Ruba Alkhatib
Department of English Language and Translation, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Applied Science Private University, Amman 11937, Jordan
Ahmad S Haider
Department of English Language and Translation, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, MEU Research Unit, Middle East University, Amman 11610, Jordan
Laith AlKhatib
Department of Civil Engineering, LT Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius LT-10223, Lithuania
Dubbing and subtitling foreign movies, series, and other audiovisual products have flourished since the invasion of the screens; hence, the translation task between languages and cultures became integral to cope with this vast expansion. The different cultural and religious backgrounds of Arabic and English-speaking cultures complicate the translation of Arabic television series. Therefore, translators should be multicultural and multilingual, especially when working between Western and Eastern cultures. The current study aims to investigate the strategies used by Netflix professional translators to ensure the ideas are culturally conveyed effectively to the intended audience. The research compared the English subtitled and dubbed versions of the Arabic-Saudi series Alkhallat with the original version screened on Netflix. The findings showed that the main subtitling and dubbing strategies that were used were cultural substitution, omission, and paraphrasing. The findings also showed that although the dubbed and subtitled versions employed similar strategies, the wording varied. This variation could be attributed to the differences between spoken and written modes. The current study concludes that translators must understand the source and target cultures and consider the constraints of each AVT mode in order to provide a good quality translation.
[1] Saideen, B., Thalji, A., Lababaneh, A., et al., 2024. Netflix English Subtitling of the Jordanian Movie ‘The Alleys’: Challenges and Strategies. Research Journal in Advanced Humanities, 5(1), 157–177. DOI: https://doi.org/10.58256/sptxps94
[2] Saed, H., Haider, A.S., Tair, S.A., et al., 2024. Dubbing English Edutainment: Localizing Educational Content for Arab Children. Research Journal in Advanced Humanities. 5(3), 391–406. DOI: https://doi.org/10.58256/bh9fhj11
[3] Shuhaiber, R., Haider, A.S., 2023. Strategies of Subtitling Egyptian Idiomatic Expressions and Proverbs into English. Language Value. 16(2), 60–99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/languagev.7015
[4] Au, K.L., 2009. Introduction. In: Fong, G.C.F., Au, K.L. (eds.). Dubbing and Subtitling in a World Context. The Chinese University Press: Hong Kong.
[5] Chaume, F., 2020. Audiovisual Translation: Dubbing. Routledge: London, UK. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003161660
[6] Karamitroglou, F., 2000. Towards a Methodology for the Investigation of Norms in Audiovisual Translation: The Choice Between Subtitling and Revoicing in Greece (Vol. 15). Brill: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004485891
[7] Haider, A.S., Hussein, R.F., 2022. Modern Standard Arabic as a Means of Euphemism: A Case Study of the MSA Intralingual Subtitling of Jinn Series. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research. 51(6), 628–643. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17475759.2022.2106289
[8] Saed, H., Haider, A.S., Abu Tair, S., et al., 2024. Intrinsic Managing and the English-Arabic Translation of Fictional Registers. Cogent Arts & Humanities. 11(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2024.2371659
[9] Saed, H., Haider, A.S., Tair, S.A., 2023. Gender, Sexual, Ethnic, Color and Disability-related Epithets And Labels Across Languages: Evidence from Arabic Subtitling of English Movies and Series. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics. 9(1), 213–225. Available from: https://ejal.info/menuscript/index.php/ejal/article/view/476
[10] Samha, F., Haider, A.S., Hussein, R.F., 2023. Address forms in Egyptian Vernacular and Their English Equivalence: A Translation-Oriented Study. Ampersand. 10, 100117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amper.2023.100117
[11] Venuti, L., 2005. Local Contingencies: Translation and National Identities. In: Bermann, S., Wood, M. (eds.). Nation, Language, The Ethics of Translation. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ, USA. pp. 177–202. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400826681.177
[12] González, L.P., 2009. Audiovisual Translation. In: Baker, M., Saldanha, G. (eds.). Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Routledge: London, UK. pp. 13–20.
[13] Díaz Cintas, J., 2009. New Trends in Audiovisual Translation. Multilingual Matters: Bristol, UK. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847691552
[14] Dries, J., 1995. Dubbing and subtitling: Guidelines for Production and Distribution. Dü-sseldorf, Germany. European Institute for the Media.
