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

Subtitling films in another language becomes especially complex when the

Ellender • Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation

original language deviates from its standard form. Films that feature non-
standard 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 film’s
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,
Dealing with Difference in
Audiovisual Translation
when attempted, subjected to considerable criticism.

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

for the range of approaches that they adopt in portraying linguistic varia-
tion. Each chapter explores the challenges posed by the subtitling of such
linguistic difference in the given films and the corresponding solutions Subtitling Linguistic Variation in Films
offered by their subtitlers. Drawing on these findings and referring to con-
temporary 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 Maître de Conférences in Translation at the Université

de Lille III in France and is an academic member of the Institute of Claire Ellender
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.

ISBN 978-3-0343-1816-7
Peter Lang

www.peterlang.com
Dealing with Difference in
Audiovisual Translation
New Trends in Translation Studies
V ol ume 14

Series Editor:
Professor Jorge Díaz 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 National-
bibliografie; 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
[email protected], 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 Boyle’s Trainspotting
and Ken Loach’s 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 Arnold’s Fish Tank into French 83

Chapter 4
Police Patter: Retaining Linguistic Variation in the English
Subtitles of Maïwenn’s 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 Ch’tis into English 149

Conclusion171

Appendix199

Film Corpus 203

Bibliography205

Index213
Tables

Table 1 Accent / Pronunciation 181

Table 2 Grammar 184
Table 3 Vocabulary 187
Table 4 Juxtaposition of language varieties
(heteroglossic nature of films) 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 Ch’tis into English’ in Jorge Díaz-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), 85–105.
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 sub-
titling of foreign-language films can be theorized according to each of
Jakobson’s three categories of translation (1959 / 2000: 114). It is interlin-
gual (translates text from one national language to another), intralingual
(involves rewording or reducing the source language (SL) before inter-
lingual 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 film’s soundtrack
and image and to account for the reading capabilities of the TL audience

1 For comprehensive definitions of subtitling see Delia Chiaro 2009: 148; Jorge Díaz-
Cintas and Aline Remaël 2007: 8; Henrik Gottlieb 2001: 87.
2 Alexandra Assis-Rosa (2001: 213–14) 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 lan-
guage) becomes written verbal language.
2 Introduction

(De Linde and Kay 1999: 4–7).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 Díaz-Cintas points out (2003: 43–4),
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 ‘standard’4 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 For additional discussion of the constraints on subtitling, see Díaz-Cintas and Remaël
2007; Basil Hatim and Ian Mason 1997; Ian Ivarrsson and Mary Carroll 1998.
4 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).
5 Marie-Noëlle 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
Michaël 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 3

Characters in a TL film may display use of non-standard6 pronuncia-

tion (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 (Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 2007: 191).
These uses can exist alongside, and be directly juxtaposed with, more stand-
ard 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 multi-

lingual in character. In recent years, much literature has been published on
the translation of such films which feature not only one or more national

6 Throughout the present study, the term ‘non-standard’ will describe any use of lan-
guage 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.
7 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 clari-
fies 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’.
8 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 examina-
tion are accurate representations of authentic language (see FN 5).
4 Introduction

languages, but also different dialects, sociolects and idiolects (Bartoll 2006;
Bréan 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 refer-
ence 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 Circle’s work is unified by the concept of dialo-
gism, which draws on the notions of dialogue, interactivity and interrelat-
edness (Lodge 1990: 5). This concept first emerges in Voloshinov’s 1929
treatment of spoken language in Marxism and the Philosophy of Language.
Beginning with the word, Voloshinov (1929 / 1973: 86) conveys the inter-
active, 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 Circle’s
more developed concept of dialogism can, in a number of respects, be

9 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).
10 For a brief discussion of the ways in which speakers of different dialects of British
English are perceived, see Trudgill (2000: 5).
11 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 (1892–1938) and
Valentin Voloshinov (1895–1936), who were later to become key figures in a distinct
group: the Bakhtin Circle. See David Lodge (1990: 1–4); Tzevetan Todorov (1939 /
1995: 3–13).
Introduction 5

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 het-
eroglossia, 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 (1934–5 /
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 film’s 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 ideo-
logical, subjects who speak a particular variety of language may be con-
sidered 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 relation-
ship 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
addressee’s 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 strug-
gle between two tendencies in the languages of European peoples: one
a centralizing, unifying tendency, the other a decentralizing tendency
which stratifies language (1934–5 / 1981: 364). By identifying heteroglos-
sia 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 7

Dany Boon’s 2008 Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Chapter 6), which transforms
stereotypical and often negative perceptions of France’s 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 relation-
ships; 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 linguis-

tic 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; non-
standard features of speech are frequently eliminated and translation thus
displays un style zéro (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)

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 Translation’s principal chapters.
14 As André 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.’
(Lefevere’s emphases.)
8 Introduction

actively advise against even attempting to translate these. In his discus-

sion of translating dialect contained in literary texts, Landers (ibid.) states
forcefully that: ‘[…] dialect is always tied, geographically and culturally,
to a milieu that doesn’t exist in the target-language setting. Substitution
with an ‘equivalent’ dialect is foredoomed to failure. The best advice about
trying to translate dialect: “don’t”’.
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; Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 2007: 191–2; Luyken et al. 1991: 156). One
much discussed, and heavily criticized, attempt to subtitle such non-standard
language is Alexander Whitelaw and Stephen O’Shea’s 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 cité (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 inte-
gration of ethnic minorities and urban violence – triggered rioting in the
Parisian suburbs following the film’s 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 ( Jäckel 2001: 225). The language used by this
film’s protagonists is indeed very specific; a variety of French spoken in the
cités 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 Jäckel writes (ibid: 224): ‘[La Haine’s 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 Méla 1988; Pierre-
Alexis Mével 2007 & 2012).
Introduction 9

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; Mével 2007). Subtitling this film thus poses a whole host of
linguistic and sociocultural issues. If some theorists acknowledge Whitelaw
and O’Shea’s ‘ambitious and consistent attempt’ to subtitle La Haine into
African-American Vernacular English (Mével 2007: 6), critics are unani-
mous 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 film’s characteriza-
tion (Jäckel ibid.: 228), or a ‘relocation of the characters’ identities’ (Mével
ibid.: 54). In other words, as La Haine’s 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 sub-
stitute all cultural references in the SL film with TL terms results in ‘[…]
discrepancies […] between what the viewer reads and the picture he / she
sees’ (Mével ibid.: 55).

Choice of film corpus and objectives of this study

The case of La Haine is concrete evidence that the subtitling of the non-
standard varieties of language which feature in a SL film can pose consider-
able 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 (1998–2014).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, idi-
osyncratic, 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 differ-
ent angle. By adopting a specific focus,17 each of this book’s six chapters
intends to provide an indication of the different ways in which the pres-
ence 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 book’s chapters provides micro-level analy-
ses 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 transla-
tion 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 chap-
ter will be complemented by a brief consideration of audience reception.
Drawing on a range of viewers’ reviews in order to gauge how the films

French than French-language films subtitled into English. This reflects the interna-
tional 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 strat-
egy ensures that a single set of subtitles can be used for the entire English-speaking
world.
17 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 Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996) and
Ken Loach’s 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: 129–30)
have established the audience’s active role in establishing a film’s 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: 186–9) has been achieved in a film’s subtitles.
Importantly, if Eugène Nida’s (1964) dynamic equivalence is often cited in discus-
sions 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 equiva-
lence 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 film’s pro-
tagonists 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 Pedersen’s 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 which the Scots language and other dialects
present in the SL films are retained in their subtitles, and ultimately to
suggest how the linguistic v­ ariation present in the ST may be preserved
more fully for the 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 non-
indigenous individuals whose speech is characterized by other regional dia-
lects. The use of these distinct language varieties contributes significantly to
the portrayal of the film’s 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
film’s 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 underprivi-
leged urban contexts. Accordingly the characters, who belong to various
Introduction 13

social groups, speak a range of non-standard language varieties. Chapter 3,

‘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 Arnold’s 2009 film, Fish Tank.
It concentrates on key scenes and songs from the film, considers the par-
ticular 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 inter-
act 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 transla-
tion strategies employed, and the extent to which this linguistic variation
is therefore preserved and pragmatic equivalence (Koller 1979) achieved,
in Polisse’s English-language subtitles.
In Polisse, the characters whose use of French poses the greatest trans-
lation 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 Berman’s 1985 paper, ‘Translation
and the Trials of the Foreign’, which deals with the challenges of translat-
ing 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 Navorski’s 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 char-
acter’s linguistic alterity is preserved in the film’s French subtitled version,
Le Terminal, and in doing so, to situate itself in relation to the key tenets
of Berman’s 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 Ch’tis (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 region’s people, les Ch’tis. Following its brief presentation of the
ch’ti 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 lan-
guage 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 correspond-
ing 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 transla-
tions are the present author’s 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 spe-
cialized knowledge of linguistics / pragmatics.
Chapter 1

Subtitling Scots: Translating Danny Boyle’s

Trainspotting and Ken Loach’s The Angels’ Share
into French

Introduction

This chapter centres on two films, Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996) and
Ken Loach’s 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 protago-
nists 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: 116–17). 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 Trudgill’s (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 trans-
lation 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 provid-
ing a brief summary of the plot, it will outline the nature of the language
spoken by the film’s 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, varie-
ties. 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 recom-
mendations 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 Boyle’s 1996 Trainspotting is a black comedy-drama based on Irvine

Welsh’s novel of the same name. Set in an economically depressed area
of Edinburgh in the late 1980s, the film focuses on the city’s 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, Trainspotting’s 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 major-
ity of the film’s scenes, speech is marked by an unmistakable, yet mild,
Scottish accent and is relatively clear.3 This said, in certain scenes speech

2 For an in-depth explanation of this and other variants of Scots, see Adam Aitkens’
‘Scottish accents and dialects’ (1984: 94–114). See also <http://www.scots-online.
org/grammar/edinburgh.htm>.
3 Indeed, members of Edinburgh’s working class would undoubtedly speak with a
stronger accent. It is likely that the characters’ accent has been deliberately sof-
tened 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 film’s lexis, the
protagonists’ use of drug-related, culture-bound and vulgar vocabulary
assists in binding these characters to each other, as a tight-knit commu-
nity within the city’s 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 ‘pre-
packaged’ 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 film’s 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-Noëlle
Guillot (2012: 106). Guillot stresses that the language contained in films is a repre-
sentation of language rather than language itself.
4 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,

Díaz-Cintas and Remaël (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 vari-
eties will now be examined. At no point in Trainspotting’s 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.

5 Trainspotting the film is based on Irvine Welsh’s 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; Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 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 don’t you go? Vas-y, toi.
[Go on, you.]
R What? Quoi?
[What?]
3) SB There’s this mate of Swanney. Le pote de Swanney,
You know the guy, Mikey tu le connais, Forrester …
Forrester. [Swanney’s mate,
you know him, Forrester …]
4) SB Well, he’s come into some gear. Il a récupéré de la came.
[He’s picked up some gear.]
5) SB A lot of gear. Beaucoup de came.
[Lots of gear.]
R How much gear? Combien?
[How much?]
6) SB About two kilos. A peu près deux kilos.
[About two kilos.]
7) SB So he tells me. C’est ce qu’il m’a dit.
[That’s what he told me.]
8) SB He got drunk in a pub down at Il s’est torché dans
the docks last week un pub
la semaine dernière
[He got bladdered
in a pub
last week]
9) SB where he met two Russian sailors. et il a rencontré
deux marins russes.
[and he met
two Russian sailors.]
10) SB They’re fucking carrying the stuff Ils la trimballaient
for sale then and there. pour vendre sur-le-champ.
[They were lugging it round
to sell on the spot.]
Subtitling Scots 23

11) SB So, he wakes up next morning, Le lendemain il se réveille,

realizes what he’s done, réalise ce qu’il a fait
[The following day he wakes up,
realizes what he’s done]
12) SB gets very fucking nervous. et flippe à mort.
[and freaks out.]
13) SB He wants rid of this, right. Il veut s’en débarrasser.
[He wants to get rid of it.]
14) R So? Et alors ?
[So what?]
15) SB So, he met me. Alors, il m’a rencontré.
[So, he met me.]
16) SB And I offered to take it off his Et je lui en ai proposé
hands at a very reasonable price un prix raisonnable,
[and I offered him
a reasonable price for it]
17) SB with the intention of passing it on pour ensuite
myself to a guy la refourguer à un mec
[To then
shove it on to a bloke]
18) SB I know in London. que je connais à Londres.
[who I know in London.]
19) R Whoah! We’ve just come back On revient de l’enterrement et
from Tommy’s funeral and you’re tu nous parles d’un plan dope?
talking about a scag deal? [We’re just back from the burial and
you’re talking to us about a drug
deal?]
20) B Aye! 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
Boy’s use of grammar only features slight deviations from standard English
24 Chapter 1

structures (‘There’s this mate of Swanney’s’, 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 pre-
served (10 and 11) and on yet other occasions the subtitlers clearly over-
translate SL words, employing terms which are much more colloquial
in the TL: ‘drunk’ becomes torché (8); ‘carry’ is translated as trimballer
(10) and ‘got very fuckin’ nervous’ as flippe à 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 In practice, the language which the characters use is a mixture of English, Scots and
slang (Catriona Parkin, December 2013).
7 The drug-related subject-matter of this entire scene, which indeed dominates the
whole film, is particularly significant. As Bakhtin (1934–5 / 1981: 291) acknowledges,
all language is ideological and communicates specific world views. As these charac-
ters 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).
Subtitling Scots 25

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 Begbie’s 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 scène.
[Imagine the scene.]
2) B The other fuckin’ week there, En train de jouer au billard
down the fuckin’ Volley wi’ avec Tommy.
Tommy playing pool. [Playing pool
with Tommy.]
3) B I’m playing like Paul fuckin’ D’ailleurs, je joue
Newman, by the way, comme Paul Newman.
[Besides, I’m playing
like Paul Newman.]
4) B giving the boy a tannin’ alright, Je donne une raclée à ce garçon.
too. [I’m giving this boy a thrashing.]
5) B It comes to the last shot, the C’est la dernière bille,
deciding ball of the whole celle qui décidera du vainqueur.
tournament. [It’s the last ball,
the one which will decide on the
winner.]
6) B I’m on the black. He’s sat in the Il me reste la noire.
corner lookin’ all biscuit-arsed. Il est effondré.
[The black one is left for me.
He’s in bits.]
26 Chapter 1

Speaker 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, Du genre ‘m’as-tu-vu’.
like. [A ‘look-at-me’ sort.]
9) B Starts starin’ at me. Lookin’ right Il se met à me mater,
fuckin’ at me, as if to say: dans les yeux, comme
pour dire :
[He starts looking at me,
in the eyes, as if to say:]
10) B ‘Come ahead, square go.’ ‘Allons-y.’
[Let’s go for it.]
11) B You ken me. I’m not the type of Vous me connaissez.
c**t that goes lookin’ for Je suis pas du genre à chercher
[You know me.
I’m not the sort to
look for]
12) B fuckin’ bother, like, but er, at the des ennuis, mais …
end of the day … [trouble, but …]
13) B I’m er, I’m the c**t with the pool C’est moi qui tenais
queue la queue
[It’s me who was holding
the queue]
14) B and he could have the fat end et se la prenait dans
in his puss any time he fuckin’ la chatte quand il voulait.
wanted, like. [and he took it in
his pussy when he wanted it.]
15) B So I squares up, casual, like. Je prépare 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! Chie dans son froc.
Puts down his drink, turns Il pose son verre.
[Shits his pants.
He puts down his glass]
Subtitling Scots 27

19) B and gets the fuck out of there. et il fout le camp.

[and he fucks off.]
20) B And after that … Après ça …
[After that …]
21) B well, the game was mine. c’était gagné.
[it was a given.]

In this scene, Begbie’s 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 film’s 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.
Begbie’s 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 subti-
tles. For the most part, Begbie’s 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 prépare mon coup, which is
nevertheless grammatically accurate. This approach is clearly deliberate
on the part of the subtitlers; when working within the constraints of sub-
titling, 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 expres-
sions 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 raclée à ce garçon. When Begbie’s 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 effondré

[He’s in bits]
‘[…] come ahead, square go’ (10)9 Allons-y
[Let’s go for it]
‘You ken me […]’ (11)10 Vous me connaissez
[You know me]
8910
Begbie’s 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, Begbie’s 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 particu-
larities are not translated and the Scottish ‘essence’ of this character’s speech
is therefore undoubtedly lost in the TL, the film’s subtitlers fully preserve
its semantic content and a large proportion of its vulgarity.

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

urbandictionary.com> (accessed 05.12.13).
9 A square go: A fight / fair fight. <http://www.urbandictionary.com> (accessed
05.12.13).
10 You ken: You know. <http://www.urbandictionary.com> (accessed 05.11.13).
Subtitling Scots 29

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
Pedersen’s 2005 framework for analysing ECRs (Extralinguistic Cultural
References).11 When rendering each of these, the subtitlers adopt an over-
whelmingly TL-oriented translation approach. In Pedersen’s terms, they
substitute the SL references (or ECRs) with TL ECRs.
1213
‘[…] they’ll be onto the DSS’ […] ils appellent l’ANPE12 tout de suite
[[…] they call the ANPE straightaway]
‘[…] your Giro’s fucking finished’ […] et plus d’Assedic13
[[…] and no more Assedic]
‘Swanney taught us to adore and respect Swanney nous a appris à vénérer la
the NHS’ sécurité sociale
[Swanney taught us to venerate the
Social Security]

11 Pedersen’s 2005 ‘How is Culture Rendered in Subtitles?’ sets out seven strategies
for rendering ECRs in TL subtitles and seven parameters which influence the deci-
sion-making of subtitlers. For a concise summary of the contents of this paper, see
Appendix.
12 ANPE: Agence Nationale Pour l’Emploi. National employment agency (1967–2008).
A French government agency which provided counselling and aid to those in search
of work and housing. See also FN 13.
13 ASSESIC: Association pour l’Emploi dans l’Industrie et le Commerce. Association for
Employment in Industry and Trade (1958–2008). A French agency which collected
and paid unemployment insurance contributions. In 2008 the ANPE and ASSEDIC
merged to form a comprehensive employment agency, the Pôle d’Emploi (<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 […]?’ T’as un Bolino15 pour moi ?
[Have you got a Bolino for me?]
1415
The decision to adopt this approach and thereby domesticate these SL cul-
tural references in the TL is arguably questionable. If use of TL ECRs facili-
tates the TL audience’s 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 follow-
ing extract. Here, Renton explains how his friend, drug dealer Swanney,
has taught both Renton and the film’s 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, de l’Antaluic, du Nalbuphine,
Dextropropoxyphene,
Nalbuphine, Pethidine, Pentazocine, du Fontal, du Dolosal,
Buprenorphine, Dextromoramide, Chlormethiazole. du Tem, du Palfium.

14 PMU: Paris Mutuel Urbain. French state-controlled betting system which has
branches throughout the country (<http://www.pmu.fr>).
15 Bolino: A brand of instant savoury snack-food available in France which is prepared
by adding hot water.
Subtitling Scots 31

In this extract, the medicines listed in the original scene are principally British
brand-named drugs used to treat heroin withdrawal, analgesics and barbitu-
rates / 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 mean-
ing 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 Trainspotting’s protagonists is all the more apparent when these charac-
ters come into contact with speakers of other dialects of the English lan-
guage. 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 ST TT
1) J You know that shoplifting is theft Le vol à l’étalage est un délit,
which is a crime, and despite what you et quoi que vous pensiez
may believe, [Shoplifting is a crime,
and whatever you think]
32 Chapter 1

Speaker ST TT
2) J there is no such entity as victimless un délit sans victime
crime. n’existe pas…
[a victimless crime
does not exist …]
3) J Heroin addiction may explain your L’héroine peut expliquer
actions but it does not excuse them. vos actes mais non les excuser.
[Heroin may explain
your actions but does not
excuse them.]

ii) Conversely, the vulgar vernacular of Trainspotting’s 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 dealer’s 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 Begbie’s usual vulgarity (again translated closely,
7). Amusingly, the dealer imitates this in the following line (8); his own lan-
guage 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 négocier in the final line:

B = Begbie; DD = drug dealer

Speaker ST TT
1) DD Excuse me, gentlemen. Permettez.
[Excuse me.]
2) DD So, how much would you like for Combien vous en voulez?
this? [How much do you want for it?]
3) B Twenty thousand. 20 000 £
[£20,000]
4) DD Well, I don’t think it’s worth much Ça vaut pas plus de 15 000 £
more than fifteen. [It’s not worth more than £15,000]
Subtitling Scots 33

5) B Nineteen. 19 000
[19,000]
6) DD I’m terribly sorry, I can’t go to Désolé, je ne peux pas.
nineteen. [Sorry, I can’t.]
7) B Well fucking sixteen then. Putain, 16 000 alors.
[Fuck, 16,000 then.]
8) DD Ok, well ‘fucking sixteen’ it is, then. ‘Putain, 16 000’,
ça me va.
[‘Fuck, 16,000’
suits me.]
9) DD These, gentlemen, are two- Messieurs,
thousand-pound bundles. 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, I’d just like to Ça a été un plaisir de négocier
say it’s been a real pleasure haggling avec vous.
with you. [It has been a pleasure to negotiate
with you.]

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 chapter’s 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 Boyle’s Trainspotting into
French. Based in Edinburgh, the majority of the film’s 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 pre-
sent 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 Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 2007). If the Scottish
essence of these scenes is invariably lost in the subtitles, the latter’s seman-
tic 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 reader’s 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 regard-
ing 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 Trainspotting’s 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 examina-
tion 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 pay-
back for a range of crimes. This work in the community, coordinated by
Mancunian Harry, brings together the film’s 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 [Loach’s] 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 film’s 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 O’Brien captures in the Extras of the film’s DVD
version: ‘It’s a film about all that’s great in Scotland and all that’s crap in
Scotland. It’s all muddled together’.

