Harry Potter in Translation and Multilingualism(Cherry Lee)

 

The Harry Potter series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling have become some of the most widely read works of children's literature in history, with readers of all ages and in many countries. The books have been published in at least 70 distinct language versions. These versions are translated from original English version.

Just a part of all countries' versions

 

There are so many words using translation and transliteration.
Translation strategies

The books carried a number of words that are considered loaded names by linguists and translators. 

These words were translated at 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.

Even an English word, “The Dementors” has various translations in Asia. The Taiwanese version follows the English meaning most closely, coining the word 催狂魔 to indicate a monster that makes people go crazy (become 'demented'). The Japanese and Mainland Chinese versions both coin words describing the dementors as creatures that absorb or suck out the soul, a good description of their deadly effect. The Japanese name 吸魂鬼 is modelled on the word for 'vampire', which is 吸血鬼'blood-sucking demon'. We can notice the different meanings in different translations.Actually, the author invented a word by the appropriation of the word, “demented”

 

Sectumsem

Sectumsempra is a spell that Harry learnt from the half-blood prince's potions book. 'Sectumsempra' is made up of 'sectum' from Latin 'sectus' (past participle of the verb seco 'to cut') and sempra 'forever'. The meaning appears to be 'to cut forever', or possibly 'to always (unfailingly) cut'. We can see the appropriations of Latin words.
The Mainland translator creates the excellent 神锋无影 a 'supernatural blade that leaves no trace'.

The Taiwanese version 撕淌三步殺attempts to retain some semblance of the English pronunciation, while imbuing it with meaning in Chinese. The meaning is 'rip, drip, three paces kill', which brings out the action of slashing, the trickling of blood, and the ability to kill at three paces

They did not only transliterated the word, but it is a process that extracts meaning from its original word, in order to introduce it into another context. It is a re- contextualization.

The Vietnamese translator follows the etymology of the English: Sectum = cắt sâu ('cut deeply'), Sempra = mãi mãi ('forever').

The Japanese translator simply transliterates the English name.

Transliterations

Hermione Granger 赫敏･格兰杰 

                              妙麗･格蘭傑

In the Taiwanese version, 妙麗 means 'good' and 'beautiful'. The pronunciation is possibly based on the second half of the name, i.e., 'mione'. The Mainland version comes up with a much better rendering: 赫is a Chinese surname, 敏means 'quick/agile' but it is also the transliteration of Hermione.

Draco Malfoy 德拉科･马尔福

                            跩哥･馬份

Malfoy's name is vital in setting the tone. The Mainland transliteration is fairly conventional. The Taiwanese version is more creative. 跩 refers to the ways of a person who feels himself a cut above everyone else and looks down on ordinary people 跩哥means 'arrogant big brother'. 馬份 is the transliteration of Malfoy.

Phonetically, the Taiwanese version’s 'dray' sound of 'Draco' is actually quite similar to the pronunciation of 'dr' in English -- much closer than the Mainland version.
It is interesting to realize that even the translations correlate to the contents of books.

All translations want to let readers around the world feel convenient to understand the words' meanings.


from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_in_translation