“Hola, Señorita. Do You Like Gazpacho?” Challenges and Trends in the Audiovisual Translation of Linguacultural Otherness in American Multilingual Animated Films and Their Italian Dubbed Version

Abstract

In the last decades, ethnolinguistic Otherness has assumed an increasingly prominent position in many audiovisual products focusing on non-mainstream cultures otherwise quite voiceless in audiovisual media and giving voice to multilingual discourse practices where code-switching stands out as a key conversational strategy in expressing linguacultural diverse identities. This ties issues of on-screen multilingualism to the field of audiovisual translation and raises new challenges as far as the screen representation/translation of linguacultural specificities is concerned. All this is interestingly to be observed in animated films; indeed, since the early 1990s, such important animation production companies as Walt Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks began to produce ethnically diverse films offering deep sociolinguistic insights into non-dominant countries and populations whose richness is conveyed on the screen by dialogues interspersed with their native languages, acting as vital symbols of their ethnocultural identity. Starting from these observations, this paper aims at looking contrastively and diachronically at how L3s, i.e., languages different from both the language of the original film and the language of the film’s dubbed version, used in instances of turn-specific, intersentential and intra-sentential code-switching, have been dealt with in the original version and in the Italian dubbed version of thirty American multilingual animated films, released between 1991 and 2022. The main objectives of this study are: to verify to what extent the original ethnolinguistic Otherness is either retained for the Italian audience or manipulated in dubbing; to observe whether and how the screen translation studies’ approach in conveying linguistic diversity in animation has possibly changed over the last thirty years; and to point out what can be achieved by audiovisual translation in terms of intercultural/interlingual transmission when autochthonous linguacultures are represented in animated films.

1. Introduction

In the last decades, multiculturalism, multilingualism and language variation, pervading almost every layer of society, have assumed an increasingly prominent position in many audiovisual products portraying multicultural/multilingual contexts where linguistic choices appear to be affected by both deliberate and unconscious allegiance to community-specific ethnocultural norms, and language alternation practices such as code-switching (cf. Myers-Scotton 1993; Auer 1998, 2007; Gardner-Chloros 2009; Bathia and Ritchie 2014) stand out as key conversational strategies in expressing ethnolinguistically diverse identities.

Throwing the spotlight on linguacultural Otherness has become a priority also in animation (cf. Di Giovanni 2007; Dore 2020; Minutella 2021), given the educational relevance animated films have been recognized as having in “controlling the fields of social meaning through which young people negotiate the world” (Giroux and Pollock 2010, p. 98), crucially contributing to construct their audience’s views of new cultural registers and thus expanding their linguacultural perceptions. Indeed, since the early 1990s, some of the most important animation studios, such as Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios, Dreamworks Animation, and Universal Pictures (to cite just a few), have begun to produce polyglot films offering deep sociolinguistic insights into the ethnocultural heritage of non-mainstream countries, where English is not the native language (e.g., Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, China, Japan, Norway, Russia, France, and Spain, amongst others), that had rarely been assigned leading roles in animated stories before, and whose speech patterns are conveyed by the on-screen presence of the countries’ native languages acting as key means in the narration of ethnolinguistic diversity.

From a translational perspective, considering on-screen multilingualism as inextricably tied to the field of audiovisual translation and screen translation itself as a key vehicle of intercultural/interlinguistic mediation (cf. de Higes Andino 2014; Díaz Cintas 2012; Corrius and Zabalbeascoa 2011, 2019; De Bonis 2015; Ranzato and Zanotti 2018; Chiaro 2008, 2009; Guillot 2016; Beseghi 2019; Minutella 2021), the local characters’ mother tongues, included in the English-based filmic dialogues, can be intended as third languages/L3s, i.e., languages different from both the original film’s main language, i.e., L1, and the language of the film’s dubbed version, i.e., L2 (cf. Corrius and Zabalbeascoa 2011, 2019; Zabalbeascoa and Corrius 2014), used both as crucial entries to the characters’ sociocultural heritage and as powerful metaphors for emotional expressivity (Monti 2018, 2022). Nonetheless, as languages are “inseparable from their cultures” (Cymbalista 2003, p. 22) and cultures include and affect languages (Cui 2012), the linguacultural diversity these films entail inevitably “presents translators with a world of challenges” (Díaz Cintas and Remael 2007, p. 200).

Starting from these observations, this paper aims to look contrastively and diachronically at how L3s, used in instances of turn-specific, intersentential and intrasentential code-switching (cf. Myers-Scotton 1993), have been dealt with in the original version and in the Italian dubbed version of thirty American multilingual animated films, released between 1991 and 2022, that can be defined as L3-as-theme films (cf. Corrius and Zabalbeascoa 2019) where the alternation between L1/L2 and L3 turns out to be crucially inherent in the film’s overall structure.

The main objective of our study is to verify to what extent the ethnolinguistic Otherness of the films’ original version is either retained for the Italian audience or manipulated in dubbing, and whether the translation, or non-translation, strategies prevailingly used for the L3s in the different types of code-switching possibly have a different impact on both cultures’ representation and characters’ portrayal. From a diachronic perspective, the primary goal is to investigate whether and how the screen translation studies approach in conveying linguacultural Otherness in animated films featuring non-dominant societies has possibly changed over the last thirty years, thus demonstrating what can be achieved by audiovisual translation in terms of intercultural/interlingual transmission when autochthonous linguacultures are represented in a cinematographic genre as rich in linguistic, semiotic and pragmatic specificities as that of animated films.

The contrastive analysis of the films’ scripts will highlight the fact that the linguistic Otherness conveyed by the on-screen presence of L3s is not simply a device to mark location or nationality but a major vehicle for character depiction, and that it is always brought to the fore in both the original and the Italian dubbed version of the films under study, leading to the construction of cinematic dimensions within which different linguacultural traditions merge in never-ending processes of cultural and linguistic negotiation.

2. Materials and Methods

The thirty American animated films making up our corpus are the following ones: Beauty and the Beast (Dir. Trousdale and Wise 1991); Aladdin (Dir. Clements and Musker 1992); The Lion King (Dir. Allers and Minkoff 1994); Pocahontas (Dir. Goldberg and Gabriel 1995); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Dir. Trousdale and Wise 1996); Anastasia (Dir. Bluth and Goldman 1998); Mulan (Dir. Caro 1998); The Emperor’s New Groove (Dir. Dindal 2000); Lilo & Stitch (Dir. Sanders and DeBlois 2002); The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (Dir. Raymond 2002); Brother Bear (Dir. Walker and Blaise 2003); Ratatouille (Dir. Bird 2007); How to Train Your Dragon (Dir. Sanders and DeBlois 2010); Rio (Dir. Saldanha 2011); Puss in Boots (Dir. Miller 2011); Cars 2 (Dir. Lasseter and Lewis 2011); Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (Dir. Darnell et al. 2012); Brave (Dir. Andrews and Chapman 2012); Frozen (Dir. Buck and Lee 2013); Rio 2 (Dir. Saldanha 2014); Big Hero 6 (Dir. Hall and Williams 2014); Moana (Dir. Clements and Musker 2016); Ferdinand (Dir. Saldanha 2017); Coco (Dir. Unkrich and Molina 2017); Klaus (Dir. Pablos 2019); Frozen 2 (Dir. Buck and Lee 2019); Spies in Disguise (Dir. Bruno and Quane 2019); Raya and the Last Dragon (Dir. Lopez Estrada and Hall 2021); Encanto (Dir. Howard and Bush 2021); Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Dir. Crawford 2022).

