avt solutions for the linguistic variety of english … paloma. avt solutions.pdfinglês vernáculo...

Curitiba,Vol.7,nº12,jan.-jun.2019ISSN:2318-1028REVISTAVERSALETE

SANTOS,P.S.S.AVTsolutionsfor... 298

AVTSOLUTIONSFORTHELINGUISTICVARIETYOFENGLISHINTHE

NETFLIXTVSHOWDEARWHITEPEOPLE

SOLUÇÕESEMTAVPARAAVARIANTELINGUÍSTICADOINGLÊS

DENTRODASÉRIEDANETFLIXCARAGENTEBRANCA

PalomaSoaresSalomãoSantos1

ABSTRACT: This paper aims at analyzing the translation of occurrences of African AmericanVernacularEnglish(AAVE)indubbingandsubtitlingfortheNetflix™TVshowDearWhitePeople.Forthat purpose, we took screenshots of both the original lines and subtitles in Portuguese, andtranscribeddubbed linesof the samescenes inorder to compare thedifferent translation choicesusedinbothAVTmodes.WilliamLabov(2010)andscholarsfromtheFunctionalistschoolofthoughtarethetheoreticalbasisforthisprojectandhelpedusdiscusstheselectedexamples.Keywords:audiovisualtranslation;languagevariety;DearWhitePeople. RESUMO:Estetrabalhobuscaanalisaratraduçãoparalegendaedublagemdavariantechamadadeinglêsvernáculoafro-americano(IVAA)dentrodoseriadoCaraGenteBranca.Paraessefim,utilizou-sedecapturasdetelasdasfalasoriginaisedaslegendaseatranscriçãodadublagemcomointuitode comparar as diferentes escolhas tradutórias usadas em ambas as modalidades audiovisuais.William Labov (2010) e pesquisadores funcionalistas serviram de base teórica para este artigo,ajudandonadiscussãodosexemplosselecionados. Palavras-chave:traduçãoaudiovisual;variantelinguística;CaraGenteBranca.

1.INTRODUCTION

Technological advances make it possible for people from different cultures to

interactwitheachotheronaglobalscale.However,inthelongterm,thiscontacthas

showedagapintermsoftranslation:thereisnotaprecisemethodforworkingwith 1Graduada,UNIMEP.



distinctive features of a culture when there is no equivalent in another one. As a

matter of fact, whenever dealingwith culturalmatters, the act of replacing a single

wordforanotherinthetargetcultureisfarmorechallengingthanitseems,astheidea

ofrightorwrongmayvarydependingontheuseaswell.

Having pointed this out, this study analyzed the translation of a culturally

charged linguistic variety of English in Dear White People, which is an American

comedy-drama series produced and distributed by Netflix™. The first season was

releasedin2017anditisbasedona2014movieunderthesamename2.

To contextualize, it is noteworthy to explain that Dear White People follows

differentgroupsofAfricanAmericanstudents inWinchester, apredominantlywhite

fictionaleliteuniversity. Eachepisode focusesonadifferentcharacterand ironically

discusses his/her dramas related to racism, sexuality, activism and empowerment,

and their interaction with other students in the campus. The main character is

SamanthaWhite (playedbyLoganBrowning),whorunsapodcaston theuniversity

radioalsocalledDearWhitePeople.

Netflix™seriesDearWhitePeoplewaschosenas theobjectofstudybecause it

depicts a very particular cultural scenario expressed mainly, but not solely, by the

languagevarietycalledAfricanAmericanVernacularEnglish(AAVE),whichisusedby

someof the characters in specific scenes.Thispaper is a result of abigger research

project that has as its main objective the study of the particularities of audiovisual

translation,subtitling,dubbingandtheuntranslatabilityofculturalelements.

Duetotimeandspaceconstraints,thispaperpresentsonlythehighlightsofthe

theoretical framework used, as well as the most significative examples in order to

drawthemainpartsofthediscussionandconclusionofourresearch.3

2BothmovieandserieswerecreatedanddirectedbyJustinSimien.3Boththeresearchcarriedoutin2018andthispaperweredevelopedunderthesupervisionofmyformerundergraduateadviserprofessorSamiraSpolidorio.



