Chapter 8: In a manner of speaking

This supplemental website includes all of the media clips discussed in Reading Sounds (University of Chicago Press, 2015). Purchase your copy of Reading Sounds today in paperback or e-book.

Figure 8.1. Manner of speaking identifiers carry a heavy burden.

In this over the shoulder shot from A Serious Man, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) talks on the phone at his university office. He wears a dark tweed suit jacket. His desk appears fairly well organized if a bit cluttered. Immediately visible items include three books stacked into one pile, one sheet of paper and a manila folder, an intercom speaker, a small black voltage device, a rotary phone, a protractor, ruler, magnifying glass, and a large tan desk mat. These are supposed to be items we might have seen on the desk of a 1960s professor of math and physics. Larry’s frustration and confusion with the bill collector on the other end of the line are expressed in a manner of speaking identifier, (STAMMERING), that precedes his speech: “There’s some mistake.” The speech itself sounds like: “Ah, ah, there’s some mistake.” While the manner identifier tells us how the speech sounds, the speech captions themselves continue to be rendered in standard English. The manner is fully carried by the non-speech identifier. Larry does not have a speech disability, but this caption raises questions about how speech disabilities such as stammering and stuttering are represented in closed captioning. Focus Features, 2009.

Source: A Serious Man, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: (STAMMERING) There’s some mistake.

Table 8.1. Examples of manner of speaking identifiers along with a sample of the speech that accompanies them.

Source Manner of speaking identifiers and accompanying speech
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “Mac’s Banging the Waitress,” 2008 (drunken slurring): It’s
a little late, isn’t it?
District 9, 2009 WIKUS [IN DISTORED VOICE]:
Cut some cake.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010 (DISTORTED)
Who do you think
you are, Pilgrim?
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, 2007 DARCY
(electronically distorted): Sam? Sam?
An Education, 2009 DAVID: (IN SILLY VOICE)
And I’ll tell you what
the first thing
Twilight: New Moon, 2009 (IN BELLA’s VOICE) Gran, I’d like you to meet…
The Office, “Scott’s Tots,” 2009 -[imitating Kevin]
THIS IS KEVEN MALONE.
IS DAVID THERE?

[imitating Stanley]
THIS IS STANLEY HUDSON.
JIM HALPERT IS A MENACE.

[imitating Toby]
IT’S TOBY FLENDERSON.
LISTEN, THINGS ARE GETTING
REALLY BAD DOWN HERE.

Family Guy, “Spies Reminiscent of Us,” 2009 (normal voice):
I’m John Wayne
A Serious Man, 2009 CLIVE: (HEAVILY ACCENTED)
Dr. Gopnik, I believe
the results
of the physics midterm
were unjust.
The Office, “Stress Relief: Part 1,” 2009 (IN BRITISH ACCENT)
A throne for your highness.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010 (IN SLOW-MOTION) Wow!
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010 (WHISPERS) Don’t go!
Avatar, 2009 (GENTLY) Shh.
Easy. Easy.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, 2007 (sobbing):
Sheriff.

(sobbing deeply):
She’s dead! She’s dead . . .

Avatar, 2009 (DISTANTLY) He’s in.
Jake, can you hear me?
Family Guy, “Family Goy,” 2010 ANNOUNCER 2 (bored):
And Meg.
The Big Year, 2011 (UNENTHUSIASTICALLY) Yay!
American Dad, “Great Space Roaster,” 2010 (voice wavering):
Why? Why would you do this?
Elysium, 2013 [ROBOTICALLY]
No, I am okay, thank you.

[IN NORMAL VOICE] Understood.

Source: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “Mac’s Banging the Waitress,” 2008. Cable TV (Comedy Central). Featured caption: (drunken slurring): It’s a little late, isn’t it?

Source: District 9, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: “WIKUS [IN DISTORTED VOICE]: Cut some cake.” Note that this caption is ambiguous, because Wikus is not repeating this line aloud but most likely hearing it echo inside his head as he becomes increasingly ill.

Source: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010. DVD. Featured caption: “(DISTORTED)
Who do you think you are, Pilgrim?”

