Voice Quality and Characterization in Dubbing: The Case of Sherlock in Persian Dubbing

Dubbing is the prevalent modality of audiovisual translation in Iran. Although dubbing uses both acoustic and visual channels, the acoustic dimension has not been thoroughly researched. Since dubbing primarily deals with voice, researching paralinguistic code (e.g., voice quality and tone) is of primary significance as changes in voice quality play a pivotal role in recreating the character differently in the dubbed version and affect dubbing overall quality and audience perception. Therefore, this mixed-methods research aims to determine effects of voice quality change through dubbing on characterization from audiences’ viewpoint by examining the official Persian dubbing of the BBC One’s Sherlock series. In doing so, Van Leeuwen’s (1999) categorization of voice quality characteristics was selected to design a self-made questionnaire and compare the original actor and the dubbing actor’s voice qualities. Accordingly, the views of 32 participants were collected and analyzed. Finally, the comparison of the actor and dubbing actor’s voice quality characteristics showed that out of seven pairs of voice quality features (tension, breathiness, vibrato, nasality, roughness, loudness and pitch), the dubbing actor’s voice was similar to that of the original actor in only four features, and it was different in three features (roughness, loudness and pitch). Based on the current research findings, these slight changes in the dubbing actor’s voice quality resulted in minor changes in the dubbed version’s characterization, as it made the dubbed character look more aggressive and less attractive to the target audiences’ eyes. The results suggest that voice is a significant quality issue for the audience and the right choice of dubbing talent can enhance audience reception of cinematic products.