Dubbing and Subtitling as Modes of Audiovisual Translation: Constraints, Strategies, and Cultural Challenges in English–Turkish and English–Azerbaijani Transfers

Abstract

Audiovisual translation (AVT) has emerged as one of the most socially significant and professionally demanding branches of contemporary translation studies. This article examines dubbing and subtitling as the two dominant modes of screen translation, analysing their technical constraints, translation strategies, and cultural challenges with particular attention to English-to-Turkish and English-to-Azerbaijani language transfers. Drawing on multimodal discourse theory, functional equivalence approaches, and the domestication–foreignisation framework, the study argues that AVT is a constraint-driven communicative practice in which linguistic choices are inseparable from synchronisation requirements, reading speed limits, character constraints, and viewer reception conditions. The article demonstrates that dubbing prioritises lip synchrony, isochrony, and natural speech adaptation, motivating stronger cultural reformulation and domestication, while subtitling is governed by condensation and reduction strategies that preserve closer proximity to the source text. A comparative case-study analysis of humour, idioms, pragmatic markers, and culturally specific references illustrates the mode-specific challenges that translators face in Turkic-language target contexts. The findings indicate that neither mode is universally superior: each serves different communicative functions and audience needs. The article concludes with recommendations for mode-sensitive quality assessment and translator competence development in AVT.