the standard Tu ne te rends pas compte. In line 4, she
also elides the personal pronoun tu; ce que tas fait, rather than ce que tu as
fait.6 Although it is clearly impossible to translate these non-standard uses
exactly, this is compensated for by the use of shortened TL question forms
in the subtitling of lines 3 and 4.
This subject is portrayed as a tough Arab girl from an underprivileged
housing estate in the suburbs of Paris. Her language is, at times, highly vulgar
(lines 6 and 23) and this is translated very closely in the TL (Landers 2001:
151). In line 12, her use of Fais chier, which may be interpreted either as Tu
me fais chier [Youre pissing me off ], or Fais chier [Fuck this], is recaptured
with the Americanized Skank bitch which, although slightly imprecise,
preserves in the subtitle the essence of the SL expletive. On three occasions,
Nora draws attention to, and questions, the girls crude and contemporary
uses of language which are undoubtedly part of her sociolect (Trudgill
2003: 122).7 At times, these are rendered very closely in the TL (lines 7 and
11) and, at other times, an entirely appropriate, current equivalent is used
(line 14). In lines 8 and 9, use of a concise English-language equivalent
ensures that the girls repetition of Noras sarcastic comment is fully
preserved.
This girls aggression is apparent in her body language and intonation as
well as in her lexis. After initially avoiding eye contact (lines 1 to 4), she looks
at Nora with a spiteful expression (7, 20, 22), speaks with an angry tone (line
6 onwards) and her voice progressively becomes louder. Indeed, these audiovisual clues all suggest her attempts to challenge authority (Fairclough 1995;
Voloshinov 1929) and to change her footing within the interaction (Goffman

6
7

Speakers of standard French often elide vowels and leave out ne in negatives []
[but] such omissions occur more frequently in slang (Strutz 1999: vi).
Sociolect: A variety or lect which is thought of as being related to its speakers social
background rather than geographical background (Trudgill 2003: 122).

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Chapter 4

1981). While this subjects body language and intonation remain present in
the SL soundtrack, her particular lexical uses are extremely difficult, albeit
impossible, to preserve in the TL (Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007; Jckel
2001). The subtitlers of Polisse do, however, make an admirable attempt at
this (lines 15 and 20).8 While any linguistic or cultural displacement of the
film should clearly be avoided (cf. Introduction, Jckels discussion of La
Haine), the language used in the subtitles of this scene resembles so closely
the sociolect of the young gang members in Andrea Arnolds Fish Tank (as
seen in Chapter 3), that it seems an entirely appropriate, equivalent, contemporary idiom in the present context.9 As such uses are also selective, they
do not in any way affect or displace the SL cultural context.
In short, this scene presents certain translation challenges due to its
extreme linguistic specificity. Noras colloquial, informal language is frequently communicated in the TL by employing compensation strategies
rather than adopting a close approach to its translation. For the most part, the
subjects vulgar and contemporary slang is preserved through close translation
and by the use of contemporary TL equivalents; as these are used appropriately and relatively sparingly, any cultural displacement of the original context
is avoided. Once again, the fact that the subtitles are set against the original
soundtrack and its increasingly angry tone, is a major factor in ensuring that
the essence of the original scene is fully retained in the films TL version.

Scene Five
In this scene, officers Sue-Ellen, Nora and Frd are questioning a girl named
Caroline who has had her smartphone snatched and been blackmailed by
another girl. When told that her phone would be returned to her if she

8
9

Kif( f )er: To get high/ to get off on (Strutz 1999: 198).

This observation partly justifies why Chapters 3 and 4 are brought together in Dealing
with Difference in Audiovisual Translation.

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Police Patter

agreed to grant the other girls male friends sexual favours, Caroline agreed
to comply. When she admits this, the officers are momentarily shocked.
Sue-Ellen and Frd both make passing jokes and the three officers, as well
as two other members of the team Nadine and Iris who are present in
the room, break into uncontrollable and inappropriate laughter. When
Nadine and Iris leave the room to attend to other matters, the remaining
officers regain their composure. However, when Iris pops her head back
around the door and makes another joke, this triggers yet more laughter.
In the film, this type of reaction is rare among members of the BPM, but
these officers are under considerable strain; here, they can no longer contain themselves.
C = Caroline; F = Frd; I = Iris; SE = Sue-Ellen
Speaker

ST

TT

1) C

Et eh, je crois que jenvoyais un SMS.

[And, er, I think that I was sending a
text.]

I was sending a text or

something.

2) C

Javais mon tlphone dans la main.

[I had my telephone in my hand.]

I had my phone in my hand.

3) C

Et aprs, il y a une fille qui me fait

montre-moi.
[And after, theres a girl who says to me
show me.

4) C

Donc, je lui montre, elle le prend dans

ses mains,
[So, I show her, she takes it in her hands,]

5) C

et, er, je lui fais, er

[and er, I say to her, er ]

6) SE

Tu ne peux pas aller o tu

[Cant you get to where ]

7) SE

Quand tu es descendue avec les gars.

[When you went down with the lads.]

When you met the boys.

8) C

Oui, bah, cest ce que je suis en train de

raconter.
[Yes, er, thats what Im teling you.]

Thats what Im telling you.

And this girl comes over,

like let me see that.

So I show her and she takes it,

and, er, like

Can you get to the

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Chapter 4

Speaker

ST

TT

9) F

OK, elle a a et elle avait ton portable et

tu disais
[OK, she has it and she had your phone
and you were saying ]

So, the girls taken your phone

and you say

10) SE

Ils ont ton portable. On en est l.

[They have your phone. Were there.]

11) SE

Aprs, quest-ce qui sest pass?

[After, what happened?]

12) C

Je leur demande de me le rendre.

[I ask them to give it back to me.]

13) C

Elle me fait, er, si tu veux rcuprer, il

faut que tu suces mes copains.
[She says to me, er, if you want it back,
you have to give my friends a blow-job.]

14) C

Donc, je dis bon, OK.

[So, I say right, OK.]

Im like, OK.

15) SE

OK? OK quoi?
[OK? OK, what?]

OK to what?

16) C

Er, pour sucer les mecs, pour mon

tlphone.
[Er, to give the blokes a blow-job for my
phone.]

To blowing them for my

phone.

17) SE

Mais dis, tu laimais vraiment beaucoup,

ce portable.
[But say, you really liked it a lot, that
phone.]

You really liked your phone.

18) C

Bah oui, quand mme.

[Er yes, I did actually.]

19) F

Et pour un ordinateur, tu fais quoi?

[And for a computer, what do you do?]

20) F

Je suis dsol, a ma chapp.

[Im sorry, it slipped out.]

21) SE

Excusez-moi.
[Excuse me.]

Theyve got your phone.

After that, what happened?
I ask for it back.
Shes like, sure,
if you give my friends head.

No kidding.
And for a laptop?
Sorry, it slipped out.
Take no notice.

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Police Patter
22) SE

Cest pas toi

[Its not you.]

Its not you

23) SE

Les filles, putain! On ne peut pas avec

ces deux-l! Arrtez!
[Girls, fuck! We cant do it with those
two. Stop it!]

24) SE

Excuse-nous.
[Excuse us.]

25) SE

Tu vas avoir une mauvaise image de la

police.
[Youre going to have a bad image of the
police.]

26) SE

On est rarement comme a.

[We are rarely like this.]

were not usually like this.

27) SE

Tu ne suces pas pour un portable. Tu en

es consciente, ou pas?
[You dont give blow-jobs for a phone.
Are you aware of that, or not?]

You dont give head for a

phone.
You realize that?

28) C

Ctait un beau portable, non?

[It was a nice phone, wasnt it?]

It was a smartphone.

29) F

Assieds-toi et on finit l.
[Sit down and well finish now.]

Sit down, and lets finish up

here.

30) F

Donc, tu as suivi tout ce petit groupe?

[So, you followed all of this little group?]

31) SE

Maintenant, on est entre gens srieux,

Caroline.
[Now were with serious people,
Caroline.]

32) I

Jai perdu mon portable.

[Ive lost my phone.]

We cant do it with those

two
Stop it!
Sorry, dont mind us.
In the police

You followed the whole

group?
We can talk seriously now,
Caroline.

Ive lost my phone.

A number of translation challenges arise when subtitling this scene into

English. First, Carolines spoken French is quite colloquial. This is most
apparent in the opening lines of the scene, when she uses the verb faire
instead of dire [to say] (lines 3, 5 and later, 13). This is recaptured very
effectively in the TL with the use of the meaningless colloquial filler, like.

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Chapter 4

Other expressions which Caroline uses, such as Bah oui, quand mme (18),
translated as no kidding, are rendered equally idiomatically and effectively.
The language which the officers use when dealing with Caroline is less colloquial than that which she uses, but remains informal. This slight distinction is mirrored accurately in the TL through the use of a close translation
approach (10 and 11). The sexual term which Caroline uses when giving her
evidence (13 and 16) is also rendered closely using two different TL terms
(Landers 2001: 151). This recurs in line 27, as Sue-Ellen tries to explain to
a bemused Caroline why her behaviour was inappropriate.
This scene only becomes amusing in line 17 when Sue-Ellen comments Mais dis, tu laimais vraiment beaucoup, ce portable [You really liked
your phone]. Frd promptly follows with his Et pour un ordinateur, tu fais
quoi? [And for a laptop?]. These lines are again translated concisely in the
TL. However, from this point in the scene, a considerable part of the message and tone are communicated through audiovisual clues present in the
original film, such as the officers uncontrollable laughter (Tveit 2009: 87).
Similarly, Iris closing joke Jai perdu mon portable is translated literally in
the TL [Ive lost my phone], but the actual laughter which this triggers
remains a hugely important part of the scene, in both the original film and
in its subtitled TL version; indeed, it ensures that pragmatic equivalence
(Koller 1979) is achieved in the translation.
In short, the linguistic variation present in this scene from Carolines
colloquial French, through the polices slightly more correct but still informal language which gives some indication of their authority (Goffman
1981: 128), to the officers jokes, which call into question their professionalism (Goffman ibid.) can be recaptured very effectively through the use
of close translation strategies and equivalent TL vocabulary and expressions. Once again, however, the language used in the original scene at
times vulgar, and at other times humorous is reinforced considerably by
the films audiovisual context (Tveit ibid.). Caroline begins by telling her
story in a serious, matter-of-fact tone (Lines 1 to 5). The officers all watch
her intently (14 and 15). Their surprise at what they hear is first reflected
in their facial expressions which are immediately followed by sniggering
(17), prolonged, uncontrollable laughter (19 to 24), an attempt at selfcomposure (26) and further hilarity, during which they rest their heads
on the table and on each other (28, 30, 32). This audiovisual backdrop is of

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considerable importance in ensuring that linguistic variation is preserved

in the films TL version.

Scene Six
In this, the last scene to be examined in Police Patter, male officer Borloo
treats his subject with kindness and compassion. In this instance, a homeless
Black African lady visits the BPM with her young son, Ousman. Having spent
six months on the streets with her son, the lady no longer feels able to look
after her child and wants to entrust him to the BPM for care. Borloo attempts
to fully understand this subjects situation before later trying to find sheltered
accommodation for her and her child. As this scene is particularly lengthy,
the present discussion will focus on approximately the first half of the dialogue between Borloo and his subject; this section contains a representative
example of the translation challenges which are presented by the entire scene.
B = Borloo; S = Subject.
Speaker

ST

TT

1) B

Bonjour Madame.
[Hello Madam.]

Hello Madame.

2) B

Asseyez-vous, je vous en prie.

[Sit down, please.]

3) B

Je vous coute.
[Im listening to you.]

4) S

Je dois vous donner mon enfant.

[I must give you my child.]

I have to give you my son.

5) S

Je nai pas lendroit o dormi.

[I no longer have the place where slept.]

I have no place where slept.

6) S

Je ne veux pas mon fils il dort dans la rue

avec moi.
[I dont want my son he sleeps in the street
with me.]

Take a seat.
Go ahead, Madame.

I dont want him

to sleep in street with me.

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Chapter 4

Speaker

ST

7) S

Je veux quil soit au saud.

[I want him to be in the warm.]

8) B

Vous voulez quil soit Jai pas compris.

[You want him to be I havent
understood.]

9) S

Chaud.
[Warm.]
Au chaud. OK, jai compris.
[In the warm. OK, Ive understood.]

B
10) S

Il doit dormir dans lit.

[He must sleep in bed.]

11) B

Bien sr.
[Of course.]

12) S

Je ne veux pas quil devienne comme moi.

[I dont want him to become like me.]

13) S

Tas pas compris?

[You havent understood?]

14) B

Si si, je comprends.
[Yes yes, I understand.]

15) B

Vous navez plus dendroit o dormir.

[You no longer have a place to sleep.]
Oui.
[Yes.]

S
16) B

On va mettre les choses dans lordre. Vous

tes marie?
[Were going to put things in order. Are you
married?]

17) S

Je suis toute seule.

[Im on my own.]

18) B

Et donc vous dormez dans la rue avec votre

fils.
[And so you sleep in the street with your
son.]

19) S

Oui oui.
[Yes yes.]

TT
I want him in warm place.
You want him

Warm.
Somewhere warm. OK.
He must sleep in bed.
Of course.
I dont want him be like me.
You see?
Sure, I understand.
You have nowhere to
sleep.
Yes.
Lets see. Are you married?

Im on my own.
Youre both on the street.

Yes.

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Police Patter
Speaker
20) B

ST

TT

Depuis combien de temps,

vous mavez dit?
[For how long, did you tell me?]
Depuis six mois.
[For six months.]

How long on the street?

21) S

Des foiyers. Un htel et des foiyers.

[Hostels. A hotel and hostels.]

Sleeping hospesses. Hotels

and hospesses.

22) B

En fort?
[In the forest?]

Hostesses?

23) B

En foyer!
[In hostels!]

In hospices!

24) S

Y en a marre!
[Fed up!]

25) S

Cest sous des tentes.

[Its under tents.]

26) S

Dormir sous des tentes, je ne

[Sleeping under tents, I not ]

Sleep under tents. I not

27) B

Si si si, mais je comprends trs bien.

Alors avec le petit, cest difficile.
[Yes yes, but I understand very well. So with
the little one, its difficult.]

Yes, I understand.
Its hard for you and your
son.

Six months.

No more.
Its under tents.

Throughout the scene, Borloos speech is soft and slow and his tone, kind
and compassionate. He looks at this subject intently, nodding when he
understands her. In the present case, this officers footing (Goffman 1981:
128) is clearly reflected in the competent, caring role which he adopts.The
qualities of Borloos voice and his body language clearly remain present
in the subtitled film, as it is set against the original audiovisual context.
Borloo addresses his subject politely and professionally. In lines 1 and3,
this respect is preserved through use of a close translation approach. These
two subtitles are also given some local colour as they retain the SL address,
madame.
Subtitling of the African ladys speech poses greater challenges than
does that of Borloo. First, when she speaks French, she does so with a
pronounced African accent. This is not recaptured in the subtitles, which

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Chapter 4

is understandable. Not only would this be difficult to achieve,10 it is also

arguably not necessary; the SL audience can appreciate the womans cultural origin thanks to her traditional African clothing.
Second, when speaking to Borloo, this subject, who is not familiar with
the conventions of the French language, uses an informal mode of address;
she employs the French informal second person pronoun tu, instead of the
formal vous (line 13). Again, it would be impossible to preserve this exactly
in the TL as English does not have the same informal and formal personal
pronouns. Moreover, this particular manifestation of her imperfect mastery of French is indeed compensated for elsewhere in the subtitles of the
present scene, as is witnessed in the following paragraphs.
Third, when speaking French, this lady makes a considerable number
of grammatical mistakes. At times, these are under-translated in the subtitles
(lines 6 and 10). However, at other times, comparable errors are created
in the TL and the essence of the original words is preserved (lines 5, 10,
25, 26).11 In yet other lines, mistakes are created in the TL where they do
10
11

See my translation of Crole-accented French which features in Claude Sarrautes

Dans le taxi (Ellender 2013: 1404).
This strategy is a striking example of what Venuti names foreignizing translation.
Venuti identifies two opposed translation strategies: domestication, which is essentially
TL-oriented, results in a fluent, readable TT and creates an illusion of transparency
(1995: 1) and domestication which, by contrast, is SL-oriented and draws attention
to the fact that the TT is a translation. Venutis classification of these two strategies
is inspired by Schleiermachers (1813/ 1992: 42) distinction between alienating and
naturalizing approaches. Opposed to the principle of domestication, Venuti (1995:
20) believes that this involves an ethnocentric reduction of the foreign text to targetlanguage cultural values. He therefore expresses a preference for foreignization which
[] entails choosing a foreign text and developing a translation method along lines
which are excluded by dominant cultural values in the target language (1997: 242).
This latter approach is intended to highlight the foreign identity of the ST and can
be achieved, notably, by adhering to the grammatical structures of the SL, using
calques and juxtaposing archaic and contemporary, colloquial uses of language (1998:
1617) in order to produce a heterogeneous discourse. If Venutis work examines
the translation of literature, the concepts which he discusses are of some relevance in
the present pages. Subtitles constitute a unique context which is partly domesticating
they invariably adapt the ST in order to make it available to the TL audience

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127

not exist in the SL (line 12). This strategy, which recaptures the SL protagonists communication difficulties and consequent sense of desperation
and helplessness, clearly compensates for any under-translations which
occur in other lines.
Fourth, this subject repeatedly fears that Borloo does not understand
her (13, 26 to 27). However, her mispronunciation of TL words only hinders communication on two occasions. First, when the French word chaud
[aud][warm] (lines 7 to 9) is pronounced as [saud], this error is not recaptured in the TL. Second, the SL word foyer [fwaje][hostel] is pronounced
as [foje]. Borloo hears this as fort [foRe][forest] and the mispronunciation
is recreated very successfully in the TL (lines 21 to 23). In line 21, this is
first achieved by misspelling the TL hospices as hospesses. The word is
then misheard by Borloo as hostesses (22), before he guesses the correct
term hospices (23).
In sum, the subtitling of Scene Six presents a range of translation
challenges which require a corresponding range of translation solutions.
If Borloos language can be preserved through the use of many close strategies, the speech of his Black-African subject poses greater difficulties. This
ladys accent, her misuse of register and some of her grammatical errors are
often lost in translation. The latter, and the communication difficulties to
which they lead are, however, sometimes preserved creatively and very successfully; at times, this involves employing foreignizing strategies (Venuti
1997: 242). Such creativity, coupled with the films original images, as
previously discussed, ensure that the exotic nature of this subjects speech
remains present in the films TL version.

and partly foreignizing they are constantly present against the SL soundtrack and
viewers are thus inevitably aware that they are watching a translated version of the
film. Clearly, when the ST contains linguistic variation, a further layer of complexity
is added. It is no longer merely a question of a foreign ST being translated into the
TL. Now, the challenge is one of recapturing the multidimensional, linguistically
variegated character of the ST in the TL by using the resources available in the TL
to draw attention to difference in the SL (Venuti 1998: 1617).

