The Harry Potter series presents many challenges to translators, such as rhymes, acronyms, dialects, culture, riddles, jokes, invented words, and plot points that revolve around spellings or initials. These have been dealt with by various translators with different degrees of modification to the meaning of the original text.
Translation strategies The books carried a number of words that are considered
loaded names by linguists and translators, meaning that they carry a
semantic load, and that their
morphology (structure) and
phonology (sound) need to be adapted when translating them to a foreign language, for example the house names (Ravenclaw =
raven +
claw), or Voldemort's name ("flight of death" or "theft of death" in French). These words were translated in different countries using several translation strategies, such as
copying the names with no attempt to transmit the original English meaning,
transliterating even if the name lost its original meaning,
replacing the name with another given name from the target language, or
translating the name using native words that conveyed the same meaning. For example, in the Russian first book the transliterating strategy was used for some names because the "th" sound does not exist in Russian, so "Slytherin" was transliterated as "Slizerin". The translator of the second book chose the translating strategy instead, and she renamed the houses, "Hufflepuff" becoming "Puffendui" and "Ravenclaw" becoming "Kogtevran" (from the Russian word for claw, "kogot'"). In the Italian editions, the house names were changed to animal-colour pairings: Gryffindor is "Grifondoro" ("grifon d'oro" means "golden
griffin"), Slytherin is "Serpeverde" ("serpe verde" means "green snake"), Ravenclaw was, in the first edition of the first book, "Pecoranera" ("pecora nera", "black sheep"), but was then changed to "Corvonero" ("corvo nero", "black raven") and Hufflepuff is "Tassorosso" ("tasso rosso", "red badger") in the first translation and the films and "Tassofrasso" in the revisited translation. In the French translation, the name "Hogwarts" is changed to "Poudlard", which means "bacon lice", Nonstandard English present in the book also had to be given careful consideration. The character
Rubeus Hagrid's
West Country dialect, for example, needed to be rendered in other languages to reflect the fact that he speaks with an accent and uses particular types of slang. In the Japanese translation, he speaks in the
Tōhoku dialect, which to a Japanese reader conveys a similar provincial feel. The same was done in Ukrainian translation where Hagrid speaks a mixture of
Western Ukrainian dialects. In the Yiddish translation, translator Arun Viswanath attempted to mirror Rowling's use of regional British dialects using
Yiddish dialects. "I tried to transpose the wizarding world onto a map of the Yiddish-speaking world" — pre World War II — "without making the characters Jewish. Filch speaks in a thick Lithuanian Yiddish accent and doesn’t pronounce the 'sh' sound, so he says sabes instead of shabes, and Hagrid, who despises him and speaks a very distinct rural English, speaks in a thick, almost exaggerated Polish Yiddish. I thought this was a good approach because it helps show the tension between them. As for Snape and McGonagall, well, they’re Litvaks. They just are." However, the Hebrew translation left in place references to bacon despite reader complaints that such products violated the laws of
Kashrut, with the translator justifying it on the basis that the characters were not Jewish. As the Arabic translators were seeking to cater to religiously conservative readers, they also removed every reference to characters kissing, even on the cheek, and had them wave instead. The title of the seventh book,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, proved particularly difficult to translate into different languages. Rowling solved the problem by providing translators with an alternate title:
Harry Potter and the Relics of Death. This became the basis for most translations of the title. Languages with different word order than English presented challenges when a character begins speaking and is interrupted before finishing. For instance, in
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Ron Weasley asks his mother "Why in the name of Merlin's saggy left..." before his father cuts him off and scolds him for talking to her that way. In other languages, such as Hebrew, nouns come before modifier adjectives, but as it is never revealed what noun Ron intended to use, it proved difficult to translate without significant guesswork. One rhyme, a riddle told by a
sphinx in
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, posed a particular problem. The riddle involves taking words from a poem and using them to form a longer word, "spider," in answer to the riddle. In the Taiwanese translation, the English words are simply put in parentheses. In other translations, the riddle is changed to provide different words that can be put together to make up the translated version of "spider". Some acronyms also proved difficult; the abbreviations "O.W.L.s" (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) and "N.E.W.T.s" (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) needed to be translated to reflect the fact that their abbreviations spelled out the names of animals associated with the wizarding world, which did not always work in other languages. "N.E.W.T.s" was translated into Swedish as "F.U.T.T." (Fruktansvärt Utmattande Trollkarls-Test, Terribly Exhausting Wizard's Test). "Futt" means "measly" in Swedish.