The empiric comparative investigation is based on a wide selection of excerpts from the films’ post-production scripts, entailing 772 instances of code-switching from L1/L2 to L3, be it turn-specific, intersentential or intrasentential. Particular attention is devoted to the types of code-switching within which the L3s mostly occur, to the main functions these fulfill in the construction of both plot setting and the characters’ linguaculturally diverse self, as well as to the transfer modes prevailingly adopted for their rendering in the Italian dubbed version.

Each excerpt is presented in tables including: the name of the character speaking (column 1), the orthographic transcription of the original dialogue (column 2), the transcription of the dubbed Italian dialogue (column 3), and the literal back-translation of the L2 in the dubbed Italian dialogue (column 4). Any word/phrase/sentence in the L3 is indicated in italics. Information relevant to paralinguistic behavior and kinetic features associated with a specific speaker are also annotated in round brackets.

3. The Realms of Ethnolinguistic Otherness in Animated Films: L3s Translation Modes in the Films’ Italian Dubbed Version

3.1. Retention: Transferring L3 Ethnocultural Heritage

What immediately stands out from the analysis of the original version and the Italian dubbed version of our corpus of films is that most instances of L3s are left unaltered in the Italian dubbed version, following the translation, or non-translation, strategy variously defined as borrowing (cf. Vinay and Darbelnet 1958, 2002), retention (cf. Pedersen 2005; Gottlieb 2009), transference (cf. Newmark 1988), direct transfer (cf. Leppihalme 2011), loan (Chaume 2004; Díaz Cintas and Remael 2007), or transfer unchanged (Zabalbeascoa and Voellmer 2014). This source-language-oriented stylistic procedure turns out to be the most effective one to retain the L3 terms’ ethnocultural coloring, be it conveyed in instances of intrasentential, intersentential or turn-specific code-switching, each playing specific roles as far as the depiction of linguacultural Otherness is concerned.

3.1.1. Evoking Linguacultural Otherness through Intrasentential and Intersentential Code-Switching

Most occurrences of the L3s used in the original films’ English-based dialogues are mainly to be found in instances of intrasentential and intersentential code-switching, enacted by the indigenous characters when introducing to the vocabulary of the audience L3 lexical items referring to cultural entities deep-rooted in, and often exclusive to, their specific sociocultural heritage, and variously defined as cultural words (Newmark 1988), culture-bound references (Pedersen 2005), or extralinguistic culture-bound references (Díaz Cintas 2012). Following the taxonomy proposed by Díaz Cintas for the categorization of L3 culture-bound terms into geographical references, ethnographic references and sociopolitical references (cf. Díaz Cintas and Remael 2007), we can observe that, in the films under study, the categories of L3 ethnocultural specifics most recurrently used, as unmarked linguistic choices, in instances of intrasentential and intersentential code-switching are those relevant to: salutations; forms of address and pet names; fixed expressions; exclamations; imperative forms; spirituality and religion; material and social culture; and food and local products

3.1.1.1. “This Is How We Say Hello, Wingapo”: L3 Greetings

L3 greetings (42 total occurrences) are mostly used by the ethnic characters as the linguistic correlatives of the concepts of “community”, “family”, “cultural heritage”, and they are always left unaltered in the films’ Italian dubbed version to fulfill specific narrative, pragmatic, and emotive functions in the representation of the non-mainstream society at stake.

This can be recognized, for instance, in Coco, set in Mexico, where Spanish expressions become the thread of the action and hola, i.e., “hello”, is used every time the Mexican characters meet even though they still don’t know each other, as is the case when Miguel greets a woman he has never seen before while walking on the street (

Table 1. (00:04:11).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Woman	Hola, Miguel.	Hola, Miguel.	Hola, Miguel.
Miguel	Hola.	Hola.	Hola.

), thus highlighting a linguistic attitude that reinforces the sense of belonging to the same community typically strongly felt in Latino societies.

In some films, L3 greetings are mainly used to highlight the often exotic filmic location, as we can see in Aladdin, set in a far legendary Middle Eastern town, i.e., Agrabah, inspired by Baghdad and other Middle Eastern localities, when the Arabian greeting Salām, i.e., “peace”/”hello”, is used in the first scene by the peddler/narrator to welcome the audience, thus immediately disclosing the film’s Arabian setting (

Table 2. (00:0:02).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Peddler	Ah, salām and good evening to you worthy friends.	Ah, salām e buonasera a voi miei degni amici.	Ah, salām and good evening to you worthy friends.

).

In many cases, the use of L3 greetings as marked linguistic choices reveals specific pragmatic purposes on the part of the speaker, as in Ratatouille, set in Paris, where the French farewell Au revoir, i.e., “goodbye”, is used by Skinner to make Remy aware of his evil intentions (

Table 3. (01:21:57).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Skinner	Au revoir rat!	Au revoir rat!	Au revoir rat!

).

Likewise, in Anastasia, set in Russia and France, the Russian greeting Dasvidanya, i.e., “until the (next) meeting”, a formal way to say goodbye, is used both by Rasputin to address Anastasia when trying to kill her (

Table 4. (01:22:11).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Rasputin	Dasvidanya your highness!	Dasvidanya vostra altezza!	Dasvidanya your highness!

), and by Anastasia herself to address Rasputin when she is on the point of defeating him forever (

Table 5. (01:23:28).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Anastasia	[…] and this is for you, Dasvidanya!	[…] e questo è per te, Dasvidanya!	[…] and this is for you, Dasvidanya!

), thus linguistically asserting her act of delegitimacy (cf. Bucholtz and Hall 2005) of his dignity.

Furthermore, L3 greetings often underline a particularly close bond between the speakers, as we can see in Pocahontas, where Powhatan, the native language spoken by Pocahontas and her tribe, is used at strategic points mainly to reinforce in-group bonding. This can be observed, for instance, when shaman Kekata welcomes Chief Powhatan, just returned from a war against an enemy tribe, using the Powhatan greeting Wingapo, i.e., “Welcome”/“Hello”, preceded by the address term Chama, i.e., “friend”, thus also assigning his utterance an affectionate connotation; the chieftain, in his turn, conforms to the shaman’s friendly communicative behavior and replies using the Powhatan term E-wee-ne-tu, i.e., “Peace”, so as to honour their common ethnolinguistic heritage (

Table 6. (00:07:18).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Kekata	Chama Wingapo Powhatan.	Chama Wingapo Powhatan.	Chama Wingapo Powhatan.
Chief Powhatan	E-wee-ne-tu Kekata, it’s good to be home again.	E-wee-ne-tu Kekata, è bello essere a casa.	E-wee-ne-tu Kekata, it’s good to be home.

