Harry Potter has been translated into over 60 languages ​​(and each edition has its gems)

Harry Potter books have been translated into over 60 languages. At the same time, adapting the saga became a real challenge for translators. After all, the original text was full of surnames with deep meanings, puns and cultural references, and jokes that make a lot of sense in the UK but sound strange in other languages. In some cases, the translators managed to keep the original meaning, but in others, they had to modify the text in order to make it more accessible to readers from countries that have little to do with the original language of the work.

At the awesome.clubwe looked at translations of Harry Potter and found out which translators did well adapting character names.

In the Netherlands, the teacher is called a Albus Perkamentus 🇧🇷perkamentus — “parchment”). At the same time, Italians call the character Silent Albus 🇧🇷silent — “silent”), because the word dumb (from which the surname Dumbledore is derived) has the same meaning in English.

In Norway, Albus Dumbledore is called Albus Humlesnurr 🇧🇷humle — “bumblebee” and snore — “buzz”), as the translation of the surname is based on the ancient meaning of the word humle in English. In Latvian, the hero is called Baltus Dumidorsin Czech it is Albus Brumbal and in japanese it is Arubasu Danburudoa🇧🇷

According to author J.K. Rowling, the name severus refers to the name of the Roman emperor and Snape is the name of a village in England restored by the ruler. The Italian translator, however, considered the reference to the serpent (which killed him) important and called the character Severus Python 🇧🇷python — “python”), as well as the Hungarian translator, who gave the name perselus python to the character, to keep alliteration at the beginning of words. Meanwhile, in France, the Potions teacher is called Severus Rogue 🇧🇷rogue – “arrogant”).

Also, in Latvian the character is called Severus Strups 🇧🇷strups – “Stupid”). In Norwegian he is Severus Slur 🇧🇷slur — “sloppy”) and in Slovenian, Severus Raws (comes from the word rawwhich means “rude”).

Another character whose surname was changed during translation is Dolores Umbridge. The translators from Finland and France chose to emphasize her dark character, so they called her Dolores Pimento 🇧🇷pepper — “dark”) and Dolores Ombrage 🇧🇷ombrage — “shadow”), respectively. In the Czech version, the teacher became Pomona Prýtová (the surname is derived from the word prýtwhich has the same meaning as the word sprout in English — “sprout”).

In Norway, Minerva McGonagall is called Minerva McSnurp🇧🇷 Translators have retained the “Mc” prefix to emphasize the heroine’s Scottish origin, but the origin of the second part of the surname is not as clear. In Norwegian, snurp means “fishing net”, while the Scottish source refers us to the word meaning “brave”.

The Czechs also modified the teacher’s surname according to the grammatical peculiarities of the language: like all female surnames, the word adopted the ending “-ova” and changed its prefix. Thus, the character became Minerva McGonagallova🇧🇷

In Italy, Quirinus Quirrell is called Quirinus Raptor🇧🇷 It got even more mysterious, didn’t it? In Russia it is called Sverkarol Charuald🇧🇷 In the Czech Republic, the hero is known as Zlatoslav Lockhart (the name Zlatoslav can be literally translated as “man with blond hair”). In Danish, his name sounds like Glitterik Smerhar (“hair that shines with so much butter”, in literal translation).

Harry Potter’s name remains the same in almost all translations. Ron’s name is rarely changed. For example, in Norway it is called ronny Wiltersen🇧🇷 However, in German, Hermione Granger became hermine🇧🇷 in french her name is pronounced like “Hair-mee-on”, despite being written the same way as in English. The Chinese call it hè mǐn and, for Norwegians, it is Hermine Grang🇧🇷

In France, the goalkeeper of the Gryffindor team was given the surname Dubois; in the Netherlands he is plank and in Italy it is stick🇧🇷 All versions are somehow related to wood. The original name of Harry Potter’s first girlfriend, Cho Chang, sounded very sad to the Chinese (because it translates as “great sadness”). Consequently, she got the name Zhāng Qiūwhich means “autumn leaf”.

The translations of the name Murta Que Moan are also very peculiar. For the French it is Mimi Geignarde and for Czechs it is Ufňukana Ursula (in both cases, the meaning of her last name relates to the word “cry”).

Probably, the anagram “Tom Marvolo Riddle — I’m lord Voldemort” has become a puzzle for translators. The French, to get the phrase “I am Lord Voldemort” (Je suis Voldemort), called the character Tom Elvis Jedusor 🇧🇷je du sour means a “enigma of destiny”). For the same reasons, in Greece the Lord’s name was changed to Anton MorvoloHeart. In Denmark he is Romeo Gale Detlev Jr.and in neighboring Norway, Tom Dredolo Venster🇧🇷 In Slovenia, they also completely changed both names: Mark Marvolo Neelstin
it became Lord Mrlakenstein🇧🇷

The name of the famous school of magic comes from two words in English: hog — “pig” and warts — “warts”. That is, in a literal (and somewhat exaggerated) translation into Portuguese, Hogwarts could be called something like “boar” or “pig with wrinkles”. In France, the name of the school was translated as Poudlard (pou du lard — “greasy louse”). The Hungarian version of the name is roxforta mixture of Oxford and blue cheese roquefort🇧🇷

In English, the word quidditch (“quidditch”) is derived from the names of the balls: quaffle (“quaffle”), bludger (“bludger”) and snitch (“Golden Snitch”). In some of the adaptations for other languages, it was not possible to maintain the idea. So the translators simply changed the magic sport name for no specific reason. For example, in the Norwegian translation, Quidditch was turned into Rumpledunk and in Czech family🇧🇷

The French decided to translate Mrs. Norris, Argus Filch’s cat, as Miss Teigne, which means “ringworm, moth” and “witch, wicked”. But at least the Ukrainian Ironbelly was translated into its native language as Ukrainsky Zalizopuz🇧🇷 thus retaining the original meaning.

Have you ever tried to translate some names of movies and characters from English and found curious results? Tell us!