ALESSIA VALLONE
MATR. 4312402547
Presentation
Never have i ever & the lion king II
START
NEVER HAVE I EVER (Kabir Akhtar)
MAIN INFORMATION YEARS: 2020-2023 SEASONS: 1-4 GENRE: Comedy, Teen Drama SETTING: Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California
PLOT: It’s a teen comedy which sees as its main character the brilliant but impulsive Devi Vishwakumar, an Indo-American girl, who’s trying to rebuild her life after her father’s death. Between complicated friendships, family dramas and first loves, Devi faces teen challenges with her particular humor and lots of fools. This TV series explores cultural identities, mourning and personal growth. SCENE: Season 1, Episode 4, minute 5:18 During an Indian cultural event in Sherman Oaks (clearly a diglossic environment), Ganesh Puja, attended by Devi, Kamala and Nalini, Devi is surrounded by a group of «Indian Aunties» - «older Indian women who have no blood relationship to you, but are allowed to have opinions about your life and all your shortcomings, and you have to be nice to them because you are Indian» - and they immediately start to ask intrusive questions about every single aspect of Devi’s life.
Contents
LINGUISTIC FEATURES
AMERICAN ENGLISH
The two prevailing languages within the scene are American English, used by Devi and the narrator, and Indian English, conversely used by Nalini, Kamala and the Aunties. As they’re talking, it’s clearly audible the stark difference between them. The first thing which hits our ear is the use of the word «Aunties», which basically represents two IE features, kinship term and lexical borrowing from AE to IE .
INDIAN ENGLISH
TAMIL
other features
DUBBING AND SUBTITLING (ITALIAN VERSION)
In the first season, those involved in dubbing and subtitling face some tough linguistic challenges, because they have to translate slang and sarcasm on one hand, and Indian english or Tamil terms on the other.
Gottlieb explains which are the possible translation strategies of ECRs, which are widely present in the series such as Devi is indoamerican. For instance, in the celebration Ganesh Puja the strategy used is retention, it just stays the same. Even when the typical Indian clothing Sari is nominated, it's maintained just as it is.
Bruti analyses some common strategies used to translate certain varieties, which cannot be transferred into italian; dubbing adopts compensatory solutions that preserve character identity, social marking, and humorous effects.
1 Compensation: this strategy involves using regional Italian accents or dialects to reproduce the effect of foreign accents, sociolects, or non-standard varieties.2 Rendering of humour: this strategy deals with adapting humorous elements using substitution, reformulation, or Italian-based wordplay to recreate the same humorous effect.
Info
Info
THE LION KING 2: SIMBA’S PRIDE (Darrell Rooney)
MAIN INFORMATION YEAR: 1998 GENRE: Animation, Dramatic, Musical, Adventure SETTING: African Savannah
PLOT: Being the Lion King’s sequel, this film tells the story of Kiara, Simba and Nala’s daughter, and the story of her forbidden love for Kovu, a young lion, growth between exiled lions, Scar followers. Despite the hatred between the two rival factions, these two lovers try to combine different worlds separated by past faults. Consequently this piece is about forgive, unity and love against obstacles. SCENE: Minute 24:57 In the scene, Rafiki receives a sort of «spiritual vision» by Mufasa, as happens in the first film; neverthless Mufasa doesn’t appear physically, being that he was already dead, but Rafiki lets himself be driven by Mufasa’s voice with wisdom. The lion king communicates that Kiara and Kovu’s love is the key to reunite the two herds and moreover to restore balance into Pride Lands. Unlike Mufasa, Rafiki doesn’t think this plan is gonna work, but he trusts him so deeply, consequentely he agrees.
LINGUISTIC FEATURES
other features
The scene is characterised by the use of a language which is a mixture of many different languages, such as AAVE, swahili and zulu. The latter ones, used to be vernacular languages, however nowdays they are standardised; the actual vernacular language is AAVE. The way he speaks isn’t neither linear nor rational: he uses short and enigamtic sentences, in a particular theatrical tone with sing-song rhythm, to connect with the oral african tradition.