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Chapter 4

Conclusion
This chapter has considered Mawenns 2011 film, Polisse, which focuses
on the daily activities of Paris Brigade de Protection des Mineurs. Against
this murky and often brutal background, much linguistic variation is
present in the films SL version. This includes not only the polices often
highly self-conscious patter, but also juxtapositions of the officers interaction with many and varied uses of the SL by the subjects with whom
they deal. Police Patter has thus concentrated on six significant scenes
from Polisse, three which involved conversations between members of the
BPM, and three which contained police-subject interaction. All of these
scenes have contained instances of heteroglossia (Bakhtin 1940/ 1981:
67; 19345/ 1981: 292). Multiple instances of code switching (Goffman
1981) have also been demonstrated within certain scenes and between all
scenes. For each of these, the chapter set out to identify the translation
challenges faced, and strategies employed, by the films English-language
subtitlers, and subsequently to establish the extent to which the TL succeeds at preserving the linguistic variation which is such a significant
feature of the SL soundtrack.
As it was witnessed, there are some occasions on which the subtitles may lend themselves to criticism. At times, TL (American) idiom is
employed to recapture SL uses (Scenes One and Four), which may give
the TL a somewhat American flavour; it will be recalled that such an
approach was heavily criticized by critics of the English-language subtitles of Kassowitzs La Haine (cf. Introduction). However, in the present
case, it is only used in relatively small doses throughout the films subtitles;
it therefore causes no significant linguistic or cultural displacement of the
film and suspension of disbelief can be preserved. Furthermore, when a
Black African lady speaks (Scene Six), no attempt is made to recapture her
accent, and some of her inaccurate uses of French are lost, in the subtitles.
Once again this is, however, excusable; her lack of mastery of the SL is
preserved in the translation by incorporating a number of grammatical

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129

mistakes in the TL subtitles, and her cultural origin is already apparent in

the original films images (Tveit 2009: 87).
These criticisms notwithstanding, the above assessment demonstrates
that the (anonymous) subtitlers of Polisse have succeeded extremely well at
their task. Much of the linguistic variation and many linguistic contrasts
present in the SL are recaptured perfectly in the TL, through use of close
translation strategies and TL equivalents. Moreover, the words of each
scene are considerably enhanced by presence of the SL soundtrack anger
and aggression (Scenes One and Four); embarrassment and amusement
(Scene Two); uncontrollable laughter and hilarity (Scene Five); kindness
and compassion (Scenes Three and Six). The subtitlers most significant
success was, however, witnessed in their rendering of Scenes Three and Six,
in which creative police patter and use of French by a non-native speaker
are recaptured with skill in the TL. In the present chapter, it would therefore be difficult, and indeed unnecessary, to attempt to provide alternative
translation solutions.
This positive assessment of the English-language subtitled version
of Polisse is echoed by numerous members of the films anglophone audience. Reviews on <http://www.amazon.co.uk> confirm that the Englishlanguage subtitles enable the TL audience to appreciate both the content
and language of the SL film: The cases and the language are really rough
stuff, and this is obviously not for everyone. If youre easily offended, keep
away. Interestingly, some viewers explicitly acknowledge the quality of the
subtitles themselves: The subtitler does a great job of the raucous scenes [].
If a script as richly textured as that of Polisse presents the subtitlers
with a range of translation issues, one of the most complex of these clearly
involves recapturing in the TL a non-native speakers uses of the SL. As it
has been witnessed, the challeges confronted include rendering in the TL
non-standard SL accent and pronunciation, incorrect uses of SL grammar and, of course, instances when imperfect mastery of the SL can lead
to confusion. Such challenges are precisely those which are faced by the
French-language subtitlers of Tom Hanks The Terminal, which forms the
focus of Chapter 5.

Chapter 5

The Trials of the Foreign: Preserving Linguistic

Alterity when Subtitling The Terminal into French

Introduction
Based on a true story, Steven Spielbergs 2004 film, The Terminal, centres
on Viktor Navorski, a man of Eastern European origin who is temporarily
stranded in New Yorks JFK airport. Lost, confused and able to speak little
English, Viktor is portrayed as unmistakably foreign in the films original
English-language version. This chapter begins by providing a brief outline
of the film. Subsequently, it sets the present study against the background
of Antoine Bermans seminal 1985 article from which its title is inspired.1
Working with four major categories poor mastery of English, positive and
negative consequences of this poor mastery, attempts to improve English and
entertaining errors this chapter proceeds to examine the ways in which
Viktors linguistic otherness is communicated in the SL film. Within each of
these four categories, it identifies the challenges, or trials, which arise when
subtitling the film into French and considers the translation strategies which
are employed in order to overcome these challenges. Thus, this chapter sets
out to establish the extent to which Viktor Navorskis linguistic alterity, and
the communication problems to which his use of a broken language gives rise,
are preserved in Batrice Thomas-Wachsbergers French subtitled version of
Spielbergs film. By extension, it also determines how Thomas-Wachsbergers
approach to translating foreignness compares to that of Berman.

This chapter is based on my article of the same name which was originally published
in <http://www.translationjournal.com> (December 2011).

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Chapter 5

The film
In this comedy-drama, Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) arrives at New
Yorks JFK airport; he is on a quest to obtain an autograph from the saxophonist, Benny Golson, in order to complete a collection of autographs
belonging to his late father. While Viktor is travelling to the United States
a revolution breaks out in his country, the fictitious Krakozhia. Due to
this civil war, Krakozhia is no longer recognized as a nation; Viktor is
denied entry into the US since he is no longer a citizen of any country.
As he can neither stay in the US nor be deported, Viktor is trapped in
JFK and makes his home in one of the airports terminals. Befriending
staff, doing small jobs to pay for food and falling in love with air hostess Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Viktor bides his time until
the war in Krakozhia ends. After numerous bureaucratic struggles and
much assistance from his new friends, Viktor manages a very brief trip
into New York City where he collects the all-important autograph before
returning to his homeland.

Antoine Bermans La traduction comme preuve de ltranger

[Translation and the Trials of the Foreign] (1985/ 2000)
The title of the present chapter is inspired by Bermans above-named
seminal article, translated by Lawrence Venuti (2000). In his consideration
of literature, Berman describes translation as a trial in two respects: first,
for the target culture, as it is exposed to the utter foreignness (2000: 284),
or strangeness, of the ST and SL; second, for the foreign text (TT), which
is uprooted from its own linguistic context. Berman observes that literary
translators largely tend to adopt the second approach, thereby bringing their
TT as close as possible to the TL culture. This concept is very similar to
Schleiermachers naturalizing translation tendencies (1813/ 1992: 412)

The Trials of the Foreign

133

which later influenced Venutis definition of domesticating translation

(1995: 21). Berman is particularly opposed to this approach, arguing instead
that the [] properly ethical aim of the translating act [is] receiving the
Foreign as Foreign (cf. Schleiermachers alienating strategies (ibid.) and
Venutis foreignizing strategies (1997: 242)). He nevertheless believes that
a system of textual deformation in TTs prevents their foreign qualities
from coming through (1985: 286). Berman calls the types of deformation
to which TTs are exposed a negative analytic and, in his examination of
literary prose, sets out twelve deforming tendencies (ibid.: 28697). This
negative analytic has a positive counterpart, that is, a set of operations
which serve to limit the said deformations (ibid.: 286).
Given that Bermans work is set in a literary context, all of his observations are not relevant to the present, audiovisual-based study. His third
tendency (Expansion), which states that TTs tend to be longer than STs, is,
for instance, clearly not applicable to subtitles which must respect strict time
and space constraints. Modifications of syntax, Enoblement (a tendency
to improve the original text by writing the translation in a more elegant
style), destructions of rhythms and linguistic patterns are also of limited
interest in the present pages. Bermans last three deforming tendencies are,
however, of intergeneric application and are particularly pertinent when
analysing the French subtitled version of The Terminal. The tenth tendency,
Destruction of vernacular networks or their exoticization refers to speech
and language patterns which contribute significantly to the setting of a text
(novel). According to Berman, The effacement of vernaculars is [] a very
serious injury to the textuality of prose works (ibid.: 294). However, as a
vernacular [] clings tightly to its soil and completely resists any direct
translating into another vernacular (ibid.), attempts to exoticize the original by using italics in the TT isolate the language from its original co-text.
Moreover, using a TL vernacular, or slang, can risk ridiculing the original
text. Tendency eleven, The destruction of expressions and idioms, involves
replacing SL idioms or proverbs with TL equivalents. Adopting an extreme
position, Berman argues that this strategy should be avoided as it is an ethnocentrism which attacks the discourse of the foreign work (ibid.: 295).
The twelfth and last tendency, The effacement of the superimposition of
languages, focuses on the ways in which translators can erase differences

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Chapter 5

between distinct forms of language which exist in the ST. Referring to

Bakhtins concept of heteroglossia which is present in all novels, Berman
identifies this deforming tendency as a central problem posed by the translation of novels. In order to counter these negative tendencies, Berman thus
proposes a form of translation which renders the foreign in the TT; he
names this literal translation: Here, literal means: attached to the letter
(of works). Labour on the letter in translation, on the other hand, restores
the particular signifying process of works (which is more than their memory)
and, on the other hand, transforms the translating language (ibid.: 297).
Against this background, the present chapter sets out to examine
how Batrice Thomas-Wachsberger subtitles into French the Englishlanguage film, The Terminal; this films dialogue is characterized by multiple instances of foreignness and thus presents a number of trials for the
translator/ subtitler.

Language in the film: Significance of linguistic

variation/ Subtitling challenges
Throughout much of The Terminal, Viktor Navorski appears lost and confused and speaks little English. As has been witnessed in previous chapters,
subtitles are evidently set against the original visual context of a film.2 In
the present case, the non-verbal manifestations of Viktors foreignness are
automatically preserved in the subtitled version of The Terminal. Viktors
foreignness, that is, his Eastern European origin, is, however, also highly
apparent in his use of language. Clearly, it is these manifestations of his
otherness which render many of the films scenes heteroglossic (Bakhtin

Luyken (1991: 1534) captures this idea in the following: In films, the message is
expressed by the whole visual opus i.e. image, acting, sound and language []. In
subtitling, the whole original work, apart from the language element, will remain
intact [].

The Trials of the Foreign

135

1940/ 1981: 67; 19345/ 1981: 292) and give rise to translation challenges.
These challenges, and the ways in which they are handled by the films
subtitler, form the focus of the present study. The chapter will proceed by
grouping these manifestations of linguistic otherness into four principal
categories: poor mastery of English; positive and negative consequences
of this poor mastery; attempts to improve English; entertaining errors.
Within each category, it will identify key examples of linguistic alterity,
the difficulties, or trials, which these present for the subtitler and how they
have been handled. Once this evidence has been gathered, the chapter will
seek to determine the extent to which Viktor Navorskis linguistic alterity,
and the communication problems to which his use of a broken language
gives rise, are preserved in Batrice Thomas-Wachsbergers French subtitled
version of The Terminal. It will also seek to situate Thomas-Wachsbergers
approach to the translation of foreignness in relation to that which is
advocated by Antoine Berman (1985).
Poor mastery of English
i) Accent
When Viktor speaks, his pronounced Eastern European accent can be
detected immediately. Interestingly, no attempt is made to transpose this
accent phonetically from the SL onto the TL subtitles.3 Arguably, this
3

Phonetic transposition of accents can be witnessed in the translation of some experimental literature. The French author Raymond Queneaus Exercices de Style (1947)
recounts one short story in ninety-nine different ways, some of which are written
with a foreign accent. Barbara Wrights skilful translation into English of Exercices de
Style is just as playful as Queneaus original work. Por lay Zanglay (1947/ 2000: 129)
is, for instance, rendered as For ze Frrench (1958/ 1979: 169). Similarly, in Claude
Sarrautes Dans le taxi (1985: 1112), a French taxi driver resorts to imitating a
Guadeloupian (Crole) accent in his mockery of European attitudes. When translating this short story, I took inspiration from the work of the Jamaican poet, Benjamin
Zephaniah, in order to recapture this accent in English (Ellender 2013: 1404).
When working within the constraints of subtitling, this technique would clearly

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Chapter 5

decision results in an inevitable degree of loss in the TT. It is nevertheless

understandable, given the quantity of Viktors speech in the ST it would
have been onerous, and indeed unnecessary, to transpose this accent onto all
of his utterances and given that a French audience, with some knowledge
of a more standard British or American-English accent, can clearly hear
this exaggerated foreign pronunciation in the films original soundtrack.
ii) Grammar: Simplifications and inaccuracies
Viktors poor mastery of English is also apparent in his use of grammar; however, this in itself does not ever prevent his being understood.
Occasionally his syntax is simplified: I need visa. The translation of this
is straightforward and is rendered with a simplified TL equivalent: Besoin
visa. Much more common than this is Viktors incorrect use of SL tenses.
These are often recaptured in the TL by simply replacing the correct verbform with the TL infinitive:
I do this

Je faire cela [I to do that]

I wait

Jattendre [I to wait]

Furthermore, Viktor often struggles with basic question forms. These are
recaptured relatively closely in French with comparably inaccurate question- and verb-forms, and confused word order:
What you want know?

Quoi tu veux savoir?

[What you want to know?]

What you like?

Quoi vous aimer?

[What you to like?]

You have ever been married?

Tas t dj mari?
[Youve been already married?]

have to be employed selectively in order to avoid affecting readability negatively

(See also Chapter 6).

The Trials of the Foreign

137

In brief, Thomas-Wachsberger uses the resources available in the TL to

simulate foreignness in her TT, just as the SL was modified in the original films soundtrack in order to convey Viktors linguistic difference, or
alterity. Here, instances of Venutis foreignizing translation strategy (1998:
1617) can therefore be identified.
iii) Use of mother tongue
When Viktor is distressed, upset and unable to express himself, he resorts to
using his mother tongue, the fictitious language of his native land. At times,
use of this language lasts for minutes. This is clearly incomprehensible to
the SL audience, reinforces Viktors sense of exoticism and consequently
somewhat alienates the SL audience. It is therefore totally acceptable to
leave this untouched in the films French version, which ensures that the
TL audience experiences a comparable sense of alienation. In the same
vein, when Viktor speaks English, lacks individual items of vocabulary and
uses a word from his mother tongue, this word is directly transposed onto
the subtitle and italicized. If this strategy has been criticized by Berman
(1985/ 2000: 294), in the present instance it clearly succeeds in emphasizing Viktors alterity:
It need gorchiska Mustard!: [Il besoin gorchiska Moutarde!]

In sum, Viktors linguistic alterity is communicated powerfully through

his poor mastery of English. This is apparent in his accent, simplified and
inaccurate uses of grammar and recourse to his mother tongue. Clearly, if
this sense of otherness is to be retained in the TL subtitles, these linguistic features must be preserved. Although Viktors European accent is not
transposed onto the French subtitles, this is compensated for by the presence of the original soundtrack. Viktors grammatical simplifications and
inaccuracies are recaptured relatively closely with comparable distortions
of the TL. Use of his mother tongue is left untouched when this mirrors
its function in the original film, or transposed directly onto corresponding subtitles, when this reinforces his exoticism. Thus, by employing these
relatively close translation strategies, Thomas-Wachsberger succeeds at
preserving Viktors poor mastery of English, and evident linguistic alterity,

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Chapter 5

in her French subtitles. In Bermans terms, she avoids effacing the superimposition of languages within (1985/ 2000: 295), or destroying the heteroglossic quality of, much dialogue in The Terminal.
Poor mastery of English: Positive and negative consequences
i) Negative consequences
Viktors limited English invariably makes communication problematic
for him.4 Nowhere is this more apparent than in one of the films early
scenes. Viktor is called in to see airport officials, but understands nothing of what he is asked. He reads from a sheet of paper on which he has a
prepared script with instructions for the taxi driver. Each time he is asked
a question, he reads the next line from the script. As the latter is prepared
and is composed of correct English, the corresponding French subtitles are
equally accurate. The following conversation is translated concisely and
accurately in the TL and remains humorous for the TL audience.
O = Officer; V = Viktor
Speaker

SL

1) O

What exactly are you

doing in the United States,
Mr.Navorski?

2) V

Yellow taxi cab, please.

TL
Pourquoi tes-vous venu aux Etats-Unis?
[Why have you come to the United
States?]
Taxi jaune, sil vous plat.
[Yellow taxi, please.]

