Chapter 5: The Dementor

Simplified Chinese (Mandarin: China)
摄魂怪 Shè-hún-guài	摄 shè = 'absorb, assimilate'. 魂 hún = 'soul, spirit'. 怪 guài = 'monster, demon'.	The soul-absorbing demon
Traditional Chinese (Mandarin: Taiwan)
催狂魔 Cuī-kuáng-mó	催 cuī = 'urge, drive'. 狂 kuáng = 'mad, crazy'. 魔 mó = 'evil spirit, demon'.	The Driving-Crazy Demon
Japanese
吸魂鬼（ディメンター） Kyūkonki / Dimentā	吸 kyū = 'suck'. 魂 kon = 'spirit, soul'. 鬼 ki = 'ghost, spirit, ogre'. ディメンター Dimentā = 'dementor' (From the English).	The Soul-Sucking Ghost / Dementor
Korean
디멘터 Dimenteo	디멘터 Dimenteo = 'Dementor' (from the English)	The Dementor
Vietnamese (Chinese characters show etymology)
Giám ngục Azkaban	giám (監) = 'inspect, supervise'. ngục (獄) = 'prison, gaol'. giám ngục is 'prison warder' or 'prison guard'. Azkaban = 'Azkaban'.	The Guard of Azkaban
Mongolian (new)
Дементор dementor	дементор dementor = 'dementor' (from the English).	The Dementor

The Dementors are the guards of Azkaban, ghastly spectral creatures who feed on negative emotions and, as a last resort, are able to suck out a person's soul.

How is 'Dementor' translated?

The English suggests a creature that sends you 'demented', or (looking at it more etymologically) something that literally takes out your mind.

• The Chinese version from Taiwan follows this most closely, coining the word 催狂魔 cuī-kuáng-mó, a monster that makes people go crazy.
  
  
• The Japanese (吸魂鬼 kyūkonki 'suck-soul ghost') and Mainland Chinese (摄魂怪 shè-hún-guài 'absorb soul demon') translators both use coinages describing the dementors as creatures that absorb or suck out the soul. The Japanese name 吸魂鬼 kyūkonki is modelled on the word for 'vampire', which is 吸血鬼 kyūketsuki 'suck-blood demon'.
  
  
• Japanese also makes use of furigana (see Chapter 3 above) to give the English pronunciation of 'dementor'. This lets the reader know that this 'ogre that sucks out the soul' is known as a dimentā ('dementor') in the original English. The word ends in a long ā sound, based on British English models rather than American, which would typically end this word with an 'r'.
  
  
• The Korean translation also transliterates the English as 디멘터 dimenteo, with no final 'r' sound.
  
  
• The Mongolian translator also directly uses the English word 'dementor', transliterated into Cyrillic as дементор dementor. The transliteration uses е rather than э to represent 'e', a practice that arose when writing Russian words in Mongolian. The word ends with a trilled 'r'.
  
  
• The Vietnamese translator avoids the word 'dementor' altogether, referring to them as the warders or guards of Azkaban (giám ngục Azkaban). This is a nice solution but runs the risk of problems later when they inevitably leave Azkaban to join Voldemort.

(Korean appears thanks to "Hiro".)

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

⇚ Chapter 4

Chapter 6 ⇛