Subtitles have existed since the beginning of sound film, in the late 1920s. In the UK, subtitling for TV programs became progressively more common starting the 1970s. Subtitles are, alongside closed captioning (also referred to as subtitling for the Deaf and hard of hearing; SDH) and dubbing, part of what is called “audiovisual translation” (AVT); ie. the means of translating an audiovisual text (whether it is a film, a TV program, a video on social media…) from its source, or original, language, to a target language understood by the audience (Pérez-González 2014). Looking at subtitles in the British context more specifically, they are mostly used to translate films and programs in foreign languages or, in the case of closed captions, to render films and programs in any language (including English) accessible to D-HOH people.
Translating from a single source language, say French, to a single target language, like English, appears rather straightforward. But more and more films feature several languages, reflecting the diversity of our society. Looking at the British mediascape, an increasing number of films depict characters whose lives are at the intersection of English and other languages. Recent examples include After Love (dir. Aleem Khan, 2020) in which English, Urdu, French, and Arabic are spoken, as well as Effi o Blaenau (dir. Marc Evans, 2026) in Welsh, with some English. In the case of such multilingual films, subtitling in a single language may lead to what is often referred to as “flattening”, or the neutralisation of the film’s multilingualism through monolingual subtitles (De Higes-Andino, Prats Rodrígues and Martínez-Sierra 2013). This is potentially detrimental to the understanding of the plot by the audience (in case they cannot distinguish the languages by ear) and inaccurately mediates the richness of the text. Subtitles, and AVT more generally, are most often only afforded a very small share of a production’s budget and answer strict guidelines for readability, which further contribute to flattening practices.
Yet, creative approaches, often first developed for SDH exist and allow to ensure a film’s multilingualism is both translated and preserved; they may include:
- Italics: in cases where there are only two languages, italicising one;
- Colours: using one colour of subtitling for each language;
- Fonts: using one font of subtitling for each language;
- Explicit attribution: naming the languages in the subtitles (Szarkowska, Żbikowska, and Krejtz, 2013).
Examples of using colours or fonts include, respectively, documentary Colours of the Alphabet (dir. Alastair Cole, 2016) and box-office hit franchise John Wick. If more widely used, such strategies would allow for a more accurate and informative subtitling of multilingual films and programs, including for audiences who do not usually require or prefer SDH, ultimately fostering inclusivity and celebrating the richness of linguistic diversity.
References:
De Higes-Andino, Irene, Ana Maria Prats-Rodríguez, Juan José Martínez-Sierra, and Frederic Chaume. 2013. “Subtitling Language Diversity in Spanish Immigration Films.” Meta 58 (1): 134–45. https://doi.org/10.7202/1023813ar.
Pérez González, Luis. 2014. Audiovisual Translation : Theories, Methods and Issues. Routledge.
Szarkowska, Agnieszka, Jagoda Żbikowska, and Izabela Krejtz. 2013. “Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Multilingual Films.” International Journal of Multilingualism 10 (3): 292–312. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2013.766195.
Emma Dussouchaud-Esclamadon is a final year PhD Scholar in Film Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her research, funded by the Edinburgh Doctoral College Scholarship, focuses on Indigenous languages in fiction films, the impact of archiving and curating on accessing and mediating the said films, and film(making) as both tool and text for linguistic efflorescence. She was the 2024-2025 Hevey & Filling Fellow in Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC, USA) and, in 2024, she conducted research at the Sámi University of Applied Sciences (Guovdageaidnu, Norwegian side of Sápmi) thanks to the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills’ Mobility Stipend. Her research has been published in New Voices in Translation Studies and Media Practice and Education.
