Multicultural London English in film: comparing the translation into Spanish of Ali G Indahouse and Attack the Block

Abstract

This paper aims to illustrate how Multicultural London English is portrayed in the British films Ali G Indahouse (2002) and Attack the Block (2011) and how this variety is conveyed in their Spanish dubbed versions. The translation of language varieties in audiovisual texts is a complex matter, and they are often reduced to standard language in the target text, resulting in a loss of information regarding the characters and their sociocultural context. I rely on the ST and TT scripts to develop an analysis of some of the defining linguistic features of MLE and youth style. Despite both films constituting a similar starting point, Ali G presents a much more freer translation than is expected from a dubbed film, an issue I explore in comparison to the dubbing in Attack the Block.