).

Wingapo is also used by Pocahontas, both when she greets her father, to show her love and respect for him (

Table 7. (00:10:36).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Chief Powhatan	My daughter.	Figlia mia.	My daughter.
Pocahontas	Wingapo, Father.	Wingapo, Padre.	Wingapo, Father.

), and when she teaches John Smith how she says “hello” and “goodbye”, i.e., Ana (

Table 8. (00:37:01).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Pocahontas	This is how we say hello, Wingapo.	È così che noi diciamo ciao, Wingapo.	This is how we say hello, Wingapo.
John	Wingapo.	Wingapo.	Wingapo.
Pocahontas	And how we say goodbye, Ana.	E così diciamo addio, Ana.	And this is how we say goodbye, Ana.

).

What is interesting to notice in Table 8 is that the use of Powhatan/L3 fulfils the important function of shortening the communicative distance between characters belonging to different ethnicities, thus facilitating the development of cross-cultural and cross-linguistic relations.

3.1.1.2. “¡Miércoles!”: The Effectiveness of L3 Formulaic Expressions

Other L3 lexical items mainly used in instances of intrasentential and intersentential code-switching in a wide range of interactional contexts and always left unaltered in the films’ Italian dubbed version are formulaic expressions, exclamations, imperative forms, and thanks (106 total occurrences), thoroughly immersing the audience in the speech patterns distinctive of the societies the to which films give voice.

As far as fixed expressions, often used as exclamations, are concerned, we can notice that they fulfill peculiar pragmatic functions in the interactional exchanges in which they occur. This is to be seen, for instance, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, set in Paris, when Clopin uses the French phrase pièce de résistance, i.e., the most remarkable feature of something as well as the most important part of an event, to introduce the celebration of the King of Fools, i.e., the traditional crowning of the ugliest face in Paris (

Table 9. (00:23:50).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Clopin	And now, ladies and gentlemen, the pièce de résistance!	E ora, Madame e Messeri la pièce de résistance!	And now, ladies and gentlemen, the pièce de résistance!

); in Ratatouille, when Colette uses Voilà, i.e., “and that’s it”, an expression French people are often stereotypically identified with (

Table 10. (00:43:57).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Colette	Voilà, the best restaurants get first pick.	Voilà, il ristorante migliore ha la prima scelta.	Voilà, the best restaurant gets the first pick.

); and in Coco, where there is a recurrent use of common Spanish colloquial interjections/exclamations such as eso, i.e., “that’s it”, communicating appreciation; hijole, i.e., “gosh”, used by Papá Julio in the Land of the Dead to express his astonishment in noticing that Miguel’s hand is fading (

Table 11. (00:29:00).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Papá Julio	¡Hijole! Your hand!	¡Hijole! La tua mano!	¡Hijole! Your hand!

); and epa, i.e., “wow”, used by Héctor to show his enthusiasm after Miguel’s performance (

Table 12. (00:46:58).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Héctor	¡Epa! Now that’s a song!	¡Epa! Quella sì che è una canzone!	¡Epa! That’s a song!

).

Similarly, in Raya and the Last Dragon, the fictional land of Kumandra, inspired by real Southeast Asian countries, is linguistically marked by such Vietnamese exclamations as Toi, i.e., “wow”, commonly used to show surprise, as we can see when Boun sees Raya’s beautiful jade stones (

Table 13. (00:36:35).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Boun	Toi! That’s alotta jade!	Toi! È un sacco di giada!	Toi! It’s a lot of jade!

).

L3 formulaic expressions and exclamations, as already observed in the case of L3 greetings (see Section 3.1.1.1), are often adopted to highlight close relationships between the speakers, as in Ratatouille when Linguini uses À votre santé!, i.e., “to your health/cheers”, to reinforce his emotional tie with Remy while cooking with his help (

Table 14. (00:38:15).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Linguini	À votre santé! […]	À votre santé! […]	À votre santé! […]

), and in Coco, when Cecilia exclaims ¡Ay, ya lo sabia!, i.e., “oh, I already knew”, expressing disappointment to Héctor, who lost a dress she needed for a show, but making her complaint less face-threatening thanks to the use of their mother tongue (

Table 15. (00:36:05).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Cecilia	¡Ay, ya lo sabia! I gotta dress forty dancers by sunrise and thanks to you, I’m one Frida short of an opening number!	¡Ay, ya lo sabia! Devo vestire 40 ballerine entro l’alba e grazie a te mi manca una Frida per il numero di apertura!	¡Ay, ya lo sabia! I must dress forty dancers by sunrise and thanks to you I miss a Frida for the opening number!

).

In some of the films under study, L3 fixed expressions and exclamations are also used as a distinctive part of the idiolect of the characters, assigning them specific personality traits. This can be observed, for instance, in Encanto, set in Colombia, when Bruno, depicted as being very superstitious and often performing propitiatory rites, while jumping over a series of cracks on the ground utters the Spanish magic formula Sana, sana, colita de rana, literally meaning “Heal, heal, little frog’s tail” and commonly used in Colombian societies to give both consolation and encouragement when someone has to face difficult situations (

Table 16. (00:56:24).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Bruno	[…] Sana, sana, colita de rana.	[…] Sana, sana, colita de rana.	[…] Sana, sana, colita de rana.

), as well as when Agustín, portrayed as a rather naïve man, is linguistically connoted by his use of the Spanish exclamation ¡Miércoles! (which translates to “Wednesday”) as a deliberate mispronunciation of its vulgar equivalent Mierda, i.e., “shit”, generally used to express anger, disappointment or annoyance but without either lowering the discourse register or conveying aggressiveness (

Table 17. (00:50:28).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Agustín	¡Miércoles!	¡Miércoles!	¡Miércoles!

).

With regard to L3 imperatives, they are mostly used in instances of intersentential code-switching during in-group and family interactions connoted by a sense of intimacy between the characters, as we can see both in Coco, when ¡Ven acá!, i.e., “come here”, is fondly used by Miguel to call his dog Dante (

Table 18. (00:36:32).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Miguel	Noo, Dante. ¡Ven acá!	Noo, Dante. ¡Ven acá!	Noo, Dante. ¡Ven acá!

