Dialect translation in the present-day Italian cinematography (evidence from “Baarìa”, a film by Giuseppe Tornatore)

Abstract

Within the framework of the audiovisual translation studies and in the contest of the Italian sociolinguistic situation, historically characterized by the presence of many dialects and regional varieties of the standard language, this article considers the translation of the film “Baarìa” (2009) directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Original dialogues in the Sicilian dialect (contained word for word in the motion picture script by Tornatore published in Italy by Sellerio, 2009), their dubbing in standard Italian (released in Italy and worldwide as an official version of the film) as well as the Russian dubbed version are used as linguistic materials. The aim of the article is to compare these three versions in order tp explore and analyze the possibility and methods of conveying the Sicilian linguistic originality whilst translating from the Sicilian dialect into Italian and Russian.

The author begins from revealing some theoretical aspects of linguocultural transposition generally concerned with the aid of studies by Skoromyslova, Denisova, Snetkova. Hereafter the paper describes the linguistic context of “Baarìa” set in a small town of Bagheria near Palermo, that presents the local Baariotu dialect of Sicilian, the mother-tongue of Tornatore. As a result of comparing three versions of the film, it has been found that the most challenging moments for the translator related to the dialect are represented by the title (evidently given in the dialect intentionally), strong phonetic features, some typical grammar Sicilian forms (e. g. verbs: sic. amunì — it. andiàmo), lexical choices (as trademarks: sic. picciotti — it. ragazzi), especially personal names, including various forms of address (ron, mastru, zu’), and gastronomic culture-specific elements (mafàjda, minnulata). Summing up the results, it can be concluded that the standard Italian version of the film “Baarìa,” due to the historical and cultural proximity in some measure between two idioms under examination, succeeds in reproducing the richness of the dialect, meanwhile the Russian dubbed version loses the sociolinguistic connotations of the original text.

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