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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
Chapter 24: Rita Skeeter's Scoop
(For the romanisation of Chinese and Japanese, see Transliteration. To understand the writing systems of CJV, see Writing Systems. For word order notes, see Word Order)
Where a Vietnamese word has been borrowed from Chinese, the original Chinese character is shown in parentheses.
| Chinese (Mainland) | 丽塔･斯基特的独家新闻 Lìtǎ Sījītè de dújiā xīnwén |
丽塔･斯基特
Lìtǎ
Sījītè
= 'Rita Skeeter'. 的 de = connecting particle 独家 dújiā = 'sole, exclusive'. 新闻 xīnwén = 'news'. |
Rita Skeeter's exclusive |
| Chinese (Taiwan) | 麗塔･史譏的獨家報導 Lìtǎ Shǐjī de dújiā bàodǎo |
麗塔･史譏
Lìtǎ
Shǐjī
= 'Rita Skeeter'. 的 de = connecting particle 獨家 dújiā = 'sole, exclusive'. 報導 bàodǎo = 'report'. |
Rita Skeeter's exclusive report |
| Japanese | リータ・スキーターの特ダネ Riita Sukiitā no toku-dane |
リータ・スキーター
Riita Sukiitā = 'Rita Skeeter'. の no = 'connecting particle'. 特ダネ toku-dane = 'special source' = 'exclusive news, scoop'. |
Rita Skeeter's scoop |
| Vietnamese | Tin giựt gân của Rita Skeeter | tin
= 'news, information'. giựt gân = 'exciting, sensational'. (Together tin giựt gân mean 'scoop'.) của = 'of'. Rita Skeeter (pronunciaiton: Ri-ta Xki-tơ). |
Rita Skeeter's scoop |
Rita's name is interesting in English because (1) 'Rita' and 'Skeeter' rhyme for speakers who don't pronounce the 'r' in 'Skeeter' (many British, Australian, New Zealand, South African, and New England speakers) and (2) 'Skeeter' sounds like 'mosquito' -- an annoying blood-sucking insect.
None of the translators reproduces the rhyme.
The Mainland Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese translators stick to transliterations that lose the rhyme (the -a in 'Rita' and the -er in 'Skeeter' are transliterated differently.)
The Taiwanese translator makes an attempt at reproducing the unflattering undertones of 'Skeeter' ('mosquito') by writing 'Skeeter' with characters meaning 'history' and 'ridicule, mock, satirise', a nice description of Rita's journalism. But the pun on 'mosquito' itself is, of course, lost.
The way 'scoop' is rendered in the three languages is quite interesting. Despite having a press noted for its subservience, China and Vietnam both have words to express this most aggressive of journalistic tactics.
(A summary of this chapter can be found at Harry Potter Facts. Detailed notes on the chapter can be found at Harry Potter Lexicon)
 Chapter 23 |
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