SOCIOLINGUISTIC FEATURES
In the hollywood environment, AAVE, is often used to build an eccentric and funny personality. Rafiki is the wise old man or African mandrill, but he’s also a little «crazy» and comical. The use of AAVE contributes to make the mandrill more charismatic, neverthless it risks to reduce him to stereotype, considering he’s the «sorcerer» of the village. Consequently the choice to include this character in the film, has generated a debate as to wether Disney mixed real African cultural elements, with African American depictions without much cultural coherence. This use of AAVE could be seen as an expression of cultural appropriation, taking a way of speaking with precise historical roots (related to African American diaspora) for an African character without any context. We can all agree on the fact that the story, even being set in Africa, is filtered through a Western look.
DUBBING (ITALIAN VERSION)
As it usually happens with italian translation of Dinsey movies, every marked ethnic accent is removed and substituted with a standard italian. The aim is to avoid non-applevant cultural connotations for the 90s italian audience; still the Swahili expressions are kept exactly the same.
Since the Italian dub removes the original African accent, it compensates by using a more theatrical, mystical tone, lots of pauses and vocal sounds and enigmatic, proverb-like phrasing. Moreover there is an effort to keep one of Rafiki's linguistic signature which is his particular wise tone.
REFERENCES
Filmography - Kabir Akhtar (2020-2023) Never Have I Ever - Darrell Rooney (1998) The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride Bibliography - Bleichenbacher, L. (2008). Multilingualism in the Movies: Hollywood Characters and Their Language Choices. - Mareš, P. (1994). Translation of Dialects in Fictional Texts. - Corrius, M. & Zabalbeascoa, P. (2011). Language variation in source texts and their translations: The case of L3 in film translation. - Bruti, S. (2009). Translating Culture-Bound Elements in Subtitling. - Gottlieb, H. (2009). Subtitling against the current: Danish concepts, English terms and academic definitions. - Course Reader: Multilingualism and Varieties of English on Screen.
The end!
INDIAN ENGLISH
Tamil and Indian English are means to achieve the same goal. But the last one is used to build the characterstic humor of the series, moreover it’s a mean to humanize Indian characters, avoiding flattening on American model. Furthermore the inclusion of IE lends credibility to the representation of the diaspora, reflecting a common situation of immigrant families.
TAMIL
Spoken by Nalini, means belonging to the cultural roots of South India; consequently it represents intergeneretional continuity. Nalini often uses Tamil to reproach Devi, but she always answers in english, signaling distance between different generations.
DUBBING
in the dubbed version, indian english is translated into standard italian, consequently losing the original linguistic diversity.
SUBTITLING
Meanwhile the subbed version maintains the original meaning using shorter sentences adapted to fit the subtitling limits: a maximum of two lines which means that a subtitle can reach around 70–84 characters in total, but never 80 characters on a single line.
OTHER FEATURES
- Retroflextion -> beautiful
- Rhoticity (trill) -> more, proud (even the word Rafiki has an «r» more marked)
- Th-stoppping -> things, think
- Auxiliary have deletion -> "you been up there" (there is the omission of the verb have)
- Code swtching from AAVE to Swahili -> «Asante Sana», «Hakuna Matata»
SOCIOLINGUISTIC FEATUES
In Never Have I Ever can be observed the use of multiple languages as American English, Indian english and Tamil, which is an Indian language.
AMERICAN ENGLISHIs the language used by Devi, who is born and growth in America, as a mean of communication in different american social environnements or situations.
OTHER FEATURES
- Rhoticity (trill) -> everyday
- Retroflextion -> «what a miracle!»