Source: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, 2007. DVD. Featured caption: “DARCY (electronically distorted): Sam? Sam?”

Source: An Education, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: “DAVID: (IN SILLY VOICE) And I’ll tell you what the first thing”

Source: Twilight: New Moon, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: “(IN BELLA’s VOICE) Gran, I’d like you to meet…” I was unable to extract a copy of this clip from the DVD with the official captions burned in. As a substitute, I manually added captions to this clip using the official DVD captions as the source.

Source: The Office, “Scott’s Tots,” 2009. Cable TV (TBS). Featured captions: Three examples of manner of speaking identifiers in which Dwight (Rainn Wilson) impersonates three other characters — e.g. “[imitating Stanley] THIS IS STANLEY HUDSON.”

Source: Family Guy, “Spies Reminiscent of Us,” 2009. Cable TV (Adult Swim). Featured caption: “(normal voice): I’m John Wayne.”

Source: A Serious Man, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: “CLIVE: (HEAVILY ACCENTED) Dr. Gopnik, I believe the results of the physics midterm were unjust.”

Source: The Office, “Stress Relief: Part 1,” 2009. DVD. Featured caption: “(IN BRITISH ACCENT) A throne for your highness.”

Source: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010. DVD. Featured caption: “(IN SLOW-MOTION) Wow!”

Source: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010. DVD. Featured caption: “(WHISPERS) Don’t go!”

Source: Avatar, 2009. DVD. A compilation of (GENTLY) and (SOFTLY) manner of speaking identifier, including:
(GENTLY) Shh. Easy. Easy.
(GENTLY) Come on, marine.
(SOFTLY) Whew.
(SOFTLY) I’ve already chosen.
NORM: (SOFTLY) Clear.

Source: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, 2007. DVD. Featured captions: “(sobbing): Sheriff” and “(sobbing deeply): She’s dead! She’s dead…”

Source: Avatar, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: “(DISTANTLY) He’s in. Jake, can you hear me?”

Source: Family Guy, “Family Goy,” 2009. Cable TV. Featured caption: “ANNOUNCER 2 (bored): And Meg.”

Source: The Big Year, 2011. DVD. Featured caption: “(UNENTHUSIASTICALLY) Yay!”

Source: American Dad, “Great Space Roaster,” 2010. Cable TV (Adult Swim). Featured caption: “(voice wavering): Why? Why would you do this?”

Source: Elysium, 2013. DVD. Featured captions: “[ROBOTICALLY] No, I am okay, thank you” and “[IN NORMAL VOICE] Understood.”

Bonus examples of manner identifiers

This clip from Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs includes a number of manner identifiers when the gang attempts to traverse a canyon filled with green, noxious fog that turns out to be a kind of laughing gas. The gas raises the pitch of each character’s voice, inducing fits of laughter. The manner identifiers include:

(IN SQUEAKY VOICE)
Hey! We’re not dead!

(IN SQUEAKY VOICE)
You sound ridiculous!

(IN HIGH-PITCHED VOICE)
It’s not poison. Huh?

CRASH: (IMITATING BUCK)
“Stop laughing, all of you!”

(IN HIGH-PITCHED VOICE)
“What’s rule number one?”

(IN SQUEAKY VOICE)
We’re all gonna die!

Of particular interest here are the ways in which these manner identifiers are front-loaded onto the captioned speech. Even when characters have multiple speaking turns, one manner identifier is used for the entire sequence of that character’s turns. Put another way, each character is given one squeaky-voice manner identifier for the entire scene. This manner identifier accompanies the first speaking turn of the inflected speech. Even when the scene turns to the characters on the canyon edge who are not affected by the gas, no additional manner identifiers are used when the scene returns to the helium-voiced characters again. As described in chapter 8, front-loading is standard in closed captioning, requiring readers to rely on memory and visual cues to interpret long sequences of turns in the absence of additional manner identifiers.

Source: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, 2009. DVD.

Heavily accented speech in A Serious Man (2009).

Source: A Serious Man, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: “CLIVE: (HEAVILY ACCENTED) Dr. Gopnik, I believe the results of the physics midterm were unjust.”

Colloquial and informal forms of captioned speech.

