Transletters. International Journal of Translation and Interpreting, 8 (2024), pp. 1-28 ISSN 2605-2954

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance

Languages in the Translation of Proper Names in Harry

Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Claudio Mastrangelo

Polytechnic University of Madrid

Received: 21/06/2024

Accepted: 02/11/2024

Abstract

This paper employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyse the

translations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone into nine Romance languages,

utilising Davies’s (2003) translation taxonomy. The study reveals nuanced strategies in

translating proper names, particularly characters and locations. Character names

predominantly employ localisation, adapting spelling or morphology, except for the

Italian language, which opts for creating new names. Places generally follow a

localisation strategy. Neologisms emerge in objects and things, but the majority aligns

with the English version, either adapting the word or retaining the original. Hogwarts

houses exhibit a split between maintaining the original form and adapting to readers

with new terminology.

Key Words

Harry Potter, Proper names, Romance languages, Transcreation, Wordsmith.

 

Introduction

The translation of proper names is considered one of the greatest challenges for

any translator, particularly in children’s literature. In this genre, the category of

names, which generally includes names of people, animals, geographical places,

and festivals, carries specific meanings and allusions. According to Tymoczco

(1999: 223), proper names designate “dense signifiers” which are “the most

Claudio Mastrangelo

problematic to translate, in part because their […] significance is often culturally

specific and dependent on cultural paradigms”. The author mentioned argues

that when dealing with proper names, two main approaches are taken: (1)

foreignisation, which aims at preserving all references to a different culture for

the readers by using the same term as the original version, and (2) domestication,

which adapts the term to the readers, sometimes by omitting certain cultural

elements. To sum up, not only does a translator need to be linguistically

competent in the foreign language but also be aware of the cultural references

that proper names may carry. Additionally, translating a children’s book poses

an extra challenge as the translator must consider the intended audience and

their age (Jaleniauskiene and Čičelytė, 2009).

When J. K. Rowling published the first book of the Harry Potter series in 1997,

she did not know that she had created one of the most translated books in

history, alongside the Bible and The Little Prince. Twenty years later, the translation

into Scots by Matthew Fitt became the 80th language into which this famous

children’s book was translated. The Harry Potter saga has become so popular

worldwide that it has created a cultural phenomenon comparable to Star Wars or

The Lord of the Rings. A number of studies have been carried out of the different

translations of the little wizard’s adventures (Benati, 2002; Valero Garcés, 2003;

Jaleniauskiene and Čičelytė, 2009; Croitoru et al., 2011; Mut Miralles, 2016),

comparing them with the original version in two or more languages. However,

little attention has been paid to similarities and differences in translation

techniques among all the languages related to a single family.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the translation strategies used by translators

in nine languages belonging to the Romance language family (i.e., Italian, French,

Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, Galician, Asturian and

Occitan) using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The research’s

second goal is to investigate whether there are some common patterns in the

translation processes in this Indo-European family of languages.

This study is divided as follows: Section 1 is an overview of the main strategies

used in narrative translation as well as previous studies of the analysis of proper

names in the first Harry Potter book series. Section 2 describes the data gathering

instruments and the procedures used to analyse data. Section 3 evaluates the

results of this research, and finally Section 4 draws the conclusions, and opens

up possible future studies in the same field.

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

1. Overview

1.1 Corpus linguistics in translation studies

At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, translation

was one of the areas excluded in the introductions to corpus linguistics (e.g.,

Biber et al., 1998; Kennedy, 1998; McEnery and Wilson, 2001). A possible

reason for this phenomenon is that the use of translation studies in corpus

linguistics is relatively new. Furthermore, the traditional unidirectional trend

between linguistics and translation studies could be another reason (Olohan,

2002). Translation has not received the same attention as an original text with its

rights in the target language system; it is often considered merely a copy. The

definition given by Oakes and McEnery (2000, p. 8) on translation in corpus

linguistics shows a conventional view about this area: “a bilingual parallel corpus

is a corpus that contains the same text samples in each of two languages, in the

sense that the sample are translations of one another”. However, translation

scholars have provided a different definition when using corpus linguistics for

their studies. One example is the definition given by Johansson (1998, p. 6):