Language in the film: Significance of linguistic variation /

Subtitling challenges

The speech of the film’s 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 film’s 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 pos-
sible in the subtitles. Bearing this in mind, the challenges confronted, and
solutions offered, by the film’s French-language subtitlers in relation to
accent, dialect, culture-bound vocabulary (Pedersen 2005) and contrast-
ing dialects, will now be examined. The French-language subtitles to The
Angels’ Share, translated as La Part des Anges, were provided by the subti-
tling company, C.M.C. Their work is clearly acknowledged at the end of
the main film’s credits and at the beginning of the ‘Extras’ section in the
film’s 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 sta-
tion, 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.
Subtitling Scots 39

A = Albert; RE = Railway employee

Speaker ST TT
1) A That’s lovely. Elle déchire, cette gnôle.
[It’s great, this booze.]
2) RE Would all passengers stand back Les passagers doivent s’éloigner
from the edge of the platform. de la bordure du quai.
[Passengers must move away
from the edge of the platform.]
3) RE You with the trainers on. You with Vous avec les baskets
the blue tracksuit. et le survêtement bleu.
[You with the trainers
and the blue tracksuit.]
4) RE Get back. There’s a train coming Reculez. Un train arrive
through here any minute. d’une minute à l’autre.
[Move back. A train is coming
any minute.]
5) RE Stand back. Reculez-vous.
[Move back.]
6) A Is somebody taking the piss here? Quelqu’un se fout de ma gueule ?
[Is somebody taking the piss out
of me?]
7) RE Would you do what you’re told and Obéissez! Reculez!
stand back! [Do as you’re told! Move back!]
8) A Stand back? Faut que je recule?
[I’ve got to move back?]
9) RE That’s right, you heard me. Stand Oui. Vous m’avez entendu.
back. [Yes. You heard me.]
10) A If you say so, pal. Si tu le dis, mec !
[If you say so, mate.]
11) A Oh shit! Merde !
[Shit!]
12) RE Jesus! Look what you’ve done now C’est malin, espèce de débile !
you fucking imbecile! [That’s clever, you dullard!]
40 Chapter 1

Speaker ST TT
13) RE Get off that track, there’s a train Ne reste pas sur
coming through here any second. les rails.
Un train arrive.
[Don’t stay on the track.
A train is coming.]
14) A What the fuck was that, you Mais putain, trouduc !
arsehole? J’ai failli casser ma
I fucking nearly broke my bottle. bouteille.
[Well fuck, arsehole!
I nearly broke my bottle!]
15) RE Fuck the bottle! Get off the track. On s’en fout !
Hurry up! Get a fucking move on! Remonte sur le quai !
Dépêche-toi!
[We don’t give a shit!
Get back up on the platform!
Hurry up!]
16) A I cannae find my glasses. Je trouve plus mes lunettes.
[I can’t find my glasses.]
17) RE This is God calling! C’est 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 you’re Tu veux finir écrasé, abruti ?
gonnae die! [Do you want to end up crushed,
moron?]
20) A Fuck me! Putain !
[Fuck!]
21) RE Move it, you fucking aresehole! Bouge-toi le cul !
[Move your arse!]
22) A Thank fuck. Holy shit! Super.
[Great.]

In this scene, the main linguistic feature which distinguishes these charac-
ters 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 ‘you’re 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 employee’s 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.C’s
translation is particularly effective as it switches from the French formal
pronoun vous (1–9) to the informal, less respectful tu (13 onwards). Indeed,
throughout the scene, as the railway employee becomes more authorita-
tive, 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, Albert’s 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 Hyatt’s 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 con-
firms 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 (‘That’s lovely’: Elle déchire, cette gnôle). 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 dis-
tillery 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! C’est une blague.
[It’s a joke.]
3) A A million smacker-roonies! Un million de balles!
[A million quid!]
4) M Ma body is pulsatin’, honestl’. Ça me met en transe.
[I’m tripping.]
5) A If you were a man, you’d have a Si t’étais un mec, tu banderais.
hard-on. [If you were a bloke, you would have a
hard-on.]
6) R Have a wee seat will you guys, Asseyez-vous.
eh? Please. [Sit down.]
7) R Just till we have a serious think On va réfléchir sérieusement.
about this. [We’re going to think seriously.]
8) A I mean, what is that like, eh? Ça fait quoi ?
Quarter of a million each or Un quart de million chacun ?
somethin’? [What’s that?
A quarter of a million each?]
Subtitling Scots 43

9) R Like this is what’s happenin’. Volià comment ça va se passer.

[Here’s what’s going to happen.]
10) R They’re gonnae have the auction La vente aura lieu là où
where the cask is, away up est le fût,
North in Dornoch Firth. à Dornoch Firth, dans le nord.
[The auction will take place where the
cask is,
in Dornoch Firth, in the North.]
11) R Then what they’ll do is they’ll Ils vont inviter
invite the richest collectors, les collectionneurs les plus riches
dealers [They’re going to invite
the richest collectors]
12) R to come for a tasting session à une séance de dégustation
with the grand master. avec le grand maître.
[to a tasting session
with the grand master.]
13) R That’s followed by a selik in a Cette séance sera suivie
local hotel. d’un stelid …
[This session will be followed
by a stelid …]
14) M A celidh, you mean? Un celidh, tu veux dire ?
[A celidh, you mean ?]
R Well a celidh, smart-arse. Un bal écossais, quoi !
[Well, a Scottish dance!]
15) R In a local hotel. And that’s 16th Dans un hôtel. Le 16 juin.
June. [In a hotel. On 16th June.]
16) A What the fuck is a ‘Firth’? ‘Firth’, c’est comme un lac, non ?
Dornoch Firth … [A ‘Firth’ is like a lake, isn’t it?
Dornoch Firth …]
17) A We’ll probably need huskies or Il nous faudra des chiens
even a boat, depending where de traîneau ou un bâteau.
it is. [We’ll need huskies
or a boat.]
18) O Cos even if we did find this Même si on trouve le bled,
place, how we gonnae get away comment on fera pour entrer ?
wi’ it? [Even if we find the Godforsaken place,
how will we get in?]
44 Chapter 1

Speaker ST TT
19) M It’ll be like fuckin’ Alcatraz, or Ça doit être Alcatraz.
somethin’. [It must be Alcatraz.]
20) O Aye, and then when we get it, Même si on vole le truc,
who’s gonnae take it off scum qui l’achètera à des nazes comme nous ?
like us? [Even if we steal the stuff,
who’ll buy it from pratts like us?]
21) M Speak for yourself. Parle pour toi.
[Speak for yourself.]
22) O It’d be like the equivalent of Ça serait comme avoir Mona Lisa
having Mona Lisa in your dans sa chambre.
bedroom. [It would be like having Mona Lisa
in your bedroom.]
23) A Mona who ? 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’’, recap-
tured with the contemporary TL expression ça me met en transe), 8 and 9
(‘somethin’) and 18 (‘[…] get away wi’ it’) which are replaced with infor-
mal TL uses. There are also multiple heavily trilled ‘r’s (‘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 Albert’s 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 mis-
pronunciation is retained (Pedersen 2005: 4), and misspelled as ‘stelid’,
in the TL. In the following line (14), Mo corrects Robbie’s 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
écossais, quoi! [Well, a Scottish dance!]. This oblique translation strategy
(Pedersen’s ‘addition’, ibid.: 5) is a neat and effective way of explaining the
term to the subtitled film’s 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, c’est comme un lac, non?’ [A Firth is like
a lake, isn’t 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 film’s images and
soundtrack contributes significantly to creating the quintessentially
Scottish setting. On a visual level, bottles of IRN BRU, the Scottish car-
bonated 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 pro-
tagonists 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 film’s 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 film’s Scottish
context:

Is there no shortbread in your house? T’as jamais mangé de shortbreads?

[Have you never eaten shortbreads?]
Next time you go home, check all the tins. Y a le château sur chaque paquet !
[There’s 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 short-
breads (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.
Subtitling Scots 47

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 que vous soyez aussi stupide
matched only by your fortune. que chanceux.
[that you are as stupid
as you are lucky.]
3) J I sentence you to one hundred and Je vous condamne à 180 heures
eighty hours of community payback. de travaux d’intérêt général.
[I sentence you to 180 hours
of community payback.]
4) J If you don’t carry out the required Si vous ne les effectuez pas,
work, you will come back here before vous serez incarcéré.
me and receive a custodial sentence. [If you do not carry them out,
you will be imprisoned.]
5) J Is that clear? C’est clair?
[Is that clear?]
6) A Nah, not really. Pas trop.
[Not really.]

Although no hint of this accent or of Albert’s much stronger Glaswegian

pronunciation is preserved, the difference between the judge’s very correct
register and Albert’s informal and bewildered response, are closely recap-
tured in the TL. As is the case in the SL, the judge’s 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 expres-
sion 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. Bonjour.
[Hello.]
2) A Aye, I’m here to report in for Je viens
community payback. pour le travail d’intérêt général.
[I’ve come
for community payback.]
3) H And your name is? Ton nom ?
[Your name?]
4) A Albert Ridley. Albert Ridley.
[Albert Ridley.]
5) H You’re not on ‘ere, son. T’es pas sur la liste.
[You’re not on the list.]
6) A Are you sure? I should definitely be Ah bon ? Pourtant, j’y suis.
on the list. [Really? However, I am on it.]
7) H Are you sure it’s today? Aujourd’hui ?
[Today?]
8) A Aye. Wednesday. Mercredi.
[Wednesday.]
9) H You’re two days out, son. T’as 2 jours de retard.
[You’re two days late.]
10) A What ? Quoi ?
[What?]
11) H You’re two days out. T’as 2 jours de retard.
[You’re 2 days late.]
Two days out? 2 jours ?
[2 days?]
12) A It must be … I should definitely be Il doit y avoir …
on it. je dois être dessus.
[There must be …
I must be on it.]
13) H I tell you what, if you can tell me Si tu sais en quelle année on est,
what year it is, I’ll let you come t’es accepté.
with us. [If you know which year it is,
you’re accepted.]
Subtitling Scots 49

14) A What year it is? Quelle année ?

[Which year?]
15) H Yeah. NO SUBTITLE
16) A I feel as if I’m on fuckin’ ‘Who On joue à ‘Qui veut gagner des
wants to be a millionaire’. millions’ ?
[Are we playing ‘Who wants to be a
millionnaire?’]
17) A Can I phone a friend? Je peux appeler un ami ?
[Can I call a friend?]

Harry speaks with a strong Mancunian accent (Hughes and Trudgill 1996:
132); for instance, ‘you’re not on ‘ere’ (line 5). He also uses certain expres-
sions which are commonly used in the North of England (‘son’ 5, 9); infor-
mal English (‘yeah’ 15); and jokingly addresses Albert as ‘Sir’ (1). This speech
contrasts starkly with Albert’s strong Glaswegian accent and occasional use
of ‘aye’ (2, 8). In the TL, no distinction whatsoever is made between differ-
ent dialects. This said, with the exception of ‘aye’ and ‘yeah’ which they do
not translate, the subtitlers succeed very well at recapturing the informal-
ity of this dialogue in the TL. They elide TL vowels T’as (Tu as) (9); T’es
(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 Harry’s addresses are always relatively abrupt. At
times, this is more so in the TL than in the SL (lines 3 and 7). The authori-
tative and abrupt tone with which the judge (Scene One) and Harry both
speak to Albert is once again highly communicative of the power dynam-
ics (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 Loach’s The Angels’ Share
into French.
50 Chapter 1

Many of this Glasgow-based film’s 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 non-
native 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 recap-
ture 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 recap-
tured 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 (Díaz-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 wit-
nessed, 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 Boyle’s Trainspotting and Ken Loach’s The Angels’ Share, which
share many similarities in terms of their setting and content. Both films
are based in one of Scotland’s 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 substi-
tuted with TL ECRs. If this strategy facilitates the TL audience’s 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 ref-
erences 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 film’s cultural connotations. Furthermore, in
the film’s 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 subti-
tlers 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 dia-
lects 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 recom-
mendations can be made. In Trainspotting, it may be helpful to transpose
SL references (Pedersen’s ‘retention’ technique), and to add linguistic and
cultural explanations, which are currently non-existent, to the DVD ver-
sion’s Extras, possibly in a particular section entitled ‘Introduction’. This
could constitute a particular (audiovisual) use of what, in Gérard Genette’s
terms (1987 / 1991: 261–2), may be called a paratext.23 In the subtitled

23 In their treatment of literature, Gérard Genette and Marie Maclean (1987 / 1991:
261–2) 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
d’Edimbourg [Edinburgh accent]; accent de Glasgow [Glasgow accent]; accent
de Manchester, nord-ouest Angleterre [Manchester accent, NW England] –
providing that the character’s 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 juxtaposi-
tion 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 (Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 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 lin-
guistic variation in the French-language subtitles of Trainspotting and The
Angels’ Share, it is interesting to consider how actual francophone view-
ers 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’ com-
ments 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 subti-
tles rather than the French dubbed versions, because of the importance of
the SL soundtracks, especially in their contribution to characterization.

text. These include the author’s name, the title, preface, introduction and illustra-
tions. Describing the unique nature of the paratext and its ability to influence and
assist the reader’s 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 français, je trouve le film totalement dénaturé! [I strongly recom-
mend 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 subtilité réside dans les différents accents
et les personnalités de ses personnages [Trainspotting should be enjoyed in
English and only in English because the film’s 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 préférence en VOST pour
se délecter de l’accent écossais: [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 charac-
terization 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 indig-
enous people’s speech is central to the film’s 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; 1934–5 / 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

1 ‘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 film’s 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 Institute’s French subtitling of these four scenes,
this chapter concludes by reasserting the importance of dialect in a film’s
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 film’s 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 grow-
ers 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 small-
time 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 Harry’s
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.
Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys 57

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 distinc-
tive pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary (Blunt 1994: 63, in line with
Trudgill’s (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 incom-
prehensible 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 London’s

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

(Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, 1837–8), through British television sitcoms

(Only Fools and Horses in the 1980s-1990s) and series (Minder, 1979–94), 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; I’ll Sleep When I’m
Dead, 2003; Layer Cake, 2004). Many television advertisements for online
betting are, moreover, presented in a Cockney accent (365.com).
Lock, Stock’s 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 film’s opening scene, is set in a street in the East End. Bacon is
working illegally as a street trader. He is surrounded by potential custom-
ers, including friend Ed who is keeping a look-out for the police. When
he tries to drum up business, Bacon’s lively personality is reflected in the
rich, rhyming and humorous language which he uses.

3 The connection which is frequently made between Cockney and London’s criminal
underworld will be returned to in a subsequent discussion of Cockney rhyming slang.
Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys 59

B = Bacon; E = Ed
Speaker ST TT
1) B Right, let’s sort the buyers from the Acheteurs, pas délateurs.
spyers. [Buyers, not informers.]
2) B The needy from the greedy. Dans le besoin, pas rapaces.
[In need, not vultures.]
3) B The ones who trust me from those Ceux qui ont confiance, pas les
who don’t. autres.
[Those who trust me, not the
others.]
4) B Cos if you can’t see value here today, Si vous voyez pas l’affaire,
you’re not happy shopping, you’re c’est que vous êtes voleur, pas
happy shoplifting. acheteur.
[If you can’t see it’s a bargain,
you’re a thief, not a buyer.]
5) B You see these goods? They’ve never Regardez. Brillant comme un clair
seen daylight. de lune.
[Look. It’s as shiny and
bright as
the moonlight,]
6) B Moonlight, Israelite, funny by the comme le soleil de midi.
gas light. [as the midday sun.]
7) B Take a bag, come take a bag. Prenez un sac.
[Take a bag.]
8) B I took a bag home last night. It cost 10 livres, c’est même
a lot more than £10, I can tell you. pas le prix
de mes courses d’hiver.
[Ten pounds, that’s not even the
price
of my winter shopping.]
9) B Anyone like jewellery? Look at that Qui aime les bijoux? Matez ça.
one there. [Who likes jewellery? Look at that.]
10) B Hand-made in Italy, hand-stolen in Fait main en Italie, volé main à
Stepney. Stepney.
[Hand-made in Italy, hand-stolen in
Stepney.]
60 Chapter 2

Speaker ST TT
11) B It’s as long as my arm. I wish it was Aussi long que mon bras.
as long as something else. Mais le reste sait pas …
[As long as my arm.
Nothing else …]
12) B Because these boxes are sealed up Ces boîtes sont loin d’être vides.
like antiques. [These boxes are far from being
empty.]
13) B The only man who sells empty Pas comme celles des croque-morts.
boxes is the undertaker. [Not like the undertakers’ boxes.]
14) B And by the look of some of you lot Et vu vos tronches,
here today, [And given your mugs,]
15) B I’d make more money with my je gagnerais plus avec mon mètre.
measuring tape. ‘Ere, one price, £10. Un seul prix, 10 livres.
[I’d 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 ? T’es sourd?
[You’re deaf ?]
18) E That’s a bargain. I’ll take one. Ça vaut le coup.
[That’s worth it.]
19) B Squeeze in. Left leg, right leg, your Avancez. La jambe gauche,
body’ll follow. They call it walking. 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. Pour vous aussi? Bien, on se réveille.
That’s it, we’re waking up. [For you too? Good, we’re waking
up.]
21) B Treat the wife. Treat someone else’s Pour votre femme, ou celle d’un
wife. It’s a lot more fun autre.
C’est plus drôle.
[For your wife, or somebody else’s.
It’s more fun]
22) B if you don’t get caught. si on ne se fait pas choper.
[if you don’t get caught.]
Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys 61

23) B You want one as well? OK darling, Une pour vous? Allez, un peu
show me a bit of life then. d’entrain.
[One for you? Come on, get lively.]
24) B It’s no good standing there like 1 Restez pas plantée.
o’clock half-struck. [Don’t stay stood there.]
25) B You better buy ‘em. These are not Allez-y, c’est pas volé.
stolen. [Go on, it’s not stolen.]
26) B They just haven’t been paid for. Juste pas payé. Profitez-en.
No danger. They’ve changed the Ils ont changé les serrures.
bloody locks. [ Just not paid for. Make the most
of it.
They’ve changed the locks.]
27) B ‘Ere Tenez.
[Here.]
28) B No good coming back later when Pas la peine de revenir quand j’en
I’ve sold out. ai plus.
[Not worth coming back when I
have no more.]
29) B ‘Too late, too late’ will be the cry, ‘Trop tard’ lancera celui que vous
when the man with the bargains has aurez fui.
passed you by. [‘Too late’ will cry the man who you
ran away from.]
30) B If you’ve got no money now, you’ll Si vous avez pas de liquide,
be crying tears as big as October vous aurez plus qu’à pleurer.
cabbages. [If you have no cash,
you’ll just have to cry.]
31) E Bacon, the cozzers! Les flics!
[The coppers!]

Bacon’s 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 pronuncia-
tion is, however, only rarely apparent in the French subtitles of this scene
(T’es 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 recre-
ate in TL subtitles. By contrast, Bacon’s non-standard use of grammar is
recaptured much more strikingly throughout the subtitles of this scene.
62 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, Bacon’s language is sometimes figurative (24, 30), which is not
recaptured in the TT. However, Ed’s ‘cozzers’4 (31) is aptly translated as
les flics, and the subtitles of the entire scene are peppered with colloquial
TL terms (Matez ça 9; vos tronches 14; choper 22), which certainly ensures
that the informal register of the original lines is preserved in translation.
Much of Bacon’s 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:

‘Let’s sort the buyers from the spyers’ (1) ‘Acheteurs pas délateurs’
‘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, 25–6),
body parts (11), infidelity (21–2) 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 Bacon’s original lines are fully preserved by employing
relatively close translation techniques.
Equally significant here is the speed at which speech is delivered; arche-
typal 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 chal-
lenge of producing translations which are both concise and preserve in the
TL the witty, cheeky essence of Bacon’s banter. This is achieved by imple-
menting a number of strategies: repetition in the SL is not translated (line

4 ‘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.
Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys 63

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. Rory’s tel-
evision 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
barman’s 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
barman’s 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, Rory’s roger L’autre soir, sa télé a grillé.
iron busted. [The other evening, his TV bust.]
2) B (A) So he’s gone down the battle Il vient au pub voir la fin du match.
cruiser to watch the end of a [He comes to the pub to watch the
football game. end of the match.]
(IS) He’s gone to the boozer.

5 In his ‘On linguistic aspects of translation’, Jakobson (1959 / 2000: 114) defines
Intralingual translation as a form of ‘rewording’. (Also cf. Introduction.)
64 Chapter 2

3) B (A) No one’s watching the Personne regarde la télé,

custard, so he switches the alors il change de chaîne.
channel over. [Nobody’s watching the TV
(IS) No one’s watching the telly. so he changes the channel.]
4) B (A) A fat geezer’s North opens. Un gros se met à l’ouvrir.
(IS) A fat chap opens his mouth. [A fat man starts to open his mouth.]
5) B (A) And he wanders up and turns Il se retourne et va zapper.
the Liza over. [He turns around and goes to switch
(IS) H
 e wanders up and turns the over the channel.]
channel over.
6) B (A) Now fuck off and watch it ‘Casse-toi et va la mater ailleurs.’
somewhere else. [Get lost and go and watch it
(IS) P
 lease remove yourself from elsewhere.]
this bar.
7) B (A) Rory knows claret is Rory sait que ça va saigner,
imminent, but he doesn’t 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 doesn’t want to miss the end.]
8) B (A) Calm as a coma. Aussi calme qu’un mort.
[As calm as a dead man.]
9) B (A) H
 e picks up the fire Il prend un extincteur.
extinguisher. [He takes a fire extinguisher.]
10) B (A) He walks straight past the jam Il dépasse les connards
rolls [He walks past the bloody idiots]
(IS) H
 e walks straight past the
arseholes
11) B (A) who were ready for action qui l’attendaient
[who were waiting for him]
12) B (A) and plonks it at the entrance. et le plante à l’entrée.
[and sticks it at the entrance.]
13) B (A) He then orders an Aristotle of Il commande l’alcool le plus fort
the most ping-pong Tiddly in [He orders the strongest alcohol]
the nuclear sub
(IS) H
 e then orders a bottle of the
strongest drink in the pub
Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys 65

14) B (A) a nd switches back to his et remet le match.

footer. [and puts the match back on.]
15) B (A) ‘ That’s fucking it’, says the ‘Ça, c’est trop’ dit le connard.
geezer. [‘That’s too much’ says the bloody
(IS) ‘I’ve had enough.’ idiot.]
16) B (A) ‘ That’s fucking what?’ says ‘Trop de quoi?’ dit Rory.
Rory. [‘Too much of what?’ says Rory.]
(IS) ‘Enough of what?’
17) B (A) And he gobs out a mouthful Il crache l’alcool sur le gros.
of booze, covering fatty. [He spits the alcohol on the fat
man.]
18) B (A) He flicks a flaming match Il lui balance une allumette.
into his bird’s nest. [He chucks a match at him.]
(IS) H
 e flicks a flaming match
into his chest.
19) B (A) The geezer’s lit up like a Le type flambe comme
flaming gas pipe. un tuyeau de gaz percé.
[The bloke blazes like
a burst gas pipe.]
20) B (A) R
 ory, unfazed, turns back to Impassible, Rory retourne à son
his game. match.
[Impassive, Rory returns to his
match.]
21) B (A) His team’s won too. 4-nil. En plus, son équipe a gagné 4–0.
[What’s more, his team has won
4–0.]