Source: Django Unchained, 2012. DVD. Featured caption: “[laughs] That’s ’cause you knows what I like.”

Source: Django Unchained, 2012. DVD. Featured captions: “But, not pointin’ any fingers,
they coulda been done better. So how ’bout no bags this time”

Source: Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, 2013. DVD. Featured captions: “That’s kind of scary to me. I’m gonna tell you why” and “‘Cause I know I’m not gonna like the guy.”

Source: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: “(IN SQUEAKY VOICE) We’re all gonna die!”

Source: Silver Linings Playbook, 2012. DVD. Featured captions: “You know, I’m gonna start a restaurant. It’s gonna be a cheesesteak place” and “[Pat] How you gonna pay for it?”

Source: Lost in Translation, 2003. DVD. Featured caption: “And it’s not like you’re not tryin’.”

Source: Lost in Translation, 2003. DVD. Featured caption: “You don’t think he sounds kinda goofy?” and “Well, I been takin’ it to some next level shit” and “You know what I’m sayin’?”

Source: Beasts of the Southern Wild, 2012. DVD. Featured captions: “Y’all better think about that because any day now…” and “Y’all better learn how to survive now.”

Source: The Faculty, 1998. DVD. Featured caption: “Get outta here.”

Colloquial and informal forms in a presidential speech and a Kevin Hart comedy routine.

The White House’s official YouTube channel draws from the official speech transcripts to generate a closed caption file. In this clip from the end of President Obama’s 2011 speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Awards Dinner, the speech captions follow standard written English (i.e. no g-dropping).

Source: Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, 2013. DVD. Featured captions include a number of examples of informal but conventional forms: ’cause, wanna, gonna, I’mma, Y’all.

Madeline Kahn’s faux German accent in Blazing Saddles (1974).

Source: Blazing Saddles, 1974. Cable TV (AMC). The clip include a number of examples of captioned rhotacistic speech, including “OHH, A WED WOSE.”

Barry Kripke’s rhotacistic speech patterns in The Big Bang Theory (2012).

Source: Big Bang theory, “The Beta Test Initiation,” 2012. DVD. The clip includes captioned rhotacistic speech from Apple’s speech recognition technology (Siri), including: “I don’t understand ‘wecommend a westauwant.'”

Captioned accents, especially Jar Jar Bink’s, in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999).

Star Wars: Episode 1—The Phantom Menace (1999) is chock full of ethnic characters, racial stereotypes, and accents: the British-sounding Jedi (namely Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan), the East Asian-inspired Neimoidian of the Trade Federation, a number of droid/robot voices, the Emperor’s deep and gravelly voice, the Caribbean-sounding Jar Jar Binks, and the Jewish merchant named Watto. All of these accents (and more) are presented in the first eleven minutes of the film. In a withering critique of the film in The Village Voice, J. Hoberman (1999) describes the Neimoidian as “fish faces [that] talk like Fu Manchu,” the “Third World” Jar Jar as “a rabbit-eared ambulatory lizard whose pidgin English degenerates from pseudo-Caribbean patois to Teletubby gurgle,” and Watto as “the hook-nosed merchant” who is “the most blatant ethnic stereotype.” But only Jar Jar’s dialect is marked in the closed captions (unless we count Yoda’s famously inverted grammar and one or two unusual English words in Watto’s captioned speech, such as “thee”). Every other character is represented in the captions in neutral, standard English. By contrast, Jar Jar’s speech captions reflect a colorful, ethnic patois through phonetic spellings and nonstandard grammar.

Source: Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, 1999. DVD. In this clip, some of the speech captions for Jar Jar Binks are presented with phonetic, nonstandard spellings.

Source: Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, 1999. DVD. In this clip, a variety of accents are available to listeners but not captioned: the British-sounding Jedi (played by a British and Scottish actor), the East Asian-inspired Neimoidian, and a female robot voice. The speech is presented to caption readers in standard written English.