As it has been witnessed in previous chapters, the language used in this scene is revelatory of the power dynamic which exists between these two interlocutors (Fairclough
1995; Hyatt 2006; Voloshinov 1929/ 1973). Viktors limited mastery of the foreign
(source) language disadvantages him; his discomfort and uncertainty can consequently be observed in his facial expressions and body language. A parallel can thus
be drawn between this scene and the last scene examined in Chapter 4, in which an
African immigrant ladys faltering use of French results in self-doubt.

139

The Trials of the Foreign

3) V

Take me to Ramada Inn.

Conduisez-moi lhtel Ramada Inn.

[Drive me to the Ramada Inn hotel.]

4) V

161, Lexington Avenue.

Lexington Avenue.
[Lexington Avenue.]

5) O

Youre saying at the Ramada

Inn?

6) V

Keep the change.

7) O

Do you know anyone in New

York?

8) V

Yes.

9) O

Who?

10) V

Yes.

11) O

Who?

12) V

Yes, 161 Lexington Avenue.

Vous restez au Ramada Inn?

[You are staying at the Ramada Inn?]
Gardez la monnaie.
[Keep the change.]
Vous avez des amis New York?
[You have some friends in New York?]
Oui.
[Yes.]
Qui?
[Who?]
Oui.
[Yes.]
Qui?
[Who?]
Lexington Avenue.
[Lexington Avenue.]

ii) Positive consequences

Despite his frequent frustration, in one particular scene Viktor exaggerates
his lack of understanding and uses this to the advantage of another foreign
traveller. The latter is a Russian man who is attempting to illegally transport medicines for his father via New York, that is, with no licence to do so.
Called on to act as an interpreter for the man, Viktor explains that: He bring
medicines for his father: Il apporte des mdicaments pour son pre. When the
tablets are confiscated, Viktor thinks quickly. He claims that he has made
a mistake and that the medicines are actually intended for a goat; medication for animals requires no licence. The following conversation between
Viktor and the Head of Customs and Border Protection, Frank Dixon, is
translated relatively closely. Simplified sentences (lines 3 and 8) and grammatical inaccuracies (lines 7 and 10) are successfully preserved in the TL.

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Chapter 5

D = Dixon; Viktor
Speaker

SL

TL

1) V

Goat!

Bouc!
[Goat!]

2) D

What?

Quoi?
[What?]

3) V

Goat. Medicine for goat.

4) D

Goat?

5) V

Yes, yes. Medicine for goat.

6) V

He not understand.

7) V

I not understand.

8) V

The Krakozhia, the name for father.

9) V

Sound like goat.

vieux bouc.
[old goat.]

10) V

I make mistake.

Je fais erreur.
[I make mistake.]

Bouc. Mdicament pour bouc.

[Goat. Medicine for goat.]
Bouc?
[Goat?]
Oui, pour bouc.
[Yes, for goat.]
Rien pig.
[Didnt get anything.]
Je pas compris.
[I not understood.]
Cracozie, pre souvent appel
[Krakozhia, father often called]

Thus, although Viktor is often frustrated by his poor mastery of English

which can have negative consequences for him, he does, at times, consciously exploit this. It was possible to render the two above scenes, which
powerfully communicate his linguistic alterity, by adopting some close
translation strategies. Again, the subtitler makes comparably simplified
and inaccurate uses of the TL (lines 3, 5, 7, 10) (Venuti 1998: 1617) and,
in doing so, maintains in the SL the superimposed languages (Berman
1985/ 2000: 295) and the impression of misunderstanding which Viktor
creates, on this occasion quite intentionally.

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The Trials of the Foreign

Attempts to improve English

i) Using newly acquired language
During the months which he spends at JFK, Viktor makes determined
efforts to improve his command of English. He does so by purchasing travel
books in the bookshop, speaking with airport staff and watching the news
channel on the television screens located around the terminal building.
At intervals throughout the film, he reuses individual items of vocabulary
(Tuesday, unacceptable, food) in appropriate contexts. Occasionally, the
resulting effect is amusing. In the following, Viktor first learns the expression fifty-fifty from the headlines of a news report on the separation of
Siamese twins: Chances of survival, fifty-fifty: Chances de survie, fiftyfifty. He later uses the expression when discussing with Border Protection
Officer, Dolores, his chances of being allowed entry into the US.
D = Dolores; V = Viktor
Speaker

ST

1) V

You have two stamps one red,

one green.

2) D

So?

3) V

So I have chance go New York,

fifty-fifty.

TT
Vous avez deux tampons un rouge,
un vert.
[You have two stamps a red, a green.]
Et alors?
[So what?]
Mes chances de New York: fifty-fifty.
[My chances of New York: fifty-fifty.]

In both of these contexts, the expression is transferred directly from SL

to TL. Once again, if Berman criticizes such uses of italics (1985/ 2000:
294), employing this strategy in the present instance helps to preserve the
humour of the original dialogue, which arises when Viktor attempts to
compensate for his linguistic alterity, and ensures that pragmatic equivalence (Koller 1979) is achieved.

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Chapter 5

When errors are entertaining

Despite these efforts to improve his English, Viktor often mislearns new
expressions and vocabulary, misunderstands culture-bound terms and pronounces certain words inaccurately. These manifestations of his linguistic
alterity clearly require that particular translation strategies be employed
if both the mistake and the humour of the original utterances are to be
accurately preserved in the TL.
i) Mislearned expressions and vocabulary
On a previous occasion, air hostess Amelia Warren invited Viktor to dinner
in an Italian restaurant; she asked him if he would like a bite to eat and
spoke highly of the local restaurants cannelloni. This date did not, however,
materialize. In the following extract, Viktor later rehearses asking Amelia
out and puts into practice the language which he has learned. He confuses
both the word order of the expression, before later correcting himself, and
the name of the Italian dish.
V = Viktor
Speaker

ST

TT

1) V

Amelia, would you like to get

eat to bite?

Amelia, voudrais-tu aller morceau manger?

[Amelia, would you like to go bit to eat?]

2) V

Bite to eat? Cantaloni?

Manger morceau? Cantaloni?

[To eat bit? Cantaloni?]

3) V

Bite to eat? Bite to eat?

Manger morceau?
[To eat bit?]

Thomas-Wachsberger reproduces the humorous effect of these SL lines by

reversing the word order of the equivalent TL expression (morceau manger
instead of manger un morceau) and transposing directly the erroneous
cantaloni, rather than using the correct cannelloni.

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The Trials of the Foreign

When he finally asks Amelia to dinner, Viktor makes his original mistake. He quickly realizes this and uses the simpler word food translated
as repas [meal]- which he has also recently learned in the airport.
Speaker

ST

1) V

Amelia, would you like eat to bite?

2) V

Food! Tonight?

TT
Tu aimerais morceau manger?
[You would like bit to eat?]
Repas! Ce soir?
[Meal! This evening?]

ii) Misunderstanding of culture-bound terms

At times, Viktors lack of familiarity with certain culture-bound words can
lead to misunderstanding and amusement. In the following extract, he is
about to play cards with some of the airport staff with whom he has made
friends. As these workers all have little money, they play for unclaimed items
of lost property. In this instance, the item in question is a pair of knickers
which formerly belonged to the world-famous American singer and actress,
Cher. This gap in Viktors knowledge of Western culture results in his hearing Cher as the English verb [to] share. In order to recapture this misunderstanding and subsequent humour in the TL, Thomas-Wachsberger
chooses a TL word which is also phonetically identical to Cher and is in
current usage, but which is unrelated to this famous personality. She opts
for the French cher [expensive] so as to preserve the play on words, and
follows this with on la partage? [will we share it (them?)], thereby fully
retaining the meaning of the SL utterance.

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Chapter 5

E = Enrique; Gua = Guard; Gup = Gupta; V = Viktor

Speaker

ST

TT

1) Gua

And they belong to?

On connat la proprio?
[Do we know the owner?]

2) Gup

Cher

3) Gua

As in Cher?

4) E

These are Chers panties

Cest bien la culotte de Cher.

[These are Chers knickers.]

5) V

So, we share the panties?

Si cest cher, on la partag?

[If they are expensive, will we share them?]

6) Gua

Not if I win!

Cher
[Cher]
Comme dans Cher?
[As in Cher?]

Pas si je gagne!
[Not if I win!]

iii) Mispronunciation
Last, Viktors mispronunciation of SL words also causes misunderstanding
and, consequently, amusement. When he agrees to find out as much as he
can about Dolores in order to help Spanish catering-car driver, Enrique,
seduce this woman, Viktor learns that Dolores last relationship failed
because her boyfriend had cheated on her. In the following exchange with
Enrique, Viktor struggles to pronounce cheat correctly; both Enrique
and the SL audience instead hear shit. As was the case in the previous
example, in order to preserve this humorous misunderstanding in the
TL, the subtitler must rewrite the original words, creating an alternative
pun by choosing two phonetically similar, and semantically identical, TL
words. Thomas-Wachsberger achieves this extremely well by recapturing
the confused shit/ cheat with caca [crap]/ cocu [cuckolded] (line 12).
Interestingly, Viktor also provides a translation of this term in his mother
tongue. Again, this is directly transposed onto the TL subtitles and italicized, thus reinforcing Viktors exoticism (line 10). If Berman is critical
of this translation strategy (1985/ 2000: 294), it is again effective in the
present context.

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The Trials of the Foreign

E = Enrique; V = Viktor
Speaker

ST

TT

1) V

Eat shit.

Caca.
[Shit.]

2) E

What?

Comment?
[Pardon?]

3) V

Eat shit.

Caca.
[Shit.]

4) E

Eat shit?

Caca?
[Shit?]

5) V

Eat shit! Eat shit!

6) E

Try to repeat exactly.

7) V

He shit.

8) V

She catch him

9) E

Oh, he cheats!

10) V

What we call kruskach.

11) E

He cheats.

12) E

We say cheat, not shit.

13) V

Enrique, no shit.

14) E

I wont cheat.

Pas cocu.
[Not cheat.]

15) E

Not shit.

Pas caca.
[Not shit.]

16) E

I promise I wont cheat.

17) V

Nice girl, she no shit.

Caca! Caca!
[Shit! Shit!]
Rpte exactement ses mots.
[Repeat her words exactly.]
Il a fait caca.
[He did a shit.]
Elle lattraper et
[She to catch him and ]
Il la faite cocue?
[He cheated on her?]
Chez nous, se dire kruskach.
[In our counrty, to say to oneself kruskach.]
Il cocufie.
[He cheats.]
On dit cocu, pas caca.
[We say cheat, not shit.]
Toi, pas caca.
[You, not shit.]

Cest promis.
[Promise.]
Fille bien. Pas caca avec elle.
[Nice girl. Not shit with her.]

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Chapter 5

To recapitulate, inspite of efforts to improve his English, Viktor makes

a number of mistakes when putting into practice new vocabulary and
expressions. Combined with some gaps in his cultural knowledge and
mispronunciation of certain words, these mistakes are frequently amusing. In order to reproduce these errors and the entertainment which they
cause, Thomas-Wachsberger employs a range of translation strategies
confusing word order in the TL, directly transposing SL errors and
rewriting wordplays in the TL. By adopting this varied approach, she
succeeds at preserving Viktors entertaining errors in her translation and
ensures that this characters linguistic alterity is recaptured forcefully in
the TL subtitles.

Conclusion
Concentrating on Steven Spielbergs The Terminal and its Eastern-European
protagonist, Viktor Navorski, the present chapter has explored the challenges which arise when subtitling this comedy-drama into French. From
the outset, Viktor is portrayed as distinctly foreign in this film. Due to
the audiovisual context against which the subtitles are set, visual manifestations of Viktors otherness are clearly preserved in the films TL version
(Luyken et al. 1991) and pose no translation difficulties. This said, Viktors
Eastern-European origin is, above all, highly apparent in his use of language, and such manifestations of his otherness give rise to a number of
translation challenges, or trials. These challenges, and the ways in which
they were handled by the films subtitler, Batrice Thomas-Wachsberger,
formed the focus of Chapter 5.
In view of the above, this chapter established four principal categories
in which Viktors linguistic alterity manifests itself in the film: poor mastery of English; positive and negative consequences of this poor mastery;
attempts to improve English; entertaining errors. Within each of these, it
identified the translation challenges which arise when subtitling this film
into French and the strategies employed in order to overcome these. Thus,

The Trials of the Foreign

147

the chapter set out to establish the extent to which Viktor Navorskis linguistic alterity is preserved in the French subtitled version of Spielbergs film.
In short, it was observed that Thomas-Wachsberger employs a combination of distinct strategies in order to meet these translation challenges. If
this chapter suggested that a failure to transpose Viktors accent phonetically from the SL to the TL inevitably results in some loss in the TT, this
apparent shortcoming is compensated for in many ways. Considered globally, Thomas-Wachsbergers translation approach incorporates a number of
strategies. These range from occasions on which no translation is deemed
necessary (passages of mother tongue left untouched; individual lexical
items transposed directly onto the TL subtitles and italicized for heightened effect), through close translations (which incorporate simplified and
inaccurate uses of TL grammar, comparable to those apparent in the SL,
Venuti 1998: 1617), to freer distortions of the TL and creative rewritings
of humorous wordplays. If Viktor Navorskis idiosyncratic use of language
does indeed present certain trials for the translator, this chapter has demonstrated that, by implementing a diverse range of translation strategies,
Thomas-Wachsberger succeeds extremely well at preserving the various
manifestations of this characters linguistic alterity, and the communication
problems to which his use of a broken language gives rise, in her Frenchsubtitled version of The Terminal.
When situating Thomas-Wachsberger in relation to Berman, it could
be argued that this subtitler adopts a very balanced approach. Berman
insists that preserving in a TT the linguistic variety, or superimposition
of languages, present in the ST is vital to preserving the essence of the
ST in the TL; this is certainly a valid assertion in cases where such uses
of language are key to characterization and to the films plot. Berman is,
however, sometimes extreme in his approach, prioritizing the preservation
of foreignness over comprehension of the TT (1985/ 2000: 295). ThomasWachsberger, by contrast, ensures that the foreign quality of Viktors speech
and the heteroglossic nature of the scenes in which this character appears
are preserved, while at the same time rendering her translations entirely
comprehensible for her TL audience and respecting stringent subtitling
constraints. Her translations bring the ST close enough to the TL viewers
for them to be understood, but not so close that they lose the foreign or

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Chapter 5

exotic quality of the original dialogue. In sum, Thomas-Wachseberger

ensures that pragmatic equivalence (Koller 1979) is achieved.
In view of the above, it would be extremely difficult to suggest what
could be done to improve the existing French-language subtitles of The
Terminal. This positive opinion is endorsed by members of the subtitled
films French-language audience who have contributed reviews on <http://
www.amazon.fr>. Amongst comments which demonstrate an appreciation both of Viktors foreignness and communication difficulties and of
the films humour are the following: Tom Hanks est excellent dans le rle de
cet tranger bredouillant quelques mots danglais [Tom Hanks is excellent
in the role of this foreigner who stammers a few words of English]; Un
film sur lexclusion, la difficult de communiquer et lart de sadapter une
socit insensible [A film about exclusion, the difficulty of communicating
and the art of adapting to a society which is insensitive]; Un trs bon film,
avec de lintelligence, de lmotion et de lhumour [A very good film which
is intelligent, emotional and humorous].

Chapter 6

Dealing with Dialect: The Subtitling of Bienvenue

chez les Chtis into English1

Introduction
Given the notorious difficulty of translating dialect (Berman 1985: 294;
Hatim and Mason 1990: 405), Landers (2001: 117) is adamant that this
should be avoided when he recommends: The best advice about trying
to translate dialect: dont. Against this background, the present chapter
considers the French film, Bienvenue chez les Chtis (Dany Boon 2008),
and explores whether Landers advice is valid. After introducing the film,
the chapter presents chti, a dialect closely related to the Picardy regions
picard language. It then focuses on five scenes from the film in which pronunciation, vocabulary, expressions and grammar result in confusion and
subsequently, amusement. By examining how chti has been rendered in
English, Chapter 6 sets out to explore the extent to which the translation of
Bienvenue chez les Chtis preserves the linguistic specificity and the humour
of the French source text (ST) in its English subtitles.

Dealing with Dialect is based on my article of the same name which was originally
published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. It is republished here with the permission of Cambridge Scholars Publishing (April 2015).

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Chapter 6

The film
Bienvenue chez les Chtis is set in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France
and provides a humorous portrayal of the cultural peculiarities and dialect of this regions people, les Chtis. The film tells the story of Philippe
Abrams, manager of the post office in Salon-de-Provence in the South of
France. Abrams wife, Julie, suffers from depression and, in an attempt to
cheer her up, he applies for a transfer to the Mediterranean coast where
she dreams of living. When he learns that this position will be given to a
disabled person, Abrams pretends to be physically handicapped. However,
some of the management realize that he is being deceitful and punish him
by sending him to the town of Bergues, in Northern France, for two years.
Despite his initial dismay and homesickness, Abrams becomes very fond
of Bergues, its people and his colleagues, especially postman Antoine
Bailleul. After much hesitation, Abrams is joined by his wife and son
in Bergues. When he is eventually offered, and accepts, a transfer to the
South of France three years later, Philippe Abrams is sad and somewhat
reluctant to leave. His experience illustrates the well-known chti proverb:
A visitor brays [cries] twice up North: once when he arrives and once
when he leaves.
Bienvenue chez les Chtis is saturated with exaggerated stereotypes of
the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. These are communicated visually
by the weather, cuisine and architecture which are shown, and orally in
discussions of food and cultural traditions, as well as in the way language
is actually used. The latter clearly present some interesting challenges for
the translator and, as the films humour largely resides in the linguistic differences which exist between standard French and the regions chti dialect,
the present chapter concentrates on five scenes in which chti pronunciation,
vocabulary, expressions and grammar result in varying degrees of confusion, frustration and therefore amusement.

