The Cockney persona: the London accent in characterisation and translation

ABSTRACT

This contribution focuses on the London accent, in its traditional Cockney realisation and in its more recent developments. The function of this accent in the original texts and its translation into Italian dubbing are both considered. After a description of the iconic features of the London variety, significant examples are presented, which showcase this accent in contrast with other accents and sociolects, especially the received pronunciation, according to a typical narrative topos. Rather than concentrating on the frequent realistic portrayals authored by socially oriented writers and directors, the examples chosen here to illustrate some typical telecinematic renditions of this popular variety are more stereotypical realisations of the London accent, whose aim is to portray an emblematic character with a distinctive idiolect. In the last section, dialogue excerpts will be analysed through the lens of two functions in particular, those defined by Kozloff (2000) as ‘opportunities for star turns’ and ‘exploitation of the resources of language’, two of the least quoted, but most interesting categories of her seminal taxonomy. Emphasis on these functions will arguably give the opportunity to approach the much-discussed topic of dialect translation from a fresher perspective.

KEYWORDS:

• Audiovisual translation
• dubbing
• dialect
• accent
• Cockney

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Irene Ranzato is a tenured researcher and lecturer in English language and translation at Sapienza University of Rome, where she teaches translation (audiovisual and intersemiotic) and English language for BA and MA courses. She holds a PhD in Translation Studies (Imperial College London). Her research focuses on the translation of cultural references, on censorship and manipulation in dubbing, on the function and translation of regional and social varieties of English, on the linguistic analysis of film and television dialogue. Most recently, she published the book Translating Culture Specific References - The Case of Dubbing (Routledge 2016) and a book on the accents of British English, Queen’s English?: Gli accenti dell’Inghilterra (Bulzoni 2017). She also co-edited, with S. Zanotti, the volume Linguistic and Cultural Representation in Audiovisual Translation (Routledge 2018).

Notes

1. ‘[Allen] really is going to have to learn to speak British at something better than tourist level’ (Bradshaw, 2006).

2. And this in spite of the fact that, according to actor Michael Caine, in the 1960s ‘if you had a Cockney accent you were going to play the butler’ (in Thorpe, 2017). If this was the reality, or Caine's perception of reality, today audiences would think more readily to the impeccable received pronunciation of butlers of the like of Carson in Downton Abbey (Julian Fellowes, 2010-2015) or Stevens in The Remains of the Day (James Ivory, 1993).