Dubbing is also one of the two major forms of "language transfer," i.e. translation of audiovisual works. Dubbing, in this sense, is the replacement of the dialogue and narration of the foreign or source language (SL) into the language of the viewing audience, the target language (TL).

Dubbing is a supplementary form of translation, because the verbal ST is completely suppressed; the purpose is not making easier the deciphering or understanding of dialogues, but their substitution with dialogues that are comprehensible to the user.

Inherited from cinema, dubbing is extensively used for translating other-language television programs. Some countries and cultures prefer dubbing to subtitling and voice-over. In Europe, for example, the "dubbing countries" include Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland.

Dubbing, unlike subtitling, which involves a translation of speech into writing, is the oral translation of oral language. However, unlike "interpretation" in which the SL speaker and the TL interpreter are separate persons talking in their own distinct voices, dubbing requires the substitution of the voice of each character on the screen by the voice of one actor. It is, thus, a form of voice-over or "revoicing".

Dubbing is, however distinguished from voice-over by its strict adherence to lip-synchronization. In order to seem "natural" or authentic, the performed translation must match, as closely as possible, the lip movements of the speaker on the screen. Moreover, there should be a strict, though easy to achieve, equivalence of extra-linguistic features of voice, especially gender and age. The matching of other markers of speech such as personality, class, and ethnicity is most difficult because these features are not universally available or comparable. Another requirement of successful dubbing is the compatibility of the dubber's voice with the facial and body expressions visible on the screen.

Digitalization has brought the most dramatic changes. Analyzing and resynthesizing the voices of dubbing actors make it possible for intonation, tone, and timbre to be adjusted to match those of the source actors almost identically. Asynchrony between lip movements and translated revoicings can also be corrected digitally to achieve lip synchrony, which is especially important in close-ups.

« Go Back