Dealing with Dialect

151

Language in the film: Significance of Chti/ Subtitling

challenges
Picard is a language closely related to French. Due to this proximity, it is
sometimes believed to be a distortion of French rather than a language in its
own right. Picard in fact originated from low Latin and is a member of the
Gallo-Romance family of languages. It has several dialects including chti,
which is spoken in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais. As Ruler (2010: 12) explains:
Chtimi [is] is a dialect said to have originated during WW1 when troops from outside Northern France started to call those from Nord-Pas-de-Calais the Chti. The
name referred to their accent, and their pronunciation of cest tu (its you) and cest
moi (its me) as chest ti and chest mi.

Pooley (1996: 13) clarifies that, in theory, [] a Chti [is] a person from
Northern France and chtimi, a markedly regional form of speech, although,
generally speaking, both forms are used interchangeably. This chapter will
refer to the regions people as the Chtis and to their speech as chti. However,
as will be witnessed in some of the scenes examined, the characters refer
to this dialect as both chti and chtimi.
The chti dialect is characterized by distinctive pronunciation, vocabulary, expressions and grammar and its translation therefore creates a range
of exciting challenges. At this juncture, it is apt to explore how the films
English subtitler, Michael Katims, handles some of the key translation
challenges to which chti can give rise.
In Bienvenue chez les Chtis, comparisons are often made between the
Nord-Pas-de-Calais and other regions of France, between chti, which is
considered a low dialect, and standard French (Hornsby 2012: 182). Given
that this heteroglossic (Bakhtin 1940/ 1981: 67; 19345/ 1981: 292) film perpetually draws attention to the otherness of chti, this language is frequently
self-reflexive and, as the following sections illustrate, some scenes are dominated by the self-conscious treatment of one particular linguistic feature.

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Chapter 6

Scene One
When Philippe Abrams arrives in Bergues in his car, it is dark and it has
started to rain heavily. Visibility is poor and he collides with future colleague, postman Antoine Bailleul, who is returning home on his bicycle.
As soon as Antoine speaks, distinctive chti pronunciation can be detected;
the French sound s [s] is replaced by a sh []. The subtitler preserves this
pronunciation by transposing it directly onto the TL, thereby recreating
the latter in his subtitles and suggesting the presence of chti in the TL.2
A.B. = Antoine Bailleul; P.A. = Philippe Abrams
Speaker

ST

TT

1) P.A.

Monsieur Bailleul?
[Mr. Bailleul?]

Mr. Bailleul?

2) A.B.

Oui, chest moi.

[Yes, its me.]

Yesh, itsh me.

3) P.A.

Bougez pas, bougez pas. Faut appeler les

secours.
[Dont move, dont move. Must call the
emergency services.]

4) A.B.

Oh, cha va, cha va.

[Oh, Im OK, Im OK.]

5) P.A.

Oh l l ! Jaurais pu vous tuer !

[Oh my goodness! I could have killed you!]

6) A.B.

Non, chest pas grave. Cha va.

[No, its not serious. Im OK.]

Dont move. Better call for

help.

Im jusht fine.
I might have killed you!
Itsh alright.

Other practitioners also employ this translation strategy. It can be witnessed in Bell
and Hockridges (1973: 23) translation of slurred, drunken speech in Astrix chez
les Bretons (Goscinny and Uderzo 1966/ 1995: 23) and in Ellenders (2007: 225)
translation of a speech impediment in P(o)ur homme (Claude Sarraute 2000).

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Dealing with Dialect

While this alternative pronunciation does not prevent understanding,

Abrams soon becomes aware of, and draws attention to it; he is afraid that
it is caused by Antoines jaw having been hurt in the accident:
Speaker

ST

TT

1) P.A.

Votre mchoire, vous tes bless, l?

[Your jaw, are you injured there?]

Your jaw is hurt?

2) P.A.

Vous voulez pas quon aille montrer

votre mchoire un mdecin?
[Dont you want us to go and show
your jaw to a doctor?]

Wouldnt you like to see a doctor?

3) A.B.

Non, chest rien !

[No, its nothing!]

No, I shed Im fine.

In the concluding lines of the scene, Antoine offers an explanation of his

pronunciation, thus rendering it highly self-conscious. Chti pronunciation
continues to be transposed onto the English subtitles; chti and chtimi are
even written as shti and sheteumi to reinforce this phonetic difference
for the anglophone audience. This technique further emphasises the chti
dialects otherness and thus serves to preserve local colour in the target text.
Abrams final realization produces a mildly amusing effect on the SL
audience, as illustrated in the following dialogue:
Speaker

ST

TT

1) P.A.

Je vous assure, vous vous exprimez de

faon trs trs particulire.
[I assure you, you express yourself in a
very very peculiar way.]

Listen, youre really talking funny.

2) A.B.

Parchque jparle chti, chest cha?

[Because I speak chti, is that it?]

3) P.A.

Pardon?
[Sorry?]

4) A.B.

Bah, jparle chtimi.

[Er, I speak chtimi.]

5) P.A.

Oh putain, cest a le fameux chtimi?

[Oh fuck, is that the famous chtimi?]

Cosh I talk shti?

Talk what?
I talk shti, thatsh ole.
You mean thats sheteumi?

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Chapter 6

While this characters facial expression and use of the expletive putain [fuck]
convey his surprise, his comment reveals that the chti dialect is nationally
renowned for being a non-standard, incomprehensible variety of French.
The humorous nature of Abrams reaction is fully preserved for the TL
audience. First, his expression can be seen. Second, with the exception
of his expletive, which is deleted in the TL not only as it may appear too
offensive in the written subtitle (Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007: 196) but
also as space is limited and the function of this term is phatic in the SL,
his comment is translated closely. In this instance, functional equivalence
(Koller 1979) is clearly achieved.

Scene Two
When this alternative pronunciation leads to misunderstanding and confusion, the translation challenges posed are multiplied. In the subsequent
scene, Antoine shows Abrams to his new rented flat, which happens to be
unfurnished. Surprised, Abrams asks for an explanation. In this instance,
Antoines pronunciation hinders communication; it transforms the possessive
pronoun les siens [sj; his] into the noun les chiens [j; dogs]. The subtitles
recreate this confusion of sounds by using two alternative SL words which
are also phonetically similar in English, so offish [office] is misheard as fish:
Speaker

ST

TT

1) P.A.

Cest pas meubl?

[Its not furnished?]

Isnt it furnished?

2) A.B.

Lanchien directeur est parti avec, hein.

[The ex-manager left with it, huh.]

The ex-manager took it.

3) P.A.

Pourquoi il est parti avec les meubles?

[Why did he leave with the furniture?]

Why?

4) A.B.

Parchque chest peut-tre les chiens?

[Because it is perhaps the dogs?]

For hish new offish.

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Dealing with Dialect

5) P.A.

Quels chiens?
[Which dogs?]

What fish?

6) A.B.

Les meubles.
[The furniture.]

His fish.

7) P.A.

Je comprends pas.
[I dont understand.]

8) A.B.

Les meubles, chest les chiens.

[The furniture, its the dogs.]

9) P.A.

Les meubles pour les chiens. Quest-ce

que les chiens foutent avec les meubles?
[Furniture for the dogs. What the hell
are the dogs doing with the furniture?]

I dont get it.

For hish new offish.
New fish?
Why would fish need furniture?

As the conversation continues, confusion is further increased. Antoines

pronunciation of the pronoun a [sa; that] is understood as the noun chats
[a; cats]. Jai jamais dit cha, meaning I never said that is therefore heard
as I never said cats. The subtitler recaptures this confusion by creating an
alternative play on sounds in the TL: I never said dish as opposed to the
correct I never said this. The word dish is then confused with the previous use of fish:

Speaker

ST

TT

1) A.B.

Non, les chiens. Il les a pas donns des

chiens. Il est parti avec.
[No, the dogs. He didnt give them to
dogs. He left with them.]

Offish! He didnt give it to the

fish.
He took it with him.

2) P.A.

Mais pourquoi vous dites quil les a

donns?
[But why are you saying that he gave
them?]

Why give it away?

3) A.B.

Jai jamais dit cha.

[I never said that.]

I never shed dish.

4) P.A.

Pourquoi des chats? Vous avez dit

chiens.
[Why cats? You said dogs.]

Why dish? You said fish.

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Chapter 6

Abrams eventually understands the confusion and comments: Les chiens,

les chats. Putain, tout le monde parle comme vous ici? [The dogs. The cats.
Fuck, does everyone speak like you here?], which is concisely subtitled as
You all talk like that here?. This prompts another self-conscious mention of chti by Antoine: Ouais, chest le chtimi. Tout le monde parle chtimi
[Yeah, thats chtimi. Everyone speaks chtimi] which is subtitled as Yesh,
the Shti all shpeak Shti. In this scene, humour is created by the mounting
confusion and misunderstanding caused by chti pronunciation, which is
successfully preserved in the TL subtitles.

Scene Three
Elsewhere, it is not so much pronunciation as specific chti expressions
which cause misunderstanding and frustration. In this scene, set in the post
office in Bergues, Abrams asks Antoine to take a letter to the manager of
the sorting centre. Antoine replies with the chti expression jvous dis quoi
[Ill tell you what]. As Abrams is not familiar with the colloquial meaning of this expression [Ill let you know whats happening], he interprets it
literally, as a question [What should I say to you?], and the entire scene is
centred on this misunderstanding. Katims translates Jvous dis quoi as Ill
shay wot [Ill say what]. In doing so, he distorts standard English spelling, exploiting the sh [] sound and graphically rendering the word what
as wot. It could be argued that this serves as a compensation strategy for
other places where he is unable to transmit the classic features of chti.
Speaker
1) P.A.

ST
Antoine, vous portez a au centre de tri
et vous dites au responsable quon en a
besoin durgence.
[Antoine, you take this to the sorting
office and tell the person in charge that
we need it urgently.]

TT
Antoine, for the sorting center
manager.
Its urgent.

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Dealing with Dialect

2) P.A.

Une fois l-bas, appelez-moi pour me

dire quil la en mains propres.
[Once you are there, call me to tell me
that he has it in his hands.]

Call me and tell me he has it.

3) A.B.

Entendu, jvous appelle et jvous dis quoi.

[Understood. Ill call and Ill tell you
what.]

Ill call and shay wot.

4) P.A.

Eh bien, quil a bien le dossier en mains.

[Well, that he has the file in his hands.]

That he has it.

5) A.B.

Oui, chest cha. Jvous apelle l-bas et

jvous dis quoi.
[Yes, thats it. Ill call you there and Ill
say what.]

Right. Ill call and shay wot.

6) P.A.

Quoi? Mais je viens de vous dire quoi.

[What? But Ive just told you what.]

I just told you what.

As the mutual frustration mounts, causing amusement in the SL, Antoine

insists: Oui, je suis pas boubourse. Je vous appelle [Yes, Im not stupid. Ill call
you], which is rendered in English as Yesh. Im no boubourse./ Ill call
you. By retaining the exact chti term (Pedersen 2005: 4) boubourse [stupid,
simple], Katims preserves, and indeed reinforces, in the TT the alienating
effect of the presence of chti (Nord 1988/ 1991: 73).3 Eventually, Abrams
secretary, Annabelle, intervenes to clear up the confusion: Monsieur le
directeur, en fait, Je vous dis quoi, chest une expression chti, cha veut dire
Jvous dis ce quil en est, quoi [Boss, actually Ill tell you what is a chti
expression, it means Ill let you know whats happening], which is subtitled as Boss, Ill shay wot, is shtimi for/ Ill let you know whats up. In
this particular instance, Katims adheres closely to the unusual semantic
structure of the given SL expression; his approach is therefore eminently
foreignizing (Venuti 1998: 1617).
3

This technique is used by Belmont and Chabrier in their 1977 translation of Anthony
Burgess A Clockwork Orange. By preserving lexical items of the Russian dialect nadsat
in their French translation, these translators produce an alienating effect on the TT
reader which is comparable to that which the original use of nadsat has on the ST
reader.

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Chapter 6

Scene Four
Once again, this scene is centred on Philippe Abrams confusion and misunderstanding due to his lack of familiarity with the chti dialect. In this instance, a
local Chti resident and customer, Monsieur Vasseur, comes into the post office.
He speaks to Abrams to ask if he can have an advance on his pension to fund
the purchase of garden tools as his previous tools were damaged by heavy rain.
Behind the counters glass window and unable to understand a word of what
is said, Abrams attributes this to a faulty intercom system. When he comes to
the front of the counter to speak to Vasseur face-to-face, he in fact feels that
he understands even less than before. Eventually Abrams asks his assistant
Annabelle, who is familiar with the local dialect, to deal with this customer.
This scene juxtaposes Abrams use of standard French and Vasseurs local
dialect. Vasseurs language is therefore incomprehensible not only to Philippe
Abrams, but also to the films viewers who speak standard French. The sense
of unintelligibility is even more apparent in this scene than it is in others due
to the high concentration of chti features which Vasseurs language displays.
If this scene is slightly longer, it is nevertheless interesting to examine it in its
entirety. It is arguably the scene which contains the greatest amount of chti
language and it illustrates the broad range of translation challenges confronted,
and solutions offered, by Katims. Despite the fact that Vasseurs words are
largely incomprehensible to the SL audience, semantic translations of these
are provided below, for the benefit of the present reader.
A.D. = Annabelle Deconink; E. = employee; M.V. = Monsieur Vasseur;
P.A. = Philippe Abrams
Speaker

ST

1) P.A.

Quest-ce que cest?

[What is it?]

2) E.

Il y a un client qui vient vous voir.

[There is a customer who is coming to see you.]

3) P.A.

Pourquoi?
[Why?]

TT
What?
Cushtomer for you.
What for?

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Dealing with Dialect

Speaker

ST

TT

4) E.

Bah, il vient vous voir.

[Er, hes coming to see you.]

To shee you.

5) P.A.

Bonjour Monsieur. Quest-ce que je peux faire

pour vous?
[Hello Sir. What can I do for you?]

Hello, what can I do

for you?

6) M.V.

Jsuis content dvoir clui qui va soccuper

[Im happy to see the one who is going to deal
with ]

Mighty glad to shpy

the one in charge.

7) M.V.

de min compte banque.

[with my bank account.]

8) M.V.

Faut pas me raconter des carabistoules.

[Dont give me any nonsense.]

9) M.V.

Faut pas men baver, hein.

[No nonsense, huh.]

Dont beshmeer me.

10) P.A.

Je nai pas compris, l. Il vous faut quoi?

[I didnt understand that. What do you need?]

I didnt get that.

What do you want?

11) M.V.

Il faut pas baver des carabistoules mi.

[Dont say any nonsense to me.]

12) P.A.

Marche pas ce truc.

[Doesnt work, this thing.]

Doesnt work.

13) M.V.

Quo qucest quteu baves?

[What are you saying?]

What you
beshmeering?

14) P.A.

Deux secondes.
[Two seconds.]

Two seconds.

15) P.A.

Deux secondes, Monsieur.

[Two seconds, Sir.]

16) P.A.

Voil.
[There.]

17) P.A.

Quest-ce que vous voulez?

[What do you want?]

18) M.V.

Javo acat gramint dmatriel pour min gardin.

[I had bought a lot of material for my garden.]

19) M.V.

Chest quy avo fort drach. Eune berdoule.

[Its that it had rained a lot. A mud.]

Whos in charge of my
bank account.
I dont take
confabulation.

I dont cotton to
confabulation.

Two seconds, Sir.

There.
What do you want?
I wash a need a
quipment
for me gard.
Cosh it mighty
mucked. A whop.

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Chapter 6

Speaker

ST

TT

20) P.A.

Je crois que ctait mieux avant.

[I think that it was better before.]

It was better before.

21) P.A.

Oui.
[Yes.]

22) M.V.

Jto fin bnache, mais min livret O, i a eu des

russ.
[I was fine, but my bank book, it has had some
problems.]

I wash dandy but the

bankbook
wash a wee shortish.

23) M.V.

Jsuis pas l pour braire, mais si vous pouviez me

faire une avanch.
[Im not here to bray, but if you could give me
an advance.]

I dont bray but I

needsh
a shmall advansh.

24) M.V.

Jusqu lprochaine quinzaine deume retraite.

[Until the next fortnightly instalment of my
pension.]

Till the next

schtalment
of my penshion.

25) P.A.

Prochaine. Retraite. Oui.

[Next. Pension. Yes.]

Next. Pension.

26) M.V.

Chest oui ou non?

[Is that yes or no?]

27) P.A.

Bougez pas.
[Dont move.]

28) P.A.

Vous vous appelez comment dj, vous?

[What are you called again, you?]

NO SUBTITLE

Yesh or no?
Dont go away.
Whats your name
again?

29) A.D. Annabelle Deconink.

[Annabelle Deconink.]

Annabelle Deconink.

30) P.A.

Annabelle, vous voulez bien vous occuper de ce

monsieur, sil vous plat. Parce que, voil.
[Annabelle, do you want to deal with this
gentleman, please. Because, there.]

Annabelle, could you

see
to this gentleman?
Because I

31) P.A.

Trs bien.
[Very good.]

Fine.

At times, individual lines in this scene pose one particular translation

challenge which may relate to pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar, as
discussed in the following sections.