2.THEORETICALFRAMEWORK

Roman Jakobson (1959)was the pioneerwhendeclaring thatmeaning canbe

conveyed by three types of translation: intralingual, which describes the process of

transferring meaning into the same linguistic code (same language) by using, for

instance,wordsthataresynonyms;interlingual,aprocesssimilartothefirstone,but

insteadofusingthesamelinguisticcode,itdealswithtwolinguisticcodes,translating

from one language to another; and intersemiotic (or transmutation), which, in turn,

does not focus on the verbal aspect of one or two linguistic codes in particular, but

acrossdifferentsemioticcodes(usually,betweenverbalandnon-verbalcodes),as,for

exampletheadaptationofabooktoamovieinwhichthewordsdescribingasceneare

presentedinanimage,ortheverbaldescriptionofapainting.

In interlingual translation, the translator must have the ability to transit

between the linguistic features of the source and the target languages, aswell as to

show cultural knowledge of both source and target audiences.We can bring Cicero

and Horace (Ancient Greek), whowere the pioneers in discussing the controversial

translationconceptsof“word-for-word”and“sense-for-sense”,theformerreferringto

theliteraltranslationandthelatertothetranslationofthemeaning,tothediscussion.

Over the centuries, these concepts receivedother names andapproachesdepending

ondifferenttheoristsbutthedichotomicviewpersisted.Thisdiscussionremainsalive

until today, but it has been expanded by other scholars to include more modern

concerns related to ideology, functionalism, manipulation. Therefore, now we

understandthattranslationencapsulatesmuchmorethanjustalinguisticoperation.

Whenever dealing with translation, one must bear in mind that language is

never neutral. This means that the choice of a word in detriment of another is —

consciously or unconsciously— bounded to the translator’s views and beliefs. The

sameisapplicabletoAudiovisualTranslation(AVT),whichenablespeoplewhodonot



understandagivenlanguagetoaccessaudiovisualcontentevenifitwasnotproduced

inhis/hermothertongue.

Regarding the theoretical basis referring to translation itself, this research is

basedonthefunctionalistapproach,mainlyrepresentedbyChristianeNord’sstudies,

complementedbySusanBassnett’sandAndreLefevere’sideasonculturaltranslation.

Webelievesuchtheoreticalframeworkisbettersuitedfortheobjectivesintendedand

for the analysis of the corpus. As stated by Nord, “translating is regarded as a

‘purposefulactivity’”(NORD,2016,p.569).Thisperspectiveisalsofollowedbyother

scholarsfromtheFunctionalistschoolofthought,asdefinedbyNord:

The approaches which are nowadays subsumed under the general heading of“functionalism”arebasedontheSkopostheory(Skopostheorie),proposedbytheGermanscholarHansJ.Vermeer.TheGreekwordskoposmeans“purpose”and,in the theory, usually refers to the communicative purpose of the translationalaction.[…]Thereareusuallytwoorevenmorewaysofexpressingathoughtoramessage,andthetranslator’sguidingprinciple forchoosingoneor theother is,as we have seen, the communicative purpose for which the translation isintended.(NORD,2016,p.05).

That is to say that each text isproduced in certain cultural conditions and for

audiences from the same culture. The translator, then, faces a distinct environment

whenever translating to a different culture. This extra-linguistic knowledge will, in

many scenarios, lead one to produce a target-oriented text as the meaning is not

‘stuck’ in the source words themselves. Instead, the meaning is created in the

sociolinguisticcontextatthemomentofreception.

InthebookTranslationStudies,Bassnett(2002)endorsesthestatementabove,

claiming that “translation involves far more than replacement of lexical and

grammatical itemsbetweenlanguages”(BASSNETT,2002,p.16). If, intheprocessof

intralingualtranslation,itispossibletoreplaceawordforanotherwhosemeaningis

similar but never the same, interlingual translation takes this dilemma to a deeper



level,asthetranslatorwillnotfindone-to-oneequivalenceinothercultures,sincethe

wordsareonlyunitsinsideabiggersocialandhistoricalcontext.

Inmanycases,thereisafeelingof losswhenwearenotabletoconveyall the

references that the source culture offers; this, however, may be compensated using

referencesderivedfromthetargetculture.Bassnett(2002)referstothisphenomenon

as ‘loss and gain’. The same process can be applied when translating to another

linguistic variety. Such compensation consists of weakening a certain piece to

strengthenanotherpartofthetextinordertomaintainthegeneral‘feeling’or‘effect’

oftheoriginaltext.

Astranslationisaprocessofrewritingtheoriginaltext,oneshouldobservethat

anystepofthisprocessismadetoserveapurpose,anideology.BassnettandLefevere

(1998)arguethat“rewritingismanipulation,undertakenintheserviceofpower[…].

