Linguistics and Languages

Strategies of translating swear words into Arabic: a case study of a parallel corpus of Netflix English-Arabic movie subtitles

H. Abu-rayyash, A. S. Haider, et al.

This fascinating study by Hussein Abu-Rayyash, Ahmad S. Haider, and Amer Al-Adwan investigates how Netflix subtitlers tackle the challenge of translating 1564 English swear words into Arabic. With key strategies such as omission and softening, discover how cultural nuances influence translation choices.

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Playback language: English

Index

Abstract

This corpus-assisted study explores Netflix subtitlers' strategies for translating 1564 English swear words into Arabic, using a 699,229-word parallel corpus of 40 English movies and their Arabic subtitles. Three main strategies were identified: omission (most frequent, varying from 40% to 66% across genres), softening (second most frequent, 20-39%), and swear-to-non-swear (least frequent, 11-21%). The study highlights the impact of cultural constraints and censorship on translation choices and recommends further research on various audiovisual translation modes.

Publisher

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS

Published On

Jan 30, 2023

Authors

Hussein Abu-Rayyash, Ahmad S. Haider, Amer Al-Adwan

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