Examining the Quality of Arabic Subtitles: A Multi-dimensional Assessment Approach

Abstract

Interlingual subtitling is a form of audiovisual translation, which plays an important role in making content accessible and breaking language barriers in various settings, including the Arab world. Interlingual subtitling is a demanding task as it involves complex procedures that lead to significant quality issues. This study aims to investigate the quality of the Arabic subtitles that contain nicknames in the American TV series Lost. A mixed method approach was adopted to analyze 41 subtitles selected from the TV series Lost based on Pedersen’s (2017) FAR model. The results revealed significant errors in terms of functional equivalence and readability. It is, therefore, advisable for Arab subtitlers to preserve the skopos (purpose) of the original utterance, and obtain technical abilities to improve the quality of the Arabic subtitling.