Source: Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, 1999. DVD. In this clip, the speech of Watto the merchant is featured. According to J. Hoberman (1999), “the most blatant ethnic stereotype is the hook-nosed merchant insect who owns young Anakin.” But while Watto’s speech captions betray some special speaking patterns (e.g. he relies on “huh?” as a tag question) and old-fashioned words (e.g “thee,” “methinks”), the deeper function of his accent — to mimic the accent of a stereotypical Jewish merchant — is missing from the captions. As a result, the captions tend to resemble the formal speech of the other characters.

In the following clip, the iconic robot, C-3PO, voiced and played by British actor Anthony Daniels, appears for the first time in this prequel to the original trilogy. Daniels’ British accent became the perfect accompaniment for C-3PO’s personality. According to a 2014 article in Gizmodo:

Lucas originally believed that C-3PO should talk like a “sort of a used-car dealer, a fast-talking guy with an American accent.” Lucas soon realized that an English accent, like the one possessed by Daniels, accompanied C-3PO’s constant “eyebrow-raised” skepticism perfectly. Lucas had found the man inside of the gold robot that would help the Jedi save the Star Wars universe.

How C-3PO talks — i.e. like a British skeptic instead of an American used car dealer — is not available to caption readers, which results, as I argue throughout this book, in a flattening of vocal differences and a tendency to represent speech in standard English captions. In short, for caption readers C-3PO’s personality is not reinforced through Daniel’s British accent.

Source: Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, 1999. DVD. Featuring the speech of the iconic robot, C-3PO. The robot’s British accent is not captioned.

When phonetic information is needed but missing in the captions.

When phonetic information is needed but missing in the captions, the oversight can be significant. In the “Margaritaville” episode of South Park (2009), Stan (voiced by Trey Parker) attempts to return a fancy drink mixer to Sur La Table (a store specializing in cookware and kitchen products). In the scene’s running gag, the store employee not only pronounces the store’s name with a French accent as expected (table is pronounced tah-bluh), but every English word with an L-sound ending is treated as French too: cable is pronounced cah-bluh, doable is do-ah-bluh, able is ah-bluh, improbable is improba-bluh, and so on. But the captions play it straight, in standard English, and as a result cut caption readers off from the only gag in the scene.

Source: South Park, “Margaritaville,” 2009. Cable TV (Comedy Central). The speech captions in this clip fail to indicate the special way in which words that end in able are pronounced with an exaggerated French accent.

Source: Family Guy, “Dog Gone,” 2009. DVD. The speech captions for PETA and Peter do not make it clear that Lois pronounces both words in exactly the same way (as “PEE-tah”). As a result, readers who depend on captions are cut off from this Abbott and Costello style back-and-forth.

Onomatopoeia.

Source: Man of Steel, 2013. DVD. Featured caption: Ragh!

Consider example 3 on the Captioning Key’s “sound effects” page, in which a motorboat sound is captioned as both [engine idling] and [rrrrr]. The former tethers the sound to a meaningful visual context while the latter floats free without the former to anchor it. The visual context may help us determine that [rrrrr] refers to the engine sound, but we still won’t know for sure what [rrrrr] means without the assistance of [engine idling]. Is the engine in distress (like a growl sound) or merely idling?

A fisherman in chest waders stands on the side of a small commercial fishing boat. The captions: [engine idling] and rrrrr

Figure 8.2. Particles such as “mmm-mmm” and “mm-hmm” are easy to confuse when captioned and read quickly.

This frame from Orange is the New Black features an over-the-shoulder shot of Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) speaking to Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling). Both Alex’s statement and Piper’s response occupy the same caption: “ Well, you’re not in the SHU.” “Mmm-mmm.” Netflix, 2013.

Source: Orange is the New Black, “Tall Men with Feelings,” 2013. Netflix. Featured caption: “Mmm-mmm,” a particle that stands for “no” in this scene.

In an episode of Orange is the New Black (“Can’t Fix Crazy”), thirteen visually similar particles have a range of different meanings.

A collection of thirteen frames from an episode of Orange is the New Black, each of which includes an example of a different particle: hmm, mmm, mmm-hmm, or mmm-mmm.

