Chapter 13: The Muggle-Born Registration Commission
| Simplified Chinese (Mandarin: China) | ||
| 麻瓜出身登记委员会 Máguā chūshēn dēngjì wěiyuánhuì |
麻瓜 Máguā = 'Muggle' 出身 chūshēn = 'birth, origin'. 登记 dēngjì = 'to register, registration'. 委员会 wěiyuánhuì = 'committee'. |
Muggle-born registration committee |
| Traditional Chinese (Mandarin: Taiwan) | ||
| 麻種審議委員會 Mázhǒng shěnyì wěiyuánhuì |
麻種 Mázhǒng = 'Muggle kind' = 'Mudblood'. 審議 shěnyì = 'deliberation'. 委員會 wěiyuánhuì = 'committee'. |
Mudblood deliberation committee |
| Japanese | ||
| マグル生まれ登録委員会 Maguru-umare tōroku iinkai |
マグル Maguru = 'Muggle'. 生まれ -umare = '-born'. 登録 tōroku = 'register, registration'. 委員会 iinkai = 'committee'. |
The Muggle-born registration committee |
| Vietnamese (Chinese characters show etymology) | ||
| Ủy ban đăng ký phù thủy gốc Muggle | ủy ban = 'committee'. đăng ký (登記) = 'register'. phù thủy = 'sorceror'. gốc = 'origin'. Muggle = 'muggle'. |
Committee for the registration of Muggle-origin sorcerors |
Commission
In CJV languages, the word for 'commission' is the same as the word for 'committee'. Chinese and Japanese both use 委員會 (Chinese wěiyuánhuì, simplified as 委员会, Japanese iinkai, written 委員会). Vietnamese uses ủy ban.
Registration
The Chinese word for 'registration' is 登記 / 登记 dēngjì, which is also used in Vietnamese as đăng ký. The Mainland Chinese and Vietnamese translations both use this term.
Japanese has standardised on 登録 tōroku as the word for 'registration'.
The Taiwanese translation omits 'registration', making the committee sound more official and less sinister by simply calling it the 'Mudblood deliberation commission'. This makes it sound less Hitlerian and but possibly more Japanese in tone.
Muggle-born
The Chinese word for 'Muggle', 麻瓜 / 麻瓜 Máguā, is an ingenious combination of (1) 麻 má meaning 'numb' or 'paralysed', and (2) 瓜 guā meaning 'melon, gourd' and, by extension, 'head' or 'brain'. 瓜 guā is used in words like 傻瓜 shǎguā 'idiot'. Máguā thus captures the tone of the original English, which is related to the word 'mug' ('idiot, easily-fooled person').
For 'born', the Mainland translation uses the word 出身 chūshēn meaning 'birth' or 'origin'.
The Japanese translator uses 生まれ -umare, a standard suffix meaning '-born' (e.g., 東京生まれ Tōkyō-umare 'Tokyo-born').
The Vietnamese translator uses gốc meaning 'origin'.
The Taiwanese translator uses no word corresponding to 'born'.
(Detailed notes on the chapter can be found at Harry Potter Lexicon)
| ⇚ Chapter 12 |  |