Rewritingscanintroducenewconcepts,newgenres,newdevices”(LEFEVERE,1992,

p. vii). In other words, it is the act of reproducing the sense from the intersection

acrosscultures.However,thecomprehensionthatpeoplefromthetargetculturemay

haveaboutatranslatedtextwillneverhavethesameeffectastheonecausedbythe

sourcecultureaudience’sunderstandingoftheoriginaltext.Culturallyspeaking,sense

isformedbyasetofvariablesthatwilldifferdependingonthecultureatstake.

In the digital era, Audiovisual Translation (AVT) is expanding its resources to

meettheneedsofthemarket,whichiswayfasterthanitusedtobe50yearsago.This

is pushed even further when we talk about AVT, because each mode has its own

standards,demandsandconstraints.Insummary,thedubbingprocessiscomposedof

severalphasesperformedbymultipleprofessionals, from translators (that translate

thescript)toactors(thatrecordandlip-synctheAVmaterial),whoworktogetherin

order tocreateasatisfactory finalproduct.FredericChaume(2004)described three

typesofsynchronizationthataretaken intoconsiderationtogreateror lesserextent

dependingonwhatisbeingdubbed.Theyare:



Lipsynchrony: itconsists inascripttranslationthatprioritizesthematchingof

actors’lipsmovements,especiallyinclose-upsscenes;

Kinesic synchrony: it iswhen the translation is adapted according to the body

movementsdisplayedonscreen;

Isochrony: it refers to the type of synchrony based on the instant that the

actor/actressopenshis/hermouthtostartspeakinguntil themomenthe/shecloses

themouth.

In the captioning mode, the tools required for subtitling can simply be a

personalcomputerequippedwiththesoftwaretocreate/manipulatethesubtitlesand

theoriginalfiletobeused.Subtitlesareusuallydisplayedintwolinesmaximum,with

each line showing about 35 to 42 characters each. It is established that the viewer

needsthetotalamountof6secondstocomfortablyreadandunderstandtwofulllines

andpayattentiontowhatisbeingshowedonthescreenasawhole.

Subtitlingposesachallengetokeepthemarksoforalityofthesourcelanguage

inthetranslatedtext,whereasdubbinganditsconstraintsmayenabletheviewerto

notice that a movie, for instance, is composed by some dialect or linguistic variety

apart from the standard version of any language. Although placed one next to the

other,wehaveno intentionofcomparing these twomodes inorder todefinewhich

oneisbetter.Moreover,itisvitaltodistinguishtheirpeculiaritiesinordertocritically

evaluatethetechniquesandstrategiesadoptedineachoneinthetranslationofDear

WhitePeople.

When very important cultural elements — that are crucial for the general

understandingandappreciationofthecontent—arepresented,thechallengeiseven

bigger. So, in order to better understand the cultural aspect found in a corpus, it is

necessary toalsopresentsomeelementsregarding the linguisticvarietyanalyzed in

theNetflix™show.Thus,thelinguisticaspectisstudiedmainlybyWilliamLabov,who



is themain theorist behind the history of AAVE andwhoworked extensively in the

fieldofsociolinguistics.

The exact origin of African American Vernacular English, also called Black

English and Ebonics, is unknown. During decades, scholars have been discovering

different facts and creating new theories about it. One of these theorists, Walt

Wolfram,statesthat:

theprimaryhypothesesontheoriginanddevelopmentofAAVEmaybedividedinto three major positions: the ANGLICIST, the CREOLIST, and the NEO-ANGLICIST hypotheses. In the mid-twentieth century the ANGLICISTHYPOTHESIS ― that the speech of African Americans derived directly fromBritish-based dialects ― was commonly accepted by prominent Americandialectologists, along with the conclusion that twentieth-century AfricanAmerican speechwas identical to thatofbenchmark rural Southernvernacularwhitespeech.(WOLFRAM,2003,p.04).

However,thecreolisthypothesisremainedstrongerinthe1960sand1970s,as

“the roots of AAVE were embedded in an expansive creole found in the African

diaspora(Bailey1965,Stewart1967,1968,Dillard1972)”(WOLFRAM,2003,p.04).It

isstilldebatablewhichhypothesishasthemostplausiblearguments,withimportant

scholars pulling for both sides. However, when considering the social-historical

conditions,somesimilaritieswithWestAfricanvarietiesareperceivable;also,written

documents—suchas literature textsandex-slavesrecordings— ledone tobelieve

that thecreolisthypothesis isnowadays theonewithmorepiecesofevidence tobe

theoriginofAAVE.

