Translated Selections from Harry Potter Novels Released Online
Translations
Posted by: Edward
November 29, 2011, 10:55 AM
Researchers at the University of Calgary have complied a one-of-a-kind collection of 70 translations of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" novels and have published selections from those translations online, reports the Vancouver Sun. Geared to educators, students and Potter-fans alike, the resource "will feature images from international dust jackets and audio files with selections from each of the 70 translations, including Afrikaans, Hindi, ancient Greek and Latin." Russian literature professor and the leader behind this project, Nicholas Zekulin, says:
"It's a work which presents real challenges for the translator," said Zekulin. "How do you translate 'quidditch'? Nobody can... The Ukrainian translation is interesting. They don't have (Hogwarts) school, they have an orphanage. And the reason is that in Ukrainian culture, the idea of a boarding school is completely unknown. The only thing they could conceive of as bringing children together was an orphanage."
The 70 translations can be found in the
Language Research Centre on the University's website.
315 Points
:) In Romanian they translated “Avada Kedavra” in “Abracadabra”. So Lame. Also Charlie in Romania is taking care of dragons AND vampires, because, you know, Romania. It has vampires. But otherwise they did a great job.
673 Points
hmm Ukrainian translation is interesting, if it’s and orphanage it means all hogwarts learners are orphans, so how did they explain the families ties of the learners outside hogwarts because the whole point of an orphanage is to foster for orpahned children that don’t have anyone taking care of them…. I’d like a translated copy of the Ukrainian version of HP lol
673 Points
am I glad I got the english version so that i got to read the story as was intended and not a different version, interesting though but i still prefer english, I read a few german versions which i loved because they don’t change the names, just maybe the pronounciations
Jillians642, who says there is no H in Russian? There is. I’m not sure why they haven’t change the name of the book, because it sure does sound like she is reading in russian, but the rest sounds quite right
4881 Points
I had been looking fwd to listening to the ancient greek audio, but now I have, I am quite disappointed. It sounded awful and definitely needs to be redone. The fact that the person chosen to do the narration is an english-speaking person, is awful. He is just reading out the words with absolutely no meaning and in an english accent! Sounds like he’s speaking in another language – nothing like ancient greek. When spoken properly, the ancient greek language can be very interesting to listen to. I studied it as a subject at school, and was always quite fascinated by it. But unfortunately here, it’s being delivered in a disappointing manner. I couldn’t make out anything, so unfortunately I cannot comment on the translation..:( But as I see from other comments, other translations weren’t without problems and mistakes, so why would the ancient greek version be any good? Oh well..
The modern greek version was ok, the translation was accurate, and the narration was good.
:) In Romanian they translated “Avada Kedavra” in “Abracadabra”. So Lame. Also Charlie in Romania is taking care of dragons AND vampires, because, you know, Romania. It has vampires. But otherwise they did a great job.