161

Dealing with Dialect

Pronunciation
Chti pronunciation is an important feature of Vasseurs use of language.
When translating line 26, Katims again transfers the sound sh [] from the
SL to the TL, a technique that seems to be unavoidable, as repetition of the
sound is such an important feature of the SL soundtrack. Here, Chest oui
ou non? therefore becomes Yesh or no?. In addition, Katims sometimes
includes this sound in his subtitles, even when it is not present in the SL,
as in the case of lines 2, 4 and 23. This technique enables the essence of
chti to be preserved throughout the dialogue.
In some instances, chti pronunciation involves contraction and modification of standard French sounds, as in line 6. Here, Je suis [I am] becomes
Jsuis and celui [the one] is heard as clui. However, no similarly unusual
contractions are made in the corresponding TL subtitles; Jsuis is translated
as a standard Im and clui as the one:
ST

Jsuis content dvoir clui qui va soccuper

Standard French

Je suis content de voir celui qui va soccuper

English

Im pleased to see the one who is going to deal with

TT

Mighty glad to shpy the one in charge.

Although this line may sound strange to SL viewers who are unfamiliar
with the chti dialect, it can certainly be understood. In order to preserve
this strangeness, while still ensuring comprehensibility, Katims uses the
informal American-English adverbial mighty together with the verb to
spy, with transposed pronunciation into a fricative shpy, instead of the
standard English to see.
When SL sounds are contracted, as in line 24, Katims at times uses a
comparable technique in the TL. Vasseurs deume (=de ma) retraite is rendered as of my pension. Given that it would be impossible to contract of my
in English, Katim compensates for this by taking the TL noun instalment,
removing the first syllable in, creating the noun stalment and transposing onto this the sh [] sound: schtalment. Chti pronunciation is further
reinforced in the TL as the noun retraite [pension] becomes penshion. By

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Chapter 6

implementing this strategy, Katims captures the presence of chti in his TL.
This exemplifies an approach commended by Daz-Cintas and Remal
(2007: 191), who, when discussing the difficulty of translating dialect, write:
Talented subtitlers [] manage to suggest this kind of language variation.
ST

Jusqu lprochaine quinzaine deume retraite.

Standard French

Jusqu la prochaine quinzaine de ma retraite.

English

Until the next fortnightly instalment of my pension.

TT

Till the next schtalment of my penshion.

Vocabulary
Monsieur Vasseurs frequent use of chti vocabulary largely accounts for his
not being understood. In lines 8 and 9, Katims deals with this by employing
TL words which begin with the same letter as the SL word and have approximately the same meaning, but which either belong to formal and literary
registers or are used out of their usual context and thus sound odd. This
tendency to juxtapose TL registers in order to preserve the strangeness of the
SL is, once again, evidence of a distinctly foreignizing approach (Venuti 1998:
1617). In line 8, the polysyllabic, high-register term confabulation is used:
ST

Faut pas me raconter des carabistoules.

Standard French

Il ne faut pas me raconter des btises.

English

Dont give me any nonsense.

TT

I dont take confabulation.

In line 9, the verb baver [dire: to tell, to say] is given similar treatment. Here,
pronunciation is again transposed onto the TL, and besmear becomes
beshmear, but the tag hein [huh] is deleted. Use of this verb appears
particularly strange in the subtitle. Not only is its meaning (to smear or
cover with a greasy or sticky substance) unusual in this context, but it also
belongs to a literary register and is probably never used in spoken English

163

Dealing with Dialect

(Venuti ibid.). It is therefore unlikely that many members of the TL audience would understand, or even guess, its meaning.
ST

Faut pas men baver, hein.

Standard French

Pas de btises, cest entendu?

English

No nonsense, OK?

TT

Dont beshmeer me.

Furthermore, in line 23, use of the chti colloquial verb braire to mean
pleurer [to cry, to whinge] is noteworthy. In standard French, braire means
to bray; that is, to make a loud, harsh cry or sound, like that made by a
donkey. Although this term is used by a native chti speaker, it may appear
somewhat controversial. As chti is considered a low dialect, it could be
inferred that speakers seem to bray, like animals, rather than complain.
This verb is translated literally by Katims which ensures that it preserves
its original connotation in the TL. Moreover, the translation of this line
includes a feature of chti which is not, on this occasion, present in the original: needsh [needs]; schmall [small]. Once again, as previously discussed,
it could be argued that this serves as a compensation strategy.
ST

Jsuis pas l pour braire, mais si vous pouviez me faire une avance.

Standard French

Je ne suis pas l pour rler, mais si vous pouviez me faire une

avance.

English

Im not here to whinge, but if you could give me an advance.

TT

I dont bray, but I needsh a shmall advansh.

Grammar
The presence of chti grammar in this scene also requires particular attention. On occasions, Katims chooses not to recapture this in the TL. In
line 7, for instance, the chti first-person possessive pronoun min, a variant of the standard mon, is translated with the standard TL equivalent

164

Chapter 6

my; arguably, the translation could have resorted to the colloquial and
frequent use of the possessive adjective me: me bank account. Indeed,
me is used in exactly this way in the translation of line 18.4 Furthermore,
in line 11, Vasseurs emphatic use of the dialectal demonstrative mi [
moi; to me] is not translated. Instead, Katims complements his repeated
use of the substantive confabulation (line 8) with the alliterated verb
cotton to, informal American English for approve of . In this instance,
as in other previously discussed examples, features of chti are not necessarily recaptured in the corresponding TL words but are compensated for
elsewhere in the subtitles.
The chti construction, Quo qu cest qu teu baves?, which deviates quite
considerably from standard French, is used in line 13. Katims chooses to
simplify the usual TL question form by removing the verb are; what are
you thus becomes what you. He then accompanies this with a repeated
use of the verb besmear, which again appears as beshmear. As discussed
above, this usage seems bizarre due to its meaning and register which are
unusual in the present context (Venuti 1998: 1617).

ST

Quo qu cest qu teu baves?

Standard French

Quest-ce que tu dis?

English

What are you saying?

TT

What you beshmeering?

It must be conceded that this strategy is not entirely unproblematic. Given that
the non-standard first-person possessive pronoun me is used in several varieties of
English, including Cockney and some Northern dialects, it may have regional connotations for some members of the TL audience.

165

Dealing with Dialect

Pronunciation, vocabulary, expressions and grammar

If the above-discussed lines have contained one predominant feature of
the chti language, other lines in this scene display a concentrated blend of
chti pronunciation, vocabulary, expressions and grammar. These lines are
therefore particularly difficult to understand; they inevitably cause confusion on the part of Abrams and, indeed, the films francophone audience,
which is the trigger for their humorous effect. In line 18, the audience hears:
ST

Javo acat gramint dmatriel pour min gardin.

Standard French

Javais achet beaucoup de matriel pour mon jardin.

English

I had bought a lot of material for my garden.

TT

I wash a need quipment for me gard.

By transforming pronunciation and making was become wash, adding

unnecessary articles (a need), using personal pronouns inaccurately as possessive adjectives (me) and contracting some nouns (quipment, gard),
Katims produces a translation which appears strange, and is only partly
comprehensible, to the TL audience. His subtitle of this line is as confusing for the anglophone viewer as the original line is for the francophone
audience. Line 19 presents a comparable range of translation difficulties
which Katims handles in a number of ways:
ST

Chest quy avo fort drach. Eune berdoule.

Standard French

Cest quil avait beaucoup plu. Une boue.

English

It is that it had rained a lot. A mud.

TT

Cosh it mighty mucked. A whop.

To convey the idea of heavy rain and mud, Katims transforms the noun
une boue [a mud] which sounds strange as it is never used as a countable
noun in French or English into the verb to muck, which does not exist
in the TL. He then supplements this with the American- English noun a
whop, meaning a hard hit. Arguably, this line is incomprehensible to an

166

Chapter 6

anglophone audience and Katims TT thus once again succeeds at reproducing for the TL audience both the misunderstanding and confusion
experienced by SL viewers. Katims responds to the translation challenges
presented by line 22 by using a very different technique:
ST

Jto fin bnache, mais mon livret O, il a eu des russ.

Standard French

Jtais bien tranquille, mais mon livret O, il a eu des difficults.

English

I was fine, but my bank book has had some problems.

TT

I wash dandy but the bank book wash a wee shortish.

In the same sentence, Katims uses the American-English dandy, meaning

fine or good, to translate the chti expression fin bnache [fine], and the
Scottish a wee shortish, i.e. a little lacking/ short (of money) to render il
a eu des russ [it has had some problems]. The result is a cacophonous mixture of national variants which appears unusual to, and produces a jarring
effect on, the anglophone audience. The translation of this line provides
a fine example of a foreignizing approach as it [] develop[s] a translation
method along lines which are excluded by dominant linguistic and cultural
values in the target language (Venuti 1997: 242).
In sum, in order to respond to the broad range of translation challenges posed by the concentrated presence of the chti dialect in this scene,
Katims implements a correspondingly wide range of creative translation
solutions. One of these solutions involves transposition of pronunciation (lines 2, 4, 23, 24), that is, misspelling standard English words in
order to incorporate the SL sound sh [], which is such a striking feature
of chti pronunciation, onto the TL. It is clearly necessary to dose uses of
this sound in order to avoid their being too confusing or off-putting for
the TL audience. Creative solutions employed by Katims also include
contraction of TL nouns (18, 24), juxtaposition of linguistic registers (6,
8, 9) and national variants (22), unusual and creative uses of vocabulary
(23, 19) and invention of ungrammatical question forms (13). Together,
these strategies produce subtitles which appear bizarre and dissonant
(Venuti 1998: 1617) and are sometimes difficult for the TL audience
to understand.

167

Dealing with Dialect

Scene Five
Despite some initial difficulties when attempting to settle in Bergues,
Abrams becomes fond of his colleagues. He takes them to a local restaurant where they introduce him to regional specialities and teach him to
speak some chti. This involves guidance on vocabulary, pronunciation
and grammar. In this scene, colleagues encourage Abrams to use the chti
which they have taught him to make an order. Here, the ultimate ironic
reversal can be witnessed: the waiter is not a local and does not understand what is said.
A.B. = Antoine Bailleul; P.A. = Philippe Abrams; W. = waiter
Speaker

ST

TT

1) P.A.

Garchon !
[Waiter!]

Waiter!

2) A.B.

Ah non, a vient de l.
[No, it comes from here.]

3) P.A.

Garchon !
[Waiter!]

4) W.

Bonsoir.
[Good evening.]

Good evening.

5) P.A.

Bonsoir biloute, hein !

[Good evening mate, huh!]

Evening biloute.

6) P.A.

Mi avec chquipe de la poste, on voudrait

[Me with the team from the Post Office, we
would like ]

7) A.B.

On voudron
[We want]

Wont

8) P.A.

On voudron
[We want]

We wont

9) P.A.

r-commander
[to order again]

From the gut.

NO SUBTITLE

Mo and the posh offish

shtaff want

to order

168
Speaker

Chapter 6
ST

TT

10) P.A.

la mme chose, sil vous plat, hein !

[the same thing, please, huh!]

the shame again pleash.

11) W.

Excusez-moi, je ne suis pas Chtimi. Je suis de

la rgion parisienne et je nai rien compris.
[Im sorry, Im not Chtimi. Im from the Paris
region and I didnt understand anything.]

Sorry, Im not Shtimi.

Im from Paris. I didnt
get that.

Translation of the French used in this scene is handled in a number of

ways in the English subtitles. Pronunciation of s [s] as sh [] is again an
important feature of the language used here. At times, transposition of
this sound is not possible (lines 1 and 3), but it is compensated for elsewhere. Indeed, in line 6, the sh [] sound features only once in the SL but
three times in the subtitle, which emphasizes and alliterates it. At other
times, this sound is used in the TL to compensate for non-translation
of an SL term within the same line; in line 10, the SL tag hein [huh] is
not translated, but sh is used twice in the subtitle, despite the fact that
it does not feature at all in the SL. When the familiar form of address
biloute [pal] is used in line 5, the very same lexical item is retained in the
TL (Pedersen 2005: 4) which serves to maintain local, source-culture
colour in the subtitle (Nord 1988/ 1991: 73). As regards the grammar,
and indeed the morphology, of chti (lines 68), this is preserved subtly
in the TL through slight modifications to standard TL verb-forms and
pronouns. Hence, on voudron [on voudrait] is rendered as wont [(we)
want] and mi [moi] becomes mo [me]. This latter pronoun is particularly unusual. Although, in certain constructions, the accusative me
sometimes replaces the nominative I in colloquial English (Me and my
friends played a game as opposed to my friends and I played a game),
mo is never used in British or American English. Katims may then have
created this particular pronoun by adapting either the French possessive
pronoun mon, or personal pronoun moi.

Dealing with Dialect

169

Conclusion
At the outset, this chapter quoted Landers (2001: 117), who was adamant
about the impossibility of translating dialect.5 Against this background,
Dealing with Dialect set out to establish the extent to which Michael
Katims succeeds at preserving the flavour of the chti dialect in his English
subtitles of the French film Bienvenue chez les Chtis. Bearing in mind the
widely acknowledged difficulty of translating dialect (Berman 1985: 294;
Hatim and Mason 1990: 405), this chapter has focused on instances in
the film where chti pronunciation, vocabulary, expressions and grammar
result in confusion and, ultimately, amusement, and has explored how this
language has been rendered in its English subtitles. Examining five scenes,
the chapter has shown Katims use of an eclectic blend of distinct translation solutions. These range from the freer and more creative including
transposition of pronunciation, juxtaposition of different linguistic registers
and national variants, and rewriting of wordplays to the closer-to-theoriginal and more foreignizing such as literal transferral of SL terms and
close translation of expressions (Venuti 1998: 1617). Collectively, these
solutions produce a TT which draws attention to the otherness of chti
and retains the self-conscious references to this dialect which are present
in the ST. As was witnessed in Chapter 5, this is exactly the approach recommended by Berman (1985/ 2000: 2856) in his discussion of translating novels. Berman criticizes those translation strategies which conceal
the foreign identity of the ST. In his eyes, the translation of novels, which
contain a proliferation of languages and accents, almost always results in
the production of homogenized, or linguistically flat, discourse in the
TT. He thus advocates making the foreign qualities of the ST visible in
5

This quote by Landers was chosen in order to illustrate an extreme point of view
on this subject. His argument can, admittedly, not only be countered using the present film-based study, but also by referring to the work of playwrights. The plays of
French-Canadian Michel Tremblay have, for instance, been successfully translated
into Scots (see Les Belles-Soeurs (1972) [The Sisters-in-Law], translated as The GuidSisters [guid-sister: sister-in-law in Scots]).

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Chapter 6

the TT in order to render the latter less flat or more textured (See also
Venuti 1995; 1997; 1998). In Chapter 5 it was also suggested that, if some
of Bermans observations and recommendations are specific to the translation of literature, others are of intergeneric application and relevant to the
present, audiovisual-based study.
Perhaps one of the best measures to gauge the success of Katims translation is to consider the response of anglophone viewers with more or less
knowledge of the linguistic skills involved in producing these subtitles.
Amongst reviews on <http://www.amazon.co.uk> are the following: Just
stick the English subtitles on (which somehow have an accent) and enjoy!;
Kudos to Michael Katims excellent subtitle adaptation that manages to
pull off the tricky [] puns and wordplays that a lesser translator might
decide were simply untranslatable. Katims is, it appears, highly successful
in preserving both the linguistic specificity and the resulting humour of
Bienvenue chez les Chtis in his translation. As it has been witnessed in previous chapters, viewers rarely comment explicitly on the linguistic quality of
a films subtitles. The above statements are therefore particularly meaningful and may be explained by the heightened visibility which Katims gives
to linguistic variation in his English-language subtitles, especially through
his use of foreignizing translation strategies (Venuti ibid).
To return to Landers (2001: 117), dialect is indeed firmly rooted in the
particular geographical and cultural context in which it originates; close
translation of this could therefore never be achieved. As Daz-Cintas and
Remal (2007: 191) write: The connotations of different target language
dialects will never be the same as those of the source culture dialects they
replace. However, in the present case, no attempt is made to substitute chti
with an equivalent TL dialect. Rather, when working against the audiovisual background, which always contributes significantly to preserving
an original films context and colour (Daz-Cintas and Remal 2007: 193;
Tveit 2009: 87), Katims succeeds in alluding to this dialect in the TL,
and therefore in conveying the essence of chti in his subtitles. If Landers
is convinced that dialect should never be translated, the present chapter
has demonstrated that this certainly can be achieved.