In his paper “Unendangered Dialects, Endangered People: The case of African

AmericanVernacular English” (2010),WilliamLabov argues that the reasonAfrican

Americanvarietydiverges from theothers isbecause there aremore than linguistic

features associatedwith it. The social context and,primarily, residential segregation

reinforce this argument because people used to live, work, and do whatever was

necessary inside theblack communitywithnoneed to interact to speakersof other



dialects.Theauthor claims thatAAVE isby far themost studiedvarietyof Standard

English(SE)asithasbeenstudiedbymanyscholarssincethemid-1960s.

AccordingtoChambers(1983apudKOCH;GROSS;KOLTS,2001),BlackEnglish

(thenametheyuse torefer toAAVE) isaself-sufficient language in termsofsyntax,

phonology, and semantics that isused bymostof theAmericanblack community in

colloquial communication situations, especially when talking to other African-

Americans. Many of these situations are represented in the show, with characters

switchingbackandforthbetweenSEandAAVE,dependingonthesocialcontextand

onotherparticipants’presenceintheconversation.

Inorder tobetterunderstand this linguistic variety—which isnot as equally

commonandstudiedhereinBrazilasitisinothercontexts—themainAAVEfeatures

will beproperly introducedand explainedas the examples are analyzed in thenext

section.

3.ANALYSIS

The examples that follow show some characters in situationswhere they are

speaking in AAVE. Every time the characters code-switch between SE and AAVE,

feelingssuchasprideandthecertaintythat—basedontheirdiscourse—theywillbe

understoodbypeoplewhoare fromthesameethnicgroup(or theywillexclude the

oneswho are not) arise. The language reconnects themwith peoplewho share the

samebackgroundofyearsofoppressionand it isan importantelement to theracial

issuesaddressedintheTVshow.

OuranalysisconsistsincontrastingoriginallinesinwhichoccurrencesofAAVE

arepresentwiththestrategiesandsolutionsfromboththeofficialNetflix™subtitles

anddubbing,while trying tohighlight the importanceof theAAVEuse in particular

scenes.



Example1–Season1“ChapterI”

In this first example,wehaveSamand Joelle,who arebest friends.Theyboth

share similar personality traits, such as: intelligence, charisma, style, outspokenness

—DearWhite People,Sam’s radio program, is an example of that—, but there are

someaspectsthatdistinguishthem.Samisalight-skinnedblackperson,andalthough

theyare activists in a commoncause, Sam isdirectly affectedand privilegedbyher

skin tone. As a result, Joelle is seen sometimes as simply her friend’s shadow. It is

importanttopointoutthat,evenifSamisthemaincharacter,eachchaptercenterson

onespecificcharacter,sothatthespectatorisabletobetterunderstandallofthem.

Inthisscene, Joelle istellingSamaboutavideosheiswatching,whereawhite

girl isgivingsometipsonhowtocontrolthecaloriesyoueatto loseweight.Atfirst,

Joellereferstothegirlasa“whitebitchinTexas”—thetranslationinPortugueseis

“umabranqueladoTexas”inthedubbedversionand“essabranqueladoTexas”inthe

subtitles—,butthenSamasksaboutherrealnameandshesaysitisMarianUpdike.

The strategy of translating “white bitch” to “branquela”was an adaptation. In

English, theuseof theword“bitch”may fit severalpurposes,notallwithanegative

tone, since in some situations, it can also be an empowerment word. However, in

Portuguese,mostofthetranslationsforthiswordareinsultingtowomenandarenot

aspolyvalentas ‘bitch’ is; therefore, translatorsmustmakeadefinitivechoicebased

ontheoverallcontexttofindasuitabletranslation.

WhenBassnett(2002)declaresthattranslationismorethanthereplacementof

awordbyanotheronethatis“equivalent”,sheisreferringtocasessuchasthisone.If

the translatordecided to translate ‘bitch’ for theclosestword in the target language

(TL),whichwouldprobablybevadiaorcadela,theeffectwouldbedifferentfromthe



original intended, adding a much stronger negative aspect of profanity and

promiscuitytoit.

Thus, thespectatorswhowatch theshowwith theoriginalaudioandsubtitles

maynoticethedifferenceand, if theyhaveapreviousknowledgeoftheword ‘bitch’,

feelrobbedofitsmeaningbytheomission.Nevertheless,fortheoneswhowatchthe

dubbed version, this translation optionmay aswell go unnoticed or theymay even

finditanadequatetranslation.