), and in Encanto, when vámonos, i.e., “let’s go”, its variant vamo, i.e., “let’s go”, and vaya. i.e., “go”, are used among relatives to express both excitement and encouragement, sometimes accompanied by exclamations such as ¡Wepa!, i.e., “wow!”, reinforcing the pragmatic strength of the speaker’s utterance, as we can see when Felix tries to convince his little son Antonio to enter his magic room (

Table 19. (00:21:12).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Félix	¡Wepa Antonio! ¡Vaya, vaya!	¡Wepa Antonio! ¡Vaya, vaya!	¡Wepa Antonio! ¡Vaya, vaya!

).

As far as L3 thanks are concerned, they are used in instances of both intersentential code-switching and intrasentential code-switching, not only to show politeness and to express gratitude during in-group conversations but also to build closer connections between the speakers. In Coco, for instance, such Spanish forms as gracias, i.e., “thank you”, and muchas gracias, i.e., “thank you very much”, are all to be found in scenes conveying a high level of emotional involvement, as can be seen when Chicharrón, before dying, thanks Héctor for his singing a song evoking important memories of his life (

Table 20. (00:43:45).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Chicharrón	Brings back memories. Gracias.	Quanti bei ricordi. Gracias.	How many good memories. Gracias.

).

Similarly, in Lilo & Stitch the Hawaiian term mahalo, i.e., “thanks”, is used by Nani to display gratitude to her new employer, thus linguistically strengthening their belonging to the same community with the main aim of overcoming their initial distance (

Table 21. (01:00:02).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Nani	Thanks, mahalo! […]	Grazie, mahalo! […]	Thanks, mahalo! […]

).

3.1.1.3. “Your Papá Loved You So Much”: L3 Address Forms and Pet Names

As observed so far, one of the functions fulfilled by the use of the ethnic characters’ mother tongues is that of highlighting and reinforcing family ties and in-group membership; this is even more thoroughly to be recognized when L3 forms of address and pet names (276 total occurrences) are used in instances of intrasentential code-switching.

In particular, L3 respectful address forms are frequently adopted as representative of such values as mutual respect, politeness and courtesy at the core of the daily life of many of the non-mainstream populations portrayed on the screen. For instance, in films set in Spanish-speaking countries, such as Coco, Ferdinand, Puss in Boots, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Encanto, the Spanish vocative title Señor, i.e., “Mr.”, its feminine form Señora, i.e., “Mrs./Madame”, and its variant doña, i.e., “Ms”, are recurrently used to show deference towards the interlocutor, in particular when addressing a person with whom the character is not familiar. This can be seen, for instance, in Coco when Miguel uses Señor (five total occurrences) to address his idol De La Cruz when he first meets him in the Land of the Dead (

Table 22. (00:20:18).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Miguel	Señor De La Cruz, pardon me! […]	Señor De La Cruz, scusatemi! […]	Señor De La Cruz, pardon me! […]

) as well as when a mariachi deferentially addresses Abuelita as doña in trying to calm her down after her seeing Miguel polishing the man’s shoes (

Table 23. (00:07:40).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Mariachi (to Abuelita)	Doña please, I was just getting a shine.	Doña la prego, mi stava lustrando le scarpe.	Doña please, he was shining my shoes.

).

The Spanish diminutive form Señorita, i.e., “Miss”, is instead sometimes used both to establish a more intimate connection with the interlocutor, as can be seen in Puss in Boots and in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, where Puss frequently uses this form to address a female character he flirts with (

Table 24. (00:10:28).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Puss	Hola, señorita. Do you like gazpacho?	Hola, señorita. Le piace il gazpacho?	Hola, señorita. Do you like gazpacho?

), and to convey humor, as can be seen in Encanto (one occurrence) when Mirabel mockingly defines her over-perfect sister Isabela as Señorita Perfecta, i.e., “Miss Perfection” (

Table 25. (00:27:54).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Mirabel	[…] And I might not be […] effortlessly perfect like “Señorita Perfecta” Isabela, who’s never even had a bad hair day, but…	[…] Magari io non avrò […] la disinvolta perfezione della “Señorita Perfecta” Isabela con la sua vita tutta rose e fiori, ma…	[…] And I might not have […] the effortless perfection of “Señorita Perfecta” Isabela, with her life full of flowers, but…

).

In some cases, L3 forms of address are also adopted as marked linguistic choices both to suggest the type of relationship between the characters and to convey specific pragmatic intentions on the part of the speaker. For instance, in Ratatouille, the marked use of such French forms of address as Mademoiselle, i.e., “Miss”, and Monsieur, i.e., “Mr./Sir”, indicates either intimacy or distance between the speakers, as can be seen when Chef Skinner addresses his sous-chef Colette Tatou using Mademoiselle followed by her surname, implying that he doesn’t consider her at his same level (

Table 26. (00:26:05).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Skinner	What belief is that, Mademoiselle Tatou?	E quale sarebbe il suo credo, Mademoiselle Tatou?	And what would his belief be, Mademoiselle Tatou?

), as well as when Monsieur is similarly used with derogatory purposes both by Skinner when cheating Linguini (

Table 27. (00:50:31).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Skinner	[…] And you, Monsieur Linguini, are no idiot.	[…] E tu, Monsieur Linguini, non sei certo un idiota.	[…] And you, Monsieur Linguini, are certainly not an idiot.

), and by Ego, the most influential culinary critic in Paris, refusing to assign Linguini the honorific Chef (

Table 28. (01:14:59).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Ego	You are Monsieur Linguini?	È lei Monsieur Linguini?	Are you Monsieur Linguini?

).

One of the most widespread categories of L3 references to be recognized in our corpus of films is represented by L3 affectionate forms of address for family members and close relatives, mirroring the key role family plays in the non-dominant cultures at stake. This can be observed, for instance, in Raya and the Last Dragon, where family ties are central and transcend death (as is the case in the real Southeast Asian countries the film takes inspiration from); indeed, Raya always refers to her beloved father with the Vietnamese term ba, i.e., “dad”, both when speaking with him (

Table 29. (00:18:30).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Young Raya	Ba! Come on! We have to go!	Ba! Andiamo via da qui!	Ba! Let’s go away from here!

), and when evoking his memory after his having been transformed into a stone (

Table 30. (00:54:55).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Raya	[…] The only thing important to me now is bringing my ba back.	[…] La cosa di cui mi importa veramente è riportare in vita il mio ba.	The thing that really matters to me is to bring my ba back to life.

).

Spanish address forms for family members are instead extensively used in the films set in Mexico (Coco, Puss in Boots, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) and Colombia (Encanto) where the concept of family is at the core of the social structure and the speakers, both when addressing their family members directly and when talking about them, adopt such forms as mamá, i.e., “mum” and its diminutive form mamita, i.e., “mummy”; papá, i.e., “dad”, and its diminutive forms papi and papito; abuelo, i.e., “grandpa”, abuela, i.e., “grandma”, and its diminutive form abuelita; tía, i.e., “aunt”, and tío, i.e., “uncle”, always assigning their utterances loving connotations. In particular, it is interesting to notice that in Coco the terms mamá, papá, tía, and tío are also used to refer to dead relatives, whose identities are frozen in the family roles they occupied before their death, echoing the fact that, especially in Mexican culture, in the afterlife each person is still identified with the family role he/she had when alive (

Table 31. (00:01:20).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Miguel	[…] the papá, he was a musician. […] That woman was my great-great-grandmother, mamá Imelda.	Il papá era un musicista. […] Ecco, quella donna era la mia trisnonna, mamá Imelda.	The papá was a musician. [...] Here, that woman was my great-great-grandmother, mamá Imelda.