Particle Meaning
Hmm. Warden Figueroa touches John’s leg. Meaning: John expresses slight surprise.
Mmm. Larry’s mom acknowledges her son. Meaning: Yes or Ok.
Mmm. Lorna prefaces her response with an affirming vocalization or intensifier. Meaning: Yes.
Hmm. Lorna prefaces her response with a half-hearted affirmation. Meaning: Okay.
Mmm. One of Daya’s fellow inmates responds affirmatively. Meaning: Yes (but qualified immediately after).
Mmm-hmm. The other inmates at the table affirm Black Cindy’s statement. Meaning: Yes.
Mmm-hmm. Piper’s “yes” to Black Cindy’s question.
Mmm-mmm. Black Cindy affirms her “No.”
Hmm. Pennsatucky thinks before responding to a question from Piper.
Mmm. Pennsatucky vocalizes while cutting her palm with a razor blade. Her “mmm” sound seems to suggest pleasure or a low grunt of pain and determination.
Hmm Pennsatucky prefaces her statement with a vocalization that means something like yes or indeed.
Hmm? Pennsatucky follows her question with a vocalized restatement.
Mmm-hmm. Sister Ingalls responds affirmatively to Sophia. Meaning: Yes.

Despite having the clearest meanings, “mmm-hmm” (for yes) and “mmm-mmm” (for no) are also easily confused visually in the fast-paced reading environments of closed captioning.

In contrast, both “hmm” and “mmm” permit a wider range of meanings. “Hmm” can signify surprise, thoughtfulness, or a request for a response from the listener (when accompanied by a question mark). With “mmm,” the speaker acknowledges the other, expresses pain or pleasure, intensifies her response (when used as an opening particle), or simply affirms what the other speaker has said.

Reordering the same collection of particles by type:

Hmm. — Slight startle or surprise.
Hmm. — Half-hearted affirmation.
Hmm. — Thinking.
Hmm — Intensifier.
Hmm? — Question.

Mmm. — Acknowledgement.
Mmm. — Intensifier.
Mmm. — Affirmation.
Mmm. — Pleasure or a low grunt of pain and determination.

Mmm-hmm. — Yes.
Mmm-hmm. — Yes.
Mmm-hmm. — Yes.

Mmm-mmm. — No.

Source: Bob’s Burgers, “Sheesh Cab, Bob,” 2011. Cable TV (Adult Swim). The clip features a number of particles expressed by Bob (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin) as Tina (voiced by Dan Mintz) speaks: mm-hmm (yes), mm ( listening or not sure), mmm-mm (no), hmm ( listening or not sure).

Source: Sons of Anarchy, “Seeds,” 2008. DVD. On early seasons of Sons of Anarchy on DVD, the spoken abbreviation for San Joaquin is captioned as “Sanwa,” a phonetic translation that, like [rrrrr], is highly ambiguous, the result of a misguided attempt to convey what the sound sounds like while disregarding what the sound means.

Language IDs in Inglourious Basterds

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. An example of two tracks interacting, English subtitles and closed captions. In this case, (SPEAKING GERMAN) is repeated for each speaker’s turn in the whiskey order, while the hard-coded subtitles at the bottom of the screen provide an English translation.

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. An example of a more complex Language ID to complement the English subtitle track: (ALL TOASTING IN GERMAN).

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: (SPEAKING FRENCH AND GERMAN). An ambiguous Language ID that doesn’t make it clear which words in the English subtitles are spoken in French and which are spoken in German. The speaker prefaces her German speech with the French “mon chéri,” but this isn’t clear from the caption.

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: (USHER CONTINUES ANNOUNCING IN GERMAN). An example of a more complex Language ID that is not accompanied by any subtitles. The usher’s speech continues off-screen. In the absence of English subtitles, we are supposed to assume that the usher is simply repeating some version of what he said at the beginning of this clip: that the show is about to start.

Table 8.2. Examples of unsubtitled foreign speech in Inglourious Basterds.

This speech is only identified in the closed captions with a language identifier and a description of the speech act. Universal Pictures, 2009. DVD.

Timestamp Speech (not subtitled) Caption
0:10:52 Oui. (AGREES IN FRENCH)
0:13:26 Merci. (THANKING IN FRENCH)
0:15:25 Oui. (AGREES IN FRENCH)
0:46:37 Au revoir. (SAYING GOODBYE IN FRENCH)
1:54:59 Arrivederci. (ALL SAYING GOODBYE IN ITALIAN)
2:00:21 Voila (SPEAKING FRENCH)

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: (AGREES in FRENCH), which accompanies the French speech “Oui,” but this speech is not subtitled in English.

