Subtitling sensitive Arabic language for English audiences: A case study of Netflix’s Jinn and Al-Rawabi shows

Abstract

The current study investigates the subtitling strategies of sensitive language in Netflix’s Jinn and Al-Rawabi shows from Arabic into English. A corpus of Arabic sex-related expressions from the two shows subtitled into English are extracted. The typology of the sex-related examples is classified into four groups, namely verbal innuendo, clothing revealment, slang and vulgar words, and body part-related references. The study findings show that direct translation and cultural substitution are the most commonly adopted subtitling strategies in the shows. The findings also reveal that the subtitlers’use of generalization and omission may produce inadequate translation, loss of meaning, and ambiguity which can result in audience dissatisfaction. In addition, subtitlers refer to more than one strategy when two sex-related terms appear in the same sentence. Further research is recommended to explore audience perception and satisfaction of the prevailing subtitling strategies under the Netflix no-censorship policy, with particular emphasis onsensitive language.

Keywords

• Audiovisual translation
• Subtitling strategies
• Arabic-English
• Sex-related language
• Netflix