Some of the challenges posed by the translation of the non-standard, infor-

mal language used by this East Ender are very similar to those considered
in the discussion of Scene One; the solutions employed are also com-
parable. Nevertheless, given that the dominant linguistic feature of this
scene is the presence of Cockney rhyming slang, the ways in which the
film’s 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 scene’s 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 Origin of term French subtitle

subtitle
Roger (1) X Roger Mellie: telly. la télé
Fictional character featured [the TV]
in Viz magazine (A)
iron rusted (1) X iron rusted: busted (F) a grillé
[bust]
battle cruiser boozer battle cruiser: boozer (F) le pub
(2) [the pub]
custard (3) telly telly: custard and jelly (A) la télé
[the TV]
North (4) (His mouth North and South: mouth la (l’ouvrir)
North opens) (A) [it / mouth (opens it)]
Liza (5) (He channel Liza Minnelli: telly. Il va zapper
turns the Liza American actress and [He goes to switch
over) singer (A) over]
jam rolls (10) arseholes jam rolls: arseholes (F) les connards
[the bloody idiots]
Aristotle (13) bottle Aristotle: bottle (F) X
ping-pong the ping-pong: strong. le plus fort
(13) (the most strongest Alternative name for table [the strongest]
ping-pong) tennis (F)
Tiddly (13) drink Tiddlywink: drink. l’alcool
Tiddlywinks: An indoor [the alcohol]
game played on a mat with
sets of small disks called
‘winks’ (A)
nuclear sub (13) pub nucelar sub: pub (F) X
bird’s nest (18) chest bird’s nest: chest (F) X
Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys 67

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. T’énerve pas!
British television personality [Don’t get worked up!]
(A)
In your skyrocket Skyrocket: pocket (F) En poche
[In your pocket]
Let’s have a butcher’s Butcher’s hook: look (A) Voyons ça
[Let’s see that]
That ‘what’s going on’ Chevy Chase: face. Avec ton air de ‘pas y
look slapped all over American comedian, writer toucher’
your Chevy Chase and actor (F) [With your innocent
look]

Mr. Bubble and Squeak Bubble and Squeak: Greek. M. le Grec

Traditional English dish made [Mr. Greek]
with fried vegetables (F)
I don’t want everyone Raspberry tart: fart. Je ne veux pas qu’on se
blowing a raspberry at me Sign of disrespect (A) foute de ma gueule
[I don’t want people
taking the piss out of me]

Thus, as these examples illustrate, the Cockney rhyming slang which fea-
tures in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is not recaptured as such in
the film’s French translation. In both the above-examined scene and iso-
lated 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 understand-
ing 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 film’s setting, in the film’s 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 film’s Cockneys at times come into contact with char-
acters 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 commu-
nicates to SL viewers (Bakhtin 1934–5 / 1981: 297) and how this therefore
helps the film to make sense.

Scene Three

The present scene is set in Harry’s sex club. Barry, Harry’s 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

6 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.
Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys 69

home. Throughout the conversation, Barry and the two thieves are impa-
tient 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 other’s 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? Où en était-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. Tu dois être le cerveau. Oui, pour
That’s right, guns that fire shots. chasser.
[You must be the brain. Yes, for
hunting.]
5) B Make sure you bring everything Assurez-vous de bien nettoyer
from inside the gun cabinet. l’armonier.
[Make sure you clean out the gun
cabinet.]
6) B There’ll be a load of old guns, Y aura plein de vieux fusils. Je les
that’s what I want. veux.
[There’ll be lots of old guns. I want
them.]
7) B Everything else outside the Tout le reste,
cabinet, [All the rest,]
8) B you can keep. est à vous.
[is yours.]
9) G Oh thank you very much! Merci beaucoup!
[Thanks very much!]
10) D There’d better be something there Il vaut mieux qu’il reste des choses.
for us. [There had better be some things left.]
70 Chapter 2

Speaker ST TT
11) B It’s a fucking stately home. Of C’est un château. Bien sûr qu’il restera
course there’ll be something. plein de choses.
[It’s a castle. Of course there’ll be
loads of things left.]
12) D Like what? Comme quoi?
[Like what?]
13) B Like fucking antiques! Des antiquités.
[Antiques.]
14) D Antiques? Des antiquités?
[Antiques?]
15) D What the fuck to we know about On y connaît quoi?
antiques? [What do we know about them?]
16) D We rob post offices. On braque des postes.
[We rob post offices.]
17) G And steal cars. Et vole des voitures.
[And steal cars.]
18) D What the fuck do we know about On y connaît quoi?
antiques, mate? [What do we know about them?]
19) B If it looks old, it’s worth money. Si c’est vieux, ça vaut de l’argent.
Simple. C’est simple.
[If it’s old, it’s worth money.
It’s simple.]
20) B So stop fucking moaning and rob Alors, arrêtez de geindre et faites-le.
the place. [So, stop whining and do it.]
21) G So who’s the gov? Who are we Qui est le chef ? On bosse pour qui?
doing this for? [Who is the boss? Who are we
working for?]
22) B You’re doing it for me. Pour moi.
[For me.]
23) B That’s all you need to know. You Vous avez pas besoin de savoir plus,
know because you need to know. petits curieux.
[You don’t need to know any more,
you nosey little things.]
24) G I see, Je vois,
[I see,]
Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys 71

Speaker ST TT
25) G it’s one of those on a ‘need-to- c’est un de ces pas besoin de
know’ basis things. savoir plus.
[it’s one of those don’t need to know
any more things.]
26) G Like one of those James Bond Comme des James Bond.
films [Like James Bonds.]
27) B Careful. Remember who’s giving Attention. Rappelle-toi
you this job. qui te file ce boulot.
[Careful. Remember
who’s giving you this job.]
28) B Right, I’m off. Call me when it’s J’y vais. Appelez-moi quand
done. Ta da. c’est fait.
[I’m going. Call me when
it’s done.]
… …
29) B Fucking Northern monkeys. Putains de débiles du Nord.
[Fucking Northern morons.]
30) G I hate those fucking Southern Je déteste ces pédés du Sud.
fairies. [I hate those Southern poofs.]
… …
31) G Fucking Southern shandy- Sale buveur de panaché.
drinking bastard. [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 pow-
erfully in the SL soundtrack and thus immediately differentiate between
Barry and his workers, there is no attempt to distinguish between differ-
ent 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
72 Chapter 2

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

by francophone viewers.7
Barry’s incorrect Cockney-English, ‘Where was we’? (1), is not recap-
tured 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 Dean’s speech features some
non-standard grammar: On y connaît 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 Barry’s
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 (Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 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 culmi-
nates 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 lack-
ing 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

7 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).
Southern Fairies and Northern Monkeys 73

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 Gary’s repeated use of ‘fucking’ to reinforce their insults of
each other are rendered with the comparatively strong SL terms putain (29)
and pédé (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 J’ai cru que tu allais me laisser
out here all day. poireauter.
[I thought that you were going to
leave me standing around.]
2) J I didn’t know you were a removal T’es déménageur maintenant?
man, Plank. [Are you a removal man now?]
3) P Lives and learns, don’t ya? 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 à clef ?
[You lock it?]
5) J Yeah, sorry. Got to do business On fait comme ça maintenant.
like that now. Can’t be too careful Il faut pas prendre de risques.
nowadays. [We do that now.
Shouldn’t take any risks.]
6) P I know. Je vois.
[I see.]
7) P Shut it. You say one word and your Si tu gueules, je te fais sauter les
right ear goes. You say another and oreilles.
it’s your left. [If you yell, I’ll blast off your ears.]
8) J What are you doing, Plank? Tu fais quoi?
[What are you doing?]
9) P What do you think I’m doing? Oy, A ton avis? Attends, tu fais quoi?
‘ang on. What are you doing? [In your opnion? Wait, what are you
doing?]
10) P Unlock the gate! I said, unlock the Ouvre la porte! Putain, ouvre!
fucking gate! [Open the door! Fuck, open!]
11) P That’s it! Go, go! Fucking run! C’est bon, en avant!
[That’s right, onward!]

As was the case in the previous scene, these characters speak two very dif-
ferent 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 Plank’s
and J’s speech is rendered in the scene’s French subtitles. In the film’s
original soundtrack, Plank’s Cockney accent contrasts starkly with J’s
‘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 Plank’s pronunciation is much less correct, or standard, than
that of J (‘gonna’ 1; ‘ya’ 3, 4; ‘’ang on’ 9), no sense of relaxed pronuncia-
tion is hinted at in the TL. Furthermore, and slightly confusingly, J’s
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 T’es déménageur?, when translating J’s
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 con-
struction – ‘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 and 8, J’s 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, Plank’s 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 wit-
nessed 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 7–10).

8 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 unsympa-
thetic and aloof ’.
76 Chapter 2

Summary of findings

In the above discussions of Scenes One and Two, it has been demon-
strated 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 tran-
scribing 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 success-
fully, as are a large number of the colloquial – but again, not necessarily
Cockney – terms used by Lock, Stock’s characters. Some attempts are made
to recapture market trader Bacon’s 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 film’s French audi-
ence. 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 transla-
tion – the TL is based on explanations provided in the film’s 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 barman’s 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 1934–5: 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’ differ-
ent 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
other’s 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 film’s 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 writ-
ten text to another (Berman 1985: 294; Hatim and Mason 1990: 40–5).
Such challenges are evidently multiplied in an audiovisual context (De
Linde and Kay 1999: 4–7; Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 2007: 191–2; Luyken
et al. 1991: 156). Nevertheless, as it has been suggested above, some failure
to recapture SL dialects in Lock, Stock’s 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

9 Bartoll (2006: 3–4) 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 BBC’s ‘Online Subtitling
Editorial Guidelines’ Ford-Williams (2009: 22) suggests that:

Subtitles should […] indicate accent […] where it is relevant for the viewers’ under-
standing […]. Where a character’s 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, Stock’s various characters are
undoubtedly crucial to the film’s plot, greater attempts to communicate
in the film’s subtitles the linguistic stereotyping which is apparent in the
SL would arguably enhance the French audience’s experience of this film.
If Bartoll suggests that SDH (Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-
of-Hearing) features, such as brackets and brief explanations, could be
used in order to convey dialects in the subtitling of multilingual films
(2006: 3–4), Díaz-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 maxi-
mum of two lines and that the amount of characters (letters) is propor-
tional 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 innova-

tive developments are taking place, Díaz-Cintas adds that: ‘From a techni-
cal 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 l’est

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 Genette’s

(1987 / 1991: 261–2) 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 DVD’s bonus mate-
rial. 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 film’s
existing bonus materials with subtitles. These materials consist of the film’s 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 l’Angleterre [Liverpool accent, North-West England];
Scene Four: Accent Cockney [Cockney accent] / Accent école privée
[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 dif-
ferent SL dialects in the DVD version’s 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 mate-
rials 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 (Díaz-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 consider-

ing how this film has been received by TL viewers. As was the case of the
films examined in Chapter 1, the francophone audience’s 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
l’humour anglais [the English humour] and l’atmosphère très 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 bouffée d’air frais, salé de cet accent inimi-
table ‘[…] 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 differ-
ence between distinct varieties of British English.
Chapter 3

Transporting the Aquarium: Overcoming the

Challenges of Subtitling Andrea Arnold’s
Fish Tank into French

Introduction

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank is set in a council estate in the county of Essex,
England, and provides a gritty portrayal of the social deprivation and per-
sonal problems which its characters face. After introducing the film and
outlining the challenges to which its subtitling gives rise, the present chap-
ter focuses firstly on four representative examples of character interaction
in Fish Tank, and secondly on three key songs from the film’s musical
soundtrack.1 Considering the particular difficulties presented by the sub-
titling 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 Haughton’s translation preserves
the linguistic and cultural specificity of this quintessentially British film
in its corresponding written French subtitles.

1 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, argu-
ing with her mother, Joanne, and younger sister, Tyler, drinking and practis-
ing hip-hop dancing. When Joanne brings home her new Irish boyfriend,
Connor, Mia’s life changes. Following a sexual encounter between Connor
and Mia, Connor’s 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 boy-
friend, a local traveller. Arnold’s 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 Tank’s main protagonists speak English with a pro-
nounced Essex accent which may be termed ‘Estuary English’;2 this variety

2 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; 1934–5 / 1981: 292) are evident throughout the film. Through its
difference, Connor’s Irish lilt draws attention to the Essex-accented English
spoken by the film’s 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 film’s 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 soundtrack’s songs.

Character interaction

The use of language in Fish Tank is colloquial, local and colourful; it could
therefore aptly be defined as ‘marked speech’ (Díaz-Cintas and Remaël
2007: 187):

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.
3 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’.
4 ‘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 hous-
ing 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 gram-
mar. 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 Mia’s
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 differ-
ent to that which Mia likes. Mia watches the girls with a critical expression
on her face and this results in a confrontation.
Transporting the Aquarium 87

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

Speaker ST TT
1) G What the fuck’s your problem? C’est quoi, ton problème?
[What’s your problem?]
2) M Your terrible dancing’s my Tu danses comme une bouse.
problem. [You dance like a cowpat.]
3) K Quit it, Mia. Don’t start. Fais pas chier, Mia.
[Don’t piss people off, Mia.]
4) M You can talk, Keeley. Since when Alors, Keeley, tu traînes avec des
did you have such ugly friends? thons?5
[So, Keeley, you hang out
with dogs?]
5) G You can talk, you skanky little Tu t’es vue, sale gitane?
pikey! [You seen yourself, dirty gypsy?]
(Mia headbutts girl)
6) M What you gonna do about it? Tu vas porter plainte?
[Are you going to make
a complaint?]
7) G Fuck off ! Casse-toi!
[Get lost!]
8) OG Get away, bitch! Dégage, sale pute!
[Clear off, dirty whore!]
9) M If you want some fucking more, Si vous en voulez encore, venez me
you know where I am! chercher!
[If you want some more, come and
look for me!]
10) G C**t! Sale pute!
[Dirty whore!]
11) OG Walk away! Tire-toi!
[Beat it!]
5

5 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’ (line 8) and
‘walk away’ (line 11) – is preserved in the TT – casse-toi, dégage, 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
(Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 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 trans-
lation of this scene. In line 1, C’est quoi, ton problème? 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 collo-
quial quality of Keeley’s ‘Quit it, Mia’. This said, when Mia asks, ‘What
you gonna do about it?’ (line 6), the French translation, Tu vas porter

6 Skanky: ‘The act of looking cheap, dirty and nasty. Also acting slutty.’ <http://www.
urbandictionary.com> (accessed 03.07.10).
7 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 aggres-
sive 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 (Assis-
Rosa 2001: 213–14). 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 lan-
guage, 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 seduc-
tively 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.

8 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 Don’t mind me, girl. Carry on. T’occupe pas de moi,
continue.
[Don’t bother about me. Continue.]
2) C I was enjoying it. Ça me plaisait.
[I was enjoying it.]
3) M As if. C’est ça.
[That’s it.]
4) C You making eggs? Tu te fais des oeufs?
[Are you making yourself
some eggs?]
5) M No. Non.
[No.]
6) C What’s the water for? C’est pour quoi, l’eau?
[What’s the water for?]
7) M I’m making tea. Je me fais du thé.
[I’m making myself some tea.]
8) C I’m a friend of your mother. You Je suis un ami de ta mère.
dance like a Black. Tu danses comme
une Black.
[I’m a friend of
your mother.
You dance like a Black.]
9) C It’s a compliment. C’est un compliment.
[It’s a compliment.]
10) M What do you know? D’où tu sors ça?
[Where do you get that from?]
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 Ça fait de toi un spécialiste?
expert, does it? [That makes you a specialist?]
13) C You’ve got a mouth on you! T’as réponse à tout?
[You got an answer for everything?]
Transporting the Aquarium 91

14) C What should I call you, anyway? Tu t’appelles comment?

[What are you called?]
15) M Whatever you like. Comme tu veux.
[As you like.]
16) C That’s a charming personality Tu sais charmer ton monde.
you’ve got there! [You know how to charm people.]
17) C See you later. 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 avail-
able to the French audience. The most noteworthy linguistic feature of this
scene is the clear distinction between Mia’s Essex accent and Connor’s 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. Mia’s ‘What do you know?’ (line 10) becomes D’où tu
sors ça ? rather than a lengthier and more correct Qu’est-ce que tu en sais?.
Similarly, Connor’s use of ‘girl’ (line 1) is recaptured by the non-standard
T’occupe 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 aggres-
sive 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, Connor’s gentle
use of irony, which serves to diffuse the slight tension in the atmosphere

9 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; 1934–5 / 1981: 292).
92 Chapter 3

(line 16), is fully maintained in the TL through use of a more concise, but
perfectly equivalent, expression: ‘That’s a charming personality you’ve got
there!’: Tu sais charmer ton monde.
Thus, although it would be impossible to fully recapture Connor’s
Irish accent in translation, Boillot and Haughton partially compensate
for this through their use of non-standard TL grammar. Again, the pres-
ence 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 trans-
lation strategies and relying on the presence of the original SL soundtrack,
the film’s subtitlers manage to preserve the different, contrasting qualities
of Mia and Connor’s 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 danc-
ing to one of Mia’s 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, Tennent’s.

J = Joanne; M = Mia
Speaker ST TT
1) M I’m going then. J’y vais.
[I’m going.]
2) J It’s one of your CDs. C’est un de tes CD.
[It’s one of your CDs.]
3) M Yeah. NO SUBTITLE
Transporting the Aquarium 93

4) J Sorright. C’est pas mal.

[It’s not bad.]
5) M Yeah, it’s Nas. He’s good. You can Oui, c’est Nas. C’est bon. Garde-le.
keep it. [Yes, it’s Nas. It’s good. Keep it.]
6) J Go on then, fuck off. What are Vas-y, casse-toi! T’attends quoi?
you waiting for? [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 vari-
ously. In line 4, Joanne’s slovenly pronunciation of ‘It’s alright’ (‘Sorright’)
is partly recaptured by an omission of the French negative ne. Mia’s ‘yeah’ is
not translated in line 3, as the meaning of this internationally understood
word is self-evident. However, in line 5, her ‘Yeah, it’s Nas.’ becomes Oui,
c’est Nas.10 Boillot and Haughton opt for a standard spelling in their sub-
title, avoiding the non-standard French equivalent of ‘yeah’, ouais.11 This,
in turn, is compensated for in line 6 when Joanne’s standard SL question,
‘What are you waiting for?’, becomes a very informal T’attends quoi? as
opposed to a more standard Qu’est-ce que tu attends?
This is an emotionally charged scene; Joanne is upset and has obviously
been crying. Her listening and dancing to Mia’s 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 film’s
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: 215–16).
94 Chapter 3

As was previously mentioned, the family’s 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 family’s pet is
named Tennent’s, after the famous Scottish lager. Thus, the issue of trans-
lating 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: ‘It’s only me, Tennent’s, stupid dog’. This
name is directly transposed from the ST to the TT: C’est moi, Tennent’s,
gros débile. 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, Mia’s interaction with her sister, Tyler, is character-
ized 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’ [T’occupe-toi, petite pétasse], to which Tyler retorts ‘If I’m a fuck
face, you’re a c**t face’ [T’occupe toi-même, 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.
Transporting the Aquarium 95

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 déteste.
[I hate you.]
2) M I hate you too. Moi aussi.
[Me too.]
3) T Bye you scank. Don’t forget to Salut pétasse. Envoie-moi un SMS.
text me! [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.]

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’. Pétasse (‘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 ‘Don’t 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 Tyler’s ‘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 Haughton’s 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 interac-
tion which Fish Tank contains but also its musical soundtrack which con-
tribute significantly to the portrayal of the social class and culture which
the film seeks to represent. In their discussion of the subtitling of songs,
Díaz-Cintas and Remaël (2007: 207–10) 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.
Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 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 film’s
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 song’s entire lyrics, is entirely founded. The song is relatively long;
Transporting the Aquarium 97

non-anglophone TL viewers would therefore need to understand its mean-

ing. 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. You’ve been waiting so long. Tu as attendu si longtemps.
[You have waited so long.]
2. I’m here to answer your call. Maintenant, je suis là.
[Now I’m here.]
3. I know that I shouldn’t have Je sais, j’aurais pas dû
[I know I shouldn’t have]
4. had you waiting at all. te laisser attendre si longtemps.
[left you waiting so long.]
5. I’ve been so busy J’ai eu beaucoup à faire
[I’ve had a lot to do]
6. but I’ve been thinking ‘bout what I mais j’ai imaginé tout ce que je veux te
wanna do wit you. faire.
[But I’ve thought about everything that
I want to do to you.]
7. I know them other guys Je sais que tous les mecs
[I know that all the guys]
8. they been talking ‘bout the way I racontent que j’assure comme aucune
do what I do. autre nana.
[say that I’m great [in bed] like no
other girl.]
9. They heard I was good. Ils savent que je suis bonne.
[They know that I’m good.]
10. They wanna see if it’s true. Ils fantasment sur moi.
[They fantasize about me.]
11. They know you’re the one I wanna Mais tu es le seul que je veux
give it to. aujourd’hui.
[But you are the only one I want today.]
12. I can see you want me too. Et tu me veux aussi.
[And you want me too.]
98 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 song’s 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
audience’s appreciation of both the message and the mood of the scene.

