Welcome to this comparison of Harry Potter in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese (CJV) translation, plus an increasing amount of information about Korean (chapter titles only) and Mongolian (mainly chapter titles and book names). The site looks at the way chapter titles, fictitious book titles, and proper names have been translated, passages of verse and prose, and even a few bloopers by the translators. It may not be quite 'magic', but comparing how Harry Potter has been treated in the CJVK languages and Mongolian is fascinating enough. This is becoming a rather large site. Click on the coloured table below for quick access to any part of the site.
For the academically inclined, this section can be regarded as an informal type of Descriptive Translation Studies.
Start here to find about Harry Potter, Undesirable no. 1 (头号不良分子, 頭號不受歡迎人物, 問題分子ナンバーワン, Kẻ Phá Rối số 1) ...
Chapter Titles from
Each Book (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and now Mongolian and Korean) |
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| Miscellaneous (publication history, footnotes, links, etc.) | |||
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Puns and Word Play A selection of puns and word play and how the translators have dealt with them |
People and Places Harry, Ron, Hermione, Malfoy, Dumbledore, Snape, Lockhart, Voldemort, Dobby, and all the rest. |
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Mistranslations A selection of mistranslations |
Shops Magical shops from Diagonal Alley to Hogsmeade |
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Me Help's Litany
of Disastrous Translations 人文社《哈利 ·波特》严重错译选集 A list of serious translation errors in the Mainland versions of Harry Potter, chapter by chapter, error by error! |
Translation of
Direct Speech How characters' speech is translated (currently only Dumbledore, unlikely to be further instalments). |
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Owl Species A rather technical look at how accurately the translators have dealt with the names of all those different types of owl |
Texts of Songs and other Passages A selection of passages in Unicode including the Hat Song, Trelawney's prediction and others. |
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Spells How spells have been translated |
Gadgets How names of magical gadgets have been translated |
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Other Currently only Parseltongue |
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