FIGURE1―ScenefromSeason1“ChapterI”

Here,morecontextualizationisneededas‘sophomore’isthesecondyearofhigh

schooloruniversity.Moreprecisely,inthisscene,Joelleisreferringtothepoundsone

gainsinthefirsttwoyearsofuniversityduetothecaloriestheyingestasaresultof

the adjustments to the new life, stress, and other factors. The sentence “she be

dropping” is described in AAVE as being Aspectual or Habitual. Although Joelle is

watching and listening to pieces of advice from a white girl, which she refers to

pejoratively,shefeelstheneedtoestablishadifferencebetweenthatgirlinthevideo

and herself. Besides, there are issues regarding self-esteem underlying the scene.

Joelle feels less attractive than her best friend, who in turn, compliments her

appearance.



FIGURE2―AnotherscenefromSeason1“ChapterI”

Dubbing:“Elatáfalandooqueeuprecisopraterminaromeusegundoanoaqui”

The subtitles in Portuguese follow the technical constraints: the number of

characters and the on-screen time. As for the dubbing, the character is making a

gesturewithherhandstoemphasizewhatsheissaying.Theisochronyandthekinesic

synchrony are appropriate. Nevertheless, it is possible to notice that the dubbed

version is totallydifferent from theoriginal line in theST and, from the subtitles in

Portuguese.Thetranslationfollowedthedubbingparametersandtheresult,although

vagueandnottoofarfromtheoriginal,doesnotcauseanystrangenessordiscomfort

tothespectator.

Because the captioning mode used depicts a written mode of AVT and it is

common sense that written language is bound to be more formal than spoken

language,thestandardvarietyofthelanguageisused.Hence,thereisnodifferencein

thelanguagethatmayalertthespectatoraboutthechangeinthewaythecharacteris

speaking or cue the audience on all the other subtle layers of meanings previously

described.



Thesamehappenswiththetranslationfordubbing.Eventhoughitisthespoken

language—andiftherewasanypossibilityofachangeinthelanguagetoadaptittoa

non-standardvariety,itwouldbepossibletobeincludedinthedubbingbythevoice

actors—thereisnotranslationorevenanadaptationforAAVE.Asamatterof fact,

theabsenceofanytraceofanylinguisticvarietywhichindicatesthat inthatspecific

linetherewasachangeinthelanguageisworthbeingdiscussedalittlefurther.

In his book A tradução literária (2016), Paulo Henriques Britto explains in a

chapter named “A tradução de ficção” some of the strategies he adopted while

translatinganovelwithAAVEdialectalmarks.Healsojustifies:

ThereisnodialectspokenonlybyAfrican-BrazilianpeoplefromSouthtoNorth:blackpeoplefromRioGrandedoSulspeakthelocallanguage,thesamehappensinMinasGerais,RiodeJaneiro,andalsoinPernambuco,wherethepopulationofblack and white share a common dialect. Thus, every time I confront a BlackEnglishmark ina text tobetranslated, Iknowtherewillbean inevitable loss4.(BRITTO,2016,p.116,ourtranslation).

ThislossmentionedbyBritto(2016)willbefelteitherinthesemanticfield,or

in other cultural aspects depicted in the scene. Due to cultural, social and even

linguistic barriers, onewill never be able to carry all these aspects in a satisfactory

way.Insomecases,suchasforseveralliteraryworksthatdealwithlanguagevarieties

ingeneralorevenAAVEinspecific(likeTheAdventuresofHuckleberryFinn,MobyDick

orTheColorPurple, tonamea few)compensationstrategieshavebeenusedboth in

the literary translations and also in their audiovisual adaptations using a language

variety of social status, common to the least educated members of the Brazilian

society.

4 In theoriginal: “Nãoháumdialetoafro-brasileiro, faladopornegrosde sul anortedopaís:osnegrosgaúchosfalamodialetogaúcho,osmineirosfalamodialetomineiro;osnegrosdoRiofalamodialetocarioca,osdePernambucofalamomesmodialetopernambucanousadopelosbrancosdelá.Assim,semprequemedeparocomumamarcadeBlackEnglishnumtextoqueestoutraduzindo,seiquehaveráumaperdainevitável.”(BRITTO,2016,p.116).



Nevertheless, once the fictional university set as the main scenario for Dear

WhitePeople issupposedtobeaneliteuniversityandAAVEusewithinthisspaceis,

consequently, not related to the formal education level of its speakers, this common

compensation strategy would not be a satisfactory outcome for the examples

presentedhere.

Thisbeingsaid,weunderstandthatthereisanaccentuatedcultural loss inthe

depictionofAfricanAmericancharactersandtheirsenseofidentitythroughboththe

dubbedandsubtitledversions.However,webelieve thatbypointing itouthereand

discussingtheoptionsandtranslationchoicesmadewillhelpraiseawarenesstothis

issue and, possibly, help other translators and translation scholars to devote more

timetothisculturalaspectoftranslation.

