Chapter 11: Quidditch
| Simplified Chinese (Mandarin: China) | ||
| 魁地奇比赛 Kuídìqí bǐsài |
魁地奇 Kuídìqí = 'Quidditch' (phonetic). 比赛 bǐsài = 'match, game' |
Quidditch Game |
| Traditional Chinese (Mandarin: Taiwan) | ||
| 魁地奇比賽 Kuídìqí bǐsài |
魁地奇
Kuídìqí = 'Quidditch' (phonetic). 比賽 bǐsài = 'match, game'. |
Quidditch Game |
| Japanese | ||
| クィディッチ Kwiditchi |
クィディッチ Kwiditchi = 'Quidditch'. | Quidditch |
| Korean | ||
| 퀴디치 Kwidichi |
퀴디치 Kwidichi = 'Quidditch'. | Quidditch |
| Vietnamese (Chinese characters show etymology) | ||
| Quidditch | Quidditch (pronunciation: Quít-đit). | Quidditch |
| Mongolian (previous) | ||
| Квидич Kvidich |
Квидич Kvidich = 'Quidditch'. |
Quidditch |
| Mongolian (new) | ||
| Квиддич Kviddich |
Квиддич Kviddich = 'Quidditch'. | Quidditch |
Quidditch is the premier sport of the wizarding world, one in which Harry excels.
How is 'Quidditch' translated?
All translations represent 'Quidditch' phonetically.
- To represent foreign words
phonetically, Chinese uses characters for their sound rather than their meaning. While Chinese has developed phonetic scripts that are capable of representing the pronunciation of words (e.g., the Zhuyin fuhao), the preference is to use characters.
In this case, the characters 魁地奇 have the meaning 'chief/head' or 'stalwart' + 'ground' + 'strange'. Although
they don't make a lot of sense, you can be pretty sure that the translator thought carefully when choosing these characters over the other possibilities. (For instance, 'qui' could have been represented by 亏 kuī 'loss' or 潰 / 溃 kuì 'ulcer', neither of which would have been suitable.)
Both Chinese-language translations use the word 比賽 (Trad.) / 比赛 (Simpl.) bǐsài 'match, game' in the title. It seems likely that the Mainland translator directly copied the Taiwanese translation. - Unlike Chinese, Japanese did develop scripts capable of representing sounds directly. For foreign words this is katakana, in which each syllable is shown as a single letter. In fact, the sound 'di' combination in Kwiditchi
was originally foreign to Japanese speakers and couldn't be represented in katakana. The Japanese came up with a makeshift way of indicating
this new sound by combining two letters デ+ィ (de plus small i)
and giving them the pronounciation 'di'. Similarly, the letters ク+ィ (ku plus small i)
are an attempt to represent English 'qui'. The use of クィ is fairly progressive in its way. Japanese traditionally converts a 'qu' into a simple 'k', as in リキッド rikiddo (rather than リクィッド rikwiddo) for 'liquid'.
- Korean has its own unique phonetic script, hangul, one of the most scientifically based alphabets in the world. This allows it to directly represent 'Quidditch' 퀴디치 Kwidichi.
- Vietnamese uses the English spelling as is, but due to Vietnamese phonology this is likely to be pronounced 'quit dit'. Indeed, the original version of this translation, which appeared in instalments, had a footnote with the pronunciation given as Quít-đit.
- The Mongolian versions adopt slightly different approaches. The older translation attempts to represent pronunciation as found in English, Квидич Kvidich. The newer translation, following the general trend in Mongolian, is misled by the spelling to double the 'd' sound, leading to a pronunciation similar to 'Quid ditch'. (For reference, Russian translations feature different versions: Квиддич Kviddich, Квиддитч Kvidditch, and Квидиш Kvidish.)
(Korean appears thanks to "Hiro".)
(Detailed notes on the chapter can be found at Harry Potter Lexicon)
| ⇚ Chapter 10 |  |