The changing face of audiovisual translation in Italy

Even though audiovisual translation currently involves the use of new modes, such as audiodescription and audiosubtitling, the two most common forms of screen translation still remain dubbing and subtitling. Italy is traditionally a dubbing country. Audiovisual products started to be dubbed in Italy in the 1930s, as a consequence of a Fascist law which forbade the use of any foreign word. Since then, the practice of dubbing has become so deeply rooted in Italian culture that the dubbing industry has developed into an extremely active and profitable business. The practice of audiovisual translation has obviously undergone considerable changes during the years, and it is continuing to evolve. Specifically, such changes are observable both at a diatopic and at a diaphasic and diastratic level, and they reflect the effort on the part of the dubbing professionals to make the language spoken in dubbed films as similar as possible to spontaneous spoken Italian.