Chapter 16: The Chamber of Secrets

Simplified Chinese (Mandarin: China)
密室 Mìshì	密室 mìshì = 'secret room/sealed room'.	The Secret Room
Traditional Chinese (Mandarin: Taiwan)
密室 Mìshì	密室 mìshì = 'secret room/sealed room'.	The Secret Room
Japanese
秘密の部屋 Himitsu no heya	秘密 himitsu = 'secret'. の no = connecting particle 部屋 heya = 'room'.	The Secret Room/The Room of Secrets
Korean
비밀의 방 Bimil-ui bang	비밀 (秘密) bimil = 'secret'. 의 -ui = connecting particle 방 (房) bang = 'room'.	The Secret Room/The Room of Secrets
Vietnamese (Chinese characters show etymology)
Phòng chứa bí mật	phòng (房) = 'room'. chứa = 'hold, contain'. bí mật (秘密) = 'secret'.	The Room containing Secrets
Mongolian (previous)
Нууцат өрөө Nuutsat öröö	нууцат nuutsat = 'secret, mysterious'. өрөө öröö = 'room'.	The Mysterious Room
Mongolian (new)
Нууцат өрөө Nuutsat öröö	нууцат nuutsat = 'secret, mysterious'. өрөө öröö = 'room'.	The Mysterious Room

The Chamber of Secrets is a room deep under Hogwarts accessible only by a secret entrance through the girl's toilets where Moaning Myrtle lives. The English name has two interesting features:

• A 'chamber' is basically a kind of room. The word was borrowed from Middle French chambre 'room' and originally referred to a private room. In modern-day English, a chamber is a large room used for formal or public events or an enclosed space or cavity (like a burial chamber). Rowling no doubt used this word deliberately, both for its suggestion of a relatively large and grandiose space, and for its association with the dead.
  
  
• The chamber itself is secret, but the name implies not so much that it is a secret or hidden room (which it is) but that it contains some kinds of secret.

How is 'chamber' translated?

Not all languages have vocabulary that directly matches the word 'chamber' in English. Even chambre in the French translation is just the ordinary word for 'room'. Indeed, all of the languages covered here use words or forms that mean 'room'.

• The Chinese word for 'room' is 房間 (Trad.) / 房间 (Simpl.) fángjiān. Probably because this sounds very mundane, neither Chinese-language version uses this word. Instead they use the suffix 室 -shì, which is used in the names of all kinds of room:
  
  
  • 卧室 wòshì 'bedroom', 教室 jiàoshì 'classroom', 會議室 (Trad.) / 会议室 (Simpl.) huìyìshì 'meeting room', 温室 wēnshì 'greenhouse', etc.).
    
    
  The 'chamber of secrets' is 密室 mì-shì, a single word meaning 'secret room', 'closed room', or 'sealed room'.
  
  
• Japanese also has the suffix 室 and forms words in a similar manner:
  
  
  • 寝室, shinshitsu 'bedroom', 教室 kyōshitsu 'classroom', 会議室 kaigishitsu 'meeting room', 温室 onshitsu 'greenhouse', etc.
    
    
  While 密室 misshitsu 'secret room, closed room' would have been possible, the translator chose to use the independent word for 'room', the native word 部屋 heya.
  
  
• Korean and Vietnamese both use words borrowed from the Chinese word 房 fáng:
  
  
  • Korean uses 방 bang, which stands as an independent word.
    
    
  • Vietnamese uses phòng, which also stands as an independent word.
    
    
  In Chinese, 房 fáng can no longer stand as an independent word and is usually found in combinations like 房子 fángzi 'house', 房間 (Trad.) / 房间 (Simpl.) fángjiān 'room', and various words in which 房 -fáng is used as a suffix, also in the meaning 'room'.
  
  
• Both Mongolian versions use the native word өрөө öröö, the ordinary Mongolian word for 'room'.

How is 'of secrets' translated?

• The word for '(a) secret' is the same in three of the translations: Japanese (秘密 himitsu), Korean (비밀 (秘密) bimil), and Vietnamese (bí mật).
  
  
• As noted above, the Chinese translations use the compound word 密室 mì-shì containing only 密 mì, which means something that is private or sealed off.
  
  
• Mongolian uses the native word for 'secret', нууц nuuts, related to the word нуух nuukh 'to hide, conceal'.

The English title implies that the chamber contains secrets. While all of the translations use words meaning 'secret' or something akin to it, not all of them convey this sense.

• The Vietnamese translation is clearest in emphasising that the chamber contains secrets. Chứa in Phòng chứa bí mật means 'containing, holding'.
  
  
• Both Mongolian translations uses the word нууцат nuutsat meaning 'mysterious, secret'. This can be understood as 'containing secrets' — нууц nuuts is the Mongolian word for 'secret', the suffix -(а)т -(a)t is the shortened from of -тай -tai 'having' — but it also has the sense of 'mysterious, unknown'. For example, нууцат nuutsat is used in the Mongolian translation of Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island (Нууцат арал nuutsat aral 'mysterious island, island of mysteries') and the word is also used to describe the mystery planet Mars. The meaning is thus reasonably close to that implied by 'the chamber of secrets' in English.
  
  
• Japanese calls it 秘密の部屋 himitsu no heya, with the primary meaning 'hidden or secret room', and only secondarily 'room of secrets'.
  
  
• Korean calls it 비밀의 방 bimil-ui bang, which is essentially the same structure as the Japanese.
  
  
• Both Chinese versions use 密室 mìshǐ, literally 'secret room', which refers to a hidden, private, secret, or sealed-off room. This is by no means incorrect — after all, the chamber of secrets was a well-hidden room that took Tom Riddle years to find — but that is arguably not the meaning of the title in English.
  

(Korean appears thanks to "Hiro".)

(Detailed notes on the chapter can be found at Harry Potter Lexicon)

⇚ Chapter 15

Chapter 17 ⇛