California Dreamin’

The film’s 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
Womack’s 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 nar-
rative 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 con-
tributes to, and enhances, the film.
Transporting the Aquarium 99

Line ST TT
1. All the leaves are brown Les feuilles sont brunes
[The leaves are brown]
2. (All the leaves are brown) NO SUBTITLE
3. and the sky is gray. et le ciel est gris.
[and the sky is grey.]
4. (And the sky is gray). NO SUBTITLE
5. I’ve been for a walk Je marche sans but
[I’m walking aimlessly]
6. (I’ve been for a walk) NO SUBTITLE
7. on a winter’s day. par un jour d’hiver.
[on a Winter’s day.]
8. (on a winter’s day). NO SUBTITLE
9. I’d be safe and warm Il ferait plus doux
[It would be milder]
10. (I’d be safe and warm) NO SUBTITLE
11. if I was in L.A. si j’étais à L.A.
[if I was in L.A.]
12. (if I was in L.A.) NO SUBTITLE
13. California dreamin’ Je rêve à la Californie
[I’m dreaming of California]
14. (California dreamin’) on such a par ce jour d’hiver.
winter’s day. [on this Winter’s day.]
15. Stopped in a church I passed J’ai vu une église, je m’y suis arrêté.
along the way. [I saw a church, I stopped there.]
16. Well I got down on my knees Je me suis agenouillé
[I knelt down]
17. (got down on my knees) NO SUBTITLE
18. and I pretend to pray. et j’ai commencé à prier.
[and I started to pray.]
19. (I pretend to pray). NO SUBTITLE
20. You know the preacher likes the Le prêtre bénit le froid.
cold. [The priest blesses the cold.]
100 Chapter 3

Line ST TT
21. (Preacher likes the cold). NO SUBTITLE
22. He knows I’m gonna stay. Car il sait que je vais rester.
[Because he knows that
I’m going to stay.]
23. (Knows I’m 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 latter’s global message is not compromised. The song’s 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.

Life’s a Bitch

The third song to be considered in the present chapter is Life’s 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
film’s theme tune. Although its lyrics contain a certain amount of rap slang
which would have been extremely difficult to translate, the decision to sub-
title not even the song’s chorus is surprising; the latter recurs, contributes
to the film’s atmosphere of rap culture and supports Mia’s own narrative:

Life’s a bitch and then you die, that’s why we get high
Cause you never know when you’re gonna go
Life’s a bitch and then you die, that’s why we puff lye
Cause you never know when you’re 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 audience’s appreciation of both the relevance of this track and the film
as a whole.

Conclusion

Transporting the Aquarium has focused on Andrea Arnold’s 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 char-
acter interaction, including some presence of ‘diastratic variation’ (Flydal
1951) and heteroglossia (Bakhtin 1940 / 1981: 67; 1934–5 / 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 neutrali-
zation of the SL style and loss of character identity (Díaz-Cintas and
Remaël 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 view-
ers’ experience […] will differ as little as possible from that of the original audience.

Retaining the culture-bound term ‘Tennent’s’ does indeed result in a loss of

humour in the TT and the decision to provide no subtitles to the admit-
tedly challenging theme tune, Life’s 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 Tank’s 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 film’s representation of this social class and culture.
Reception-related evidence confirms that the force of Arnold’s film has
been grasped by members of the subtitled film’s 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 d’une adolescente de la banlieue anglaise [The film
shows, simply and directly, the life of a teenage girl from an English council
estate]; C’est âpre, rauque, tendu; c’est terriblement réaliste sans oublier d’être
poétique [It’s rough, harsh and tense; it’s terribly realistic while at the same
time poetic]. Indeed, Arnold’s Fish Tank is not transformed in its transla-
tion 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 Maïwenn’s Polisse

Introduction

Author-director Maïwenn’s 2011 film, Polisse, is based on real-life cases han-

dled by Paris’ Brigade de Protection de Mineurs (BPM) [Child Protection
Unit]. After introducing the film, this chapter defines the particular chal-
lenges 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 Polisse’s linguistically variegated character is therefore retained,
in its English-language subtitles.

The film

Polisse, the title of which is a child’s misspelling of the word police, is a

powerful pseudo-documentary of the BPM’s daily activities. Photographer
Mélissa (Maïwenn) is assigned by the Ministry of Justice to document some

1 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 Unit’s 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 dramati-
cally 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 lan-
guage 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; 1934–5 / 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

2 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 film’s English subtitles there-
fore 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 exam-
ined. In some of these scenes, and between scenes, instances of code switch-
ing (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 film’s French TL ver-
sion; 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.

3 In the field of Sociocultural Linguistics, which examines the social and cultural func-
tions 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 accompa-
nied 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 Gabriel’s more
refined uses of language. When ultimately asked by Bamako why he does
not speak ‘normally’, Gabriel resorts to an amusing and exaggerated imita-
tion 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 get a word in.
[Let me speak.]
2) B Mais oui, je te laisse parler. Tu parleras You’ll have your say
quand tu seras gradé ! when you’re an officer.
[But yes, I’m letting you speak. You’ll
speak when you’re a sergeant!]
3) G C’est complètement ridicule, ce That’s pathetic.
que tu dis !
[It’s completly ridiculous, what you’re
saying!]
4) B Mais oui, c’est ridicule, c’est comme ça. Like it or lump it.
[But yes, it’s ridiclous, it’s like that.]
5) G Est-ce que tu te rends comptes … Est-ce Have you any idea
que tu as conscience de la bêtise que tu how ridiculous that is ?
viens de dire ? No offense.
[Do you realize … Are you aware of the
stupidity of what you have just said?]
6) G Je n’ai pas envie de t’offenser, mais I’ve no desire to offend you,
franchement, parler de mon statut quand but pulling rank
je suis juste en train d’avoir un point when I’m merely expressing
de vue … an opinion …
[I don’t want to offend you, but frankly,
speaking of my rank when I’m just having
an opinion …]
Police Patter 107

7) B Sais quoi ? Tu parles bien. Know what? You’re a good

[Know what? You speak well.] talker.
8) B C’est parfait, t’as les bons mots et tout You’ve got the gift
[It’s perfect, you’ve got the right words and of the gab,
eveything] the right words
9) B mais tu vois, tes arguments sont bidon. but your arguments are
[but you see, your arguments are phoney.] phoney.
10) G Je n’ai pris aucun argument. NO SUBTITLE
[I haven’t adopted any argument.]
11) G C’est toi qui as mis une espèce d’argument You’re the one
massue depuis tout à l’heure. with the killer argument.
[It’s you who have been putting forward
a sort of sledgehammer argument since
earlier.]
12) N C’est ce qui arrive, This is what happens
[That’s what happens,]
13) N dès qu’on ne parle pas de cul, c’est when it’s not about sex. He’s
inintéressant ! bored.
[as soon as people aren’t talking smutty, it’s
not interesting!]
14) G Vous êtes en train de m’ostraciser parce You’re ostracizing me just
que … because …
[You’re ostracizing me because …]
15) B Je comprends pas ! Don’t understand!
[I don’t understand!]
16) N Il comprend pas ‘ostraciser’. He doesn’t understand
[He doesn’t understand ‘ostracize’.] ‘ostracize’.
17) G Vous m’isolez … You’re sidelining me.
[You’re isolating me …]
18) B Voilà, dis ça ! Say ‘sideline’ not ‘ostracize’!
[That’s right, say that!]
19) N Je suis sa traductrice. I’m his translator.
[I’m his translator.]
20) G Je suis désolé, I’m sorry,
[I’m sorry,]
108 Chapter 4

Speaker ST TT
21) G mais vous avez tous votre identité dans le you all have your own
groupe, identity,
[but you all have your identity in the group,]
22) G vous êtes tous super différents, you’re all different,
[you’re all really different,]
23) G vous avez tous des rapports les uns avec you all respect each other’s
les autres et vous vous respectez par votre identity.
identité.
[you all have contact with each other and
respect each other by your identity.]
24) G Je suis désolé, je ne vois pas pour quelle I don’t see why the way I talk
raison le fait que je m’exprime bien
[I’m sorry, but I don’t see why the fact that
I express myself well]
25) G m’empêche d’être respecté par vous. stops you respecting me.
[prevents me from being respected by you.]
26) B Pourquoi tu ne parles pas normal ? Talk normal!
[Why don’t you speak normal?]
27) G Pourquoi je ne parle pas normalement ? Talk normally?
[Why don’t I speak normally?]
28) G Parce que, eh, vas-y, tu vas me pomper, Hey, blow me right here.
viens, viens ! C’mon man!
[Because, hey, go on, you’re going to give
me a blow-job, come on, come on!]
29) G Eh, on va se niquer, etc ! We’re gonna get laid!
[Hey, we’re going to get laid!]
30) G La putain, c’est super! Check out that clit shit!
[That slut is great!]
31) G Moi, c’est juste, ça me fatigue, quoi. Fine, but it gets on my
[Me, it’s just, it annoys me, you know.] 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. Bamako’s 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, Gabriel’s 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 Bamako’s 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 Gabriel’s non-
standard and correct adverbial uses (26 and 27) are also translated close-
ly.4 By contrast, Gabriel’s 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 film’s original scene.
Juxtaposed, self-conscious uses of language throughout this scene are
thus accurately recaptured by the film’s 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’.
5 See also discussion of l’argot des cités [slang used on underprivileged urban housing
estates] (George Pilard 2002: 90).
110 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 ensur-
ing 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 inno-
cence. Early in the conversation, Mathieu incorrectly uses the word ‘proto-
type’ 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 sensi-
bly and to recover from their respective amusement and embarrassment.

B = Beauchard; C = Chrys; M = Mathieu

Speaker ST TT
1) B Je crois qu’il vous trimballe complètement He’s playing you. He can’t
et qu’il ne veut pas vous dire qu’il a eu du admit
plaisir sexuel avec sa fille. he got sexual pleasure from
[I think that he’s totally playing you along his daughter.
and that he doesn’t want to tell you that he
got sexual pleasure from his daughter.]
2) M Tout ce que je peux dire, c’est que ce n’est All I can say is,
pas le prototype qu’on voit d’habitude, quoi. he’s not the usual prototype.
[All that I can say, is that he isn’t the
prototype that we usually see, you know.]
Police Patter 111

3) C Prototype ? Prototype?
[Prototype?]
4) C Prototype, non. Tu veux dire stéréotype ! Stereotype!
[Not prototype. You mean stereotype!]
5) M Oui, mais, enfin … C’est pareil. Same difference.
[Yes, but, well … It’s the same.]
6) M Bref, ce n’est pas le stéréotype de … All right, he’s not your
[In short, he’s not the stereotypical …] stereotypical …
7) C Oui, c’est un grand type … Yeah, he’s a tall guy
[Yes, he’s a tall bloke …]
8) C Il fait nounours, un peu … a cuddly bear type of guy.
[He looks like a teddy, a bit …]
9) M Il n’a pas l’air, il est plutôt beau, il n’est pas I don’t know. He’s not an
moche … ugly,
[He doesn’t look, he’s rather handsome, he
isn’t ugly …]
10) M Il n’est pas vilain, quoi. nasty-looking kind of guy …
[He’s not nasty, you know.]
11) C Voilà, il fait … Yeah, he seems really …
[That’s right, he looks …]
12) C Il fait sain. Wholesome.
[He looks sound.]
13) B D’accord. OK.
[OK.]
14) B Bah, écoutez, on va quand même But we’ll run psychiatric tests
demander des tests psychiatriques avant de before we let him go.
le lâcher dans la nature, d’accord ?
[Er, listen, all the same, we’ll carry out
some psychiatric tests before we let him
loose, alright?]
15) C Oui, bien sûr. Of course.
[Yes, 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 ‘he’s playing you’. In the latter, the very informal and oral Bah,
112 Chapter 4

écoutez, on va quand même […] is recaptured very concisely with the TL ‘But,
well …’. Chrys and Mathieu’s 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 Mathieu’s sniggering
and embarrassment strongly suggest their discomfort in the presence of their
superior. While Mathieu’s misuse of vocabulary (line 2) and Chrys’ correc-
tion of it (4) are translated closely and the pair’s 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 film’s 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 suc-
ceeded 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 film’s 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 discus-
sion of a different aspect of the officers’ speech. In the following dialogue,
Chrys explains to new colleague, Gabriel, how the team is sometimes crea-
tive with language, thereby inventing new words. A case which is neither
Police Patter 113

a ‘rape’ [viol], nor an ‘act of love’ [acte d’amour] 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 trans-
lated literally.

C = Chrys; G = Gabriel.
Speaker ST TT
1) C Ah, tu vois, ce que tu viens de voir, You’ve just seen your first ever
ça s’appelle un miol. rave.
[Ah, you see, what you have just
seen, is called a ***.]
2) G D’accord. NO SUBTITLE
[OK.]
3) C D’accord. Donc, c’est ni un viol, ni It’s neither rape nor love.
un acte d’amour. It’s a rave.
[OK. So, it’s neither a rape, nor an
act of love.]
4) C Il y a des maffaires, les mardes à vue, We also have rarrests. Rustody.
les mictimes. Rictims.
[There are ***, ***, ***.]
5) G Je pense que j’ai compris. I think I get the picture.
[I think that I’ve understood.]
6) G A priori, le concept n’est pas hyper It’s not that complicated.
compliqué, on met un M devant. You put an R in front.
[In principle, the concept isn’t really
complicated, you put an M in front.]
7) C Voilà, c’est un génie ! The boy’s a genius!
[That’s it! He’s 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
114 Chapter 4

approach. Thus, in the SL viol + acte d’amour = 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 à vue (m + gardes à 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, how-
ever, 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 BPM’s 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, Fréd and Nora,
both of North-African origin, are accompanying a teenage girl, also of
North-African descent, to the police station. As Fréd drives, Nora is sit-
ting 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,
Police Patter 115

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 réalises que tu as aidé des mecs à You realize you helped
violer une copine à toi ? guys
[But you realize that you helped some rape your friend?
blokes to rape a friend of yours?]
2) N T’as pas honte? Aren’t you ashamed?
[Aren’t you ashamed?]
3) N Tu t’en prends conscience? You realize?
[You’re aware of that?]
4) N Tu te rends pas compte de ce que tu as fait ? You see it’s serious?
[You don’t realize what you’ve done?]
5) S Ferme ta gueule. Shut your face.
[Shut your gob.]
6) S Depuis tout à l’heure, tu me suces la chatte. Stop sucking my pussy off !
Je t’ai demandé de me parler, là ?
[Since earlier, you’ve been sucking my pussy.
Did I ask you to speak to me, then?]
7) N Je te suce la chatte ? Sucking your pussy off ?
[I’m sucking your pussy?]
8) N Parce que tu crois que de tes 14 ans, tu me You’re 14. Ooh, scary!
fais peur ?
[Because you think that at 14 years old, you
scare me?]
9) S Parce que tu crois que de ton 1 mètre 50, tu You’re five feet tall. Ooh,
me fais peur ? scary!
[Because you think at 1 m 50 (~ 5 ft), you
scare me?]
10) S Sale vendue ! You sellout!
[You’re past it!]
11) N Quoi vendue ? Quoi vendue ? Sellout?
[Past it? Past it?]
116 Chapter 4

Speaker ST TT
12) S Fais chier ! Skank bitch.
[You piss me off !]
13) S Tu n’as qu’à me demander. T’as qu’à garder You ask my opinion? Take
la pêche. a chill pill!
[ Just ask me. You just need to chill out.]
14) N Garde la pêche ? Ça veut dire quoi, garde la Take a chill pill? What’s
pêche ? that mean?
[Chill out? What does that mean, chill
out?]
15) S Là, tu kiffes parce que c’est marqué police. You big up cos it says
Mais où j’habite, tu vas voir. police.
[You’re getting off on it because it says Come by where I live.
police. But where I live, you’ll see.]
16) N D’accord, tu habites où ? And where do you live?
[OK, where do you live?]
17) S Je suis de Rébeval. Rébeval.
[I’m from Rébeval.]
18) N Rébeval ? Rébeval?
[Rébeval?]
19) N Mais c’est le pays des nounours, Rébeval. That’s teddy bear country.
[But that’s teddy bear country, Rébeval.]
20) S Mais tu vas voir ce qui va t’arriver. Tu vas te Your skank ass’ll get it.
faire défoncer, tu vas voir.
[But you’ll see what’s going to happen to
you. You’re going to get smashed in. You’ll
see.]
21) N D’accord, je vais te donner mes horaires, c’est OK. I work 9–5 every day.
9 h–17 h tous les jours.
[OK. I’ll give you my hours. It’s 9–5 every
day.]
22) S Tu vas voir. Je vais revenir sur le Qu’ran. Je On the Qu’ran, I’ll come
vais niquer ta grand-mère. Sale pute. and fuck you up.
[You’ll see. I’m going to go back to
the Qu’ran. I’m going to fuck your
grandmother. Dirty bitch.]
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; T’as pas honte, instead of Tu n’as 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 t’as 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 [You’re 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 girl’s 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 girl’s repetition of Nora’s sarcastic comment is fully
preserved.
This girl’s 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 audio-
visual clues all suggest her attempts to challenge authority (Fairclough 1995;
Voloshinov 1929) and to change her footing within the interaction (Goffman

6 ‘Speakers of standard French often elide vowels and leave out ne in negatives […]
[but] such omissions occur more frequently in slang’ (Strutz 1999: vi).
7 Sociolect: ‘A variety or lect which is thought of as being related to its speakers’ social
background rather than geographical background’ (Trudgill 2003: 122).
118 Chapter 4

1981). While this subject’s body language and intonation remain present in
the SL soundtrack, her particular lexical uses are extremely difficult, albeit
impossible, to preserve in the TL (Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 2007; Jäckel
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, Jäckels’ 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 Arnold’s Fish Tank (as
seen in Chapter 3), that it seems an entirely appropriate, equivalent, con-
temporary 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. Nora’s colloquial, informal language is fre-
quently communicated in the TL by employing compensation strategies
rather than adopting a close approach to its translation. For the most part, the
subject’s vulgar and contemporary slang is preserved through close translation
and by the use of contemporary TL equivalents; as these are used appropri-
ately 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 film’s TL version.

Scene Five

In this scene, officers Sue-Ellen, Nora and Fréd 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 Kif( f )er: To get high / to get off on (Strutz 1999: 198).

9 This observation partly justifies why Chapters 3 and 4 are brought together in Dealing
with Difference in Audiovisual Translation.
Police Patter 119

agreed to grant the other girl’s male friends sexual favours, Caroline agreed
to comply. When she admits this, the officers are momentarily shocked.
Sue-Ellen and Fréd 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 con-
tain themselves.

C = Caroline; F = Fréd; I = Iris; SE = Sue-Ellen

Speaker ST TT
1) C Et eh, je crois que j’envoyais un SMS. I was sending a text or
[And, er, I think that I was sending a something.
text.]
2) C J’avais mon téléphone dans la main. I had my phone in my hand.
[I had my telephone in my hand.]
3) C Et après, il y a une fille qui me fait And this girl comes over,
‘montre-moi’. like let me see that.
[And after, there’s a girl who says to me
‘show me’.
4) C Donc, je lui montre, elle le prend dans So I show her and she takes it,
ses mains,
[So, I show her, she takes it in her hands,]
5) C et, er, je lui fais, er … and, er, like …
[and ‘er, I say to her, er …]
6) SE Tu ne peux pas aller où tu … Can you get to the …
[Can’t you get to where …]
7) SE Quand tu es descendue avec les gars. When you met the boys.
[When you went down with the lads.]
8) C Oui, bah, c’est ce que je suis en train de That’s what I’m telling you.
raconter.
[Yes, er, that’s what I’m teling you.]
120 Chapter 4

Speaker ST TT
9) F OK, elle a ça et elle avait ton portable et So, the girl’s taken your phone
tu disais … and you say …
[OK, she has it and she had your phone
and you were saying …]
10) SE Ils ont ton portable. On en est là. They’ve got your phone.
[They have your phone. We’re there.]
11) SE Après, qu’est-ce qui s’est passé ? After that, what happened?
[After, what happened?]
12) C Je leur demande de me le rendre. I ask for it back.
[I ask them to give it back to me.]
13) C Elle me fait, er, si tu veux récupérer, il She’s like, sure,
faut que tu suces mes copains. if you give my friends head.
[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. I’m like, OK.
[So, I say right, OK.]
15) SE OK ? OK quoi ? OK to what?
[OK? OK, what?]
16) C Er, pour sucer les mecs, pour mon To blowing them for my
téléphone. phone.
[Er, to give the blokes a blow-job for my
phone.]
17) SE Mais dis, tu l’aimais vraiment beaucoup, You really liked your phone.
ce portable.
[But say, you really liked it a lot, that
phone.]
18) C Bah oui, quand même. No kidding.
[Er yes, I did actually.]
19) F Et pour un ordinateur, tu fais quoi ? And for a laptop?
[And for a computer, what do you do?]
20) F Je suis désolé, ça m’a échappé. Sorry, it slipped out.
[I’m sorry, it slipped out.]
21) SE Excusez-moi. Take no notice.
[Excuse me.]
Police Patter 121

22) SE C’est pas toi … It’s not you …

[It’s not you.]
23) SE Les filles, putain ! On ne peut pas avec We can’t do it with those
ces deux-là ! Arrêtez ! two …
[Girls, fuck! We can’t do it with those Stop it!
two. Stop it!]
24) SE Excuse-nous. Sorry, don’t mind us.
[Excuse us.]
25) SE Tu vas avoir une mauvaise image de la In the police
police.
[You’re going to have a bad image of the
police.]
26) SE On est rarement comme ça. we’re not usually like this.
[We are rarely like this.]
27) SE Tu ne suces pas pour un portable. Tu en You don’t give head for a
es consciente, ou pas ? phone.
[You don’t give blow-jobs for a phone. You realize that?
Are you aware of that, or not?]
28) C C’était un beau portable, non ? It was a smartphone.
[It was a nice phone, wasn’t it?]
29) F Assieds-toi et on finit là. Sit down, and let’s finish up
[Sit down and we’ll finish now.] here.
30) F Donc, tu as suivi tout ce petit groupe ? You followed the whole
[So, you followed all of this little group?] group?
31) SE Maintenant, on est entre gens sérieux, We can talk seriously now,
Caroline. Caroline.
[Now we’re with serious people,
Caroline.]
32) I J’ai perdu mon portable. I’ve lost my phone.
[I’ve lost my phone.]

