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Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing

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(Re)Creating Language Identities in Animated Films

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting ((PTTI))

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Abstract

This chapter analyses the way in which specific native varieties of English are represented in the animated films making up the corpus and how they are transposed in the dubbed versions. Since most of the characters in animated films speak American English, and General American in particular, the focus is on varieties other than General American. The chapter explores broad, national varieties such as British English and Australian English, as well as social, regional and non-standard varieties of English, since they all connote characters as being different and other from speakers of General American. The representation and functions of such native varieties in the animated films are highlighted and the strategies adopted by dubbing professionals to deal with them are discussed, highlighting recurrent translation strategies and thus norms in translational behaviour.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I would like to thank Antonio Romano for his help with the phonetic transcriptions.

  2. 2.

    The Telegraph (2007), “Mike Myers: How I Nailed Shrek’s Accent”, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/3665827/Mike-Myers-how-I-nailedShreks-accent.html.

  3. 3.

    See interview with the voice actors and film directors: “Brave | It’s English Sort Of | Disney Pixar”, online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdBKJLzlxSA.

  4. 4.

    I would like to thank Claudia Gvirtzman Dichter for her comments on Mike’s voice.

  5. 5.

    I would like to thank Giselle Spiteri Miggiani, Christopher Taylor, Shan Hirst, Stuart Doherty and Antonio Romano for providing comments on this character.

  6. 6.

    I would like to thank Chris Taylor for his comment on Bulldog’s accent and on his precious feedback on several characters.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Vincenza Minutella

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Correspondence to Vincenza Minutella .

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Minutella, V. (2021). Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing. In: (Re)Creating Language Identities in Animated Films. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56638-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56638-8_5

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-56638-8

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