There are several stages involved in the process of subtitling, from the moment a job is commissioned to the subtitles physically appearing on the screen. A client contacting a dubbing or subtitling company is supposed to deliver the original dialogue list and a copy of the video or DVD to the translator. In the case of ‘exotic’ languages (not necessarily “lesser-known languages”), such as Dutch for the Spanish market and even Spanish for the Dutch and Flemish market, it is a widespread practice to use English as a pivot language to render the audiovisual translation in the target language (be it dubbing or subtitling), rather than to translate the original script or soundtrack. Needless to say, the idiomatic particularities of the source text and the cultural references will be filtered through English. The same errors that may have slipped into the English translation will most likely be replicated in the target language as well.
In this conference I will comment on the pitfalls of working with pivot translations in dubbing and subtitling of Spanish films into Dutch and Flemish films into Spanish.

Anna VERMEULEN is Senior Lecturer at the University College of Translation Studies of Ghent (Belgium) where she teaches Subtitling and Audiovisual Translation. Her research interests and publications focus on translation strategies and linguistic variation in audiovisual translation (español peninsular vs. español neutro). As a visiting professor she has held conferences and workshops at the Universities of Madrid, Santander, Aranjuez, Salamanca, Valencia, Castellón, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Buenos Aires.