Dubbing multilingual movies into Persian: a case of invented languages as the third language

As a result of globalization, multilingual movies have grown in number since the late 1980s. Following this increase, the issue of the third language (L3) has been a momentous challenge in translation, particularly in dubbing. It becomes even more challenging when L3 is an invented language. To shed light on this issue, the translation strategies employed in Persian dubbed versions of multilingual movies were investigated. By adopting Corrius and Zabalbeascoa's model of L3 analysis, six invented languages selected from two movies, Avatar and The Hobbit, were examined. These languages were Na'vi, Sindarin, Quenya, Khuzdul, Ancient Dwarvish, and Black Speech. In doing so, all the available Persian dubbed versions of the selected movies were taken into consideration to scrutinize possible translation strategies. The results revealed how the strategic operations change vis-a-vis the priority of the third language visibility. Moreover, among three possible primary operations for translating L3, namely repetition, deletion, and substitution (with L2), repetition of L3 had the highest frequency. We hope to raise awareness about the importance, challenges, and practical considerations of translating invented languages as L3s in audiovisual products.