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: (THANKING in FRENCH), which accompanies the French speech “Merci,” but this speech is not subtitled in English.

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. Another example of (AGREES in FRENCH), which accompanies the French speech “Oui” or “Ouais,” but this speech is not subtitled in English.

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: (SAYING GOODBYE IN FRENCH), which accompanies the French speech “Au revoir,” but this speech is not subtitled in English.

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: (ALL SAYING GOODBYE IN ITALIAN), which accompanies the French speech “Arrivederci,” but this speech is not subtitled in English.

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. Featured caption: (SPEAKING FRENCH), which accompanies the French speech “Voila,” but this speech is not subtitled in English.

The producers likely didn’t subtitle these common expressions because they expected listeners to have a working knowledge of some basic foreign terms like “voila,” “oui,” “merci,” and “arrivederci.” For the same reason, these foreign terms, “merci” in particular, show up occasionally and intentionally in the English subtitles. According to IMDb’s “Goofs” page for Inglourious Basterds, “Many of the subtitling ‘errors,’ such as ‘Merci’ instead of ‘Thank You,’ are intentional, given that these phrases are interchangeable and can be understood without English translation.” Widely recognizable foreign terms need to be transcribed directly, not described with a closed caption such as (AGREES IN FRENCH) that removes readers from direct access to the meaning.

Source: Inglourious Basterds, 2009. DVD. An example of a foreign term (“Oui”) that is included in the English subtitles.

Foreign speech captioned verbatim in English language closed captioning.

Source: Witches of East End, 2009. Cable TV (Lifetime). An example of non-English speech that is captioned verbatim in the English closed captions: “Mysticum flamma aperire pictura.”

Source: Family Guy, “We Love you, Conrad,” 2009. Netflix. An example of non-English speech that is captioned verbatim in the English closed captions: “Je voudrais le petit chèvre fondue à la provençale / et le gigot d’agneau bourguignon, s’il vous plaît.”

Source: Taco Bell commercial, 2013. Cable TV. An example of non-English speech that is captioned verbatim in the English closed captions, including the repeating chorus: “♪ Me encanta cuando me llamas grande papi . . . ♪.”

Source: Supernatural, “Rock and a Hard Place,” 2013. Cable TV (The CW). An example of non-English speech that is captioned verbatim in the English closed captions:”¿ERES UN CHICO MALO?”

Table 8.3. Foreign speech captioned with language identifiers only.

Too often, when short snippets of foreign speech aren’t already subtitled in English-language programming, captions can only be counted on to offer a summary of the foreign speech such as (SPEAKING FRENCH). In all of the examples in table 8.3, a language ID takes the place of an uncaptioned and unsubtitled foreign term or expression.Every one of these captions misses the point of the foreign speech by describing the language being spoken instead of captioning the verbatim foreign speech itself.

Source Speech (not subtitled) Caption
The Office, “Stress Relief” Part 1, 2009 Om. Om. Om. Om (CHANTING IN SANSKRIT)
The Big Bang Theory, “The Fish Guts Displacement,” 2012 Mazel tov. [SPEAKS IN HEBREW]
Moneyball, 2011 – Hola, senor.
– Hola.
[BOTH SPEAK IN SPANISH]
Cloud Atlas, 2012 Ma chère.
Ma chère?
[CAVENDISH SPEAKS IN FRENCH], [SPEAKS IN FRENCH]
The Office, “Stress Relief” Part 2, 2009 ¡Me das una úlcera cada vez que me despierto y tengo que venir a trabajar para ti, para ti! (YELLING IN SPANISH)
Cabin in the Woods, 2012 Dolor supervivo caro, dolor supplemus caro, dolor ignio animus. (STARTS READING), (READING IN LATIN)
Groundhog Day, 1993 La fille que j’aimera/ Sera comme bon vin/ Qui se bonifiera/ Un peu chaque matin. (SPEAKING FRENCH), (SPEAKING FRENCH), (SPEAKING FRENCH)
The Internship, 2013 Vaya con Dios, mi amor. Porque está bravo en Barcelona y fantástico. (SPEAKING SPANISH)
Parks and Recreation, “Sweet Sixteen,” 2012 Sprechen sie. Platz. Steh auf. [speaks German], [speaking German]

Source: The Office, “Stress Relief Part 1,” 2009. DVD. An example of a language identifier (CHANTING IN SANSKRIT) that is substituted for a direct transcription of the unsubtitled foreign speech (“Om. Om. Om. Om”).