Example2–Season2“ChapterIV”

Cocoisdepictedintheshowasastronganddeterminedpersonwithambitious

dreamsforherfuture.Shelikestobeinaleadershippositionwhereshecanbeheard

and/orfollowed.CocoandSamusedtobebestfriendswhentheystarteduniversity,

but theydiscovered theyhaddivergentviewsaboutwhotheywereandmainlyhow

theywantedtobeseenbysociety.UnlikeSam,Cocodoesnothaveapassionforsocial

justiceandracialequality.Shetries,byanymeans,toadaptherselfinaworldwhose

privilegeswerenotmade forblackpeople likeher.Herwigswith long, straight and

expensivehaircanbeseenasanillustrationofthat.

For this example, we selected a scene in which Coco is listening to Abigail, a

whitegirlwhoishavingproblemswithherroommateKeisha(whoisblack)because

shekeepslisteningtoBeyoncé’salbumLemonadewhileAbigailistryingtostudy.This

situation happened after the Davis House (white students’ dormitories) had

mysteriously burst into flames, forcing its residents to move to A-P house (black



students’ dormitories) and, therefore, to live together in the samephysical space—

apartfromtheuniversityclassrooms—asthepeoplewhoalreadylivedthere.

Becausethemysteriousstartofthefirehadnotbeensolvedyetandthetensions

betweenwhite andblackstudentswere increasing, thescene isparticularlycharged

with racial aspects. White students such as Abigail have never been deprived or

denied of any of their rights and privileges. Therefore, having to ‘adapt’ in the

previouslyexistingroutineofblackA-Pdormwasastruggleformostwhitestudents

temporarilyhousedthere.

Another conclusionwe can alsodraw from this situation is thebackgroundof

oppressiongoingonasAbigaildescribesherproblem.Shehadnoidea,butaskingher

roommate to turn down themusic or to even turn it offwas away of limiting her.

AAVEinthiscontextistheinnervoice,whichcomesfromamomentwhenoneperson

expressesauthorityoveranother,whoisoppressed.

In the scene, James, a CORE (Coalition of Racial Equality)member, enters the

room and interrupts the girls. Coco asks him to give her a moment because she is

doingwhatnobodyelsedoes:talkingtoAbigail.

FIGURE3―AscenefromSeason2“ChapterIV”



Cocoisoneofthecharacterswhosediscourseisalmostnevercomposedbyany

AAVEreference.Thereason isbecause shemakesaneffort toadapt toapreexisting

standard,asindicatedbefore.Inthisscene,Coco’slineisfullofsarcasm.Sheisgiving

pieces of advice to thewhite girl, and shewants peoplewho are listening to her to

knowthatsheiscapableenoughofbeinginthispositionbecausesheisblack.Thatis

thereasonsheusesthisstructure,whichiscalled“doublenegative”(not+no)andthe

preverbalnegativeformofthe“ain’t”isinthebeginningofanaffirmativesentence.

Itisimportanttomentionthat,aswellas‘y’all’,‘ain’t’isusednotonlybyAAVE

speakersbutalsobySEspeakers.However, itsusageisseenbypeopleingeneralas

very informal, being considered as a term for illiterate people. Meanwhile, within

AAVE,theseconstructionsarenotrelatedtoliteracylevel.

FIGURE4―AnotherscenefromSeason2“ChapterIV”

Dubbing:“NinguémnuncafalacomaAbigail”

BothAVTmodesusedherefollowthestandardestablished.Theonlydifference

we canpin to contrast is theuseof thename “Abigail” in thedubbedversion,while

subtitlesoptedtotranslateitforthepronoun“ela”(“she”).Thisisbecausetheuseand

repetition of proper names is a feature of spoken language. The use of the words



“ninguém”(“nobody”)and“nunca”(“never”)inbothsubtitlesanddubbedversionisa

successful attempt to the “double negative” in the original line. Nevertheless, this

usage is predicated by Portuguese prescriptive grammar, which allows speakers to

useitinformalandinformalsettings.

Thisscene,inwhichtheuseofAAVEbyacharacterthatdoesnotusuallyspeak

thislanguagevariety,isparticularlysignificantbecauseitsetsCocoasa‘blackleader’

for theA-P dorm students. Shemakes sure to useAAVEwhen addressing to James,

who is also black (even though she was not using it to speak directly to Abigail a

second earlier), to reassure that despite listening to Abigail’s complaints, she is on

‘theirside’.

