jamacuco

21:59 Jan 11, 2019 

Yes, on reflection, the article is probably symptomatic of modern journalism where outrage is often manufactured from whole cloth on these types of cultural differences.
To your point on snobbery against non-British English: you even see it here too; though I often sense it's more down to anti-imperialist sentiment against the US.
"Intralingual translation" - that's handy!

08:03 Jan 11, 2019 

Glad you liked it!

I'm a fan of Cuarón and I'm looking forward to seeing Roma in the cinema: it still hasn't been premiered where I live (pesky distribution companies). I agree that his reaction to this was a bit OTT, but maybe it was put to him in a deliberately provocative way to elicit a good quote. And the journalist has understandably picked out a few mockable details in the intralingual translation (I learned that word recently!).

What raised hackles here was clearly the perceived implication that "neutral Spanish" means European Spanish. Not that that was what those responsible here claimed or intended, I think, and I think their intentions were honourable (helping people to enjoy the film): but of course there is an aymmetry, as we all know; there are those in Spain who think theirs is "proper" Spanish: a lingering residue of imperialism, some might say. The same phenomenon certainly occurs in English, of course, and you even see it here occasionally.

I remember that I found the Bogotá Spanish of La estrategia del caracol (a wonderful film) quite tough going and would have been grateful for subtitles (just a transcription, not a translation)!

05:58 Jan 11, 2019 

I hadn't seen that. It's quite an overreaction on the part of Cuarón; I'm not sure why he should care particularly. Perhaps he's trying to live up to his auteur status.

I don't see any problem with subtitling language variants, and I've certainly seen it done it in the UK with some variants, for example, Jamaican, or even Glaswegian or Geordie, though it's still unusual.

Having said that, it looks like the "translation" here went to some rather ridiculous extremes (translating "mamá" to "madre"), but the mistake made with "ganchitos" (for "gansitos") paradoxically shows that a translation was necessary because the translator clearly didn't know what it meant :-)

Thanks for the link!

17:33 Jan 10, 2019 

... my point about its similarity in usage to "wobbly/wobbler" and similar terms for a "funny turn" :-)

12:20 Jan 10, 2019 

Just as a side comment, jamacuco would never be used in a formal (medical) text. Although it is true that the term is accepted by neurologists it only means that doctors do understand it when a patient says le dio un jamacuco y se quedó con el brazo a la virulé but not that they would use it as such. That is why to have a fit does probably fit better than to suffer a seizure...