[15] Di Giovanni, E., 2017. New Imperialism in (re)translation: Disney in the Arab World. Perspectives. 25(1), 4–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2016.1234490
[16] Al-Abbas, L.S., Haider, A.S., 2021. Using Modern Standard Arabic in Subtitling Egyptian Comedy Movies for The Deaf/Hard of Hearing. Cogent Arts & Humanities. 8(1), 1993597. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2021.1993597
[17] AlBkowr, N., Haider, A S., 2023. Subtitling for People with Hearing Impairments intThe Arab World Context: The Case of ‘The Blue Elephant 2’ Movie. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies. 13(4), e202347. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/13602
[18] Ivarsson, J., 1992. Subtitling for the Media: A Handbook of an Art. Transedit: Simrishamn, Sweden.
[19] Debbas, M., Haider, A.S., 2020. Overcoming Cultural Constraints in Translating English Series: A Case Study of Subtitling ‘Family Guy’ into Arabic. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies. 26(1), 1–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17576/3l-2020-2601-01
[20] Bandia, P., 2019. African Tradition. In: Baker, M., Saldanha, G. (Eds.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. 3rd ed. Routledge: London, UK. pp. 313–320.
[21] Díaz Cintas, J., Remael, A., 2014. Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. Routledge: London, UK.
[22] Alkadi, T., 2010. Issues in the Subtitling and Dubbing of English-language Films into Arabic: Problems and Solutions [Ph.D. Thesis]. Durham, UK: Durham University.
[23] Yahiaoui, R., 2016. Ideological Constraints in Dubbing ‘The Simpsons’ into Arabic. Altre Modernità. 182–200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/6855
[24] Mehawesh, M.I., Neimneh, S.S., 2021. Problems in Subtitling Cultural-Bound Expressions in “Theeb” Movie: A Case Study. Theory Practice in Language Studies. 11(10), 1217–1223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1110.09
[25] Gottlieb, H., 1992. Subtitling – A New University Discipline. In: Dollerup, C., Loddegaard, A. (eds.). Teaching Translation and Interpreting. John Benjamins: Philadelphia, PA, USA. pp. 161–172.
[26] Abulawi, F., Al Salman, S., Haider, A.S., 2022. Modern Standard Arabic vs. Egyptian Vernacular in Dubbing Animated Movies: A Case Study of A Bug’s Life. The International Journal of Communication and Linguistic Studies. 21(1), 125–141. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-7882/cgp/v21i01/125-141
[27] Haider, A.S., Saideen, B., Hussein, R.F., 2023. Subtitling Taboo Expressions from a Conservative to a More Liberal Culture: The Case of the Arab TV Series ‘Jinn’. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. 16(4), 363–385. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/18739865-tat00006
[28] Abu Rayyash, H., Haider, A., 2022. Construction of a Parallel Corpus of English-Arabic Movie Subtitles: A Genuine Source for Audiovisual Translators. The International Journal of Humanities Education. 21(1), 21–37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-0063/CGP/v21i01/21-37
[29] Abu-Rayyash, H., Haider, A.S., Al-Adwan, A., 2023. Strategies of Translating Swear Words into Arabic: A Case Study of a Parallel Corpus of Netflix English-Arabic Movie Subtitles. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications. 10(1), 1–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3
[30] Saed, H.H., Riyad F, Haider, A.S., et al., 2022. Establishing a COVID-19 Lemmatized Word List for Journalists and ESP Learners. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics. 11(3), 577–588. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v11i3.37103
[31] Haider, A.S., Shohaibar, R.S., 2024. Netflix English Subtitling of Idioms in Egyptian Movies: Challenges and Strategies. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews. 11(1), 1–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03327-4
[32] Ali, S., Al-Jabri, H., AL-Adwan, A., et al., 2024. Subtitling Saudi Arabic Slang into English: The Case of “The Book of the Sun” on Netflix. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 11(1), 1–7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02965-y
[33] Yahiaoui, R., Al-Adwan, A., 2020. Translating Extra-linguistic Elements for Dubbing into Arabic: The Case of the Simpsons. Dirasat, Human and Social Sciences. 47(2), 472–485.
Copyright © 2024 Ruba Alkhatib, Ahmad S Haider, Laith AlKhatib
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