Source: The Big Bang Theory, “The Fish Guts Displacement,” 2012. DVD. An example of a language identifier [SPEAKS IN HEBREW] that is substituted for a direct transcription of the unsubtitled foreign speech (“Mazel tov”).

Source: Moneyball, 2011. Cable TV (FX). An example of a language identifier [BOTH SPEAK IN SPANISH] that is substituted for a direct transcription of the unsubtitled foreign speech (“Hola, senor” and “Hola”).

Source: Cloud Atlas, 2012. DVD. Examples of language identifiers — [CAVENDISH SPEAKS IN FRENCH] and [SPEAKS IN FRENCH] — that are substituted for a direct transcription of the unsubtitled foreign speech (“Ma chère” and “Ma chère?”).

Source: The Office, “Stress Relief Part 2,” 2009. DVD. An example of a language identifier (YELLING IN SPANISH) that is substituted for a direct transcription of the unsubtitled foreign speech (“¡Me das una úlcera cada vez que me despierto y tengo que venir a trabajar para ti, para ti!”).

Source: Cabin in the Woods, 2012. DVD. Examples of language identifiers — (STARTS READING) and (READING IN LATIN) — that are substituted for a direct transcription of the unsubtitled foreign speech (“Dolor supervivo caro, dolor supplemus caro, dolor ignio animus”).

Source: Groundhog Day, 1993. Amazon Prime. Examples of language identifiers — (SPEAKING FRENCH) repeated three times — that are substituted for a direct transcription of the unsubtitled foreign speech (“La fille que j’aimera/ Sera comme bon vin/ Qui se bonifiera/ Un peu chaque matin”).

Source: The Internship, 2013. DVD. An example of a language identifier (SPEAKING SPANISH) that is substituted for a direct transcription of the unsubtitled foreign speech (“Vaya con Dios, mi amor. Porque está bravo en Barcelona y fantástico”).

Source: Parks and Recreation, “Sweet Sixteen,” 2012. Cable TV (WGN). Examples of language identifiers — [speaks German] and [speaking German] — that are substituted for a direct transcription of the unsubtitled foreign speech (“Sprechen sie. Platz. Steh auf.”).

Inconsistent language identifiers in Argo.

Source: Argo, 2012. DVD. Featured captions: [MAN SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE OVER PA] and [CHATTERING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

Source: Argo, 2012. DVD. Featured captions: [SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE], [OFFICER SPEAKS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE], and [SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE].

Source: Argo, 2012. DVD. Featured captions: [SPEAKING IN FARSI] and [SPEAKS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE].

Source: Argo, 2012. DVD. Featured captions: [BOTH SPEAK IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE], which stands in for the unsubtitled exchange of “salâm.”

Language identifiers that reduce the world to Us and Them in 2012 (2009) and Man of Steel (2013).

Source: 2012, 2009. Cable TV (FX). Featured captions: [WOMAN 1 SPEAKING IN SPANISH OVER SPEAKERS], [MAN 2 SPEAKING IN RUSSIAN OVER SPEAKERS], [WOMAN 2 SPEAKING IN ITALIAN OVER SPEAKERS], and “WOMAN 3 [OVER SPEAKERS]: All green-card holders, please proceed to Gallery D-4.”

Source: Man of Steel, 2013. DVD. Featured caption (repeated four times): [ZOD SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE ON TV].

Language identifiers that are mediated through the hero’s spoken translation in True Lies (1994).

Source: True Lies, 1994. Cable TV. Featured caption: [SPEAKING ARABIC].

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