A number of translation challenges arise when subtitling this scene into

English. First, Caroline’s 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’.
122 Chapter 4

Other expressions which Caroline uses, such as Bah oui, quand même (18),
translated as ‘no kidding’, are rendered equally idiomatically and effectively.
The language which the officers use when dealing with Caroline is less col-
loquial than that which she uses, but remains informal. This slight distinc-
tion 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 com-
ments Mais dis, tu l’aimais vraiment beaucoup, ce portable [You really liked
your phone]. Fréd 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 mes-
sage 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 J’ai perdu mon portable is translated literally in
the TL [I’ve 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 Caroline’s
colloquial French, through the police’s slightly more correct but still infor-
mal language which gives some indication of their authority (Goffman
1981: 128), to the officers’ jokes, which call into question their professional-
ism (Goffman ibid.) – can be recaptured very effectively through the use
of close translation strategies and equivalent TL vocabulary and expres-
sions. Once again, however, the language used in the original scene – at
times vulgar, and at other times humorous – is reinforced considerably by
the film’s 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 self-
composure (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
Police Patter 123

considerable importance in ensuring that linguistic variation is preserved

in the film’s 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 subject’s 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 dia-
logue 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 Madame.
[Hello Madam.]
2) B Asseyez-vous, je vous en prie. Take a seat.
[Sit down, please.]
3) B Je vous écoute. Go ahead, Madame.
[I’m listening to you.]
4) S Je dois vous donner mon enfant. I have to give you my son.
[I must give you my child.]
5) S Je n’ai pas l’endroit où dormi. I have no place where slept.
[I no longer have the place where slept.]
6) S Je ne veux pas mon fils il dort dans la rue I don’t want him
avec moi. to sleep in street with me.
[I don’t want my son he sleeps in the street
with me.]
124 Chapter 4

Speaker ST TT
7) S Je veux qu’il soit au saud. I want him in warm place.
[I want him to be in the warm.]
8) B Vous voulez qu’il soit … J’ai pas compris. You want him …
[You want him to be … I haven’t
understood.]
9) S Chaud. – Warm.
[Warm.]
B Au chaud. OK, j’ai compris. – Somewhere warm. OK.
[In the warm. OK, I’ve understood.]
10) S Il doit dormir dans lit. He must sleep in bed.
[He must sleep in bed.]
11) B Bien sûr. Of course.
[Of course.]
12) S Je ne veux pas qu’il devienne comme moi. I don’t want him be like me.
[I don’t want him to become like me.]
13) S T’as pas compris ? You see?
[You haven’t understood?]
14) B Si si, je comprends. Sure, I understand.
[Yes yes, I understand.]
15) B Vous n’avez plus d’endroit où dormir. – You have nowhere to
[You no longer have a place to sleep.] sleep.
S Oui.
[Yes.] – Yes.
16) B On va mettre les choses dans l’ordre. Vous Let’s see. Are you married?
êtes mariée ?
[We’re going to put things in order. Are you
married?]
17) S Je suis toute seule. I’m on my own.
[I’m on my own.]
18) B Et donc vous dormez dans la rue avec votre You’re both on the street.
fils.
[And so you sleep in the street with your
son.]
19) S Oui oui. Yes.
[Yes yes.]
Police Patter 125

Speaker ST TT
20) B Depuis combien de temps, – How long on the street?
vous m’avez dit ?
[For how long, did you tell me?]
S Depuis six mois. – Six months.
[For six months.]
21) S Des foiyers. Un hôtel et des foiyers. Sleeping hospesses. Hotels
[Hostels. A hotel and hostels.] and hospesses.
22) B En forêt? Hostesses?
[In the forest?]
23) B En foyer! In hospices!
[In hostels!]
24) S Y en a marre ! No more.
[Fed up!]
25) S C’est sous des tentes. It’s under tents.
[It’s under tents.]
26) S Dormir sous des tentes, je ne … Sleep under tents. I not …
[Sleeping under tents, I not …]
27) B Si si si, mais je comprends très bien. Yes, I understand.
Alors avec le petit, c’est difficile. It’s hard for you and your
[Yes yes, but I understand very well. So with son.
the little one, it’s difficult.]

Throughout the scene, Borloo’s 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 officer’s footing (Goffman 1981:
128) is clearly reflected in the competent, caring role which he adopts.The
qualities of Borloo’s 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 and 3,
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 lady’s 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
126 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 woman’s cul-
tural 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 mas-
tery 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 See my translation of Créole-accented French which features in Claude Sarraute’s

‘Dans le taxi’ (Ellender 2013: 140–4).
11 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. Venuti’s classification of these two strategies
is inspired by Schleiermacher’s (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 target-
language 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:
16–17) in order to produce a ‘heterogeneous discourse’. If Venuti’s 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 –
Police Patter 127

not exist in the SL (line 12). This strategy, which recaptures the SL pro-
tagonist’s 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 hin-
ders communication on two occasions. First, when the French word chaud
[∫aud][warm] (lines 7 to 9) is pronounced as [saud], this error is not recap-
tured in the TL. Second, the SL word foyer [fwaje][hostel] is pronounced
as [foje]. Borloo hears this as forêt [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 Borloo’s language can be preserved through the use of many close strate-
gies, the speech of his Black-African subject poses greater difficulties. This
lady’s 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 suc-
cessfully; at times, this involves employing foreignizing strategies (Venuti
1997: 242). Such creativity, coupled with the film’s original images, as
previously discussed, ensure that the exotic nature of this subject’s speech
remains present in the film’s 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: 16–17).
128 Chapter 4

Conclusion

This chapter has considered Maïwenn’s 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 film’s SL version. This includes not only the police’s often
highly self-conscious patter, but also juxtapositions of the officers’ inter-
action 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; 1934–5 / 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 film’s English-language
subtitlers, and subsequently to establish the extent to which the TL suc-
ceeds 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 subti-
tles 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 subti-
tles of Kassowitz’s La Haine (cf. Introduction). However, in the present
case, it is only used in relatively small doses throughout the film’s 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
Police Patter 129

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

the original film’s 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 there-
fore 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 film’s anglophone audi-
ence. Reviews on <http://www.amazon.co.uk> confirm that the English-
language 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 you’re 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 speaker’s 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 gram-
mar 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 Spielberg’s 2004 film, The Terminal, centres
on Viktor Navorski, a man of Eastern European origin who is temporarily
stranded in New York’s JFK airport. Lost, confused and able to speak little
English, Viktor is portrayed as unmistakably foreign in the film’s 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 Berman’s 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
Viktor’s 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 Navorski’s linguistic alterity, and
the communication problems to which his use of a ‘broken’ language gives rise,
are preserved in Béatrice Thomas-Wachsberger’s French subtitled version of
Spielberg’s film. By extension, it also determines how Thomas-Wachsberger’s
approach to translating ‘foreignness’ compares to that of Berman.

1 This chapter is based on my article of the same name which was originally published
in <http://www.translationjournal.com> (December 2011).
132 Chapter 5

The film

In this comedy-drama, Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) arrives at New

York’s JFK airport; he is on a quest to obtain an autograph from the saxo-
phonist, 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 airport’s terminals. Befriending
staff, doing small jobs to pay for food and falling in love with air host-
ess 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 Berman’s ‘La traduction comme épreuve de l’étranger’

[Translation and the Trials of the Foreign] (1985 / 2000)

The title of the present chapter is inspired by Berman’s 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
Schleiermacher’s ‘naturalizing’ translation tendencies (1813 / 1992: 41–2)
The Trials of the Foreign 133

which later influenced Venuti’s 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. Schleiermacher’s ‘alienating’ strategies (ibid.) and
Venuti’s ‘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.: 286–97). This
negative analytic has a positive counterpart, that is, a set of operations
which serve to limit the said deformations (ibid.: 286).
Given that Berman’s work is set in a literary context, all of his obser-
vations 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. Berman’s 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 origi-
nal 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 ‘eth-
nocentrism’ 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
134 Chapter 5

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

Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia which is present in all novels, Berman
identifies this deforming tendency as a central problem posed by the transla-
tion 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 Béatrice Thomas-Wachsberger subtitles into French the English-
language film, The Terminal; this film’s dialogue is characterized by mul-
tiple 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 con-
fused 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 Viktor’s foreignness are
automatically preserved in the subtitled version of The Terminal. Viktor’s
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 film’s scenes heteroglossic (Bakhtin

2 Luyken (1991: 153–4) 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; 1934–5 / 1981: 292) and give rise to translation challenges.
These challenges, and the ways in which they are handled by the film’s
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 Navorski’s linguistic alterity,
and the communication problems to which his use of a ‘broken’ language
gives rise, are preserved in Béatrice Thomas-Wachsberger’s French subtitled
version of The Terminal. It will also seek to situate Thomas-Wachsberger’s
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 experi-

mental literature. The French author Raymond Queneau’s Exercices de Style (1947)
recounts one short story in ninety-nine different ways, some of which are written
with a foreign accent. Barbara Wright’s skilful translation into English of Exercices de
Style is just as playful as Queneau’s original work. ‘Por lay Zanglay’ (1947 / 2000: 129)
is, for instance, rendered as ‘For ze Frrench’ (1958 / 1979: 169). Similarly, in Claude
Sarraute’s ‘Dans le taxi’ (1985: 11–12), a French taxi driver resorts to imitating a
Guadeloupian (Créole) accent in his mockery of European attitudes. When translat-
ing 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: 140–4).
When working within the constraints of subtitling, this technique would clearly
136 Chapter 5

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

understandable, given the quantity of Viktor’s 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 film’s original soundtrack.

ii) Grammar: Simplifications and inaccuracies

Viktor’s poor mastery of English is also apparent in his use of gram-

mar; 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 Viktor’s incorrect use of SL tenses.
These are often recaptured in the TL by simply replacing the correct verb-
form with the TL infinitive:

I do this Je faire cela [I to do that]

I wait J’attendre [I to wait]

Furthermore, Viktor often struggles with basic question forms. These are
recaptured relatively closely in French with comparably inaccurate ques-
tion- 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? T’as été déjà marié?
[You’ve 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 origi-
nal film’s soundtrack in order to convey Viktor’s linguistic difference, or
alterity. Here, instances of Venuti’s foreignizing translation strategy (1998:
16–17) 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 Viktor’s sense of exoticism and consequently
somewhat alienates the SL audience. It is therefore totally acceptable to
leave this untouched in the film’s 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 emphasiz-
ing Viktor’s alterity:
‘It need … gorchiska … Mustard!’: [Il besoin … gorchiska … Moutarde!]

In sum, Viktor’s 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 linguis-
tic features must be preserved. Although Viktor’s European accent is not
transposed onto the French subtitles, this is compensated for by the pres-
ence of the original soundtrack. Viktor’s 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 correspond-
ing subtitles, when this reinforces his exoticism. Thus, by employing these
relatively close translation strategies, Thomas-Wachsberger succeeds at
preserving Viktor’s poor mastery of English, and evident linguistic alterity,
138 Chapter 5

in her French subtitles. In Berman’s terms, she avoids ‘effacing the super-
imposition of languages’ within (1985 / 2000: 295), or destroying the het-
eroglossic quality of, much dialogue in The Terminal.

Poor mastery of English: Positive and negative consequences

i) Negative consequences

Viktor’s limited English invariably makes communication problematic

for him.4 Nowhere is this more apparent than in one of the film’s early
scenes. Viktor is called in to see airport officials, but understands noth-
ing 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 TL
1) O What exactly are you Pourquoi êtes-vous venu aux Etats-Unis ?
doing in the United States, [Why have you come to the United
Mr. Navorski? States?]
2) V Yellow taxi cab, please. Taxi jaune, s’il vous plaît.
[Yellow taxi, please.]

4 As it has been witnessed in previous chapters, the language used in this scene is revela-
tory of the power dynamic which exists between these two interlocutors (Fairclough
1995; Hyatt 2006; Voloshinov 1929 / 1973). Viktor’s limited mastery of the foreign
(source) language disadvantages him; his discomfort and uncertainty can conse-
quently 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 lady’s faltering use of French results in self-doubt.
The Trials of the Foreign 139

3) V Take me to Ramada Inn. Conduisez-moi à l’hôtel Ramada Inn.

[Drive me to the Ramada Inn hotel.]
4) V 161, Lexington Avenue. Lexington Avenue.
[Lexington Avenue.]
5) O You’re saying at the Ramada Vous restez au Ramada Inn?
Inn? [You are staying at the Ramada Inn?]
6) V Keep the change. Gardez la monnaie.
[Keep the change.]
7) O Do you know anyone in New Vous avez des amis à New York?
York? [You have some friends in New York?]
8) V Yes. Oui.
[Yes.]
9) O Who? Qui?
[Who?]
10) V Yes. Oui.
[Yes.]
11) O Who? Qui?
[Who?]
12) V Yes, 161 Lexington Avenue. 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 trans-
port 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 médicaments pour son père. 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; medica-
tion 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 gram-
matical inaccuracies (lines 7 and 10) are successfully preserved in the TL.
140 Chapter 5

D = Dixon; Viktor
Speaker SL TL
1) V Goat! Bouc !
[Goat!]
2) D What? Quoi?
[What?]
3) V Goat. Medicine for goat. Bouc. Médicament pour bouc.
[Goat. Medicine for goat.]
4) D Goat? Bouc?
[Goat?]
5) V Yes, yes. Medicine for goat. Oui, pour bouc.
[Yes, for goat.]
6) V He not understand. Rien pigé.
[Didn’t get anything.]
7) V I not understand. Je pas compris.
[I not understood.]
8) V The Krakozhia, the name for father. Cracozie, père souvent appelé
[Krakozhia, father often called]
9) V Sound like goat. ‘vieux bouc’.
[‘old goat’.]
10) V I make mistake. Je fais erreur.
[I make mistake.]

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

which can have negative consequences for him, he does, at times, con-
sciously 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: 16–17) 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.
The Trials of the Foreign 141

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 expres-
sion ‘fifty-fifty’ from the headlines of a news report on the separation of
Siamese twins: ‘Chances of survival, fifty-fifty’: Chances de survie, fifty-
fifty. 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 TT
1) V You have two stamps – one red, Vous avez deux tampons – un rouge,
one green. un vert.
[You have two stamps – a red, a green.]
2) D So? Et alors?
[So what?]
3) V So I have chance go New York, Mes chances de New York: fifty-fifty.
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 equiva-
lence’ (Koller 1979) is achieved.
142 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 pro-
nounces 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 restaurant’s 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 Amelia, voudrais-tu aller morceau manger?
eat to bite? [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.
The Trials of the Foreign 143

When he finally asks Amelia to dinner, Viktor makes his original mis-
take. 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 TT
1) V Amelia, would you like … eat to bite? Tu aimerais … morceau manger?
[You would like … bit to eat?]
2) V Food! Tonight? Repas! Ce soir?
[Meal! This evening?]

ii) Misunderstanding of culture-bound terms

At times, Viktor’s 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 Viktor’s knowledge of Western culture results in his hear-
ing ‘Cher’ as the English verb ‘[to] share’. In order to recapture this mis-
understanding 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.
144 Chapter 5

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

Speaker ST TT
1) Gua And they belong to? On connaît la proprio?
[Do we know the owner?]
2) Gup Cher Cher
[Cher]
3) Gua As in … Cher? Comme dans … Cher?
[As in … Cher?]
4) E These are Cher’s panties C’est bien la culotte de Cher.
[These are Cher’s knickers.]
5) V So, we share the panties? Si c’est cher, on la partagé?
[If they are expensive, will we share them?]
6) Gua Not if I win! Pas si je gagne!
[Not if I win!]

iii) Mispronunciation

Last, Viktor’s 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 itali-
cized, thus reinforcing Viktor’s exoticism (line 10). If Berman is critical
of this translation strategy (1985 / 2000: 294), it is again effective in the
present context.
The Trials of the Foreign 145

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! Caca! Caca!
[Shit! Shit!]
6) E Try to repeat exactly. Répète exactement ses mots.
[Repeat her words exactly.]
7) V He shit. Il a fait caca.
[He did a shit.]
8) V She catch him … Elle l’attraper et …
[She to catch him and …]
9) E Oh, he cheats! Il l’a faite cocue?
[He cheated on her?]
10) V What we call kruskach. Chez nous, se dire kruskach.
[In our counrty, to say to oneself kruskach.]
11) E He cheats. Il cocufie.
[He cheats.]
12) E We say cheat, not shit. On dit cocu, pas caca.
[We say cheat, not shit.]
13) V Enrique, no shit. Toi, pas caca.
[You, not shit.]
14) E I won’t cheat. Pas cocu.
[Not cheat.]
15) E Not shit. Pas caca.
[Not shit.]
16) E I promise I won’t cheat. C’est promis.
[Promise.]
17) V Nice girl, she no shit. Fille bien. Pas caca avec elle.
[Nice girl. Not shit with her.]
146 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 amus-
ing. 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 Viktor’s entertaining errors in her translation and
ensures that this character’s linguistic alterity is recaptured forcefully in
the TL subtitles.

Conclusion

Concentrating on Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal and its Eastern-European

protagonist, Viktor Navorski, the present chapter has explored the chal-
lenges 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 manifes-
tations of Viktor’s otherness are clearly preserved in the film’s TL version
(Luyken et al. 1991) and pose no translation difficulties. This said, Viktor’s
Eastern-European origin is, above all, highly apparent in his use of lan-
guage, 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 film’s subtitler, Béatrice Thomas-Wachsberger,
formed the focus of Chapter 5.
In view of the above, this chapter established four principal categories
in which Viktor’s linguistic alterity manifests itself in the film: poor mas-
tery 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 Navorski’s linguis-
tic alterity is preserved in the French subtitled version of Spielberg’s film.
In short, it was observed that Thomas-Wachsberger employs a combi-
nation of distinct strategies in order to meet these translation challenges. If
this chapter suggested that a failure to transpose Viktor’s accent phoneti-
cally from the SL to the TL inevitably results in some loss in the TT, this
apparent shortcoming is compensated for in many ways. Considered glob-
ally, Thomas-Wachsberger’s 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 height-
ened effect), through close translations (which incorporate simplified and
inaccurate uses of TL grammar, comparable to those apparent in the SL,
Venuti 1998: 16–17), to freer distortions of the TL and creative rewritings
of humorous wordplays. If Viktor Navorski’s idiosyncratic use of language
does indeed present certain trials for the translator, this chapter has dem-
onstrated that, by implementing a diverse range of translation strategies,
Thomas-Wachsberger succeeds extremely well at preserving the various
manifestations of this character’s linguistic alterity, and the communication
problems to which his use of a ‘broken’ language gives rise, in her French-
subtitled 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 film’s plot. Berman is,
however, sometimes extreme in his approach, prioritizing the preservation
of ‘foreignness’ over comprehension of the TT (1985 / 2000: 295). Thomas-
Wachsberger, by contrast, ensures that the foreign quality of Viktor’s 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
148 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
film’s French-language audience who have contributed reviews on <http://
www.amazon.fr>. Amongst comments which demonstrate an apprecia-
tion both of Viktor’s foreignness and communication difficulties and of
the film’s humour are the following: Tom Hanks est excellent dans le rôle de
cet étranger bredouillant quelques mots d’anglais [Tom Hanks is excellent
in the role of this foreigner who stammers a few words of English]; Un
film sur l’exclusion, la difficulté de communiquer et l’art de s’adapter à une
société insensible [A film about exclusion, the difficulty of communicating
and the art of adapting to a society which is insensitive] ; Un très bon film,
avec de l’intelligence, de l’émotion et de l’humour [A very good film which
is intelligent, emotional and humorous].
Chapter 6

Dealing with Dialect: The Subtitling of Bienvenue

chez les Ch’tis into English1

Introduction

Given the notorious difficulty of translating dialect (Berman 1985: 294;

Hatim and Mason 1990: 40–5), Landers (2001: 117) is adamant that this
should be avoided when he recommends: ‘The best advice about trying
to translate dialect: don’t’. Against this background, the present chapter
considers the French film, Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Dany Boon 2008),
and explores whether Landers’ advice is valid. After introducing the film,
the chapter presents ch’ti, a dialect closely related to the Picardy region’s
picard language. It then focuses on five scenes from the film in which pro-
nunciation, vocabulary, expressions and grammar result in confusion and
subsequently, amusement. By examining how ch’ti has been rendered in
English, Chapter 6 sets out to explore the extent to which the translation of
Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis preserves the linguistic specificity and the humour
of the French source text (ST) in its English subtitles.

1 ‘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 permis-
sion of Cambridge Scholars Publishing (April 2015).
150 Chapter 6

The film

Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis is set in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France

and provides a humorous portrayal of the cultural peculiarities and dia-
lect of this region’s people, les Ch’tis. 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 ch’ti proverb:
‘A visitor brays [cries] twice up North: once when he arrives and once
when he leaves’.
Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis 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 film’s humour largely resides in the linguistic dif-
ferences which exist between standard French and the region’s ch’ti dialect,
the present chapter concentrates on five scenes in which ch’ti pronunciation,
vocabulary, expressions and grammar result in varying degrees of confu-
sion, frustration and therefore amusement.
Dealing with Dialect 151

Language in the film: Significance of Ch’ti / 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 ch’ti,
which is spoken in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais. As Ruler (2010: 12) explains:
Ch’timi [is] is a dialect said to have originated during WW1 when troops from out-
side Northern France started to call those from Nord-Pas-de-Calais ‘the Ch’ti’. The
name referred to their accent, and their pronunciation of ‘c’est tu’ (it’s you’) and ‘c’est
moi’ (it’s me) as ‘ch’est ti’ and ‘ch’est mi’.

Pooley (1996: 13) clarifies that, in theory, ‘[…] a Ch’ti [is] a person from
Northern France and ch’timi, a markedly regional form of speech, although,
generally speaking, both forms are used interchangeably’. This chapter will
refer to the region’s people as the Ch’tis and to their speech as ch’ti. However,
as will be witnessed in some of the scenes examined, the characters refer
to this dialect as both ch’ti and ch’timi.
The ch’ti dialect is characterized by distinctive pronunciation, vocabu-
lary, expressions and grammar and its translation therefore creates a range
of exciting challenges. At this juncture, it is apt to explore how the film’s
English subtitler, Michael Katims, handles some of the key translation
challenges to which ch’ti can give rise.
In Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, comparisons are often made between the
Nord-Pas-de-Calais and other regions of France, between ch’ti, which is
considered a low dialect, and standard French (Hornsby 2012: 182). Given
that this heteroglossic (Bakhtin 1940 / 1981: 67; 1934–5 / 1981: 292) film per-
petually draws attention to the otherness of ch’ti, this language is frequently
self-reflexive and, as the following sections illustrate, some scenes are domi-
nated by the self-conscious treatment of one particular linguistic feature.
152 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 col-
league, postman Antoine Bailleul, who is returning home on his bicycle.
As soon as Antoine speaks, distinctive ch’ti 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 ch’ti 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, ch’est moi. Yesh, it’sh me.
[Yes, it’s me.]
3) P.A. Bougez pas, bougez pas. ‘Faut appeler les Don’t move. Better call for
secours. help.
[Don’t move, don’t move. Must call the
emergency services.]
4) A.B. Oh, cha va, cha va. I’m jusht fine.
[Oh, I’m OK, I’m OK.]
5) P.A. Oh là là ! J’aurais pu vous tuer ! I might have killed you!
[Oh my goodness! I could have killed you!]
6) A.B. Non, ch’est pas grave. Cha va. It’sh alright.
[No, it’s not serious. I’m OK.]