- Dental fricatives -> In words like theatre and through, the «th» sound is replaced with «t» sound
- Absence of aspriration -> consonants «p,t,k» are often unaspirated. Ex. «two Mercedes»
- Code switching -> from Indian e. to American e. and vice-versa
- Tone -> casual and yet respectful
- Mares’ evocation -> Aunties’ indian accent suggests they actually speak Indian
Never have i ever & the lion king II
Alessia Vallone
Created on November 4, 2025
Start designing with a free template
Discover more than 1500 professional designs like these:
View
Urban Illustrated Presentation
View
Snow Presentation
View
Corporate Christmas Presentation
View
Historical Presentation
View
Scary Eighties Presentation
View
Memories Presentation
View
Winter Presentation
Explore all templates
Transcript
ALESSIA VALLONE
MATR. 4312402547
Presentation
Never have i ever & the lion king II
START
NEVER HAVE I EVER (Kabir Akhtar)
MAIN INFORMATION YEARS: 2020-2023 SEASONS: 1-4 GENRE: Comedy, Teen Drama SETTING: Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California
PLOT: It’s a teen comedy which sees as its main character the brilliant but impulsive Devi Vishwakumar, an Indo-American girl, who’s trying to rebuild her life after her father’s death. Between complicated friendships, family dramas and first loves, Devi faces teen challenges with her particular humor and lots of fools. This TV series explores cultural identities, mourning and personal growth. SCENE: Season 1, Episode 4, minute 5:18 During an Indian cultural event in Sherman Oaks (clearly a diglossic environment), Ganesh Puja, attended by Devi, Kamala and Nalini, Devi is surrounded by a group of «Indian Aunties» - «older Indian women who have no blood relationship to you, but are allowed to have opinions about your life and all your shortcomings, and you have to be nice to them because you are Indian» - and they immediately start to ask intrusive questions about every single aspect of Devi’s life.
Contents
LINGUISTIC FEATURES
AMERICAN ENGLISH
The two prevailing languages within the scene are American English, used by Devi and the narrator, and Indian English, conversely used by Nalini, Kamala and the Aunties. As they’re talking, it’s clearly audible the stark difference between them. The first thing which hits our ear is the use of the word «Aunties», which basically represents two IE features, kinship term and lexical borrowing from AE to IE .
INDIAN ENGLISH
TAMIL
other features
DUBBING AND SUBTITLING (ITALIAN VERSION)
In the first season, those involved in dubbing and subtitling face some tough linguistic challenges, because they have to translate slang and sarcasm on one hand, and Indian english or Tamil terms on the other.
Gottlieb explains which are the possible translation strategies of ECRs, which are widely present in the series such as Devi is indoamerican. For instance, in the celebration Ganesh Puja the strategy used is retention, it just stays the same. Even when the typical Indian clothing Sari is nominated, it's maintained just as it is.
Bruti analyses some common strategies used to translate certain varieties, which cannot be transferred into italian; dubbing adopts compensatory solutions that preserve character identity, social marking, and humorous effects.
1 Compensation: this strategy involves using regional Italian accents or dialects to reproduce the effect of foreign accents, sociolects, or non-standard varieties.2 Rendering of humour: this strategy deals with adapting humorous elements using substitution, reformulation, or Italian-based wordplay to recreate the same humorous effect.
Info
Info
THE LION KING 2: SIMBA’S PRIDE (Darrell Rooney)
MAIN INFORMATION YEAR: 1998 GENRE: Animation, Dramatic, Musical, Adventure SETTING: African Savannah
PLOT: Being the Lion King’s sequel, this film tells the story of Kiara, Simba and Nala’s daughter, and the story of her forbidden love for Kovu, a young lion, growth between exiled lions, Scar followers. Despite the hatred between the two rival factions, these two lovers try to combine different worlds separated by past faults. Consequently this piece is about forgive, unity and love against obstacles. SCENE: Minute 24:57 In the scene, Rafiki receives a sort of «spiritual vision» by Mufasa, as happens in the first film; neverthless Mufasa doesn’t appear physically, being that he was already dead, but Rafiki lets himself be driven by Mufasa’s voice with wisdom. The lion king communicates that Kiara and Kovu’s love is the key to reunite the two herds and moreover to restore balance into Pride Lands. Unlike Mufasa, Rafiki doesn’t think this plan is gonna work, but he trusts him so deeply, consequentely he agrees.