Conclusion

Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation began by acknowledging both the unique nature of subtitling as a translation task and
the multiple challenges which this poses. Among these challenges is the
need to transform an oral variety of the SL into a written form of the
TL. Clearly, the more the language in an original film deviates from a
standard oral SL register, thereby becoming definable as non-standard,
the more complex the task of subtitling becomes. When the language
contained in films features non-standard pronunciation, dialect(s) or
other varieties of language, and these may also be juxtaposed with more
standard uses of language, the present study has described such films as
displaying linguistic variation. It has also been suggested that application
of Bakhtinian thought can assist in explaining the relevance of such linguistic phenomena which are present in the films examined in the present
study. As such uses of language are central to characters identities and to
a films plot, it is essential to retain this SL specificity as fully as possible
in the TL subtitles if the TL audience is to experience as authentically
as possible the TL film. The nub of the challenge faced by the subtitlers
of films which contain non-standard language and linguistic variation
is, then, one of preserving the essence and variety of the SL and its connotational meanings, while at the same time avoiding any linguistic and
cultural displacement of the original film in the TL. Given the evident
difficulty of translating such non-standard language, this task is advised
against (Landers 2001), avoided (Lambert 1990) or, when attempted,
subject to considerable criticism ( Jckel 2001).
Against this background, Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual
Translation focused on a collection of British and French films which
were all selected for the range of approaches which they adopt to portraying linguistic otherness, or difference. Each of the books chapters adopted
a specific focus in order to provide an indication of the different ways in

172 Conclusion

which linguistic variation can be handled in film subtitles and what there
is to learn from this.
Each chapter provided micro-level analyses in order to explore the
range of challenges posed by the subtitling of linguistic variation in the
given film(s) and the corresponding solutions offered by their respective
subtitlers. It then sought to determine the extent to which linguistic variation is retained for the TL audience before suggesting, where appropriate,
how this could be achieved more fully. Essentially, drawing on the findings
of its six chapters, Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation has
thus sought to answer four key questions: i) How is linguistic variation
significant in the context of the given films? ii) How does this variation
manifest itself in the films? iii) What translation challenges does such language pose and what solutions are offered to these? iv) Could the linguistic
variation, which is such a significant part of the SL films, be retained more
fully in the TL subtitles for the target audience?
If, as previously suggested, the unique audiovisual, multimodal nature
of films (Tveit 2009) can increase translation challenges, it can, at other
times, be of considerable assistance to subtitlers. Indeed, in an audiovisual
text, language is not the sole means of conveying meaning; paralinguistic
features, that is, aural clues tone, volume, speed of speech and frequency
of interjections and visual ones facial expressions, body language and
gestures contribute significantly to meaning (Daz-Cintas and Remal
2007: 191, 193; Hatim and Mason 1997: 82; Mvel 2012: 156; Tveit 2009:
87). While fully acknowledging this, Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual
Translation primarily focused on the linguistic challenges posed by the interlingual translation ( Jakobson 1959: 114) of the linguistic variation which
occurs in its chosen corpus of audiovisual texts. In order to present clearly
and concisely the salient empirical findings of Dealing with Difference in
Audiovisual Translations six principal chapters, and ultimately respond to
the key questions which this book set out to answer, the present Conclusion
uses a series of four tables. Driven by Trudgills definition of dialect (1996:
3; 2008: 8) (cf. Introduction), each table is nevertheless sufficiently flexible to incorporate the features of the various language varieties which
are present in the films concerned, but which may not all be fully classed
as dialect. The four tables are thus entitled: i) Accent/ Pronunciation;

Conclusion

173

ii) Grammar; iii) Vocabulary; iv) Juxtaposition of Language Varieties. These

tables are presented as a collection and immediately follow the present
Conclusion. The text-based, functionalist findings contained in the four
tables will now be expanded upon.

Table 1: Accent/ Pronunciation

Examination of the ways in which the non-standard and contrasting
accents/ pronunciation which feature in seven English-language and
French-language films have been subtitled into French or English reveals
that subtitlers tend to adopt one of two broad approaches. Either they
standardize SL pronunciation in the TL, which constitutes a TL-oriented
approach, or they attempt to preserve non-standard SL accents in their
TL subtitles; such a SL-oriented approach serves to preserve SL colour
in their TT.
In Trainspotting, for instance, if Edinburgh Scots pronunciation is
mostly relatively mild ye instead of you, trilled rs, omission of final gs
protagonist Begbie speaks with a very marked accent and at a rapid pace.
This films subtitlers make no attempt to recapture, or even hint at, nonstandard pronunciation in French. This tendency is similarly apparent in
C.M.C.s French subtitles of the Glaswegian-accented SL which dominates
The Angels Share. Compensation strategies can, however, frequently be
observed. In the French-language subtitles of Lock, Stock and Fish Tank and
the English-language subtitles of Polisse, the subtitlers frequently employ
non-standard grammar and vocabulary and an informal register in order
to recapture in their translations the non-standard qualities of the given
SL film. In the five films examined in Chapters One to Four of Dealing
with Difference in Audiovisual Translation, it may therefore be advisable to
add occasional single-line headnotes or subtitles to indicate pronounced
SL accents, and to provide concise supplementary explanations of these in
the films DVD Extras sections, where this is not already available. These
TL-oriented, but nevertheless discrete, strategies would ensure that the

174 Conclusion

non-standard nature of the SLs, and their related cultural connotations,

were fully comprehensible for all interested TL viewers.
Non-standard pronunciation of the SL is even more prominent in
The Terminal and Bienvenue chez les Chtis. In both of these films, the main
protagonists non-standard pronunciation, or indeed mispronunciation, of
the SL repeatedly results in misunderstanding, confusion and, ultimately,
amusement. If Batrice Thomas-Wachsberger makes no attempt to transpose phonetically Viktor Navorskis pronounced Eastern European accent
from the English-language soundtrack to her French subtitles, she nevertheless fully preserves this characters linguistic alterity and entertaining errors
very forcefully in the TL by rewriting confused sounds and wordplays in her
subtitles. Similarly, as was witnessed in Chapter 6, in his English-language
subtitles of Bienvenue chez les Chtis, Michael Katims does an admirable job
of transposing distinctive chti pronunciation onto his subtitles adapting
spellings to suggest non-standard pronunciation of, and thereby discreetly
recapturing foreign colour in, his TL (Venuti 1998: 1617) and recreating the confusions of sounds which cause such amusement in the Frenchlanguage film by creating alternative wordplays in English.

Table 2: Grammar
As was the case of the subtitlers handling of non-standard SL accent/
pronunciation in their respective TTs, the ways in which they deal with
the translation of non-standard grammatical uses apparent in both Englishand French-language STs fall into one of two principal categories. The
subtitlers either tend towards standardization in the TL (a TL-oriented
approach), or towards a more creative approach which involves creating
comparable distortions of the TL and thus, at times, maintaining foreign
colour in, their TTs (SL-oriented approach).
In Trainspotting and The Angels Share, the Scottish protagonists
uses of grammar do not deviate greatly from standard English structures.
However, where their uses are specifically Scots, these are rendered in the
French subtitles with informal, non-standard, but nevertheless non-regional,

Conclusion

175

TL uses. A similar tendency is apparent in the French subtitles of Fish Tank

and the English subtitles of Polisse. This results in no clear distinction
being made between different SL speakers in the TL subtitles and in a
consequent neutralization of the TL (see also discussion of Table 4). This
particular problem could easily be remedied by the addition of a one-line
headnote or subtitle, indicating a strong regional/ dialectal use of the SL
for the TL audience.
Non-standard SL grammar is recaptured to greater effect in the subtitles of the remaining three films examined in Dealing with Difference in
Audiovisual Translation. The non-standard grammatical uses typical of
Cockney English which dominate Lock, Stocks original soundtrack are
recaptured strikingly throughout the French subtitles with comparably
non-standard TL uses. The syntax of Bacons rhyming sales banter in the
films opening scene is also reproduced selectively, which ensures that his
personality is communicated effectively to the TL audience. When rendering Viktor Navorskis incorrect uses of English grammar in her French
subtitles of The Terminal, Thomas-Wachsberger mirrors this by simplifying TL syntax, misusing TL tenses and creating incorrect question-forms.
She therefore recaptures closely the grammatical inaccuracies apparent in
the SL by distorting the TL in a comparable way. In a similar vein, when
confronted with instances of chti grammar and morphology which feature in Bienvenue chez les Chtis, Katims preserves these subtly in the TL
by making slight modifications to standard TL verb-forms and pronouns:
on voudron (on voudrait) is rendered as we wont (we want) and mi (moi)
becomes mo (me). By creating a bizarre and somewhat dissonant effect in
their TLs, this second branch of subtitlers therefore tend to adopt a more
foreignizing approach (Venuti 1995; 1998) to their translations.

Table 3: Vocabulary
Throughout Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation certain
tendencies to standardize SL vocabulary in the TL subtitles were witnessed. This principally concerned regional SL lexis, such as Begbies use

176 Conclusion

of specifically Scots vocabulary (Trainspotting) and a barmans concentrated use of Cockney Rhyming Slang (Lock, Stock). On these occasions,
the semantic content of the original words was fully preserved in the TL
subtitles, but the absence of cultural connotation led to loss of information
regarding the characters identities and films plots.
This said, in the subtitles of the seven films examined, the ways in
which SL vocabulary/ lexis are rendered are very successful and often
compensate for the under-translation or indeed, non-translation of nonstandard SL pronunciation and grammar in the TL. Various non-standard
SL lexical items are frequently conveyed through use of relatively close
translation strategies (informal uses in Trainspotting and The Angels Share)
and, at times, instances of over-translation can be observed Thats lovely:
Elle dchire, cette gnle (The Angels Share). If vulgar and taboo language
(Trainspotting, The Angels Share, Fish Tank) is sometimes toned down or
translated selectively and this can have some impact on characterization,
vulgarity is almost always conveyed effectively through the use of close
translation strategies.1 This approach proves to be equally effective when
rendering specific insider jargon, such as the drugs-related vocabulary
which dominates Trainspotting and the street-trader sales-banter which
features in Lock, Stock. At other times, however, subtitlers are required to
employ freer and more creative translation strategies in order to recapture
the protagonists distinctive lexical uses: police officers inventive uses
(Polisse); Viktor Navorskis non-native uses (The Terminal); condensed uses
of the chti dialect (Bienvenue chez les Chtis). This entails directly transposing SL lexical items, distorting TL expressions (The Terminal, Bienvenue)
and rewriting wordplays to create a comparably humorous effect in the TL
to that which is produced by the SL (Fish Tank, The Terminal, Bienvenue).
The aspect of vocabulary to which the subtitlers may at first seem
particularly divided in their translation approach is that of the handling
of culture-bound terms. In Trainspotting, for instance, multiple references
to the Scottish, and indeed British, social system, culture and cuisine are
replaced with approximately equivalent TL cultural references in the
French-language subtitles. This TL-oriented approach results in some
1

For discussions of the importance of translating vulgar and taboo language accurately,
see Landers (2001: 151) and Trudgill (2000: 19).

Conclusion

177

loss in the TT of information regarding the source culture, and indeed in

a degree of cultural displacement; the TL subtitles sometimes clash with
the images in the original film and the film then becomes a schizophrenic
object (Mvel 2012: 2345; 259). By contrast, the subtitlers of The Angels
Share, The Terminal and Bienvenue employ certain techniques such as
discreetly transposing SL terms onto their TL subtitles which thereby
exoticizes the latter (Nord 1988/ 1991: 73), and incorporating concise,
oblique explanations into their translations. This is a particularly commendable strategy; it is an effective, reader-friendly means of ensuring
that the TL audience appreciates the cultural connotations of the original
film. Despite these differences, the strategies of these two subtitlers have
a fundamental point in common; they are both essentially determined by
paratextual considerations (Pedersen 2005), that is, the amount of culturebound information which they assume on the part of their target audiences.
If the benefits of adapting a SL-oriented approach are numerous, one
single exception to this may be made. In Fish Tank (Chapter 3), the familys
pet dog is amusingly named Tennents after the brand of Scottish lager.
In an attempt to preserve SL colour in the TL film, Boillot and Haughton
transpose this name directly onto their French subtitles. However, as this
is likely to have little, if any, significance for the TL audience, the humorous effect of the SL is lost in this subtitle. On this one occasion, it may be
preferable to recapture the humour by replacing Tennents with the name
of another brand of lager which is available in the UK but with which the
TL audience would also be familiar, such as Stella or Kronenbourg.

Table 4: Juxpaposition of Language Varieties

One significant feature of all of the films studied in Dealing with
Difference in Audiovisual Translation is their heteroglossic quality (Bakhtin
1940/ 1981: 67), that is, their tendency to juxtapose very different language
varieties, including accents, dialects and non-standard uses of language.
Once again, the subtitlers of the films in question are sometimes divided
in their approaches to rendering such a phenomenon.

178 Conclusion

The subtitlers of Trainspotting, The Angels Share and Lock, Stock

are very successful at preserving distinct registers of the SL in their TTs.
Elevated registers are maintained through correct uses of grammar and
refined uses of vocabulary. Informality is preserved through non-standard/
incorrect grammar and through vocabulary which belongs to a lower register. Nevertheless, these subtitlers make no attempt to distinguish between
the juxtaposed regional accents or dialectal features (pronunciation/ grammar/ vocabulary) which are a striking aspect of all three SL films. As this
inevitably results in a loss of cultural information for the TL audience, it was
suggested that the subtitles of these films include a one-line metalinguistic
headnote with the first subtitled line of characters whose speech is marked
by a distinct regional accent or dialect. The subtitlers could subsequently
draw on techniques employed in SDH (different visual techniques such
as colours, font, size of characters) to distinguish between characters different uses of language. Some brief supplementary materials could also be
provided in the Extras sections of the films DVD versions.
When characters in Polisse, The Terminal and Bienvenue are non-native
speakers of the SL or speak with such a strong regional dialect that they
indeed appear to be foreign, the subtitlers in question succeed admirably at
preserving in their TTs the contrasting varieties of language present in the
SL soundtrack. Phonetic features are transposed, grammatical inaccuracies
are recreated, confusions of SL words and expressions are rewritten and SL
lexical items are directly transposed into the TL. By not only employing
an eclectic blend of creative translation solutions in order to subtitle nonstandard SL uses, but also translating closely the more standard uses of other
non-native SL speakers, these subtitlers ensure that the contrast between
non-standard and standard language in the original films is preserved very
accurately in their TTs. This is clearly significant if ST characterization
and plot are to be communicated effectively in the TL subtitles.
Interestingly, when translating Fish Tank and Polisse, the subtitlers were
also able to rely on many paralinguistic features of the SL films in order to
preserve distinctions between the speech of the films different protagonists. In Fish Tank, the fast pace and loud volume of Mias speech contrast
starkly with the non-aggressive tone and relaxed pace of Connors voice.
Tone and pace of speech, facial expressions, hand gestures and laughter are
equally important elements of police-police and police-subject interaction

Conclusion

179

in Polisse. As the TL subtitles are evidently set against the original SL audiovisual context, the audiovisual medium plays a significant role in ensuring
that the distinctiveness of the different protagonists speech is preserved
in the TT (Tveit 2009: 87).
Now that the findings made in Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual
Translation have been synthesized and explained, it is apt to revisit, and provide
concrete responses to, the key questions which this book set out to address.
i) and ii) Throughout the chapters it has been demonstrated that
linguistic variation is significant in very different ways within the context
of the films examined, and that such variation also manifests itself in a
multitude of ways in these films.
iii) The translation challenges which these linguistic varieties pose,
and the solutions which are offered to these, have also been detailed. The
translation approach adopted depends on the preferences of individual subtitlers, or subtitling companies, and indeed on the constraints under which
they are operating (Venuti 1995: 1). When translating both from English
to French and French to English, subtitlers sometimes tend towards standardization of such linguistic variation, adopting a TL-oriented approach to
their translation.2 When this occurs from English to French, Mvel (2012:
54) attributes the tendency to subtitle into standard French to the strict
difference which exists between spoken and written registers of the French
language and to the rigour of the Acadmie Franaise. When a tendency to
subtitle into standard English can be observed, Hatim and Mason (1997:
79) also explain that this is due to the difference between spoken and written discourse and to a need for clarity in the TL subtitles.
By contrast, in this study, many instances on which subtitlers have
attempted to preserve linguistic variation and the presence of non-standard
SL uses in the TL, thereby adopting a SL-oriented approach to producing
their TTs, have also been recorded. If it has been witnessed that subtitlers
often do not manage or possibly make a deliberate choice not to attempt
to recapture non-standard accent/ pronunciation in the TL, it has also
been seen that attempts to render non-standard grammatical forms and

According to Mvel (2012: 245), this TL-oriented, domesticating approach remains

largely predominant in France and in the Anglo-American world (ibid: 252).

180 Conclusion

syntactical features in the TL have been more successful, and attempts to

render lexical items yet more so. These findings support those of other
translation theorists who have studied the subtitling of non-standard varieties of language. As Hatim and Mason (1997: 107) (my emphasis) write:3
The subtitling of Pygmalion must seek to bring out Elizas socio-linguistic stigma
[] which should not necessarily entail opting for a particular regional variety and
could as effectively be relayed by simply modifying the standard itself. [] the users
status could adequately be reflected not primarily through phonological features but
through a deliberate manipulation of the grammar or the lexis to relay the necessary
ideological thrust.

iv) Last, even when subtitlers do succeed at conveying orality or informality, this is sometimes generic and does not distinguish, in the TL, between
speakers of different varieties of the SL. This results in some inevitable loss of
regional and sociolinguistic connotations for the TL audience.4 On such occasions, it was suggested that the linguistic variation, or heteroglossia (Bakhtin
19345/ 1981: 291; 1940/ 1981: 67) which is such a significant aspect of these
SL films, could be retained more fully for the TL audience by adding brief,
one-line metalinguistic headnotes to subtitles, manipulating text-types and
providing some supplementary material in the Extras sections of the films.
Accents, dialects and other non-standard varieties of language are
culturally, geographically and socially bound and could therefore never be
recaptured exactly for a TL audience for whom the original connotations
would not be the same (Landers 2001: 117). However Dealing with Difference
in Audiovisual Translation has demonstrated that, with skill and a combination of close and creative translation strategies such as those witnessed in
the subtitles of Polisse, The Terminal and Bienvenue chez les Chtis, distinct,
juxtaposed varieties of the SL can indeed be conveyed in the TL subtitles.
Such an approach ensures that the linguistic and cultural specificity of these
films is preserved as far as possible for the TL audience, and that translation
therefore entails minimum loss of characterization and plot.

3
4

See also Daz-Cintas and Remal (2007: 1934); Hamaida (2007); Mvel (2012).
See also Ashley (2010); Berman (1985); Mvel (2012).