).

We also find L3 pet names extensively used especially by parents and grandparents, in instances of intrasentential code-switching, to fondly address their children and grandchildren, especially in films portraying Latin American communities typically using warm and often emphatic ways to express affection towards the loved ones (as already pointed out in Section 3.1.1.2). This is to be recognized in Encanto, where Mirabel is often addressed by both her parents and her grandmother as mi vida, i.e., “my life”, mi amor, i.e., “my love”, mi amor, i.e., “love”, corazón, i.e., “heart”, as well as in Coco, where the pet name mija (mi + hija), i.e., “my daughter”, and its equivalent masculine forms mijo (mi + hijo), i.e., “my son”, and mijos (mi + hijos), i.e., “my sons”, are used both in the Land of the Living (

Table 32. (00:04:04).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Miguel’s mom (to Miguel)	Be back by lunch, mijo!	Ci vediamo a pranzo, mijo!	See you for lunch, mijo!

) and in the Land of the Dead (

Table 33. (00:24:34).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Dead woman (to her little daughter)	Mija, it’s not nice to stare at […]	Mija, non è carino fissare. […]	Mija, it’s not nice to stare. […]

), further underlining that for Mexican people family ties last forever.

In both Coco and Encanto, pet names are also formed with the Spanish diminutive suffix -ito, typically assigning words affectionate connotations. In Coco, for instance, Miguel is variously referred to as pobrecito, the diminutive form of pobre, i.e., “poor”, conveying a sense of tenderness; angelito, i.e., “little angel”; querido cielito, i.e., “dear sweetheart”; and Miguelito, the diminutive form of his name, sometimes reinforced in its warm-hearted nuance by the emphatic repetition of the final suffix -ito (

Table 34. (00:22:36).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Tía Rosita	Our Miguelit-it-it-it-ito!	Il nostro Miguelit-it-it-it-ito!	Our Miguelit-it-it-it-ito!

), whereas in Encanto Mirabel often lovingly addresses her beloved little brother as hombrecito, i.e., “little man”, to give him support (

Table 35. (00:14:57).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Mirabel (to Antonio)	Alright, hombrecito, you ready?	D’accordo, hombrecito, sei pronto?	Okay, hombrecito, are you ready?

).

In some cases, L3 affectionate forms of address are used to indicate the protagonists’ young age, as can be seen in Coco where Miguel is variously referred to as niño, i.e., “child”, muchacho, i.e., “young boy”, and chamaco, i.e., “little person”, derived from the Mayan term Chan, i.e., “little”, and Maák, i.e., “person”, and in the film often used by Héctor to encourage Miguel to sing (

Table 36. (00:45:45).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Héctor	[…] Show time chamaco!	[…] Si entra in scena chamaco!	[…] You enter the scene chamaco!

).

3.1.1.4. “It’s Día de los Muertos!”: L3s, Religion and the Spiritual Dimension

Other L3 culture-specific items playing a key role in the films under study and used in instances of both intersentential and intrasentential code-switching are references to the spiritual and religious sphere (86 total items), always borrowed in the films’ Italian dubbed version not only for the sake of linguacultural authenticity but also because they often represent both conceptual and lexical gaps in any other sociocultural system besides their own.

Several L3 references to the religious and spiritual domain are to be found in Coco, entirely revolving around Día de los Muertos, i.e., a religious celebration joyfully commemorating the deceased and central to Mexican culture; the film is indeed pervaded by L3 culture-bound terms relevant to this important event, e.g., its name mentioned in its two variants, i.e., Día de los Muertos/Día de Muertos (

Table 37. (00:09:33).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Abuelita	Día de los Muertos is the one night of the year our ancestors can come visit us. We’ve put their photos on the ofrenda so their spirits can cross over. […]	No, non guardarmi così. Il Día de los Muertos è l’unica notte dell’anno in cui i nostri antenati vengono a trovarci. Mettiamo le loro foto sull’ ofrenda e il loro spirito raggiunge questo mondo. […]	No, don’t look at me like that. Día de los Muertos is the only night of the year when our ancestors come to visit us. We put their photos on the ofrenda and their spirit reaches this world. [...]

); ofrenda, i.e., the home altar set up by Mexican families on which to place the offerings for the deceased relatives (Table 37); and alebrije/alebrijes, i.e., a Mexican legendary creature believed to help the souls in their journey to the afterworld (

Table 38. (00:24:25).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Tío Oscar	Real alebrijes! Spirit creatures.	Veri alebrijes! Spiriti erranti.	Real alebrijes! Wandering spirits.
Tía Rosita	They guide souls on their journey.	Guidano le anime nel loro viaggio.	They guide souls on their journey.

).

What is interesting to notice in Table 37 and Table 38 is that the L3 terms are preserved unaltered but their meaning is explained in the L1/L2 immediately after they are mentioned, a procedure that allows both audiences full understanding of the peculiar religious traditions, myths and legends at the core of Mexican life and culture.

The educational function fulfilled by the presence of L3 religious references of increasing the viewers’ awareness of linguacultural systems different from their own is particularly to be recognized in films featuring ancient religious rites performed by means of L3s included in the L1/L2 dialogues, as can be seen, for instance, in Frozen, when a prayer in Old Norse, the dialect still used in Norway for solemn events, is recited by the bishop during Elsa’s crowning (

Table 39. (00:19:32).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Bishop	Sem hon heldr inum helgum eignum ok krýnd í þessum helga stað ek té fram fyrir yðr… Queen Elsa of Arendelle!	Sem hon heldr inum helgum eignum ok krýnd í þessum helga stað ek té fram fyrir yðr… Elsa regina di Arendelle!	Sem hon heldr inum helgum eignum ok krýnd í þessum helga stað ek té fram fyrir yðr… Elsa Queen of Arendelle!

).

As Table 39 illustrates, the content of the L3 prayer is neither explained nor translated in the L1/L2, as its importance is not so much in the meaning of the single words but rather in the creation of a sacred and solemn atmosphere, bringing back linguistic memories of a fascinating, unknown past.

3.1.1.5. “Welcome to My Fiesta!”: L3 References to Ethnographic Culture

Particularly widespread in the films under study are L3 references to the non-mainstream societies’ ethnocultural heritage (100 total items), mostly maintained unaltered in the films’ Italian dubbed version to authentically portray the on-screen societies’ material culture and customs.