LINGUISTIC FEATURES
other features
The scene is characterised by the use of a language which is a mixture of many different languages, such as AAVE, swahili and zulu. The latter ones, used to be vernacular languages, however nowdays they are standardised; the actual vernacular language is AAVE. The way he speaks isn’t neither linear nor rational: he uses short and enigamtic sentences, in a particular theatrical tone with sing-song rhythm, to connect with the oral african tradition.
SOCIOLINGUISTIC FEATURES
In the hollywood environment, AAVE, is often used to build an eccentric and funny personality. Rafiki is the wise old man or African mandrill, but he’s also a little «crazy» and comical. The use of AAVE contributes to make the mandrill more charismatic, neverthless it risks to reduce him to stereotype, considering he’s the «sorcerer» of the village. Consequently the choice to include this character in the film, has generated a debate as to wether Disney mixed real African cultural elements, with African American depictions without much cultural coherence. This use of AAVE could be seen as an expression of cultural appropriation, taking a way of speaking with precise historical roots (related to African American diaspora) for an African character without any context. We can all agree on the fact that the story, even being set in Africa, is filtered through a Western look.
DUBBING (ITALIAN VERSION)
As it usually happens with italian translation of Dinsey movies, every marked ethnic accent is removed and substituted with a standard italian. The aim is to avoid non-applevant cultural connotations for the 90s italian audience; still the Swahili expressions are kept exactly the same.
Since the Italian dub removes the original African accent, it compensates by using a more theatrical, mystical tone, lots of pauses and vocal sounds and enigmatic, proverb-like phrasing. Moreover there is an effort to keep one of Rafiki's linguistic signature which is his particular wise tone.
REFERENCES
Filmography - Kabir Akhtar (2020-2023) Never Have I Ever - Darrell Rooney (1998) The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride Bibliography - Bleichenbacher, L. (2008). Multilingualism in the Movies: Hollywood Characters and Their Language Choices. - Mareš, P. (1994). Translation of Dialects in Fictional Texts. - Corrius, M. & Zabalbeascoa, P. (2011). Language variation in source texts and their translations: The case of L3 in film translation. - Bruti, S. (2009). Translating Culture-Bound Elements in Subtitling. - Gottlieb, H. (2009). Subtitling against the current: Danish concepts, English terms and academic definitions. - Course Reader: Multilingualism and Varieties of English on Screen.
The end!
INDIAN ENGLISH
Tamil and Indian English are means to achieve the same goal. But the last one is used to build the characterstic humor of the series, moreover it’s a mean to humanize Indian characters, avoiding flattening on American model. Furthermore the inclusion of IE lends credibility to the representation of the diaspora, reflecting a common situation of immigrant families.
TAMIL
Spoken by Nalini, means belonging to the cultural roots of South India; consequently it represents intergeneretional continuity. Nalini often uses Tamil to reproach Devi, but she always answers in english, signaling distance between different generations.
DUBBING
in the dubbed version, indian english is translated into standard italian, consequently losing the original linguistic diversity.
SUBTITLING
Meanwhile the subbed version maintains the original meaning using shorter sentences adapted to fit the subtitling limits: a maximum of two lines which means that a subtitle can reach around 70–84 characters in total, but never 80 characters on a single line.
OTHER FEATURES
SOCIOLINGUISTIC FEATUES
In Never Have I Ever can be observed the use of multiple languages as American English, Indian english and Tamil, which is an Indian language.
AMERICAN ENGLISHIs the language used by Devi, who is born and growth in America, as a mean of communication in different american social environnements or situations.
OTHER FEATURES