Trainspotting
(Subtitles: translators
unnamed)

Begbie: very strong

Edinburgh accent (& fast
pace of speech)

Scottish pronunciation
mostly relatively mild.
Comprehensible to nonScots speakers

Manifestations of nonstandard language/

linguistic variation in SL

Extent to which nonstandard language/

linguistic variation in
SL are preserved in TL
subtitles

ye instead of you; trilled

Not preserved
rs; omission of final g. No
attempt to recapture nonstandard SL pronunciation
in TL
Omissions of many final
Not preserved
sounds: wi instead of with;
lookin instead of looking.
No attempt made to
recapture non-standard SL
pronunciation

Translation challenges
posed/ solutions employed

Table 1: Accent/ Pronunciation

Addition of
TL headnote
or subtitle
to indicate
pronounced SL
accent

Suggestions
for preserving
non-standard
uses of SL/ SL
variation more
fully in TL

Conclusion

181

Often not recaptured. Some

compensation strategies:
grammar; vocabulary;
register
(See Table 4)

Many different accents

Polisse
(Subtitles: translators
unnamed)

Dropped sounds: ere; em.

Occasionally, but rarely,
recaptured in TL through
elision of SL sounds (Tu es
becomes Tes)
Sorright (Its alright).
Compensation strategies:
omission of negative ne;
non-standard, informal TL
grammar

Pronounced Cockney
accent

Lock, Stock
(Subtitles: European
Captioning Institute)

Multiple instances of heavily

trilled rs in SL. Accent
not recaptured in TL.
Compensation strategies,
namely multiple informal
TL uses

No attempt to recapture
non-standard SL
pronunciation in TL

Fish Tank
Relaxed pronunciation.
(Subtitles:
Marked Essex accent
Emmanuelle Boillot &
Nicola Haughton)

Most scenes marked by

pronounced Glaswegian
accent. Comprehensible to
non-Scots speakers
Occasionally, speech is
difficult to understand
(broad accent & fast pace)

The Angels Share

(Subtitles: C.M.C.)

Some successful
compensation

Some successful
compensation

Not preserved

Not preserved

As above

As above

As above

Addition of
TL headnote
or subtitle (as
above)

182 Conclusion

Bienvenue chez les

Chtis (Subtitles:
Michael Katims)

Non-standard
pronunciation
of SL results in
misunderstanding/
confusion

Distinctive chti
prononciation. French
sound s replaced by sh

Mispronunciation leads to
misunderstanding

The Terminal
Pronounced Eastern
(Subtitles: Batrice
European accent
Thomas-Wachsberger)

Pronunciation transposed
directly onto TL suggests
presence of chti in TL. Oui,
chest moi: Yesh
itsh me
Les siens vs. les chiens.
Subtitlers recreate confusion
of sounds by using two
alternative SL words which
are phonetically similar in
English: offish is heard as
fish.
Also a/ chats rewritten as
fish/ dish

Wordplays rewritten He
shit/ he cheats: Il a fait
caca/ Il la faite cocue

No attempt to transpose
phonetically from SL to TL

In SL, humour is
created by mounting
confusion caused by chti
pronunciation. This is
successfully recaptured
in TL subtitles

Emphasizes chti
otherness; gives local
colour to TT

Linguistic alterity/
entertaining errors are
conveyed forcefully in
TL, as is the case in S

Some degree of loss in

TT, but TL audience
with basic knowledge
of standard British/
American accents could
recognize exaggerated
foreign accent which
remains present in SL
soundtrack

N/A

N/A

Conclusion

183

Occasional Scots uses.

Informality preserved, but
Translated using informal
no regional uses recaptured
but non-regional uses:
(see Table 4)
I cannae find: Je trouve
plus (omission of French
negative ne); how we
gonnae rendered with
informal TL question form,
comment on fera?

As above

The Angels Share

(Subtitles: C.M.C.)

Some informality
preserved, but no
regional uses recaptured
(see Table 4)

Occasional specifically
Scottish uses (cannae
as opposed to cannot).
Translated using nonstandard but non-regional
uses

Extent to which nonstandard language/

linguistic variation in
SL are preserved in TL
subtitles

Trainspotting
Scottish protagonists
(Subtitles: translators use of grammar does not
unnamed)
normally deviate greatly
from standard English
structures

Manifestations of nonTranslation challenges

standard language/
posed/ solutions employed
linguistic variation in SL

Table 2: Grammar

One-line
headnote or
subtitle (see Table
1)

One-line
headnote or
subtitle (see Table
1)

Suggestions for
preserving nonstandard uses of
SL/ SL variation
more fully in TL

184 Conclusion

Songs/ rhyming lines

Fish Tank
Non-standard grammar,
(Subtitles:
many colloquial uses
Emmanuelle Boillot
& Nicola Haughton)

Rhyming sales banter

(syntax)

Lock, Stock
Cockney non-standard
(Subtitles: European uses of grammar
Captioning Institute)

Rhyme not preserved in SL

Rendered with equally

informal TL grammatical
uses: Whats your
problem?: Cest quoi, ton
problme?
BUT: What you gonna
do about it? Tu vas porter
plainte? (lexis and grammar
of higher register in TL
than in SL)

Recaptured selectively, e.g.

Lets sort the buyers from
the spyers: Acheteurs pas
dlateurs

Recaptured strikingly
throughout subtitles;
French negative ne
repeatedly omitted

This does not detract from

translation or from essence
of given scenes. Semantic
content fully preserved
in TL

Some neutralization of SL
style in TL

Preserved

Preserved successfully.
This compensates for
absence of non-standard
pronunciation in TL
(see Table 1)
Bacons personality
successfully communicated
to TL audience
N/A

N/A

Conclusion

185

Chti grammar/
morphology
(see Table 4)

Bienvenue chez les

Chtis
(Subtitles: Michael
Katims)

Preserved subtly in TL
through slight modifications
to standard TL verb-forms/
pronouns, e.g.: on voudron
(on voudrait): we wont (we
want)

Viktor Navorskis
speech characterized by:
Simplified syntax;
Corresponding
simplifications of TL
syntax: I need visa Besoin
visa
Incorrect uses of SL
Recaptured in TL by
tenses;
replacing correct verb forms
with TL infinitive, e.g. I do
this Je faire
Inaccurate question
Recaptured in French with
forms
comparably inaccurate
question-forms, verb-forms
and word order, e.g. What
you like? Quoi vous aimez?
Often preserved
successfully

Generally recaptured very

effectively with comparable
distortions of standard TL
grammatical forms

Non-standard SL uses
Not preserved
translated with nonstandard TL, but no
distinction made between
uses of different SL speakers
in TL (see Table 4)

The Terminal
(Subtitles:
Batrice ThomasWachsberger)

Polisse
Grammatical uses
(Subtitles: translators largely non-standard
unnamed)

N/A

N/A

Some selective
one-line
headnotes
or subtitles (see
Table 1)

186 Conclusion

Trainspotting
(Subtitles: translators
unnamed)

Drug-related, insider
jargon
Begbie uses some Scots
terms
(biscuit-arsed; you ken
me)

Vulgar uses

Protagonists vocabulary
mainly belongs to very
informal register. Not
specifically Scottish

Manifestations of nonstandard language/

linguistic variation in SL

Semantic content guides

translation. Idiomatic,
but non-regional, TL
equivalents used

Informal uses recaptured

with TL equivalents.
Some over-translations
(drunk: torch;
carry: trimballer) to
compensate for undertranslations of vulgar
vocabulary
Sometimes close,
sometimes undertranslated (fuck and
derivatives thereof ),
sometimes not translated
(c**t)
TL equivalents used

Translation challenges
posed/ solutions
employed

Table 3: Vocabulary

Semantic content
preserved but regional
specificity lost

Preserved

Sometimes essence of
SL characters speech
lost in TL, but semantic
content and vulgar
essence always preserved

Preserved

Extent to which nonstandard language/

linguistic variation in
SL are preserved in TL
subtitles

One-line headnote
or subtitle (see Tables
1 & 2) & provide
information in DVD
Extras section

N/A

N/A

N/A

Suggestions for
preserving nonstandard uses of
SL/ SL variation
more fully in TL

Conclusion

187

The Angels Share

(Subtitles: C.M.C.)

Culture-bound terms

SL-oriented strategy.
Terms
Transposed directly
(celidh; firth) and
oblique explanations
provided. Also: names of
whiskies left untouched;
shortbread transposed

One-line headnote
or subtitle (see Tables
1 & 2)
N/A

Semantic content
preserved but regional
specificity lost
Vulgar essence of TL
always preserved
Effective, reader-friendly
way to ensure that TL
audience appreciates
cultural content of
original film

N/A

N/A

Retain SL references/
terms. Additional
information in DVD
Extras section

Preserved

TL-oriented approach
Loss of source culture
(DSS: ANPE; bookies: information. Cultural
PME)
displacement

Vocabulary not
Many close translations/
specifically Scots but
uses of TL equivalents.
dominated by slang terms Occasional overtranslations (Thats
lovely: Elle dchire, cette
gnle) compensate for
some under-translations
of vulgar language
Some specifically Scots
Not translated at all,
uses (a wee seat; aye)
but meaning implicit in
context in which terms
are used
Much vulgar language
Translated selectively

References to social
system/ social &
cultural items

188 Conclusion

Some close translations

(skank: ptasse), but
frequently omitted or
toned down (fuck off :
casse-toi)

Not recaptured, but

subtitles peppered with
colloquial TL terms
(matez a; vos tronches;
choper)
Sales banter and humour References to stealing,
body parts, infidelity
translated closely
Contrived concentration Rhyming slang not
of rhyming slang
recaptured in translation.
(accompanied by
TL subtitles based on
intralingual subtitles)
intralingual (semantic)
subtitles which
accompany SL film

Cockney figurative
speech

Fish Tank
Swear/ taboo words
(Subtitles:
Emmanuelle Boillot &
Nicola Haughton)

Lock, Stock
(Subtitles: European
Captioning Institute)

One-line headnotes
or subtitles.
Additional
information in DVD
Extras section

Absence of cultural
connotation and
information regarding
characters identities/
films setting

Pikey may be
better translated as
manouche rather than
gitan(e) (gypsy)

N/A

Semantic content and

humour preserved

Some neutralization of
SL style in TL, but aural
and visual clues preserve
much informality and
aggression

One-line headnotes
or subtitles (see
Tables 1 & 2)

Some loss of figurative

speech but informal
register preserved

Further information
Preserved
also provided in Extras
section of DVD and
subtitled for TL audience

Conclusion

189

Polisse
(Subtitles: translators
unnamed)

Officers creative uses of

language

Language used by police

mainly informal

Other songs

Close translations
(assisted by presence of
original soundtrack and
images)
Recaptured creatively
(miol: rave; mictims:
rictims)

Say hello to the w(h)ales

for me: Dis bonjour aux
galeux de ma part
Close translation
strategies
Not translated

Plays on words

Sexual idiom (in songs)

SL-oriented strategy:
name of pet dog
(Tennents) is
transposed. Loss of
cultural connotation and
humour in TL

Culture-bound terms

Preserved very
successfully

Preserved

Loss of information
relating to main female
protagonist and films
plot

Alternative pun has

comparably amusing
effect on TL audience
Preserved

SL humour lost

N/A

N/A

Translate songs
chorus. This would
allow TL audience to
appreciate relevance
of track to film as a
whole

N/A

N/A

Exceptionally,
replace name with
brand of lager/ beer
also known to TL
audience. This would
enable humour to be
created in TT

190 Conclusion

Bienvenue chez les

Chtis
(Subtitles: Michael
Katims)

See also Table 4

Specifically chti
expressions lead to
misunderstandings and
frustration
Individual chti words

N/A

Humour preserved

Preserves and reinforces

in TT exotic and
humorous nature of the
presence of Chti

N/A

Humour preserved

Terms transposed
directly (SL-oriented
strategy)

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Exotic/ alienating effect

preserved in TL
Preserved

Preserved

N/A

Incomprehensibility/
exoticism preserved in
TL

Translated closely
so as to be equally
incomprehensible in TL

Left untouched in TL
film
Words retained in TL
subtitle and italicized
Direct transfer from
SL to TL (SL-oriented
strategy)
Mislearned SL
Errors rewritten in TL,
expressions/ vocabulary; word-order sometimes
reversed
Misunderstood culture- Wordplays rewritten
bound terms
Cher/ to share

The Terminal
Viktor Navorskis speech
(Subtitles: Batrice
includes:
Thomas-Wachsberger) Extended stretches of his
mother tongue;
Individual words from
his mother tongue;
Newly learned SL
expressions;

Conclusion

191

Trainspotting
(Subtitles:
translators
unnamed)
No distinction made in
TL between different SL
accents/ pronunciation,
but vocabulary/
grammar/ registers
preserved accurately in TL
subtitles

Translation challenges
Extent to which nonposed/ solutions employed standard language/
linguistic variation in
SL are preserved in TL
subtitles

Renton (Edinburgh
Judge speaks Standard
Scot) vs. English judge English (SE). Recaptured
in TL through use of
correct TL grammar/
vocabulary of equivalent
register
Judges language influences
Rentons speech. Grammar
and vocabulary translated
closely. Accent not
recaptured in TL
English drug-dealer
Edinburgh
speaks SE. Contrasts with
protagonists vs. other Begbies vulgarity which
characters
drug-dealer later imitates

Manifestations
of non-standard
language/ linguistic
variation in SL

Table 4: Juxtaposition of language varieties (heteroglossic nature of films)

Differences between
accents of SL speakers
may be conveyed in
different colours/ styles/
thicknesses of characters.
This SL-oriented strategy
further emphasizes
the foreign quality
of the subtitles. Brief
supplementary materials
may also be provided in
Extras section of DVD

Suggestions for preserving

non-standard uses of SL/
SL variation more fully
in TL

192 Conclusion

The Angels
Share
(Subtitles:
C.M.C.)

Some characters
speech can be classed
as RP/ SE

Albert (broad
Glaswegian) vs.
judges speech
(Standard Scottish
English (SSE) with
soft lilt)
Albert vs. Mancunian
Harry

Vocabulary/ register

Contrasting accents/
dialects/ informal
language

Contrasting accents/
registers

No hint of either accent

preserved, but contrast
between Alberts
informal register and
judges elevated register is
recaptured closely
No distinction between
regional accents/
vocabulary but informality
of both speakers language
preserved in TL
Refined register preserved
in TL. Standard accent
and dialect often closely
associated in both English
and French. Refined uses
of vocabulary therefore
imply very correct accent
in TL; translation very
successful
N/A

N/A

As above. Brief
supplementary materials
already provided in Extras
section of DVD

Conclusion

193

Lock, Stock
(Subtitles:
European
Captioning
Institute)

Cockney vs. Public

Cockney pronunciation
School English (PSE): much more relaxed than
Accents: markedly
PSE
different in SL;

Cockney vs.
Liverpudlian:
Accents: juxtaposition
very striking;
Grammatical uses:
both (Cockney and
Liverpudlian) are
informal;
Vocabulary:
informal/ colloquial
Informal TL grammar, but
no distinction between
Cockney/ Liverpudlian
uses
Informality conveyed but
no distinction between
different regional uses
Loss of cultural
information for TL
audience. No difference
between cultural origins
preserved. Partially
compensated for when
characters explicitly refer
to North/ South divide
in England (Fucking
Northern monkeys/
I hate those Southern
fairies) and these insults
are translated closely
Not preserved

No attempt to suggest
different accents

As above

As above

194 Conclusion

Fish Tank
(Subtitles:
Emmanuelle
Boillot
& Nicola
Haughton)

Mias Essex accent vs.

Connors Irish lilt

Grammatical uses: no
obvious differences;
Vocabulary: No
specific regional uses.
Many expletives used
by both speakers
Preserved

Preserved

Two distinct, non-standard Reasonably well preserved.

(non-RP) accents
Compensated for through
less accurate uses of TL
grammar (What do you
know?: Do tu sors a?).
Characters different
personalities also reflected
in their pace of speech
and tone. Connors
slow speech and nonaggressive language in
SL films soundtrack and
images remain present for
audience of subtitled film

N/A

Conclusion

195

Polisse
(Subtitles:
translators
unnamed)

Slight differences in
degrees of informality.
Close translations of
registers/ jokes
Accent
Mispronunciation leading
to misunderstanding.
Alternative wordplays
written and
misunderstandings
communicated (foyer/
fort)

Young girl;

Grammatical errors.
Translated selectively

Strong North-African
accent; vulgar language;
colloquialisms; nonstandard grammar

Officers vs. subjects:

North-African
teenage girl;

Black African lady

& son

Close translations of
contrasting registers.
Reinforced by soundtrack
& hand gestures

Officers contrasting
uses of language.
Linguistic awareness
(correct vs. informal/
non-standard
language)

Preserved

Preserved

Not recaptured

Highly informal uses

rendered with American
uses. Very selective use
made of these, so no
linguistic or cultural
displacement of original
scene
Accent not recaptured.
Informality fully preserved
with American-English
terminology (small doses)
Preservation of humour
assisted by laughter in
original soundtrack

196 Conclusion

Chti variations on SL
grammar sometimes
compensated for with
informal language
elsewhere in subtitles,
sometimes recaptured
through simplified
question-forms in TL

Grammar

Chi sound transposed onto

TL Chest oui ou non:
Yesh or no. Some standard
TL sounds contracted
Bizarre uses of SL words,
preserves strangeness of
chti in TL while remaining
mainly comprehensible to
TL audience. Some TL
nouns contracted

Standard French vs.

very strong local chti
dialect:
Pronunciation;

Bienvenue chez
les Chtis
(Subtitles:
Michael
Katims)
Wide range of translation
challenges dealt with
through application of
eclectic blend of different
translation solutions.
Distinction between
standard SL uses and nonstandard, incomprehensible
and consequently amusing
chti language preserved
extremely successfully in TL
subtitles

Viktors misunderstandings, Contrast between Viktor

confusion, humour
and native speakers
recaptured using close
preserved successfully
translation strategies. See
also Table 1 (wordplays)

Vocabulary;

Viktor Navorski vs.

native SL speakers
(taxi driver/ customs
officer)

The Terminal
(Subtitles:
Batrice
ThomasWachsberger)
N/A

N/A

Conclusion

197

Appendix

Summary of Jan Pedersens 2005 Framework for the

Analysis of ECRs, Based on How is culture rendered
in subtitles (2005: 116)
(also developed in Subtitling Norms in Television, 2011)

Thesis: cultural references cause translation problems; the ways in which

they are handled reveal the approach of/ norms applied by a given
translator.
Extralinguistic Cultural References (ECRs): expressions pertaining to realia, to cultural items, which are not part of a language system
(2005: 2).