Invented words, proper nouns, and names Rowling invented a great number of words and phrases for the books such as spells, incantations, magical words, items, and place names. Many of these words involve
word play, rhyming, and historical references that are difficult to translate. A large number of spells are drawn from or inspired by Latin, and have a certain resonance with English speakers due to its relatively large proportion of Latinate-derived vocabulary. For example,
priori incantatem (a spell which causes the last spells performed by a wand to be reproduced in reverse order) would be familiar to many English-speaking readers as the words
prior (previous) and
incantation (spell, charm). To create a similar effect in the Hindi version, the
Sanskrit, typical in
mantras, has been used for the spells. Some translators have created new words themselves; others have resorted to
transliteration. Names that involve word play, such as
Knockturn Alley and
Pensieve are also difficult to translate. In
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, when Professor McGonagall is about to introduce Harry to Oliver Wood, she asks another professor if she can "borrow Wood for a moment", momentarily confusing Harry. In order to retain this pun, the Yiddish translation renames Wood as "Oliver Holtz", "holtz" being the Yiddish for wood, In contrast, the Czech translator used the Old Czech word for bumblebee –
Brumbál (in modern Czech
čmelák). The French translation renamed Severus Snape as 'Rogue'; in Italian he was renamed "Piton" (from the Italian "pitone", "
python"). Hungarian also calls him "Piton". Instead, the same Italian translation changed the name of Professor Sybill Trelawney into "Sibilla Cooman", which resembles the Italian "Sibilla Cumana", the
Cumaean Sibyl, although, like many other names, it was brought back to the original in the revised translation.
Plot points In some cases, English-speaking fans have sought clues to the story's mysteries by examining the way certain parts of the books have been translated in foreign editions. A case in point is the identity of a character mentioned by initials only in the book
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The English initials R.A.B. could have belonged to several minor characters from the books, but variations on the initials in other languages gave evidence to the true identity of the mystery character: in the Dutch edition of the book R.A.B. was translated into R.A.Z., 'zwart' being Dutch for 'black'; in the Norwegian edition, R.A.B. translates to 'R.A.S.',
svart being Norwegian for 'black'; and in the Finnish edition the initials were R.A.M., 'musta' being Finnish for 'black'. Fans took this to mean that the character was
Regulus Black, the brother of
Sirius Black; when
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published, this was revealed to be the case. Similarly, the title for
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix did not make it obvious whether the word "Order" referred to a group of people or to a directive. The information that it was a group of people was then determined by viewing the title in other languages. The Vietnamese translation, which was originally published in instalments, originally interpreted "Order" as a directive and translated it as "Harry Potter và Mệnh lệnh Phượng hoàng"; when it became clear that "Order" referred to a group of people, the title was changed to "Harry Potter và Hội Phượng hoàng". Rowling released an alternative title for
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for use by translators finding difficulty translating its meaning. The alternative title (in English) is
Harry Potter and the Relics of Death. In Italy the title has been translated as
Harry Potter e i doni della morte replacing "hallows" with "presents" because the word "relic" is often used in reference to the remains or personal effects of a saint. This variation was proposed and then approved by J.K. Rowling.
Character gender A few characters in the series are identified with a title and last name, or with a gender-neutral name. In some languages—for example, those where adjectives are gendered—it was necessary for the translator to guess the character's gender. The Hebrew translation initially made Blaise Zabini a girl, though the character was revealed to be a boy in later books. == Notes ==