Translation Errors in Malaysian Children’s Movie Subtitles

Abstract

Subtitling Malay movies into English in Malaysia presents particular constrictions and defies subtitlers, as the two languages have little in common and have a number of untranslatability elements. Upin and Ipin is a Malaysian television series produced by Les’ Copaque Production, which features the life of the twin brothers in a fictional Malaysian village. The series was first introduced in 2007 and can be considered as one of the most successful animated television series in Malaysia. However, the series represents significantly unique language, leading to a significant concern in subtitling. Hence, this article aims to investigate the errors utilized in the movie Upin and Ipin Pengembaraan Bermula. The research used Koponen’s (2010) error categories to classify the translation errors, by comparing the subtitles in the source and target texts. The study supports the findings of Rull et al. (2016) on omission and mistranslation as the common errors. It is hoped that this study could serve as a reference for other translation research on subtitling to and from other languages in Malaysia.