2 Other practitioners also employ this translation strategy. It can be witnessed in Bell
and Hockridge’s (1973: 23) translation of slurred, drunken speech in Astérix chez
les Bretons (Goscinny and Uderzo 1966 / 1995: 23) and in Ellender’s (2007: 22–5)
translation of a speech impediment in ‘P(o)ur homme’ (Claude Sarraute 2000).
Dealing with Dialect 153

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 Antoine’s jaw having been hurt in the accident:

Speaker ST TT
1) P.A. Votre mâchoire, vous êtes blessé, là? Your jaw is hurt?
[Your jaw, are you injured there?]
2) P.A. Vous voulez pas qu’on aille montrer Wouldn’t you like to see a doctor?
votre mâchoire à un médecin?
[Don’t you want us to go and show
your jaw to a doctor?]
3) A.B. Non, ch’est rien ! No, I shed I’m fine.
[No, it’s nothing!]

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

pronunciation, thus rendering it highly self-conscious. Ch’ti pronunciation
continues to be transposed onto the English subtitles; ch’ti and ch’timi are
even written as ‘sh’ti’ and ‘sheteumi’ to reinforce this phonetic difference
for the anglophone audience. This technique further emphasises the ch’ti
dialect’s 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 Listen, you’re really talking funny.
façon très très particulière.
[I assure you, you express yourself in a
very very peculiar way.]
2) A.B. Parch’que j’parle ch’ti, ch’est cha? Cosh I talk sh’ti?
[Because I speak ch’ti, is that it?]
3) P.A. Pardon? Talk what?
[Sorry?]
4) A.B. Bah, j’parle ch’timi. I talk sh’ti, that’sh ole.
[Er, I speak ch’timi.]
5) P.A. Oh putain, c’est ça le fameux ch’timi? You mean that’s sheteumi?
[Oh fuck, is that the famous ch’timi?]
154 Chapter 6

While this character’s facial expression and use of the expletive putain [fuck]
convey his surprise, his comment reveals that the ch’ti 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 (Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 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 con-

fusion, 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,
Antoine’s pronunciation hinders communication; it transforms the possessive
pronoun les siens [sjε; his] into the noun les chiens [∫jε; 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. C’est pas meublé? Isn’t it furnished?
[It’s not furnished?]
2) A.B. L’anchien directeur est parti avec, hein. The ex-manager took it.
[The ex-manager left with it, huh.]
3) P.A. Pourquoi il est parti avec les meubles? Why?
[Why did he leave with the furniture?]
4) A.B. Parch’que ch’est peut-être les chiens? For hish new offish.
[Because it is perhaps the dogs?]
Dealing with Dialect 155

5) P.A. Quels chiens? What fish?

[Which dogs?]
6) A.B. Les meubles. His fish.
[The furniture.]
7) P.A. Je comprends pas. I don’t get it.
[I don’t understand.]
8) A.B. Les meubles, ch’est les chiens. For hish new offish.
[The furniture, it’s the dogs.]
9) P.A. Les meubles pour les chiens. Qu’est-ce New fish?
que les chiens foutent avec les meubles? Why would fish need furniture?
[Furniture for the dogs. What the hell
are the dogs doing with the furniture?]

As the conversation continues, confusion is further increased. Antoine’s

pronunciation of the pronoun ça [sa; that] is understood as the noun chats
[∫a; cats]. J’ai 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 previ-
ous use of ‘fish’:

Speaker ST TT
1) A.B. Non, les chiens. Il les a pas donnés à des Offish! He didn’t give it to the
chiens. Il est parti avec. fish.
[No, the dogs. He didn’t give them to He took it with him.
dogs. He left with them.]
2) P.A. Mais pourquoi vous dites qu’il les a Why give it away?
donnés?
[But why are you saying that he gave
them?]
3) A.B. J’ai jamais dit cha. I never shed dish.
[I never said that.]
4) P.A. Pourquoi des chats? Vous avez dit Why dish? You said fish.
chiens.
[Why cats? You said dogs.]
156 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 men-
tion of ch’ti by Antoine: Ouais, ch’est le ch’timi. Tout le monde parle ch’timi
[Yeah, that’s ch’timi. Everyone speaks ch’timi] which is subtitled as ‘Yesh,
the Shti all shpeak Shti’. In this scene, humour is created by the mounting
confusion and misunderstanding caused by ch’ti pronunciation, which is
successfully preserved in the TL subtitles.

Scene Three

Elsewhere, it is not so much pronunciation as specific ch’ti 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 ch’ti expression j’vous dis quoi
[I’ll tell you what]. As Abrams is not familiar with the colloquial mean-
ing of this expression [I’ll let you know what’s 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 J’vous dis quoi as ‘I’ll
shay wot’ [I’ll say what]. In doing so, he distorts standard English spell-
ing, 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 ch’ti.

Speaker ST TT
1) P.A. Antoine, vous portez ça au centre de tri Antoine, for the sorting center
et vous dites au responsable qu’on en a manager.
besoin d’urgence. It’s urgent.
[Antoine, you take this to the sorting
office and tell the person in charge that
we need it urgently.]
Dealing with Dialect 157

2) P.A. Une fois là-bas, appelez-moi pour me Call me and tell me he has it.
dire qu’il l’a en mains propres.
[Once you are there, call me to tell me
that he has it in his hands.]
3) A.B. Entendu, j’vous appelle et j’vous dis quoi. I’ll call and shay wot.
[Understood. I’ll call and I’ll tell you
what.]
4) P.A. Eh bien, qu’il a bien le dossier en mains. That he has it.
[Well, that he has the file in his hands.]
5) A.B. Oui, ch’est cha. J’vous apelle là-bas et Right. I’ll call and shay wot.
j’vous dis quoi.
[Yes, that’s it. I’ll call you there and I’ll
say what.]
6) P.A. Quoi? Mais je viens de vous dire quoi. I just told you what.
[What? But I’ve 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, I’m not stupid. I’ll call
you], which is rendered in English as ‘Yesh. I’m no boubourse. / I’ll call
you’. By retaining the exact ch’ti term (Pedersen 2005: 4) boubourse [stupid,
simple], Katims preserves, and indeed reinforces, in the TT the alienating
effect of the presence of ch’ti (Nord 1988 / 1991: 73).3 Eventually, Abrams’
secretary, Annabelle, intervenes to clear up the confusion: Monsieur le
directeur, en fait, ‘Je vous dis quoi’, ch’est une expression ch’ti, cha veut dire
‘J’vous dis ce qu’il en est, quoi’ [Boss, actually ‘I’ll tell you what’ is a ch’ti
expression, it means ‘I’ll let you know what’s happening’], which is subti-
tled as ‘Boss, ‘I’ll shay wot’, is sh’timi for / ‘I’ll let you know what’s 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: 16–17).

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.
158 Chapter 6

Scene Four

Once again, this scene is centred on Philippe Abrams’ confusion and misun-
derstanding due to his lack of familiarity with the ch’ti dialect. In this instance, a
local Ch’ti 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 counter’s 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 Vasseur’s local
dialect. Vasseur’s language is therefore incomprehensible not only to Philippe
Abrams, but also to the film’s 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 ch’ti features which Vasseur’s 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 ch’ti
language and it illustrates the broad range of translation challenges confronted,
and solutions offered, by Katims. Despite the fact that Vasseur’s 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 TT
1) P.A. Qu’est-ce que c’est? What?
[What is it?]
2) E. Il y a un client qui vient vous voir. Cushtomer for you.
[There is a customer who is coming to see you.]
3) P.A. Pourquoi? What for?
[Why?]
Dealing with Dialect 159

Speaker ST TT
4) E. Bah, il vient vous voir. To shee you.
[Er, he’s coming to see you.]
5) P.A. Bonjour Monsieur. Qu’est-ce que je peux faire Hello, what can I do
pour vous? for you?
[Hello Sir. What can I do for you?]
6) M.V. J’suis content d’voir c’lui qui va s’occuper … Mighty glad to shpy
[I’m happy to see the one who is going to deal the one in charge.
with …]
7) M.V. de min compte à banque. Who’s in charge of my
[with my bank account.] bank account.
8) M.V. Faut pas me raconter des carabistoules. I don’t take
[Don’t give me any nonsense.] confabulation.
9) M.V. Faut pas m’en baver, hein. Don’t beshmeer me.
[No nonsense, huh.]
10) P.A. Je n’ai pas compris, là. Il vous faut quoi? I didn’t get that.
[I didn’t understand that. What do you need?] What do you want?
11) M.V. Il faut pas baver des carabistoules à mi. I don’t cotton to
[Don’t say any nonsense to me.] confabulation.
12) P.A. Marche pas ce truc. Doesn’t work.
[Doesn’t work, this thing.]
13) M.V. Quo qu’c’est qu’teu baves? What you
[What are you saying?] beshmeering?
14) P.A. Deux secondes. Two seconds.
[Two seconds.]
15) P.A. Deux secondes, Monsieur. Two seconds, Sir.
[Two seconds, Sir.]
16) P.A. Voilà. There.
[There.]
17) P.A. Qu’est-ce que vous voulez? What do you want?
[What do you want?]
18) M.V. J’avo acaté gramint d’matériel pour min gardin. I wash a need a
[I had bought a lot of material for my garden.] quipment
for me gard.
19) M.V. Ch’est qu’y avo fort draché. Eune berdoule. Cosh it mighty
[It’s that it had rained a lot. A mud.] mucked. A whop.
160 Chapter 6

Speaker ST TT
20) P.A. Je crois que c’était mieux avant. It was better before.
[I think that it was better before.]
21) P.A. Oui. NO SUBTITLE
[Yes.]
22) M.V. J’éto fin bénache, mais min livret O, i a eu des I wash dandy but the
russ. bankbook
[I was fine, but my bank book, it has had some wash a wee shortish.
problems.]
23) M.V. J’suis pas là pour braire, mais si vous pouviez me I don’t bray but I
faire une avanch. needsh
[I’m not here to bray, but if you could give me a shmall advansh.
an advance.]
24) M.V. Jusqu’à l’prochaine quinzaine deume retraite. Till the next
[Until the next fortnightly instalment of my schtalment
pension.] of my penshion.
25) P.A. Prochaine. Retraite. Oui. Next. Pension.
[Next. Pension. Yes.]
26) M.V. Ch’est oui ou non? Yesh or no?
[Is that yes or no?]
27) P.A. Bougez pas. Don’t go away.
[Don’t move.]
28) P.A. Vous vous appelez comment déjà, vous? What’s your name
[What are you called again, you?] again?
29) A.D. Annabelle Deconink. Annabelle Deconink.
[Annabelle Deconink.]
30) P.A. Annabelle, vous voulez bien vous occuper de ce Annabelle, could you
monsieur, s’il vous plaît. Parce que, voilà. see
[Annabelle, do you want to deal with this to this gentleman?
gentleman, please. Because, there.] Because I …
31) P.A. Très bien. Fine.
[Very good.]

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.
Dealing with Dialect 161

Pronunciation

Ch’ti pronunciation is an important feature of Vasseur’s 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, Ch’est 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
ch’ti to be preserved throughout the dialogue.
In some instances, ch’ti pronunciation involves contraction and modi-
fication of standard French sounds, as in line 6. Here, Je suis [I am] becomes
J’suis and celui [the one] is heard as c’lui. However, no similarly unusual
contractions are made in the corresponding TL subtitles; J’suis is translated
as a standard ‘I’m’ and c’lui as ‘the one’:

ST J’suis content d’voir c’lui qui va s’occuper …

Standard French Je suis content de voir celui qui va s’occuper …
English I’m 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 ch’ti 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. Vasseur’s deume (=de ma) retraite is ren-
dered 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 transpos-
ing onto this the sh [∫] sound: ‘schtalment’. Ch’ti pronunciation is further
reinforced in the TL as the noun retraite [pension] becomes ‘penshion’. By
162 Chapter 6

implementing this strategy, Katims captures the presence of ch’ti in his TL.
This exemplifies an approach commended by Díaz-Cintas and Remaël
(2007: 191), who, when discussing the difficulty of translating dialect, write:
‘Talented subtitlers […] manage to “suggest” this kind of language variation’.

ST Jusqu’à l’prochaine quinzaine deume retraite.

Standard French Jusqu’à 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 Vasseur’s frequent use of ch’ti 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 approxi-
mately 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:
16–17). 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 bêtises.
English Don’t give me any nonsense.
TT I don’t 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
Dealing with Dialect 163

(Venuti ibid.). It is therefore unlikely that many members of the TL audi-

ence would understand, or even guess, its meaning.

ST Faut pas m’en baver, hein.

Standard French Pas de bêtises, c’est entendu?
English No nonsense, OK?
TT Don’t beshmeer me.

Furthermore, in line 23, use of the ch’ti 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 ch’ti speaker, it may appear
somewhat controversial. As ch’ti 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 ch’ti which is not, on this occasion, present in the origi-
nal: ‘needsh’ [needs]; ‘schmall’ [small]. Once again, as previously discussed,
it could be argued that this serves as a compensation strategy.

ST J’suis pas là pour braire, mais si vous pouviez me faire une avance.
Standard French Je ne suis pas là pour râler, mais si vous pouviez me faire une
avance.
English I’m not here to whinge, but if you could give me an advance.
TT I don’t bray, but I needsh a shmall advansh.

Grammar

The presence of ch’ti grammar in this scene also requires particular atten-
tion. On occasions, Katims chooses not to recapture this in the TL. In
line 7, for instance, the ch’ti first-person possessive pronoun min, a vari-
ant 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, Vasseur’s emphatic use of the dialectal demonstrative à mi [à
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 ch’ti are not neces-
sarily recaptured in the corresponding TL words but are compensated for
elsewhere in the subtitles.
The ch’ti construction, Quo qu’ c’est 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: 16–17).

ST Quo qu’ c’est qu’ teu baves?

Standard French Qu’est-ce que tu dis?
English What are you saying?
TT What you beshmeering?

4 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 con-
notations for some members of the TL audience.
Dealing with Dialect 165

Pronunciation, vocabulary, expressions and grammar

If the above-discussed lines have contained one predominant feature of

the ch’ti language, other lines in this scene display a concentrated blend of
ch’ti pronunciation, vocabulary, expressions and grammar. These lines are
therefore particularly difficult to understand; they inevitably cause confu-
sion on the part of Abrams and, indeed, the film’s francophone audience,
which is the trigger for their humorous effect. In line 18, the audience hears:

ST J’avo acaté gramint d’matériel pour min gardin.

Standard French J’avais acheté beaucoup de matériel 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 pos-
sessive 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 confus-
ing 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 Ch’est qu’y avo fort draché. Eune berdoule.

Standard French C’est qu’il 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 repro-

ducing 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 J’éto fin bénache, mais mon livret O, il a eu des russ.

Standard French J’étais bien tranquille, mais mon livret O, il a eu des difficultés.
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 ch’ti expression fin bénache [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 mix-
ture 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 chal-
lenges posed by the concentrated presence of the ch’ti dialect in this scene,
Katims implements a correspondingly wide range of creative translation
solutions. One of these solutions involves transposition of pronuncia-
tion (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 ch’ti 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: 16–17) and are sometimes difficult for the TL audience
to understand.
Dealing with Dialect 167

Scene Five

Despite some initial difficulties when attempting to settle in Bergues,

Abrams becomes fond of his colleagues. He takes them to a local restau-
rant where they introduce him to regional specialities and teach him to
speak some ch’ti. This involves guidance on vocabulary, pronunciation
and grammar. In this scene, colleagues encourage Abrams to use the ch’ti
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 under-
stand 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, ça vient de là. From the gut.
[No, it comes from here.]
3) P.A. Garchon ! NO SUBTITLE
[Waiter!]
4) W. Bonsoir. Good evening.
[Good evening.]
5) P.A. Bonsoir biloute, hein ! Evening biloute.
[Good evening mate, huh!]
6) P.A. Mi avec ch’équipe de la poste, on voudrait … Mo and the posh offish
[Me with the team from the Post Office, we shtaff want …
would like …]
7) A.B. On voudron Wont
[We want]
8) P.A. On voudron We wont …
[We want]
9) P.A. r-commander to order
[to order again]
168 Chapter 6

Speaker ST TT
10) P.A. la même chose, s’il vous plaît, hein ! the shame again pleash.
[the same thing, please, huh!]
11) W. Excusez-moi, je ne suis pas Ch’timi. Je suis de Sorry, I’m not Shtimi.
la région parisienne et je n’ai rien compris. I’m from Paris. I didn’t
[I’m sorry, I’m not Ch’timi. I’m from the Paris get that.
region and I didn’t understand anything.]

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 else-
where. 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 ch’ti (lines 6–8), 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 particu-
larly 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 ch’ti dialect in his English
subtitles of the French film Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis. Bearing in mind the
widely acknowledged difficulty of translating dialect (Berman 1985: 294;
Hatim and Mason 1990: 40–5), this chapter has focused on instances in
the film where ch’ti 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 transla-
tion 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-the-
original and more foreignizing such as literal transferral of SL terms and
close translation of expressions (Venuti 1998: 16–17). Collectively, these
solutions produce a TT which draws attention to the otherness of ch’ti
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 rec-
ommended by Berman (1985 / 2000: 285–6) in his discussion of translat-
ing 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 pre-
sent 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 Guid-
Sisters [guid-sister: sister-in-law in Scots]).
170 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 Berman’s observations and recommendations are specific to the transla-
tion 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’ trans-
lation 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 Ch’tis in his translation. As it has been witnessed in previ-
ous chapters, viewers rarely comment explicitly on the linguistic quality of
a film’s subtitles. The above statements are therefore particularly meaning-
ful 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 Díaz-Cintas and
Remaël (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 ch’ti
with an equivalent TL dialect. Rather, when working against the audio-
visual background, which always contributes significantly to preserving
an original film’s context and colour (Díaz-Cintas and Remaël 2007: 193;
Tveit 2009: 87), Katims succeeds in alluding to this dialect in the TL,
and therefore in conveying the essence of ch’ti 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 acknowl-

edging 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 lin-
guistic 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 film’s 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 con-
notational 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 ( Jäckel 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 portray-
ing linguistic otherness, or difference. Each of the book’s 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 varia-
tion 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 lan-
guage 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 (Díaz-Cintas and Remaël
2007: 191, 193; Hatim and Mason 1997: 82; Mével 2012: 156; Tveit 2009:
87). While fully acknowledging this, Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual
Translation primarily focused on the linguistic challenges posed by the inter-
lingual 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 Translation’s 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 Trudgill’s definition of dialect (1996:
3; 2008: 8) (cf. Introduction), each table is nevertheless sufficiently flex-
ible 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 ‘r’s, omission of final ‘g’s –
protagonist Begbie speaks with a very marked accent and at a rapid pace.
This film’s subtitlers make no attempt to recapture, or even hint at, non-
standard 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 Ch’tis. 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 Béatrice Thomas-Wachsberger makes no attempt to trans-
pose phonetically Viktor Navorski’s pronounced Eastern European accent
from the English-language soundtrack to her French subtitles, she neverthe-
less fully preserves this character’s 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 Ch’tis, Michael Katims does an admirable job
of transposing distinctive ch’ti pronunciation onto his subtitles – adapting
spellings to suggest non-standard pronunciation of, and thereby discreetly
recapturing foreign colour in, his TL (Venuti 1998: 16–17) – and recreat-
ing the confusions of sounds which cause such amusement in the French-
language 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 English-
and 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 sub-
titles 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, Stock’s original soundtrack are
recaptured strikingly throughout the French subtitles with comparably
non-standard TL uses. The syntax of Bacon’s rhyming sales banter in the
film’s opening scene is also reproduced selectively, which ensures that his
personality is communicated effectively to the TL audience. When ren-
dering Viktor Navorski’s incorrect uses of English grammar in her French
subtitles of The Terminal, Thomas-Wachsberger mirrors this by simplify-
ing 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 ch’ti grammar and morphology which fea-
ture in Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, 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 wit-
nessed. This principally concerned regional SL lexis, such as Begbie’s use
176 Conclusion

of specifically Scots vocabulary (Trainspotting) and a barman’s concen-

trated 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 non-
standard 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 – ‘That’s lovely’:
Elle déchire, cette gnôle (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 Navorski’s non-native uses (The Terminal); condensed uses
of the ch’ti dialect (Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis). This entails directly transpos-
ing 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’ (Mével 2012: 234–5; 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 com-
mendable 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 culture-
bound 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 family’s
pet dog is amusingly named ‘Tennent’s’ 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 humor-
ous effect of the SL is lost in this subtitle. On this one occasion, it may be
preferable to recapture the humour by replacing ‘Tennent’s’ 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 regis-
ter. Nevertheless, these subtitlers make no attempt to distinguish between
the juxtaposed regional accents or dialectal features (pronunciation / gram-
mar / 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’ dif-
ferent 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 non-
standard 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 protago-
nists. In Fish Tank, the fast pace and loud volume of Mia’s speech contrast
starkly with the non-aggressive tone and relaxed pace of Connor’s 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 audio-
visual 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 sub-
titlers, 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 stand-
ardization of such linguistic variation, adopting a TL-oriented approach to
their translation.2 When this occurs from English to French, Mével (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 Académie Française. 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 writ-
ten 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

2 According to Mével (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 varie-
ties of language. As Hatim and Mason (1997: 107) (my emphasis) write:3

The subtitling of Pygmalion must seek to bring out Eliza’s 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 user’s
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 informal-

ity, 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 occa-
sions, it was suggested that the linguistic variation, or heteroglossia (Bakhtin
1934–5 / 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 combina-
tion of close and creative translation strategies such as those witnessed in
the subtitles of Polisse, The Terminal and Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, 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 See also Díaz-Cintas and Remaël (2007: 193–4); Hamaida (2007); Mével (2012).
4 See also Ashley (2010); Berman (1985); Mével (2012).
 Table 1: Accent / Pronunciation Conclusion