Among the films making up our corpus, Puss in Boots, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Coco, Encanto, Ratatouille are the ones that most extensively include L3 ethnographic references, thoroughly conveying the local distinctiveness of the peculiar on-screen ethnic context. In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish we find Spanish terms referring to such Mexican popular traditions as fiesta, i.e., a public celebration with different types of entertainment and activities, as used for instance by Puss at the beginning of the film to welcome the people gathered to celebrate his return (

Table 40. (00:02:18).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Puss	Welcome to my fiesta.	Benvenuti alla mia fiesta.	Welcome to my fiesta.

), and quinceañera, i.e., the celebration of a girl’s 15^th birthday, mentioned by Kitty Softpaws when ironically saying that she would have liked to celebrate her quinceañera in the Dark Forest (

Table 41. (00:40:38).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Kitty	[…] I wish I had my quinceañera here.	[…] Mi sarebbe piaciuto festeggiarci la mia quinceañera.	[…] I would have liked to celebrate my quinceañera here.

).

Coco similarly immerses the audience in Mexican material and social cultural traditions with such terms as mariachi, i.e., Mexican musicians playing typical Mexican folk music; cempasúchil, i.e., Mexican marigold, a flower traditionally put on the family ofrenda as an offering to the deceased relatives on Dia de los Muertos as it is believed that its petals guide the family ancestors home; huaraches, i.e., typical Mexican shoes such as the ones crafted by Miguel’s family (

Table 42. (00:14:45).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Abuelita	[…] You’ll craft huaraches just like your tía Victoria.	[…] Realizzerai huaraches come la tua tía Victoria.	[…] You will craft huaraches like your tía Victoria.

); grito, i.e., a high-pitched cry uttered to freely express emotions, frequently adopted by mariachi to convey a sense of masculinity, and here used by Héctor when asking Miguel to give him his best grito in the attempt to make him vent all worries before his first performance on a stage (

Table 43. (00:48:07).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Héctor	Give me your best grito!	Ora fammi un bel grito!	Now give me a good grito!

); and plaza, i.e., “square”, used to indicate both the main square in Miguel’s village, Mariachi Plaza (

Table 44. (00:08:36).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Tío Berto	How many times have we told you that plaza is crawling with mariachis!	Te l’avremmo detto mille volte. Quella plaza è un covo di mariachi!	We will have told you a thousand times. That plaza is a mariachi lair!

), and the square in the Land of the Dead dedicated to Ernesto De la Cruz, Plaza de la Cruz (

Table 45. (00:45:39).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Héctor	Welcome to the Plaza de la Cruz!	Benvenuto a Plaza de la Cruz!	Welcome to Plaza de la Cruz!

), thus further highlighting that for Mexican people the real world and the afterworld are two parallel dimensions including similar environments.

An authentic plunge into the French world is to be recognized in Ratatouille, almost entirely shot in the kitchen of the renowned French Restaurant Gusteau’s, where French culture-bound terms refer not only to food and drink (see Section 3.1.1.6) but also to objects typically used in the kitchen such as the chef’s hat, i.e., toque (

Table 46. (00:49:44).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Skinner to Linguini	Got your toque!	Ti ho preso la toque!	Got your toque!

), as well as to the professional figures working within a restaurant, i.e., Sous Chef, i.e., “Deputy Head Cook”, Saucier, i.e., “Sauce Chef”, Chef de Partie, i.e., “Station Chef”, Demi Chef de Partie, i.e., “Half Station Chef”, Commis, i.e., “Junior Cook”, Plongeur, i.e., “Dishwasher”, all of them left unaltered but followed by the English/Italian explanation of what their role consists of in order not to impair audience comprehension (

Table 47. (00:19:07).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Remy	[…] The Sous Chef is responsible for the kitchen when the chef’s not around. Saucier, in charge of sauces, very important. Chef de Partie, Demi Chef de Partie, both important. Commis, Commis, they’re cooks, very important. […] He’s a Plongeur or something. He washes dishes or takes out the garbage. He doesn’t cook.	[…] Il Sous Chef è il responsabile della cucina quando lo chef non è presente. Il Saucier responsabile delle salse, molto importante. Lo Chef de Partie, il Demi Chef de Partie, entrambi importanti. Commis, Commis, sono i cuochi, comunque importanti. […] No, è un Plongeur o roba del genere. Lava i piatti, porta fuori la spazzatura. Non cucina.	[..] The Sous Chef is responsible for the kitchen when the chef’s not around. The Saucier, in charge of sauces, very important. The Chef de Partie, the Demi Chef de Partie, both important. Commis, Commis, they’re the cooks, important anyway. […] No, he’s a Plongeur or something. He washes the dishes, takes out the garbage. He doesn’t cook.

).

In some films, L3 ethnographic references are also used to assign the protagonists specific personality traits, as can be observed, for instance, in Puss in Boots when the booted cat is referred to as Chupacabra, i.e., literally “goat-sucker” (four occurrences), i.e., a legendary creature famous in the folklore of Mexico and Puerto Rico for its purported vampirism, as it is said to attack and drink the blood of livestock, including goats, and is here associated with the cat for his mischievous undertakings (

Table 48. (00:00:38).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Puss	Through the years I have been known by many names: Diablo Gato, The Furry Lover, Chupacabra […]	In passato mi hanno dato molti nomi: Diablo Gato, Gattanova, Chupacabra […]	In the past they gave me many names: Diablo Gato, Gattanova, Chupacabra […]

).

3.1.1.6. “Some Churros from My Family”: L3 Flavors of Ethnic Otherness

Given that food is a constant presence in all representations of life and in all cultural systems (cf. González-Vera 2015), L3 culinary terms represent another important category of L3 ethnocultural references included in our corpus of films, mostly in instances of intrasentential code-switching (40 total items). Indeed, L3 references to traditional ethnic food, drinks and local products have a key function as cultural identifiers of the non-dominant societies represented on the screen, acting both as markers of ethnic belonging and as ‘linguistic charms’ attracting the audience with their original appealing names (Monti 2018, 2022). For instance, in Frozen, set in Norway, we find such Norwegian food terms as Glögg, i.e., a traditional Scandinavian hot, spiced wine, offered during public events (

Table 49. (00:49:48).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Hans	The castle is open. There’s soup and hot glögg in the Great Hall.	Il castello è aperto. C’è zuppa e glögg caldo nel grande salone.	The castle is open. There’s soup and hot glögg in the Great Hall.

), and Lutefisk, i.e., dried stockfish, traditionally part of the Christmas feast in all Scandinavian countries and regarded as a delicious dish (

Table 50. (00:38:27).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Oaken	I’m sorry about this violence. I will add a quart of lutefisk, so we’ll have good feelings. […]	Mi scuso per tanta violenza. Aggiungerò un di quarto di lutefisk e addio senza rancore. […]	I’m sorry for such violence. I will add a quart of lutefisk and goodbye without rancor. […]

).

