Translating French into French in the audiovisual text: Multilingualism in the dubbing of Emily in Paris

Abstract

This article presents a study aimed at describing the translation strategies adopted for the French dubbed version of the multilingual fragments with a French presence in Emily in Paris. The results show that both translation problems and solutions tend to be repeated throughout the series. Thus, four main translation strategies are found in the dubbed version: (1) introduction of an interlanguage, i.e. the English-speaking characters speak French with a strong accent and interferences; (2) reformulation of the dialogues in French, so that, although they are not faithful to the content, they do create a situation that more or less fits in with the visual constraints; (3) maintaining speeches in French without modifications, which can lead to somewhat implausible situations; and (4) introduction of English to create a multilingual target text.