Seven strategies for rendering ECRs (from most SL-oriented

to most TL-oriented)
Strategy

Explanation and examples

1) O
 fficial equivalent
(no real translation
problem)

Donald Duck = Kalle Anka in Swedish

Pre-formed TL version; evidence of ECR having
entered TL

2) Retention
Sometimes marked off by quotes/ italics
(Most SL-oriented strategy) Adjustments can be made to meet TL conventions
(spellings adjusted/ articles dropped)
Most common strategy for rendering ECRs, but
often no guidance given to TL audience

200

Appendix

3) Specification

Leave ECR in untranslated form, but add

information not present in ST. Done through:
i) Explication: expansion of text/ spelling out what
is implicit in ST. Added material is latent in ST
ECR (spelling out of acronyms/ abbreviations;
adding/ completing official names)
ii) Addition: Added material is latent in ECR as
part of sense/ connotation of ECR
Drawbacks: space-consuming and possibly
patronizing to TL audience

4) Direct translation

Used for rendering names of companies/ official

institutions
Either calque is used (literal translation) or shift in
ECR takes place
Semantic load unchanged, may appear exotic to TL
audience

5) Generalization

Replace ECR which refers to something specific

with something more general. Typically involves
hyponymy
Some loss of meaning in TT is possible

6) Substitution
(Most TL-oriented
strategy)

Remove ST ECR and replace with something else

(different ECR or paraphrase)
i) Cultural substitution
Sometimes transcultural ECR used. Could be
expected to be known by TT audience
SL ECR replaced by TL ECR. Often used for
ECRs referring to official institutions or titles. If
used outside this domain and applied to proper
names, results in anomaly/ credibility gap. Strategy
not used in texts where information is the primary
skopos, but in texts where there are other skopi,
especially humour
ii) Paraphrase
Involves removing ECR and using a paraphrase
which fits the context

7) Omission

Replace ST ECR with nothing. Acceptable

solution if no other appropriate strategy exists, but
should not be used as an easy solution

201

Appendix

Seven factors (parameters) influencing subtitlers

decision-making
Parameter

Explanation

1) Transculturality

ECRs once familiar to people in one culture, now

accessible on a global scale
Transcultural ECR: not bound to source culture,
but could be assumed to be known in both SC
and TC
Monocultural ECR: less identifiable to majority
of relevant TT audience than it is to relevant ST
audience
Microcultural ECR: bound to source culture,
too specialized/ local to be known even by the
majority of ST audience. Reference must be
achieved through context or co-text

2) Extratextuality

Does ECR exist outside ST or not? If it does, it is

text external. If it does not, it is text internal

3) Centrality of reference

Macro-level ECR = subject-matter/ central

theme
Micro-level ECR carries discourse forward/
triggers a joke

4) Intersemiotic redundancy

Subtitles = part of a polysemiotic text. They add

information. Picture/ music/ sound effects/
dialogue/ visual channels. Often degree of
overlap/ intersemiotic redundancy between them

5) Co-text

Overlapping information in dialogue. No need

to explain information again if already explained
earlier

6) Media-specific constraints

Time-space restrictions/ pace of dialogue

7) Paratextual considerations

Skopos-related questions
TT audience-related questions (amount of
specialized/ culture-bound knowledge)
Broadcasting-related questions
Questions relating to other pragmatic matters

Film Corpus

Arnold, Andrea, 2009, Fish Tank, DVD version, BBC Films. (United Kingdom, 124
mins). French-language subtitles: Emmanuelle Boillot and Nicola Haughton.
Bescot, Mawenn, 2011, Polisse, DVD version, Mars Distribution. (France, 129 mins).
English-language subtitles: unnamed.
Boon, Dany, 2008, Bienvenue chez les Chtis, DVD version, Path. (France, 106 mins).
English-language subtitles: Michael Katims.
Boyle, Danny, 1996, Trainspotting, DVD version, Channel Four Films. (United Kingdom, 94 mins). French-language subtitles: unnamed.
Kassovitz, Mathieu, 1995, La Haine, DVD version, Canal +. (France, 98 mins). Englishlanguage subtitles: Alexander Whitelaw and Stephen OShea.
Loach, Ken, 2012, The Angels Share, DVD version, Entertainment One. (Scotland,
106 mins). French-language subtitles: C.M.C.
Ritchie, Guy, 1998, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, DVD version, PolyGram
Filmed Entertainment. (United Kingdom, 120 mins). French-language subtitles:
European Captioning Institute.
Spielberg, Steven, 2004, The Terminal, DVD version, DreamWorks Pictures. (USA,
128 mins). French-language subtitles: Batrice Thomas-Wachsberger.

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Index

accent
British 20, 71
see also Cockney
Liverpudlian (Liverpool) 55, 68, 71,
76, 81, 194
Mancunian (Manchester) 49, 53
regional 11, 85, 93, 178, 193
see also Hughes and Trudgill; privateschool English; Scots English
alienating translation see Schleiermacher
Amazon, reviews which appear on 53, 82,
102, 129, 148, 170
American English 9, 10, 136, 161, 164, 165,
166, 168, 196
Angels Share, The see Loach
Arnold, Andrea
Fish Tank 13, 83102, 118, 173, 175,
176, 177, 178, 182, 185, 189, 195
Assis-Rosa, Alexandra 1, 7, 89
Bakhtin, Mikhail (and The Bakhtin
Circle) 3, 47, 10, 20, 24, 37, 45,
76, 171
dialogism 4, 5
heteroglossia 56, 10, 31, 35, 46, 50,
55, 68, 74, 76, 85, 91, 101, 104, 128,
134, 138, 147, 151, 177, 180, 192
Medvedev, Pavel 4
polyglossia6
Voloshinov, Valentin 4, 6, 24, 41, 75,
105, 108, 112, 117, 138
Berman, Antoine 1314, 77, 131, 1324,
135, 137, 138, 140, 141, 144, 147,
149, 169, 170, 180

Bescot, Mawenn
Polisse 13, 10329, 173, 175, 176,
1789, 180, 182, 186, 190, 196
Bienvenue chez les Chtis see Boon
Blum, Jan-Petter and John J. Gumperz
code-switching13
Boillot, Emmanuelle and Haughton,
Nicola 83, 86, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96,
102, 177, 182, 185, 189, 195
Boon, Dany
Bienvenue chez les Chtis 7, 14,
14970, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178,
180, 183, 186, 191, 197
Boyle, Danny
Trainspotting 11, 1735, 37, 45, 46, 49,
50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 173, 174, 176, 178,
181, 184, 187, 192
characterization, role of language in 9,
10, 11, 17, 20, 31, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55,
56, 58, 80, 147, 176, 178, 180
C.M.C. 38, 50, 173, 182, 184, 188, 193
Cockney
accent 58, 74, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 182
dialect 12, 55, 57, 58, 80
rhyming slang 57, 58, 65, 67, 76, 80,
176
code-switching see Blum and Gumperz;
Nilep
Critical Discourse Analysis see Hyatt
De Linde, Zoe and Neil Kay 2, 8, 21, 27, 77
dialect see Hughes and Trudgill
diastratic variation see Flydal

214 Index
diatopic variation see Flydal
Daz-Cintas, Jorge 2, 78, 79, 81
and Aline Remal 1, 2, 3, 8, 21, 34, 53,
72, 77, 85, 88, 96, 101, 118, 154, 162,
170, 172, 180
and Gillian Anderman 50
domesticating translation see
Venuti
Ellender, Claire ix, 126, 135, 152
Estuary English 845
Extralinguistic Cultural References
(ECRs) see Pedersen
Fairclough, Norman 6, 24, 49, 138
Fish Tank see Arnold
Flydal, Leiv
diastratic variation 13, 85, 101
diatopic variation 10, 12, 17, 37
foreignizing translation see Venuti
Genette, Grard and Marie Maclean
paratext 52, 53, 80
Giles, Howard and Jane Giles
in-groups and out-groups 5
Goffman, Erving 13, 105, 109, 112, 117,
122, 125, 128
Guillot, Marie-Nolle
representations of language in
films 2, 20, 104
Haine, La see Kassovitz
Hamaida, Lena 9, 180
Hatim, Basil and Ian Mason 2, 7, 21, 77,
149, 169, 172, 179, 180
Heiss, Christina 2, 7
heteroglossia see Bakhtin
Hughes, Arthur and Peter Trudgill
accent 2, 3
dialect3

Received Pronunciation (RP) 2, 3

Standard English (SE) 2
humour, subtitling of 14, 76, 82, 94, 95,
96, 102, 141, 1423, 148, 149, 156,
170, 177, 183, 189, 190, 191, 196,
197
Hyatt, David
Critical Discourse Analysis 6, 24, 41,
112, 138
in-groups and out-groups see Giles and
Giles
Irish accent 85, 91, 92, 195
Jckel, Anne 8, 9, 118, 171
Jakobson, Roman
interlingual translation 1, 172
intersemiotic translation 1
intralingual translation 1, 63, 76
Kassovitz, Mathieu
La Haine 89, 109, 118, 128
Katims, Michael 14, 151, 156, 157, 158,
1612, 1634, 1656, 168, 169,
170, 174, 175, 183, 186, 191, 197
Koller, Werner
pragmatic equivalence 11, 13, 122, 141,
148, 154
Landers, Clifford 7, 8, 34, 80, 117, 122,
149, 169, 170, 171, 176, 180
linguistic variation 2, 3, 4, 7, 1011, 12, 13,
14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 35, 37, 38, 50, 53,
54, 57, 85, 103, 104, 105, 108, 114,
1223, 127, 128, 129, 134, 162, 170,
1712, 179, 180, 181, 184, 187, 192
Loach, Ken
The Angels Share 11, 1718, 3550, 51,
52, 53, 54, 173, 174, 176, 177, 178,
182, 184, 188, 193

Index

215

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels see

Ritchie
Luyken, Georg-Michel et al. 1, 8, 21, 62,
77, 94, 101, 134, 146

Ritchie, Guy
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking
Barrels 12, 5582, 173, 175, 176,
178, 182, 185, 189, 194

Mvel, Pierre-Alexis 8, 9, 172, 177,

179, 180

Sarraute, Claude 126, 135, 152

Schleiermacher, Friedrich
alienating translation 126, 133
naturalizing translation 126, 132
Scots English
accent 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24,
27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38,
40, 41, 44, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52,
53, 54
sociolect 4, 118
see also Trudgill
Spielberg, Steven
The Terminal 13, 14, 129, 13448,
174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 180, 183,
191, 197
Standard English (SE) see Hughes and
Trudgill
standard use of language 2, 3, 8, 21, 23, 27,
34, 35, 41, 44, 47, 50, 62, 63, 74,
75, 93, 117, 136, 150, 151, 156, 158,
161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 168,
171, 174, 175, 178, 179, 183, 184,
186, 192, 193, 197
subtitling
challenges of / constraints on 12
definitions of 1
Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard-ofHearing (SDH) 27, 78, 81, 178

naturalizing translation see

Schleiermacher
Nida, Eugne 11
Nilep, Chad
code-switching 13, 105
non-standard use of language 3, 5, 6, 7, 8,
11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 20, 23, 28, 33, 35,
37, 40, 42, 51, 61, 65, 72, 76, 84,
85, 86, 88, 91, 92, 93, 101, 106, 109,
113, 117, 129, 154, 164, 171, 173, 174,
175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181,
182, 183, 185, 186, 192, 195, 196
North-South divide 20, 69, 71, 72, 78, 81
paratext see Genette and Maclean
Pedersen, Jan
Extralinguistic Cultural References
(ECRs) 12, 29, 30, 33, 34, 51,
199201
Pitts, Anna 20, 37, 71, 75, 91
Polisse see Bescot
power dynamics of language see
Fairclough
pragmatic equivalence see Koller
private-school English 55, 68, 74, 76, 81
Queneau, Raymond, Barbara Wrights
translations of 135
Received Pronunciation (RP) see Hughes
and Trudgill
representations of language in film see
Guillot

Terminal (The) see Spielberg

Thomas-Wachsberger, Batrice 131, 134,
135, 137, 142, 143, 144, 146, 147,
174, 175, 183, 186, 191, 197
Trainspotting see Boyle
Trudgill, Peter
sociolect 4, 117

216 Index
Venuti, Lawrence
domesticating translation 9, 126, 133,
179
foreignizing translation 126, 127, 133,
137, 157, 162, 166, 169, 170, 175
verlan 8, 9

Whitelaw, Alexander and OShea,

Stephen 8, 9
wordplays 95, 96, 146, 147, 169,
170, 174, 176, 183, 191,
196, 197
Wright, Barbara see Queneau

New Trends in Translation Studies

In todays globalised society, translation and interpreting are gaining visibility and relevance as a means to foster communication and dialogue
in increasingly multicultural and multilingual environments. Practised
since time immemorial, both activities have become more complex
and multifaceted in recent decades, intersecting with many other disciplines. New Trends in Translation Studies is an international series with
the main objectives of promoting the scholarly study of translation and
interpreting and of functioning as a forum for the translation and interpreting research community.
This series publishes research on subjects related to multimedia translation and interpreting, in their various social roles. It is primarily intended
to engage with contemporary issues surrounding the new multidimensional environments in which translation is flourishing, such as audiovisual media, the internet and emerging new media and technologies.
It sets out to reflect new trends in research and in the profession, to
encourage flexible methodologies and to promote interdisciplinary
research ranging from the theoretical to the practical and from the
applied to the pedagogical.
New Trends in Translation Studies publishes translation- and interpretingoriented books that present high-quality scholarship in an accessible,
reader-friendly manner. The series embraces a wide range of publi
cations monographs, edited volumes, conference proceedings
and translations of works in translation studies which do not exist in
English. The editor, Professor Jorge Daz Cintas, welcomes proposals
from all those interested in being involved with the series. The working
language of the series is English, although in exceptional circumstances
works in other languages can be considered for publication. Proposals
dealing with specialised translation, translation tools and technology,
audiovisual translation and the field of accessibility to the media are
particularly welcomed.

Vol. 1 Meng Ji: Phraseology in Corpus-Based Translation Studies

251 pages. 2010. ISBN 978-3-03911-550-1
Vol. 2 Josu Barambones Zubiria: Mapping the Dubbing Scene:

Audiovisual Translation in Basque Television

191 pages. 2012. ISBN 978-3-0343-0281-4
Vol. 3 Elisa Ghia: Subtitling Matters: New Perspectives on Subtitling and

Foreign Language Learning

234 pages. 2012. ISBN 978-3-0343-0843-4
Vol. 4 Anabel Borja Albi and Fernando Prieto Ramos (eds): Legal

Translation in Context: Professional Issues and Prospects

325 pages. 2013. ISBN 978-3-0343-0284-5
Vol. 5 Kieran ODriscoll: Retranslation through the Centuries:

Jules Verne in English

302 pages. 2011. ISBN 978-3-0343-0236-4
Vol. 6 Federico M. Federici (ed.): Translating Dialects and Languages of

Minorities: Challenges and Solutions

245 pages. 2011. ISBN 978-3-0343-0178-7
Vol. 7 Silvia Bruti and Elena Di Giovanni (eds): Audiovisual Translation

across Europe: An Ever-changing Landscape

289 pages. 2012. ISBN 978-3-0343-0953-0
Vol. 8 Tong-King Lee: Translating the Multilingual City: Cross-lingual

Practices and Language Ideology

176 pages. 2013. ISBN 978-3-0343-0850-2
Vol. 9

Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin, Marie Biscio and Mire ine N

Mhainnn (eds): Audiovisual Translation. Subtitles and Subtitling:
Theory and Practice
301 pages. 2011. ISBN 978-3-0343-0299-9

Vol. 10 Xiaohui Yuan: Politeness and Audience Response in

ChineseEnglish Subtitling

250 pages. 2012. ISBN 978-3-0343-0732-1
Vol. 11 Isabel Garca-Izquierdo and Esther Monz (eds): Iberian Studies

on Translation and Interpreting

401 pages. 2012. ISBN 978-3-0343-0815-1

Vol. 12 Claire Ellender: Preserving Polyphonies: Translating the Writings

of Claude Sarraute

250 pages. 2013. ISBN 978-3-0343-0940-0
Vol. 13 Pilar Snchez-Gijn, Olga Torres-Hostench and Bartolom

Mesa-Lao: Conducting Research in Translation Technologies

329 pages. 2015. ISBN 978-3-0343-0994-3
Vol. 14 Claire Ellender: Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual

Translation: Subtitling Linguistic Variation in Films

221 pages. 2015. ISBN 978-3-0343-1816-7
Vol. 15 forthcoming
Vol. 16 Charlotte Bosseaux: Dubbing, Film and Performance: Uncanny
Encounters

251 pages. 2015. ISBN 978-3-0343-0235-7