In Raya and the Last Dragon, Southeast Asian food is extensively celebrated, echoing the central role food plays in Southeast Asian countries as a powerful metaphor for trust and friendship; this can be observed throughout the whole film, as for instance when Boun first bonds with Raya offering her congee, a traditional rice porridge considered as the ultimate comfort food and often used to bring people together (

Table 51. (00:36:12).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Boun	We got shrimp. We got congee. We got a shrimp congee that won’t quit.	Abbiamo gamberi. Abbiamo congee. Abbiamo un congee di gamberi da favola.	We got shrimp. We got congee. We got a fantastic shrimp congee.

).

Similarly in Coco, Mexican food takes centre stage in many scenes, both visually and linguistically with such L3 food references as tamales, i.e., seasoned meat and maize flour steamed or baked in maize husks, typically eaten during everyday meals (

Table 52. (00:03:37).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Abuelita	I asked if you would like more tamales.	Ti ho chiesto se vuoi un altro po’ di tamales.	I asked if you want some more tamales.

), chorizo, i.e., a spicy pork sausage, also used in its diminutive form choricito, and in the film sometimes adopted as an address form to mock Héctor, who is believed to have died by choking while eating one (

Table 53. (00:38:55).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Musicians	Hey, it’s Chorizo! Choricito!	Ehi, è Chorizo! Choricito!	Hey, it’s Chorizo! Choricito!

), and churros, i.e., a Spanish and Mexican pastry made from deep-fried unsweetened dough and sprinkled with sugar, in one scene mentioned by a dead character on his return from the Land of the Living to highlight that this specialty is such a staple in Mexican culinary culture that it is frequently offered to the deceased members of one’s family to welcome their return from the Land of the Dead on Día de Los Muertos (

Table 54. (00:25:20).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Dead man	Some churros from my family.	Dei churros fatti dai miei cari.	Some churros made by my loved ones.

).

In Encanto typical Colombian food is assigned magic powers as are the film protagonists themselves, and, in particular, it is associated with Julieta’s power to heal wounds through homemade dishes such as buñuelo, i.e., a sweet fried dough fritter, and arepa con queso, i.e., a white cornbread with cheese (

Table 55. (00:28:22).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Mirabel	Mm-hm. You just healed my hand with an arepa con queso.	E tu hai guarito la mia mano con una arepa con queso.	And you have healed my hand with an arepa con queso.

).

In this film, L3 references to Colombian specialties are also sometimes used to convey humor to the scene, as we can see when Isabela mentions empanada in saying that her bulky sister Luisa, after having lost her power to lift heavy weights, can’t even lift one of these light Latin American pastry turnovers anymore (

Table 56. (01:07:03).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Isabela	[…] Luisa can’t lift an empanada. […]	[…] Luisa non solleva un’empanada […]	[…] Luisa doesn’t lift an empanada. […]

).

L3 food terms are often used to identify specific characters, as can be observed in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, where Puss is depicted as being particularly greedy for gazpacho (

Table 57. (00:09:43).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Puss (to the doctor)	[…] Now, you know some good place to get some gazpacho?	[…] Piuttosto, sai dirmi dove posso trovare un buon gazpacho?	[…] Can you rather tell me where I can find a good gazpacho?

), and in Madagascar 3, where the Russian tiger Vitaly is characterized by his eating only the Slavic soup borscht (

Table 58. (00:45:28).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Stefano	[…] His only passion now is the borscht.	[…] e ora la sua unica passione è il borscht.	[…] and now his only passion is borscht.

).

The instances of L3 food naming discussed above underline that, in our corpus of films, cookery goes beyond mere nourishment, fostering a strong connection between belonging to a specific ethnic group and consuming a certain type of food that is highly representative of one’s own sociocultural heritage.

The empirical comparative analysis carried out so far with regard to the presence of L3s in instances of intrasentential and intersentential code-switching in the films’ original version and how they are dealt with in the Italian dubbed version has highlighted that most instances of these types of language shifts (the most frequent ones in all the films under study) have been maintained unaltered. It is now interesting to verify whether the same non-translation strategies are applied when instances of turn-specific code-switching are at stake, though these occur much less frequently than intrasentential and intersentential code-switching (see Discussion in Section 4 for percentages).

3.1.2. The Survival of L3s in Instances of Turn-Specific Code-Switching

The goal of these animated films to plunge the audience into the culture and folklore, both past and present, of fascinating non-mainstream cultures and populations thanks to the on-screen presence of their native languages is thoroughly achieved also when no replacement strategies are adopted for L3s in instances of turn-specific code-switching, mostly left undubbed at the spoken level and untranslated in both versions of the films under study, as the selection of excerpts here below illustrates. Such non-translation procedure allows the audience to fully taste the flavor of foreignness depicted in the films’ original version, as already observed for the instances of intersentential and intrasentential code-switching.

Also when the L3s are used in instances of turn-specific code-switching one of their main narrative aims is to disclose the characters’ nationality (as already observed in instances of intrasentential and intersentential code-switching), as can be seen for instance in Madagascar 3 when Dubois uses French, her mother tongue, asking Qu’est-ce que ç’est?, i.e., “what is that?”, to express her bewilderment for having been caught in the act of killing the lion, thus revealing her French origins (

Table 59. (01:14:28).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Zoo employee	Hey!	Ehi!	Ehi!
Dubois	Qu’est-ce que ç’est?	Qu’est-ce que ç’est?	Qu’est-ce que ç’est?

).

Similarly, in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish there is a recurrent use of turn-specific code-switching from English/L1 and Italian/L2 to Spanish to further typify the Spanish characters and the meaning of the Spanish utterances, left untranslated, can be inferred either from what another character says in the same scene, as can be seen when Kitty exclaims ¡Ay, qué miedo!, i.e., “How scary!”, expressing her worries before entering the Dark Forest, and Puss reassures her, clarifying at the same time the meaning of her utterance (

Table 60. (00:40:06).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Kitty	[…] ¡Ay, qué miedo!	[…] ¡Ay, qué miedo!	[…] ¡Ay, qué miedo!
Puss	Nothing to worry about.	Non c’è nulla di cui preoccuparsi.	There is nothing to worry about.

), or from the visual context, as when we hear Kitty asking herself ¿Adónde fueron ese idiota y su perro?, i.e., “Where are that idiot and his dog?” while searching for Puss and Perro who appear in the subsequent scene (

Table 61. (00:56:50).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Kitty	¿Adónde fueron ese idiota y su perro?	¿Adónde fueron ese idiota y su perro?	¿Adónde fueron ese idiota y su perro?
Puss (to Perro)	Kitty will never trust me again. […]	Kitty non si fiderà più di me. […]	Kitty will never trust me anymore. […]

).