Manifestations of non- Translation challenges Extent to which non- Suggestions

standard language / posed / solutions employed standard language / for preserving
linguistic variation in SL linguistic variation in non-standard
SL are preserved in TL uses of SL / SL
subtitles variation more
fully in TL
Trainspotting Scottish pronunciation ‘ye’ instead of ‘you’; trilled Not preserved Addition of
(Subtitles: translators mostly relatively mild. ‘r’s; omission of final ‘g’. No TL headnote
unnamed) Comprehensible to non- attempt to recapture non- or subtitle
Scots speakers standard SL pronunciation to indicate
in TL pronounced SL
Begbie: very strong Omissions of many final Not preserved accent
Edinburgh accent (& fast sounds: ‘wi’’ instead of ‘with’;
pace of speech) ‘lookin’’ instead of ‘looking’.
No attempt made to
recapture non-standard SL
pronunciation
181
The Angels’ Share Most scenes marked by No attempt to recapture Not preserved Addition of 182
(Subtitles: C.M.C.) pronounced Glaswegian non-standard SL TL headnote
accent. Comprehensible to pronunciation in TL or subtitle (as
non-Scots speakers above)
Occasionally, speech is Multiple instances of heavily
difficult to understand trilled ‘r’s in SL. Accent
(broad accent & fast pace) not recaptured in TL.
Compensation strategies,
namely multiple informal
TL uses
Lock, Stock Pronounced Cockney Dropped sounds: ‘ere; ‘em. Not preserved As above
(Subtitles: European accent Occasionally, but rarely,
Captioning Institute) recaptured in TL through
elision of SL sounds (Tu es
becomes T’es)
Fish Tank Relaxed pronunciation. ‘Sorright’ (‘It’s alright’). Some successful As above
(Subtitles: Marked Essex accent Compensation strategies: compensation
Emmanuelle Boillot & omission of negative ne;
Nicola Haughton) non-standard, informal TL
grammar
Polisse Many different accents Often not recaptured. Some Some successful As above
(Subtitles: translators compensation strategies: compensation
unnamed) grammar; vocabulary;
register
(See Table 4)
Conclusion
The Terminal Pronounced Eastern No attempt to transpose Some degree of loss in N/A
(Subtitles: Béatrice European accent phonetically from SL to TL TT, but TL audience
Thomas-Wachsberger) with basic knowledge
Conclusion

of standard British /
American accents could
recognize exaggerated
‘foreign’ accent which
remains present in SL
soundtrack
Mispronunciation leads to Wordplays rewritten ‘He Linguistic alterity /
misunderstanding shit’ / ‘he cheats’: Il a fait entertaining errors are
caca / Il l’a faite cocue conveyed forcefully in
TL, as is the case in S
Bienvenue chez les Distinctive ch’ti Pronunciation transposed Emphasizes ch’ti N/A
Ch’tis (Subtitles: prononciation. French directly onto TL suggests ‘otherness’; gives local
Michael Katims) sound ‘s’ replaced by ‘sh’ presence of ch’ti in TL. ‘Oui, colour to TT
ch’est moi’: ‘Yesh
it’sh me’
Non-standard Les siens vs. les chiens. In SL, humour is
pronunciation Subtitlers recreate confusion created by mounting
of SL results in of sounds by using two confusion caused by ch’ti
misunderstanding / alternative SL words which pronunciation. This is
confusion are phonetically similar in successfully recaptured
English: ‘offish’ is heard as in TL subtitles
‘fish’.
Also ça / chats rewritten as
183

‘fish’ / ‘dish’
 Table 2: Grammar 184

Manifestations of non- Translation challenges Extent to which non- Suggestions for

standard language / posed / solutions employed standard language / preserving non-
linguistic variation in SL linguistic variation in standard uses of
SL are preserved in TL SL / SL variation
subtitles more fully in TL
Trainspotting Scottish protagonists’ Occasional specifically Some informality One-line
(Subtitles: translators use of grammar does not Scottish uses (‘cannae’ preserved, but no headnote or
unnamed) normally deviate greatly as opposed to ‘cannot’). regional uses recaptured subtitle (see Table
from standard English Translated using non- (see Table 4) 1)
structures standard but non-regional
uses
The Angels’ Share As above Occasional Scots uses. Informality preserved, but One-line
(Subtitles: C.M.C.) Translated using informal no regional uses recaptured headnote or
but non-regional uses: (see Table 4) subtitle (see Table
‘I cannae find’: Je trouve 1)
plus (omission of French
negative ne); ‘how we
gonnae’ rendered with
informal TL question form,
comment on fera?
Conclusion
Lock, Stock Cockney non-standard Recaptured strikingly Preserved successfully. N/A
(Subtitles: European uses of grammar throughout subtitles; This compensates for
Captioning Institute) French negative ne absence of non-standard
Conclusion

repeatedly omitted pronunciation in TL

(see Table 1)
Rhyming sales banter Recaptured selectively, e.g. Bacon’s personality
(syntax) ‘Let’s sort the buyers from successfully communicated
the spyers’: Acheteurs pas to TL audience
délateurs
Fish Tank Non-standard grammar, Rendered with equally Preserved N/A
(Subtitles: many colloquial uses informal TL grammatical
Emmanuelle Boillot uses: ‘What’s your
& Nicola Haughton) problem?’: C’est quoi, ton
problème ?
BUT: ‘What you gonna Some neutralization of SL
do about it?’ Tu vas porter style in TL
plainte? (lexis and grammar
of higher register in TL
than in SL)

Songs / rhyming lines Rhyme not preserved in SL This does not detract from
translation or from essence
of given scenes. Semantic
content fully preserved
in TL
185
Polisse Grammatical uses Non-standard SL uses Not preserved Some selective 186
(Subtitles: translators largely non-standard translated with non- one-line
unnamed) standard TL, but no headnotes
distinction made between or subtitles (see
uses of different SL speakers Table 1)
in TL (see Table 4)
The Terminal Viktor Navorski’s N/A
(Subtitles: speech characterized by:
Béatrice Thomas- Simplified syntax; Corresponding Generally recaptured very
Wachsberger) simplifications of TL effectively with comparable
syntax: ‘I need visa’ Besoin distortions of standard TL
visa grammatical forms
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?
Bienvenue chez les Ch’ti grammar / Preserved subtly in TL Often preserved N/A
Ch’tis morphology through slight modifications successfully
(Subtitles: Michael (see Table 4) to standard TL verb-forms /
Katims) pronouns, e.g.: on voudron
(on voudrait): ‘we wont’ (‘we
Conclusion

want’)
 Table 3: Vocabulary Conclusion

Manifestations of non- Translation challenges Extent to which non- Suggestions for

standard language / posed / solutions standard language / preserving non-
linguistic variation in SL employed linguistic variation in standard uses of
SL are preserved in TL SL / SL variation
subtitles more fully in TL
Trainspotting Protagonists’ vocabulary Informal uses recaptured Preserved N/A
(Subtitles: translators mainly belongs to very with TL equivalents.
unnamed) informal register. Not Some over-translations
specifically Scottish (‘drunk’: torché;
‘carry’: trimballer) to
compensate for under-
translations of vulgar
vocabulary
Vulgar uses Sometimes close, Sometimes essence of N/A
sometimes under- SL characters’ speech
translated (‘fuck’ and lost in TL, but semantic
derivatives thereof ), content and vulgar
sometimes not translated essence always preserved
(‘c**t’)
Drug-related, ‘insider’ TL equivalents used Preserved N/A
jargon
Begbie uses some Scots Semantic content guides Semantic content One-line headnote
terms translation. Idiomatic, preserved but regional or subtitle (see Tables
(‘biscuit-arsed’; ‘you ken but non-regional, TL specificity lost 1 & 2) & provide
187

me’) equivalents used information in DVD

Extras section
 References to social TL-oriented approach Loss of source culture Retain SL references / 188
system / social & (‘DSS’: ANPE; ‘bookies’: information. Cultural terms. Additional
cultural items PME) displacement information in DVD
Extras section
The Angels’ Share Vocabulary not Many close translations / Preserved N/A
(Subtitles: C.M.C.) specifically Scots but uses of TL equivalents.
dominated by slang terms Occasional over-
translations (‘That’s
lovely’: Elle déchire, cette
gnôle) compensate for
some under-translations
of vulgar language
Some specifically Scots Not translated at all, Semantic content One-line headnote
uses (‘a wee seat’; ‘aye’) but meaning implicit in preserved but regional or subtitle (see Tables
context in which terms specificity lost 1 & 2)
are used
Much vulgar language Translated selectively Vulgar essence of TL N/A
always preserved
Culture-bound terms SL-oriented strategy. Effective, reader-friendly N/A
Terms way to ensure that TL
Transposed directly audience appreciates
(‘celidh’; ‘firth’) and cultural content of
oblique explanations original film
provided. Also: names of
whiskies left untouched;
‘shortbread’ transposed
Conclusion
 Further information Preserved
also provided in Extras
section of DVD and
Conclusion

subtitled for TL audience

Lock, Stock Cockney figurative Not recaptured, but Some loss of figurative One-line headnotes
(Subtitles: European speech subtitles peppered with speech but informal or subtitles (see
Captioning Institute) colloquial TL terms register preserved Tables 1 & 2)
(matez ça; vos tronches;
choper)
Sales banter and humour References to stealing, Semantic content and N/A
body parts, infidelity humour preserved
translated closely
Contrived concentration Rhyming slang not Absence of cultural One-line headnotes
of rhyming slang recaptured in translation. connotation and or subtitles.
(accompanied by TL subtitles based on information regarding Additional
intralingual subtitles) intralingual (semantic) characters’ identities / information in DVD
subtitles which film’s setting Extras section
accompany SL film
Fish Tank Swear / taboo words Some close translations Some neutralization of ‘Pikey’ may be
(Subtitles: (‘skank’: pétasse), but SL style in TL, but aural better translated as
Emmanuelle Boillot & frequently omitted or and visual clues preserve manouche rather than
Nicola Haughton) toned down (‘fuck off ’: much informality and gitan(e) (‘gypsy’)
casse-toi) aggression
189
 Culture-bound terms SL-oriented strategy: SL humour lost Exceptionally, 190
name of pet dog replace name with
(Tennent’s) is brand of lager / beer
transposed. Loss of also known to TL
cultural connotation and audience. This would
humour in TL enable humour to be
created in TT
Plays on words ‘Say hello to the w(h)ales Alternative pun has N/A
for me’: Dis bonjour aux comparably amusing
galeux de ma part effect on TL audience
Sexual idiom (in songs) Close translation Preserved N/A
strategies
Other songs Not translated Loss of information Translate song’s
relating to main female chorus. This would
protagonist and film’s allow TL audience to
plot appreciate relevance
of track to film as a
whole
Polisse Language used by police Close translations Preserved N/A
(Subtitles: translators mainly informal (assisted by presence of
unnamed) original soundtrack and
images)
Officers’ creative uses of Recaptured creatively Preserved very N/A
language (miol: ‘rave’; mictims: successfully
‘rictims’)
Conclusion
The Terminal Viktor Navorski’s speech
(Subtitles: Béatrice includes: Incomprehensibility / N/A
Thomas-Wachsberger) Extended stretches of his Left untouched in TL exoticism preserved in
Conclusion

mother tongue; film TL

Individual words from Words retained in TL
his mother tongue; subtitle and italicized Exotic / alienating effect N/A
Newly learned SL Direct transfer from preserved in TL
expressions; SL to TL (SL-oriented Preserved N/A
strategy)
Mislearned SL Errors rewritten in TL,
expressions / vocabulary; word-order sometimes Humour preserved N/A
reversed
Misunderstood culture- Wordplays rewritten
bound terms Cher / ‘to share’ Humour preserved N/A
Bienvenue chez les Specifically ch’ti Translated closely Preserved N/A
Ch’tis expressions lead to so as to be equally
(Subtitles: Michael misunderstandings and incomprehensible in TL
Katims) frustration
Individual ch’ti words Terms transposed Preserves and reinforces N/A
directly (SL-oriented in TT exotic and
strategy) humorous nature of the
See also Table 4 presence of Ch’ti
191
 Table 4: Juxtaposition of language varieties (heteroglossic nature of films) 192

Manifestations Translation challenges Extent to which non- Suggestions for preserving

of non-standard posed / solutions employed standard language / non-standard uses of SL /
language / linguistic linguistic variation in SL variation more fully
variation in SL SL are preserved in TL in TL
subtitles
Trainspotting Renton (Edinburgh Judge speaks Standard No distinction made in Differences between
(Subtitles: Scot) vs. English judge English (SE). Recaptured TL between different SL accents of SL speakers
translators in TL through use of accents / pronunciation, may be conveyed in
unnamed) correct TL grammar / but vocabulary / different colours / styles /
vocabulary of equivalent grammar / registers thicknesses of characters.
register preserved accurately in TL This SL-oriented strategy
Judge’s language influences subtitles further emphasizes
Renton’s speech. Grammar the foreign quality
and vocabulary translated of the subtitles. Brief
closely. Accent not supplementary materials
recaptured in TL may also be provided in
English drug-dealer Extras section of DVD
Edinburgh speaks SE. Contrasts with
protagonists vs. other Begbie’s vulgarity which
characters drug-dealer later imitates
Conclusion
The Angels’ Albert (broad Contrasting accents / No hint of either accent As above. Brief
Share Glaswegian) vs. registers preserved, but contrast supplementary materials
(Subtitles: judge’s speech between Albert’s already provided in Extras
Conclusion

C.M.C.) (Standard Scottish informal register and section of DVD

English (SSE) with judge’s elevated register is
soft lilt) recaptured closely N/A
Albert vs. Mancunian Contrasting accents / No distinction between
Harry dialects / informal regional accents /
language vocabulary but informality
of both speakers’ language
preserved in TL
Refined register preserved N/A
Some characters’ Vocabulary / register in TL. Standard accent
speech can be classed and dialect often closely
as RP / SE associated in both English
and French. Refined uses
of vocabulary therefore
imply very correct accent
in TL; translation very
successful
193
Lock, Stock Cockney vs. 194
(Subtitles: Liverpudlian: No attempt to suggest As above
European Accents: juxtaposition different accents
Captioning very striking;
Institute) Grammatical uses: Informal TL grammar, but
both (Cockney and no distinction between
Liverpudlian) are Cockney / Liverpudlian
informal; uses
Vocabulary: Informality conveyed but
informal / colloquial 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
Cockney vs. Public Cockney pronunciation Not preserved As above
School English (PSE): much more relaxed than
Conclusion

Accents: markedly PSE

different in SL;
 Grammatical uses: no N/A Preserved
obvious differences;
Vocabulary: No Preserved
Conclusion

specific regional uses.

Many expletives used
by both speakers
Fish Tank Mia’s Essex accent vs. Two distinct, non-standard Reasonably well preserved.
(Subtitles: Connor’s Irish lilt (non-RP) accents Compensated for through
Emmanuelle less accurate uses of TL
Boillot grammar (‘What do you
& Nicola know?’: D’où tu sors ça?).
Haughton) Characters’ different
personalities also reflected
in their pace of speech
and tone. Connor’s
slow speech and non-
aggressive language in
SL film’s soundtrack and
images remain present for
audience of subtitled film
195
Polisse Officers’ contrasting Close translations of Highly informal uses 196
(Subtitles: uses of language. contrasting registers. rendered with American
translators Linguistic awareness Reinforced by soundtrack uses. Very selective use
unnamed) (correct vs. informal / & hand gestures made of these, so no
non-standard linguistic or cultural
language) displacement of original
scene
Officers vs. subjects: Strong North-African Accent not recaptured.
North-African accent; vulgar language; Informality fully preserved
teenage girl; colloquialisms; non- with American-English
standard grammar terminology (small doses)
Preservation of humour
assisted by laughter in
Young girl; Slight differences in original soundtrack
degrees of informality.
Close translations of Not recaptured
registers / jokes
Accent
Black African lady Mispronunciation leading Preserved
& son to misunderstanding.
Alternative wordplays
written and
misunderstandings
communicated (foyer /
forêt)
Conclusion

Grammatical errors. Preserved

Translated selectively
The Terminal Viktor Navorski vs. Viktor’s misunderstandings, Contrast between Viktor N/A
(Subtitles: native SL speakers confusion, humour and native speakers
Béatrice (taxi driver / customs recaptured using close preserved successfully
Conclusion

Thomas- officer) translation strategies. See

Wachsberger) also Table 1 (wordplays)
Bienvenue chez Standard French vs. N/A
les Ch’tis very strong local ch’ti
(Subtitles: dialect:
Michael Pronunciation; Ch’i sound transposed onto Wide range of translation
Katims) TL ‘Ch’est oui ou non’: challenges dealt with
‘Yesh or no’. Some standard through application of
TL sounds contracted eclectic blend of different
translation solutions.
Vocabulary; Bizarre uses of SL words, Distinction between
preserves ‘strangeness’ of standard SL uses and non-
ch’ti in TL while remaining standard, incomprehensible
mainly comprehensible to and consequently amusing
TL audience. Some TL ch’ti language preserved
nouns contracted extremely successfully in TL
subtitles
Grammar Ch’ti variations on SL
grammar sometimes
compensated for with
informal language
elsewhere in subtitles,
sometimes recaptured
197

through simplified
question-forms in TL
Appendix

Summary of Jan Pedersen’s 2005 Framework for the

Analysis of ECRs, Based on ‘How is culture rendered
in subtitles’ (2005: 1–16)
(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 pertain-
ing 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 ‘Donald Duck’ = ‘Kalle Anka’ in Swedish
(no real translation Pre-formed TL version; evidence of ECR having
problem) 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 Remove ST ECR and replace with something else
(Most TL-oriented (different ECR or paraphrase)
strategy) 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
Appendix 201

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, Maïwenn, 2011, Polisse, DVD version, Mars Distribution. (France, 129 mins).
English-language subtitles: unnamed.
Boon, Dany, 2008, Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, DVD version, Pathé. (France, 106 mins).
English-language subtitles: Michael Katims.
Boyle, Danny, 1996, Trainspotting, DVD version, Channel Four Films. (United King-
dom, 94 mins). French-language subtitles: unnamed.
Kassovitz, Mathieu, 1995, La Haine, DVD version, Canal +. (France, 98 mins). English-
language subtitles: Alexander Whitelaw and Stephen O’Shea.
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: Béatrice Thomas-Wachsberger.
Bibliography

Abecassis, Michaël, 2005, The Representation of Parisian Speech in the Cinema of the
1930s, Modern French Identities, 33 (Oxford: Peter Lang).
Aitkens, Adam, 1984, ‘Scottish accents and dialects’, in Peter Trudgill, ed., Language
in the British Isles (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 94–114.
Ashley, Katherine, 2010, ‘Welsh in Translation’, in Berthold Schoene, ed., The Edin-
burgh Companion to Irvine Welsh (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press),
113–25.
Assis-Rosa, Alexandra, 2001, ‘Features of Oral and Written Communication in Sub-
titling’, in Yves Gambier and Henrik Gottlieb, eds, Multimedia Translation:
concepts, practice, research (Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins), 213–22.
Bakhtin, Mikhail, 1934–41, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M.M. Bakhtin,
ed. Michael Holquist, trans. Caryl Emerson, 1981 (Austin: University of Texas
Press).
Baldo, Michela, 2009, ‘Subtitling Multilingual Films: The Case of Lives of the Saints,
an Italian-Canadian TV Screenplay’, in Federici, ed., 2009.
Bartoll, Eduard, 2006, ‘Subtitling Multilingual Films’ EU High-level Conference
Series. Audiovisual Translation Scenarios: Conference Proceedings <http://www.
euroconferences.info/proceedings/2006_Proceedings/2006_Bartoll_Eduard.
pdf> (accessed 20 December 2011).
Berman, Antoine, 1985 / 2000, ‘Translation and the Trials of the Foreign’, trans. Law-
rence Venuti, in Lawrence Venuti, ed., The Translation Studies Reader (London:
Routledge), 281–9.
Blum, Jan-Petter, and John J. Gumperz, 1972, ‘Social meaning in linguistic structures:
Code switching in Northern Norway’, in J.J. Gumperz and D. Hughes, eds, Direc-
tions in Sociolinguistics (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winstein).
Blunt, Jerry, 1994, Stage Dialects (Woodstock, IL: The Dramatic Publishing Company).
Boase-Beier, Jean, ed., 2012, The Next Big Thing. Norwich Papers: Studies in Transla-
tion, 20 (Norwich: University of East Anglia Press).
Bryson, Bill, 2009, Mother Tongue: The Story of the English Language (London:
Penguin).
Burgess, Anthony, 1962 / 2000, 2nd edition, A Clockwork Orange, (London: Penguin).
——, 1972 / 1993, L’Orange Mécanique, trans. Georges Belmont and Hortense Chabrier
(Paris: Robert Laffont).
206 Bibliography

Chesterman, Andrew, and Emma Wagner, 2002, Can Theory Help Translation? A
Dialogue Between the Ivory Tower and the Wordface (Manchester: St Jerome).
Chiaro, Delia, 2009, ‘Issues in audiovisual translation’ in Jeremy Munday, ed.,
The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies (London: Routledge),
141–65.
Coggle, Paul, 1993, Do you speak Estuary? (London: Bloomsbury).
De Linde, Zoe, and Neil Kay, 1999, The Semiotics of Subtitling (Manchester:
St Jerome).
Díaz-Cintas, Jorge, 2005, ‘Back to the Future in Subtitling’ EU High-Level Conference
Series. Challenges of Multilingual Translation: Conference Proceedings <http://
www.euroconferences.info/proceedings/2005_Proceedings/2005_Díaz-Cintas
_Jorge.pdf> (accessed 5 September 2011).
_____, 2003, Teoria y practica de la subtitulacion. Inglés-Espagnol (Barcelona: Ariel).
_____, and Aline Remaël, 2007, Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling (Manchester:
St Jerome).
_____, and Gillian Anderman, eds, 2009, Audiovisual Translation: Language Transfer
on Screen (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Dickens, Charles, 1837–8 / 2003, Oliver Twist, ed., Intro. and notes by Philip Horne,
Penguin Classics (London: Penguin).
Ellender, Claire, 2012, ‘Coping with Cockney: Subtitling Lock, Stock and Two Smok-
ing 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), 85–105.
_____, 2007, ‘Dealing with defects: translating a speech impediment in Claude Sar-
raute’s ‘P(o)ur homme’ in In Other Words: The Journal for Literary Translators
29: 18–19.
_____, 2015, ‘Dealing with Dialect: The Subtitling of Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis into
English’ in Jorge Díaz-Cintas, ed., 2015, Audiovisual Translation: Taking Stock
(Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing).
_____, 2013, Preserving Polyphonies: Translating the Writings of Claude Sarraute, New
Trends in Translation Studies 12 (Oxford: Peter Lang).
_____, 2012, ‘The Trials of the Foreign: Preserving Linguistic Alterity when Subtitling
The Terminal into French’, <http://translationjournal.net/journal/59subtitling.
htm>.
_____, 2011, ‘Transporting the Aquarium: Overcoming the Challenges of Subti-
tling Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank into French’, <http://translationjournal.net/
journal/57subtitling.htm>.
Fairclough, Norman, 1995, Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language,
Language in Social Life Series (London: Longman).
Bibliography 207

