A Study On English-Sinhala Subtitle Translation; With Special Reference To The Movie “Goodfellas” And Its Sinhala Subtitles

Abstract

Field of translation is exponentially expanding. Simultaneously, motion picture industry has reached its heights. Movies are culturally sensitive and they belong to one language. Therefore, involvement of another language is required to reach a wider audience. Subtitle translation emerges as a bridge to connect two languages by rendering the idea of the source text. The aim of this study is to identify problems an English-Sinhala translator faces in subtitling and eventually to find out strategies to improve the translation. Goodfellas is one of the most blasphemous movies in history including number of taboo words. Baiscopelk, the leading free accessible Sinhala subtitles website in Sri Lanka has translated this movie. Goodfellas movie and the Sinhala translation by Baiscopelk have been used as primary sources while scholarly articles on subtitling have been used as secondary sources. Findings of the research concluded that the translator has utilized taboo words from the target audience which are pragmatic but appear to be offensive. This research will facilitate freelance subtitle translators to carry out a translation by being sensible to the target audience.