In Pocahontas, Grandmother Willow replies to Pocahontas, asking her what the wind spirits are saying, turn-specifically switching to their mother tongue Powahtan when saying Que-que na-to-ra, i.e., “You will understand”, and clarifying her words’ meaning immediately after in the L1. In this case, it is interesting to notice that the Italian version maintains the Powhatan sentence but illustrates its meaning through a periphrasis of the original version, though conveying the same pragmatic effect (

Table 62. (00:17:24).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Pocahontas	I don’t understand.	Non riesco a capire.	I can’t understand.
Grandmother Willow	Que-que na-to-ra. You will understand. Listen with your heart, you will understand.	Que-que na-to-ra. Chiudi gli occhi e vai. Il tuo cuore sa, e tu capirai.	Que-que na-to-ra. Close your eyes and go. Your heart knows, and you will understand.

).

In other cases L3 sentences are maintained unaltered but no explanation of their meaning is provided by the characters, as they do not convey any substantial piece of information for plot understanding but ‘simply’ highlight the ethnolinguistically diverse identities portrayed on the screen. This can be observed in Brave, set in Scotland and acknowledging the importance of traditional Scottish regional dialects as reminders of Scotland’s historical and linguistic heritage, when Lord MacGuffin’s eldest son speaks Doric, an old Scottish Gaelic dialect, with an accent so thick that no one can understand him (

Table 63. (01:08:40).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Lord MacGuffin	And you, do you feel the same way?	E tu, tu la pensi allo stesso modo?	And you, do you think the same?
MacGuffin’s son	Scottish Gaelic	Scottish Gaelic	Scottish Gaelic

).

Similar instances of non-reciprocal language use can be recognized in Klaus, set in the fictional village of Smeerenburg, inspired by real villages in Norway, where Northern Sami, the native language of the country’s indigenous Sami people, is used by Margu, a Sami child, when talking to Jesper, Smeerenburg’s new postman, who always replies in English (

Table 64. (00:60:15).

Character	Original Version	Italian Dubbed Version	Back Translation
Margu	Sami	Sami
Jesper	Nah, I don’t wanna bore you with it.	Nah, non ti voglio annoiare.	Nah, I don’t want to bore you.
Margu	Sami	Sami
Jesper	Well, okay. It’s just been bothering me, you know? […]	Bene, ok. È che ho un pensiero fisso. […]	Fine, OK. It’s just that I have a fixed thought. […]

).

In Table 64 it is interesting to notice that Jesper only pretends to understand what Margu says, but communication goes on all the same leading to the creation of a common crosslinguistic/cross-cultural ground. Generally speaking, this is something often to be observed when L3s, used in multiethnic/multilingual contexts as markers of cultural differentiation, reconciling the clash between different cultures, and developing affective bonds across cultural and linguistic difference.

As most L3 cultural references are preserved unaltered also in instances of turn-specific code-switching, as exemplified above, we can point out that the linguistic interplay brought to the fore in the original filmic context is mostly left unaltered in the films’ Italian dubbed version. This is further proved by the fact that only very few occurrences of L3s are rendered in the film’s Italian dubbed version according to different transfer modes erasing the original linguacultural diversity, as we will briefly illustrate in Section 4.

4. Discussion and Conclusions

What clearly emerges from the comparative, descriptive investigation of our corpus of thirty American multilingual animated films is that code-switching from L1/L2 to L3 stands out as a key conversational strategy in the ethnic characters’ discourse practices, enacted both to convey sociocultural specificities and to structure identity in interaction. Indeed, the quantitative analysis of the 772 total occurrences of L3s to be recognised in the films’ original versions reveals code-switching between L1 and L3 to be the preferred communicative strategy to convey ethnolinguistic diversity.

Among the different types of code-switching used in the films’ original version, intrasentential code-switching is most frequently adopted, covering 68% of the total occurrences of language alternation practices from L1 to L3, especially to refer to the non-dominant cultures’ ethnocultural heritage, followed by intersentential code-switching (22%) and turn-specific code-switching (10%).

From a translational point of view, retention turns out to be the prevailing transfer mode for most L3 utterances in the films’ Italian dubbed version (covering 90% of the total occurrences) independently of the type of code-switching in which they occur, allowing the target audience to fully “savour the original films’ linguistic foreignness” (Monti 2018, p. 221).

In particular, we recognize 92% of the total instances of intrasentential code-switching and intersentential code-switching being retained unaltered, with only 6% being neutralized and 2% being adapted to the target audience (cf. Zabalbeascoa and Corrius 2014) with the use of L3 terms different from the L3 terms to be found in the source version and already well-known by the Italian viewers.

Similarly preserved unaltered is the 88% of the total occurrences of turn-specific code-switching from L1/L2 to L3. The remaining 12% is rendered in the Italian dubbed version by means of neutralization (6%), adaptation (5%), and part-subtitling (1%), a procedure that is however rarely adopted in animated films, due to the fact that these are primarily addressed to children and the young viewers’ having to split their attention between subtitles and images would essentially spoil their enjoyment of the film (cf. Díaz Cintas 1999).

Given the very low percentage of transfer techniques silencing the L3 passages, our data highlight that the source language dialogues’ linguaculturally diverse connotations are mostly preserved in the films’ Italian dubbed version, and that the role code-switching plays as a tool to give voice to the non-mainstream societies’ ethnolinguistic specificities is thoroughly displayed, also fully conveying the emotional impact the use of language alternation practices entails.

From a diachronic perspective, with regard to whether and how the approach in translating L3s in animated films featuring non-mainstream cultures has changed over the last three decades, i.e., 1991–2022, retention proves to be the prevailing strategy adopted for most L3 utterances independently of both the minorities’ languages and the films’ release date. This highlights a dubbing policy that goes against the one traditionally adopted in Italy until the early 1990s, adhering to norms of monolingualism (cf. Danan 1991; Toury 1995; Ulrych 2000; Heiss 2004, 2014; Pavesi 2005, 2016; Chiaro 2008, amongst others), and that primarily aims at making “a cultural other […] not erased but manifested” (Venuti 1998, p. 242).

Whereas such a tendency to faithfully recreate the original films’ linguacultural Otherness proves to be constant through the 30-year time span taken into consideration, what differs is the quantitative and qualitative presence of L3s, especially in the animated films released in the last two decades. Indeed, since about 2002 non-dominant countries have been more and more thoroughly portrayed in multilingual animated films thanks to an ever-increasing inclusion, in the English/Italian-based dialogues, of their native languages, not only in the linguistic code but also in the musical code and in the iconographic code, as future studies will show.

Our investigation therefore primarily illustrates that the screen translation of L3s in instances of turn-specific, intersentential and intrasentential code-switching in multilingual animated films revolving around non-dominant cultures tends to safeguard the original linguistically diverse architecture, guiding the viewers into immersive journeys through often unfamiliar but fascinating linguistic dimensions that become crucial channels in spreading the knowledge of linguacultural Otherness worldwide and act as important gateways in terms of translingual/transcultural transmission.