The aesthetics of isochrony and literal synchrony in voice-over translation

Abstract

Voice-over translation is characterised by some technical synchronic features (isochrony, literal synchrony, action synchrony, kinetic synchrony, content synchrony and character synchrony). From these, isochrony and literal synchrony contribute to the illusion of authenticity and realism with what is called sound bites (a time span in the target version in which we only hear the original voice, and which can occur at the beginning and/or at the end of the speaker’s intervention). In our study, after analysing a corpus made up of different voiced-over programmes using speech analysis software and a spreadsheet, we have seen that the average duration of sound bites differs from that stated by the scholarly tradition both in terms of seconds and number of words. In addition, we also analysed samples that show no literal synchrony to see how and whether the rendition success of those parts could be affected. The results confirm that sound bites and literal synchrony are aesthetic enhancers which provide voice-over with an authenticity feel that makes it, for some scholars, the most faithful and reliable audiovisual translation mode.