Example3–Season2“ChapterV”

JoelleisexplainingtoRashidwhysheavoidstakingtheboysshemettotheA-P

house. (see more details about Rashid's character description below). According to

her, every time Sammeets someone she is interested in, the person becomesmore

interested inher friendbecauseofSam’s lighter,and, therefore, consideredprettier,

skintone

In this chapter specifically, Joellemeets Trevor, amanwho seemed— at the

beginning—idealforher.Heisintelligent,black(thisisapreconditionforhertobe

interested in a man), has sense of humor, and other features that attract Joelle.

However, in the end, she discovers he is a Hotep: the most extreme type of black

activist.Trevorismisogynistic,homophobic,arrogant,andhetrulybelievesinillogical

conspiracy theories. Thus, he is problematic in many aspects. At the point of this

dialogue,however,sheisstillinterestedinhimandisconflictedaboutintroducinghim

toherfriendsornot.



FIGURE5―AscenefromSeason2“ChapterV”

In the sentence ‘who dis’ there are two AAVE features embedded: the copula

absence and the modification of the fricative /ð/ sound (SE) in ‘dis’. The latter is

pronouncedwitha/d/soundwhenitappearsatthebeginningofawordandwitha

/f/soundinwordssuchas“with”or“mouth”.

Joelle’s direct speechwithAAVE elements is onemore evidence that she only

datesblackmenwhowouldspeakthatway.Interestingly,Rashidplaysinthisshowa

studentwhoisanimmigrantfromKenya.Hischaracterisnotsowellexploredbut,in

thisscene,heseemstobeinterestedinJoelle.Also,heisportrayedassomeonewhois

constantly learning about black lives in America, because the understanding of

blacknessisdifferentfromwherehecamefrom.HedoesnotspeakinAAVE,anditis

explainedthatthisvarietyisassociatedwithaculturethatheisnotdeeplyintegrated

with. Besides, even if hewere, the fact that he is black andAfrican, but not African

American,isanindicationthatRashidcannotcrossthislanguagebarrier.



FIGURE6―AnotherscenefromSeason2“ChapterV”

Dubbing:“Eficam...nossa,eelaquemé?”

Regarding thePortuguese translation,both thenumberofcharactersand time

on-screen(subtitles)andthesynchrony(dubbing)areaccordingtotherules. Justas

thepreviousexamples,thesubtitlesaremoreliteraltotheoriginalthanthedubbing.

Theslang;“newphone,whodis”,thatwaspopularizedontheinternet,isbeingusedto

demonstrate that a man would be no longer interested in Joelle if he saw Sam,

therefore‘ghosting’5her.

In order to add one more information related to the dubbing part, Rashid’s

strongaccentintheoriginal—aswellasthenon-standardfeaturesweanalyzed—is

completelyerasedinthetranslation.Spectatorswhooccasionallywatchtheshowwith

subtitlesinPortuguesecancomparebothSTandTT.However,themassivenumberof

spectatorswhoonlywatchtheshowwithdubbinginPortugueselosesomethingthat

wasnotcompensatedbyanyothermeans.Inthissense,exceptforthescenesinwhich

RashidexplicitlymentionshisKenyanroots,viewerswouldnotevenknowthatthere

isalinguistic(andcultural)distancebetweenhimandtheotherblackcharacters.

5Tointerruptcommunicationwithsomeonewithoutwarningorexplanation.



4.FINALCONSIDERATIONS

Wearelivinginatimeinwhichtheactoftranslatingcannotbeconsideredasa

simplelinguisticmoveanymore.Untilafinaltextreachesitsintendedaudience,there

were several decisions made bymultiple people behind the scenes. Since the early

daysofthediscussionsofwhethertotranslateword-for-wordorsense-for-sense,the

idea of how to cope with the plurality of the language has been expanding. Thus,

scholars have been theorizing about various aspects involving translation and its

multitudeofelements.

AVT,asbothatechnologicalmeanandabranchoftranslationstudies,actsasa

wholenewworld,withdifferentpossibilitiestomakecontentavailableforthemasses.

Moreover, the fact that the final reader/spectator has access to the sourcematerial

meansthats/hecanpossiblymakeacomparisonwiththetranslator’swork.

Thispaper isaresultofastudyonhowimportantaspecificdialect(AAVE)is,

howthisnon-standardEnglishrelatestoAfricanAmericanpeopleandhowdifficultit

is for translators todealwith this situation, especiallywhen translatingAV content.

