The Four Houses (Ch)

THE FOUR HOUSES
English	Mainland	Taiwan	Notes
Gryffindor	格兰芬多 Gélánfēnduō	葛來分多 Géláifēnduō	In the Mainland version, the last three characters (兰芬多) mean 'orchid' + 'fragrance' + 'abundant' -- pleasant characters but not especially meaningful. In the Taiwanese version the three characters 來分多 mean 'come points many', nicely catching the contest among houses to earn points.
Slytherin	斯莱特林 Sīláitèlín	史萊哲林 Shǐláizhélín	For Slytherin, the Mainland version is a straightforward transliteration - note that 'sly' here rhymes with 'slimy', not with 'slither'. The Taiwanese version is less accurate phonetically but tries to give some kind of meaning: 史 'history' + 萊 'plant name' + 哲'philosophy' + 林 'forest' (= philosophical forest?). The first syllable is shi instead of the expected si, but would be pronounced si by Taiwanese speakers.
Ravenclaw	拉文克劳 Lāwénkèláo	雷文克勞 Léiwénkèláo	For Ravenclaw, the first character 拉 is 'draw/pull', in the Mainland version, 雷'thunder' in the Taiwanese. The Taiwanese seems more appropriate for a house name in a magic school.
Hufflepuff	赫奇帕奇 Hèqípàqí	赫夫帕夫 Hèfūpàfū	For Hufflepuff, the Taiwanese is relatively close to the English and not particularly interesting in meaning, but the Mainland version surprisingly goes the other way, substituting 奇 qí 'strange' for the phonetic Taiwanese 夫 fū. The result is a rather interesting sound.

FOUNDERS OF THE FOUR HOUSES
English	Mainland	Taiwan	Notes
Godric Gryffindor	戈德里克･格兰芬多 Gēdélǐkè Gélánfēnduō	高錐客･葛來分多 Gāozhuīkè Géláifēnduō	高錐客 Gāozhuīkè (Taiwanese version) uses 錐 zhuī to approximate the English 'dr' sound, and in fact the sounds are very close. The Mainland rendition 戈德里克Gēdélǐkè is more technically correct with 德里 délǐ, but in reality the sound is not as close to English.
Salazar Slytherin	萨拉查･斯莱特林 Sālāchá Sīláitèlín	薩拉札･史萊哲林 Sǎlāzhá Shǐláizhélín
Rowena Ravenclaw	罗伊纳･拉文克劳 Luóyīnà Lāwénkèláo	羅威娜･雷文克勞 Luówéinà Léiwénkèláo
Helga Hufflepuff	赫尔加･赫奇帕奇 Hè'ěrjiā Hèqípàqí	海加･赫夫帕夫 Hǎijiā Hèfūpàfū