Diejen Is Iejl Prikkelboar: Language Variation in Dutch Dubbing of Popular Computer-Animated Feature Films for Flanders

Abstract

The following study in the field of audiovisual translation (AVT) focuses on language variation in a specific multimodal text type: feature length animation films. In the first two decades of the twenty-first century different localisations of American computer-animated feature films (CAFFs) were issued on DVD for The Netherlands and Flanders/Belgium: for the Dutch language market separate audiovisual translations—typically both subtitles and dubbing—were provided for The Netherlands (NL-NL, or Netherlandic Dutch) and Dutch for Flanders (NL-FL, also Belgian Dutch). However, dubbing for the latter is not as straightforward due to the complexities of additional regional variation, especially in Flanders. For NL-FL, a continuum of linguistic variation exists, ranging from standard Dutch on one end to local dialects on the other end, with a colloquial Belgian Dutch in between, also known as tussentaal. This chapter employs an experimental but basic design as a means for testing the grounds for further research and to this end uses a set list of features of colloquial Belgian Dutch as a median to examine the linguistic deviation towards either standard Belgian Dutch or further variation, including dialects and this for the dubbing included in a corpus of DVDs. The study focuses on both main and minor characters from multiple popular CAFFs produced by Disney, Disney/Pixar, DreamWorks, Blue Sky, Illumination, and Sony between 2001 and 2019. The objective of this chapter is therefore to position tussentaal in relation to standard Dutch on the one end and language variation for NL-FL on the other. By doing so, the chapter aims to map the localisation trends for dubbing CAFFs in Flanders. The outcomes are then related to the specificity of localisation offers of the same CAFFs on streaming platforms.