Flydal, Leiv, 1951, ‘Remarques sur certains rapports entre le style et l’état de langue’,
Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap 16: 240-57
Ford-Williams, Gareth, ed., 2009, ‘Online Subtitle Editorial Guidelines V1.1’ <http://
www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/futuremedia/accessibility/Subtitling_guides/online_
sub_editorial_guidelines_vsl_1.pdf> (accessed 7 October 2011).
Federici, Federico, ed., 2009, Subtitling Multilingual Films (Rome: Aracne).
_____, 2009, ‘Translating Regionalised Voices in Audiovisuals’ in Federici, ed.,
2009.
Fuller, Graham, 2010, ‘Social realism in a poetic lense’ in The New York Times, 14 July
2010, <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/movies/17fish.html> (accessed
10 November 2014).
Gadet, Françoise, 1998, ‘Des fortifs aux técis : persistence et disconuités dans la langue
populaire’ in Dawn Marley et al., eds, Linguistic Identities and Policies in France
and the French-Speaking World (London: AFLS, CILT) : 11–26.
_____,1996, ‘Niveaux de Langue et Variation Intrinsèque’, in Bensimon and Compaye,
eds, Palimpsestes No. 10 : Niveaux de langue et registres de la traduction (Paris:
Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle): 17–40.
Gambier, Yves, and Henrik Gottlieb, 2001, Multimedia translation: concepts, practice,
research (Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins).
Genette, Gérard, and Marie Maclean, 1991, ‘Introduction to the Paratext’, New Liter-
ary History, 22, No. 2, Probings: Art, Criticism, Genre, Spring 1991 (Philadelphia:
John Hopkins University Press), 261–72.
Gentzler, Edwin, 2001, Rev. 2nd edition, Contemporary Translation Theories (Clev-
edon: Multilingual Matters).
Giles, Howard and Jane Giles, 2013, ‘Ingroups and Outgroups’ in Anastacia Kurylo,
ed., Inter / Cultural Communication: Representation and Construction of Culture
(Thousand Oaksm, CA: SAGE): 141–62.
Goffman, Erving, 1981, Forms of Talk (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press).
Goscinny, René, and Albert Uderzo, 1966 / 1995, Astérix chez les Bretons (Paris:
Dargaud).
_____, 1973, Asterix in Britain, trans. Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge (London:
Hodder Dargaud).
Greenall, Annjo K., 2011, ‘The non-translation of swearing in subtitling: loss of
social implicature?’, in Adriana Serban, Anna Matamala and Jean-Marc Lavaur,
eds, Audiovisual Translation in Close-up: Practical and Theoretical Approaches
(Oxford: Peter Lang).
Guillot, Marie-Noëlle, 2012, ‘Film Subtitles and the Conundrum of Linguistic
and Cultural Representation: A metalingual blindspot’ in Stefan Hauser and
Martin Luginhull eds, Contrastive Media Analysis: Approaches to Linguistic and
208 Bibliography

Cultural Aspects of Mass-Media Communication (Amsterdam: John Benjamins):

101–22.
Hall, Stuart, 1973 / 1980, ‘Encoding and Decoding in Television Discourse’, in Stuart
Hall, Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Lowe and Paul Willis, eds, 1980, Culture, Media,
Language: Working papers in Cultural Studies 1972–79, Cultural Studies Birming-
ham (Abingdon: Routledge).
Hamaida, Lena, 2007, ‘Subtitling Slang and Dialect’ EU High-Level Scientific Confer-
ence Series. Mu Tra 2007 – LSP Translation Scenarios: Conference Proceedings
<http://www.euroconferences.info/proceedings/2007> (accessed 10 June 2013).
Hatim, Basil, and Ian Mason, 1990, Discourse and the Translator (London: Routledge).
_____, 1997, The Translator as Communicator (London: Routledge).
Heiss, Christina, 2004, ‘Dubbing Multilingual Films: A New Challenge?’ in Meta
<http://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2004/v49/nl/009035.or.htm> (accessed
7 November 2014).
Hornsby, Michael, 2012, ‘From the periphery to the centre: recent debates on the place
of Breton (and other regional languages) in the French Republic’ <http://www.
abdn.ac.uk/pfrlsu/uploads/files/Hornsby> (accessed 18 August 2012).
Hughes, Arthur, and Peter Trudgill, 1979 / 1996, 3rd Edition, English Accents and
Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British
Isles (London and New York: Arnold).
Humphreys, Rob, and Judith Bamber, 2003, The Rough Guide to London (London:
Rough Guides).
Hyatt, David, 2006, ‘How to do a CDA?’<http://www.strath.ac.uk/aer/materials>
(accessed 9 October 2014).
Ivarrson, Ian, and Mary Carroll, 1998, Subtitling (Simrishamn: Trans Edit).
Jäckel, Anne, 2001, ‘The subtitling of La Haine: A case study’ in Yves Gambier and
Henrik Gottlieb, eds, Multimedia Translation: concepts, practices and research
(Amsterdam: John Benjamins): 223–35.
Jahiel, Edwin, 1996, ‘Review for Trainspotting’ <http://www.imdb.com/
reviews/57/5798.html.> (accessed 10 December 2013).
Jakobson, Roman, 1959 / 2000, ‘On linguistic aspects of translation’, in Lawrence
Venuti, ed., The Translation Studies Reader (London: Routledge): 138–44.
Jenkins, Milly, 1996, ‘Trainspotting made easy – for Americans’ <http://www.inde-
pendent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/trainspotting-made-easy-for-Americans>
(accessed 10 December 2013).
Jones, Jack, 1971, Rhyming Cockney Slang (London: Abson Books).
Koller, Werner, 1979, Einfuhrung in die Übersetzungswissenschaft [Introduction to the
Science of Translation] (Heidelberg: Quelle and Meyer).
Bibliography 209

Lambert, José, 1990, ‘Le soutitrage et la question des traductions: rapport sur une
enquête’ in R. Arntz and G. Thome, eds, Übersetzungswissenshaft. Ergebnisse
und Perspektiven (Tubingen: Narr): 228–38.
Landers, Clifford, 2001, Literary Translation: A Practical Guide (Clevedon, Buffalo,
Torronto, Sydney: Multilingual Matters).
Lefevere, André, 1992, Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame
(London: Routledge).
Lodge, Anthony, and Nigel Armstrong, Yvette Ellis Jane Shelton, 1997, Exploring the
French Language (London: Hodder Arnold).
Lodge, David, 1990, After Bakhtin: Essays on Fiction and Criticism (London:
Routledge).
Luyken, Georg-Michel, Thomas Herbst, Jo Langham-Brown, Helen Reid, Herman
Spinhof, 1991, Overcoming Language Barriers in Television: Dubbing and Subti-
tling for the European Audience (Manchester: European Institute for the Media).
Maidment, John, 1994, ‘Estuary English: Hybrid or Hype?’ <http://www.phon.ucl.
ac.uk/home/estuary/maidment.htm> (accessed 10 November 2014).
Maxwell, James, 2014, ‘Of course there is a North-South divide – and of course it mat-
ters’ <http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/05/course-there-North-
South-divide-and-course-it-matters> (accessed 31 October 2014).
Méla, Vivienne, 1988, ‘Parler verlan: règles et usages’, Langage et Société, 45: 47–72.
Mével, Pierre-Alexis, 2007, ‘The Translation of Identity: Subtitling the Vernacular of
the French cité’, MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities, 2: 49–56.
_____, 2012, Can we do the right thing? Subtitling African American Vernacular Eng-
lish into French. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. <http://www.ethesis.
nottingham.ac.uk/2264> (accessed 10 December 2013).
Munday, Jeremy, 2001, Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications
(London: Routledge).
Nida, Eugène, 1964, Towards a Science of Translating (Leiden: E.J. Brill).
Nilep, Chad. 2006, ‘Code Switching in Sociolinguistics’ <http://www.colorado.edu/
linguistics/CRIL/Volume19…/paper_NILEP.pdf> (accessed 14 December 2014).
Nord, Christiane, 1988 / 1991, Texteanalyze und Ubersetzen: Theoretische Grundlagen,
Methode und didaktische Anwendung einer Übersetzungsrelevanten Texteanalyse
(Berlin: Julius Groos Verlag Tubingen).
Pedersen, Jan, 2005, ‘How is culture rendered in subtitles?’ EU High-Level Scientific
Conference Series <http://www.euroconferences.info/proceedings/2005-Pro-
ceedings/2005_Pedersen_Jan.pdf> (accessed 25 September 2014).
_____, 2001, Subtitling Norms for Television: An exploration focusing on extralinguistic
cultural references (Amsterdam: Joh Benjamins).
Pilard, Georges, 2002, Rude French (Edinburgh: Harrap).
210 Bibliography

Pitts, Anna, 2013, ‘Give me a job, innit. What does your accent mean for your employ-
ability?’ The Graduate Employment Bureau, July 2013<http://www.grb.uk>
(accessed 19 October 2014).
Pooley, Tim, 1996, Ch’timi: The Urban Vernaculars of Northern France. Key Features
of the Phonology and Grammar of Northern French (Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters).
Pope, Rob, 2013, Syudying English Literature and Language: An Introduction and
Companion, 3rd edition (London, New York: Routledge).
Pym, Anthony, 2008, ‘All things to all people: On Nida and Involvement’ <http://
www.usuaris.tinet.cat/apym/on-line/translation/2008_Nida_involvement.pdf>
(accessed 19 October 2014).
Queneau, Raymond, 1964, Exercices de Style, Collection Folio (Paris: Gallimard).
_____, 1979, Exercises in Style, trans. and preface, Barbara Wright (London: John
Calder).
Ruler, John, 2010, Cross-Channel France. Nord-Pas de Calais : The Land beyond the
Ports (Chalfont St Peter: Bradt Travel Guides).
Sarraute, Claude, 1985, ‘Dans le taxi’, in Claude Sarraute, Dites donc ! (Paris: Lattès),
11–12.
_____, 2000, ‘P(o)ur homme’, in Psychologies Magazine 79 <http://www.psychologies.
com/Couple/Crises-Divorce/Conflits/Articles-et-Dossiers/P-o-ur-homme>
(accessed 12 July 2011).
Schleiermacher, Friedrich, 1813 / 1992, ‘On the different methods of translating’ in
R. Schulte and J. Biguenet, eds, 1992, Theories of Translation (Chicago, London;
University of Chicago Press).
Seino, Takako, 2010, ‘Realism and Representation of the Working Class in Great
Britain’ MPhil Thesis,<http://dora.dmu.ac.uk/…/SOCIAL%20REALISM%20
AND%20REALISM> (accessed 14 December 2014).
Staiger, Janet, 2005, Media Reception Studies (New York: New York University Press).
Strutz, Henry, 1999, Dictionary of French Slang and Colloquial Expressions (London:
Barron’s).
Todorov, Tzevetan, 1939, Mikhail Bakhtin: The Dialogical Principle, trans. Wlad
Godzich 1995, Theory and History of Literature (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press).
Toolan, Michael, 1992, ‘The signification of representing dialect in writing’, Language
and Literature, 1.1, 29–46.
Tremblay, Michel, 1972, Les Belles-Soeurs (Paris: Leméac).
_____, 1974 / 1992, The Guid-Sisters, trans. John Van Burek and Bill Glassio (Van-
couver: Talonbooks).
Bibliography 211

Trudgill, Peter, 2004, Dialects, 2nd edition. Language Workbooks. Series Editor:
Richard Hudson (Oxford and New York: Routledge).
_____, 2003, A Glossary of Sociolinguistics (Oxford and New York: Oxford University
Press).
_____, 2000, Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society (London:
Penguin).
Tveit, Jan-Emil, 2009, ‘Dubbing Versus Subtitling: Old Battleground Revisited’, in
Díaz-Cintas and Gillian Anderman, eds, Audiovisual Translation: Language
Transfer on Screen (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), 85–96.
Venuti, Lawrence, 1997, ‘The American Translator’ in M. Baker, ed., The Routledge
Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (London, New York: Routledge): 305–15.
_____, 1998, The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference (London
and New York: Routledge).
_____, 1995, The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation (London: Routledge).
Vinay, Jean-Paul and Jean-Louis Darbelnet, 1958, Une Stylistique Comparée du français
et de l’anglais : méthode de traduction (Paris: Didier).
Voloshinov, Valentin, 1929 / 1973, Marxism and the Philosophy of Language (Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Whitehead, Marian, 2010, Language and Literacy in the Early Years 0–7 (London:
Sage).
Zawanda, Ewa, 2011, ‘Strategies for the translation of swearwords in audiovisual mate-
rial and how they influence the viewers’ perception. On the example of the Polish
version of Dexter’ <http://www.adademia.edu/1554494/Strategies_for_transla-
tion_of_swearwords_in _audiovisual_materail_and_how_they_influence_view-
ers_perception> (accessed 10 November 2014).
Zephaniah, Benjamin, 1992 / 1995, City Psalms (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Bloodaxe).
Index

accent Bescot, Maïwenn

British 20, 71 Polisse 13, 103–29, 173, 175, 176,
see also Cockney 178–9, 180, 182, 186, 190, 196
Liverpudlian (Liverpool) 55, 68, 71, Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis see Boon
76, 81, 194 Blum, Jan-Petter and John J. Gumperz
Mancunian (Manchester) 49, 53 code-switching 13
regional 11, 85, 93, 178, 193 Boillot, Emmanuelle and Haughton,
see also Hughes and Trudgill; private- Nicola 83, 86, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96,
school English; Scots English 102, 177, 182, 185, 189, 195
alienating translation see Schleiermacher Boon, Dany
Amazon, reviews which appear on 53, 82, Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis 7, 14,
102, 129, 148, 170 149–70, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178,
American English 9, 10, 136, 161, 164, 165, 180, 183, 186, 191, 197
166, 168, 196 Boyle, Danny
Angels’ Share, The see Loach Trainspotting 11, 17–35, 37, 45, 46, 49,
Arnold, Andrea 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 173, 174, 176, 178,
Fish Tank 13, 83–102, 118, 173, 175, 181, 184, 187, 192
176, 177, 178, 182, 185, 189, 195
Assis-Rosa, Alexandra 1, 7, 89 characterization, role of language in 9,
10, 11, 17, 20, 31, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55,
Bakhtin, Mikhail (and The Bakhtin 56, 58, 80, 147, 176, 178, 180
Circle) 3, 4–7, 10, 20, 24, 37, 45, C.M.C. 38, 50, 173, 182, 184, 188, 193
76, 171 Cockney
dialogism 4, 5 accent 58, 74, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 182
heteroglossia 5–6, 10, 31, 35, 46, 50, dialect 12, 55, 57, 58, 80
55, 68, 74, 76, 85, 91, 101, 104, 128, rhyming slang 57, 58, 65, 67, 76, 80,
134, 138, 147, 151, 177, 180, 192 176
Medvedev, Pavel 4 code-switching see Blum and Gumperz;
polyglossia 6 Nilep
Voloshinov, Valentin 4, 6, 24, 41, 75, Critical Discourse Analysis see Hyatt
105, 108, 112, 117, 138
Berman, Antoine 13–14, 77, 131, 132–4, De Linde, Zoe and Neil Kay 2, 8, 21, 27, 77
135, 137, 138, 140, 141, 144, 147, dialect see Hughes and Trudgill
149, 169, 170, 180 diastratic variation see Flydal
214 Index

diatopic variation see Flydal Received Pronunciation (RP) 2, 3

Díaz-Cintas, Jorge 2, 78, 79, 81 Standard English (SE) 2
and Aline Remaël 1, 2, 3, 8, 21, 34, 53, humour, subtitling of 14, 76, 82, 94, 95,
72, 77, 85, 88, 96, 101, 118, 154, 162, 96, 102, 141, 142–3, 148, 149, 156,
170, 172, 180 170, 177, 183, 189, 190, 191, 196,
and Gillian Anderman 50 197
domesticating translation see Hyatt, David
Venuti Critical Discourse Analysis 6, 24, 41,
112, 138
Ellender, Claire ix, 126, 135, 152
Estuary English 84–5 in-groups and out-groups see Giles and
Extralinguistic Cultural References Giles
(ECRs) see Pedersen Irish accent 85, 91, 92, 195

Fairclough, Norman 6, 24, 49, 138 Jäckel, Anne 8, 9, 118, 171

Fish Tank see Arnold Jakobson, Roman
Flydal, Leiv interlingual translation 1, 172
diastratic variation 13, 85, 101 intersemiotic translation 1
diatopic variation 10, 12, 17, 37 intralingual translation 1, 63, 76
foreignizing translation see Venuti
Kassovitz, Mathieu
Genette, Gérard and Marie Maclean La Haine 8–9, 109, 118, 128
paratext 52, 53, 80 Katims, Michael 14, 151, 156, 157, 158,
Giles, Howard and Jane Giles 161–2, 163–4, 165–6, 168, 169,
in-groups and out-groups 5 170, 174, 175, 183, 186, 191, 197
Goffman, Erving 13, 105, 109, 112, 117, Koller, Werner
122, 125, 128 pragmatic equivalence 11, 13, 122, 141,
Guillot, Marie-Noëlle 148, 154
representations of language in
films 2, 20, 104 Landers, Clifford 7, 8, 34, 80, 117, 122,
149, 169, 170, 171, 176, 180
Haine, La see Kassovitz linguistic variation 2, 3, 4, 7, 10–11, 12, 13,
Hamaida, Lena 9, 180 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 35, 37, 38, 50, 53,
Hatim, Basil and Ian Mason 2, 7, 21, 77, 54, 57, 85, 103, 104, 105, 108, 114,
149, 169, 172, 179, 180 122–3, 127, 128, 129, 134, 162, 170,
Heiss, Christina 2, 7 171–2, 179, 180, 181, 184, 187, 192
heteroglossia see Bakhtin Loach, Ken
Hughes, Arthur and Peter Trudgill The Angels’ Share 11, 17–18, 35–50, 51,
accent 2, 3 52, 53, 54, 173, 174, 176, 177, 178,
dialect 3 182, 184, 188, 193
Index 215
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels see Ritchie, Guy
Ritchie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking
Luyken, Georg-Michel et al. 1, 8, 21, 62, Barrels 12, 55–82, 173, 175, 176,
77, 94, 101, 134, 146 178, 182, 185, 189, 194

Mével, Pierre-Alexis 8, 9, 172, 177, Sarraute, Claude 126, 135, 152

179, 180 Schleiermacher, Friedrich
alienating translation 126, 133
naturalizing translation see naturalizing translation 126, 132
Schleiermacher Scots English
Nida, Eugène 11 accent 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24,
Nilep, Chad 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38,
code-switching 13, 105 40, 41, 44, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52,
non-standard use of language 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 53, 54
11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 20, 23, 28, 33, 35, sociolect 4, 118
37, 40, 42, 51, 61, 65, 72, 76, 84, see also Trudgill
85, 86, 88, 91, 92, 93, 101, 106, 109, Spielberg, Steven
113, 117, 129, 154, 164, 171, 173, 174, The Terminal 13, 14, 129, 134–48,
175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 180, 183,
182, 183, 185, 186, 192, 195, 196 191, 197
North-South divide 20, 69, 71, 72, 78, 81 Standard English (SE) see Hughes and
Trudgill
paratext see Genette and Maclean standard use of language 2, 3, 8, 21, 23, 27,
Pedersen, Jan 34, 35, 41, 44, 47, 50, 62, 63, 74,
Extralinguistic Cultural References 75, 93, 117, 136, 150, 151, 156, 158,
(ECRs) 12, 29, 30, 33, 34, 51, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 168,
199–201 171, 174, 175, 178, 179, 183, 184,
Pitts, Anna 20, 37, 71, 75, 91 186, 192, 193, 197
Polisse see Bescot subtitling
power dynamics of language see challenges of / constraints on 1–2
Fairclough definitions of 1
pragmatic equivalence see Koller Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard-of-
private-school English 55, 68, 74, 76, 81 Hearing (SDH) 27, 78, 81, 178

Queneau, Raymond, Barbara Wright’s Terminal (The) see Spielberg

translations of 135 Thomas-Wachsberger, Béatrice 131, 134,
135, 137, 142, 143, 144, 146, 147,
Received Pronunciation (RP) see Hughes 174, 175, 183, 186, 191, 197
and Trudgill Trainspotting see Boyle
representations of language in film see Trudgill, Peter
Guillot sociolect 4, 117
216 Index

Venuti, Lawrence Whitelaw, Alexander and O’Shea,

domesticating translation 9, 126, 133, Stephen 8, 9
179 wordplays 95, 96, 146, 147, 169,
foreignizing translation 126, 127, 133, 170, 174, 176, 183, 191,
137, 157, 162, 166, 169, 170, 175 196, 197
verlan 8, 9 Wright, Barbara see Queneau
New Trends in Translation Studies
In today’s globalised society, translation and interpreting are gaining vis-
ibility 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 disci-
plines. 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 inter-
preting research community.

This series publishes research on subjects related to multimedia transla-

tion and interpreting, in their various social roles. It is primarily intended
to engage with contemporary issues surrounding the new multidimen-
sional environments in which translation is flourishing, such as audio-
visual 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 interpreting-

oriented 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 Díaz 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 O’Driscoll: 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 Máire Áine Ní

Mhainnín (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

Chinese–English Subtitling
250 pages. 2012. ISBN 978-3-0343-0732-1

Vol. 11 Isabel García-Izquierdo and Esther Monzó (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 Sánchez-Gijón, Olga Torres-Hostench and Bartolomé

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
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

Subtitling films in another language becomes especially complex when the

Ellender • Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation

original language deviates from its standard form. Films that feature non-
standard 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 film’s
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,
Dealing with Difference in
Audiovisual Translation
when attempted, subjected to considerable criticism.

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

for the range of approaches that they adopt in portraying linguistic varia-
tion. Each chapter explores the challenges posed by the subtitling of such
linguistic difference in the given films and the corresponding solutions Subtitling Linguistic Variation in Films
offered by their subtitlers. Drawing on these findings and referring to con-
temporary 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 Maître de Conférences in Translation at the Université

de Lille III in France and is an academic member of the Institute of Claire Ellender
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.

Peter Lang

www.peterlang.com