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Article In: Translation and Interpreting Studies: Online-First Articles

Linguistic creativity in media localization

An integrated approach to The Smurfs in Arabic

ORCiD logo with link | UAE University
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Abstract
This article examines the Arabic dubbing of The Smurfs, focusing on four areas where the dubbers had to invent rather than transfer: the series’ invented vocabulary, proverbs, character names, and food references. The analysis uses three frameworks: pragmatic equivalence, cultural adaptation, and semiotic translation. Each is applied to the problems it describes best, and they are combined where a single decision admits more than one reading. The central observation concerns morphology. The dubbers derived a new triliteral root from the characters’ Arabic name and used it to form nouns, verbs, participles, and reworked proverbs, rebuilding the source wordplay through Arabic derivational patterns. Inconsistent renderings and adaptations that lose part of the intended meaning are examined alongside more successful cases. The analysis is interpretive, lacks reception data, and covers one series in one language pair. It therefore argues only that Arabic derivational resources deserve closer attention in Arabic audiovisual translation research.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Theoretical framework
    • The pragmatic-equivalence approach
    • Cultural adaptation approach
    • Semiotic translation theory
    • Theoretical integration in practice
  • Methodology
  • Morphological localization
    • The triliteral root-pattern system
    • Root re-creation in The Smurfs
  • Proverbs adapted to The Smurfs’ world
  • Name localization
  • Food-name localization
    • Coining: Neologizing a Smurfish culinary lexicon
    • Generalization by hypernym: Finding common culinary grounds
    • Assimilation: Localizing the foreign into the familiar
  • Borderline and inconsistent cases: Reading across the frameworks
    • Ragout: One dish, two names
    • Lazy Smurf’s wisdom
    • From Azrael to Harhūr
    • Pancakes into Qaṭāyif
    • What the disagreements show
  • Conclusion
  • Data availability
  • Videos
  • References
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