Although we mainly pointed out the ‘losses’ in the AVT solutions selected without

actuallyproposingalternativesolutions,weconsiderthisapproachanopendoorfor

futurestudiesthatcantakethis intoaccountinordertocomeupwithcompensation

strategiesthatcouldhelphighlighttheracialissuebeingexploredintheshow.

The analysis we presented here was based on current issues found in the

mediumof popular entertainment and adecisive step away (and forward) from the

alreadyoverdoneanalysisofthe‘faithfulnesslevel’usuallyconsideredregardingATV

content. Our first intentionwas to contrast thesemodes because they aremade for

differentpurposesandtarget-audiencesandhavedifferentdemandsandconstraints.

However,asshownintheanalysis,noneofthempresentedanattempttotranslatethe

varietyofEnglishspokeninDearWhitePeople.ThefactthatAAVEappearsonlyina



few occasions in the narrative may be an argument for the total erasure in the

translation.However, the vernacular dialect is used in specificmoments in order to

addmorelayerstothescenesandareindeedimportantaspectsofthesescenes.

OnehypothesisisthattheabsenceofadialectinBrazilianPortugueseforAfro-

Descendants,thehighlevelsofeducationdisplayedbythestudentsatWinchester,and

theuseofAAVEonlyinspecificscenes,plusalltheregularconstrainsofAVT,ledtoa

translationwithoutdialectalmarks.Themeaninginthoseoriginallinesdidnotcross

thelanguagebarriersbecauseitispartofthecultureandcultureis,forthemostpart,

untranslatable.Although compensation strategieshavebeen used todepictdialectal

marksinotherliteraryandAVtranslations,thiswasnotthecasehere.

Webelievethatagivenvarietymaybetranslatedifthetranslatorand/orother

factors involved in the translationprocess find it significant for that targetaudience.

That is to say that every case should be evaluated separately, whether the target

audienceisasmallgroupofpeopleoranentirepopulationofacertainage,knowing

whotheyareisfundamentalforatarget-orientedtranslationoratranslationbasedon

thepurposeofthefinaltextasdefendedbytheFunctionalistschool.

Based on the theoretical framework presented here, mainly regarding the

functionalistapproach,wearenot,byanymeans,callingouttranslators’‘mistakes’in

leavingthedialectalmarksoutofthedubbedandsubtitledversions.Weunderstand

many factors such as Style Guide and parameter compliance (the ‘briefing’ as

ChristianeNordwouldput it)oreventhegeneralmessage(theskopos, inVermeer’s

conception) could have a strong interference in the translation choices made.

However,whendealingwithtranslationfromLefevere’sandBassnett’s(1998)point

ofview,itisimperativethattheseidentityissueshighlightedbythelinguisticvariety

usedintheTVshoware,atleast,consideredanddiscussedaswehopetohavedonein

thispaper.



REFERENCESBASSNETT,Susan.Translationstudies.3rded.London:Routledge,2002. BASSNETT,Susan;LEFEVERE,Andre.Constructingcultures:Essaysonliterarytranslation.Clevedon:MultilingualMatters,1998. BRITTO,PauloH.Atraduçãoliterária.RiodeJaneiro:CivilizaçãoBrasileira,2016. CHAUME, Frederic. Synchronization in dubbing: a translational approach. In ORERO, Pilar (ed.),TopicsinAudiovisualTranslation.Amsterdam&Philadelphia:JohnBenjaminsPublishingCompany,v.56p.35–52,2004.DearWhitePeople.CreatedbyJustinSiemens.EUA.Netflix,2017―current.JAKOBSON,Roman.OnLinguisticAspectsofTranslation.In_____OnTranslation.HarvardStudiesinComparativeLiterature.Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress,p.232-239,1959. KOCH, M. Lisa; GROSS, M. A; KOLTS, R; Attitudes Toward Black English and Code Switching. InJournalofBlackPsychology,v.27n.1,2001. LABOV William. Unendangered Dialects, Endangered People: The case of African AmericanVernacularEnglish.In:TransformingAnthropology.v.18,n.1,p.15–28,2010. LEFEVERE, Andre. Translation, rewriting, and the manipulation of literary fame. London,Routledge,1992. NORD,Christiane.Function+Loyalty:TheologyMeetsSkoposOpenTheology,2016. WOLFRAM,Walt.ReexaminingtheDevelopmentofAfricanAmericanEnglish:EvidencefromIsolatedCommunities.Language,v.79,n.2p.282-316,2003.Recebidoem:11/03/2019Aceitoem:15/05/2019

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