It is well known that linguistic choices often differ depending upon the individual

translator, or there may be outright mistakes in translation. To what extent can

we then make generalisations based on translated texts? And can we really be

sure that the same meanings are expressed in the source and the target text? Or

should we rather think in terms of degrees or types of equivalence? […] Most

seriously, to what extent can we take translated texts to be representative of

ordinary language use? Translated texts may differ from original texts because of

source language influence […] Moreover, there may be general features which

characterise translated text.

Today, translations in corpus-based methodology have gained recognition, and

they are no longer considered solely in relation to their source text; instead, they

are viewed as new products with communicative rights (Olohan, 2002). Software

such as Wordsmith

and AntConc,

which are used to find linguistic patterns in

corpus linguistics, are really useful in the field of translation studies as well. Some

of their functions, such as concordance, are highly effective in finding the

context for a specific term and helping the researchers and other translators to

https://www.lexically.net/wordsmith/(Last accessed: 26/11/2024)

https://www.laurenceanthony.net/software/antconc/(Last accessed: 26/11/2024)

Claudio Mastrangelo

understand the reasons behind the translation strategies used in the translated

text. Following a translator’s approach, this research built up a corpus purely

based on the translations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Such

translations are regarded as new texts with the same importance given to the

original version.

1.2 Translation strategies for proper names

Before analysing the previous study of the proper names used in Harry Potter and

the Philosopher’s Stone, it is worth mentioning Davies’s (2003, pp. 65-100)

classification of translation techniques applied when translating proper names

from one language into another. The author identifies seven different categories:

preservation, addition, omission, globalisation, localisation, transformation and

creation, which are described below.

- Preservation: involves a direct or literal translation, consisting of

transferring the foreign term directly into the new text.

- Addition: similar to the previous strategy with the exception that the

translator adds additional information about the term in a footnote or

similar.

- Omission: this strategy involves deleting some information without

leaving any trace in the new version (e.g., a character speaking with an

accent or in a different dialect).

- Globalisation: this process involves replacing a specific cultural element

with a more neutral or generic one (e.g., cat instead of Siamese cat).

- Localisation: the translator adapts the term by using a cultural element

familiar to the target readers or by grammatical, morphological,

phonological and gender ending variations.

- Transformation: this strategy consists of altering the original (i.e., Harry

Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone becomes Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

in the United States).

- Creation: this process is used when a translator creates a completely

different term from the original version.

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

1.3 Previous studies of names used in Harry Potter heptalogy

The Harry Potter saga represents a real challenge for translators. The names

created by J. K. Rowling have diverse origins and allusions, including French,

Latin, Scottish, British, mythological, astronomical, imaginary, toponymical and

humoristic elements (Jaleniauskiene and Čičelytė, 2009).

Valero Garcés (2003) analyses the translation of proper names between five

Romance languages and German. The results show that, while Italian, French,

Catalan and Portuguese languages adopt localisation and creation approaches,

Spanish and German languages tend to remain faithful to the original with a

preservation strategy. The approach taken by the majority is due to the belief

that the target receiver should enjoy the story by understanding every word with

its allusions and should not perceive it as a translation.

Jaleniauskiene and Čičelytė (2009) compare the translation of the book among

English, Lithuanian and German, revealing distinct approaches taken by the two

translators. Since the original targeted audiences were children living in the

United Kingdom, many names alluded to the British culture or were perceived

as new and strange on purpose. However, some references may still be

mysterious for a British child due to being well hidden. Such allusions are very

challenging when put into another language; for instance, the surname of the

potions teacher Severus Snape refers to a snake, and the sn cluster has a general

negative connotation, as in sneer, snide, and sneak (Davies, 2003). Another

example, more difficult to find, is the first name of one of the main characters,

Hermione Granger, which a well-educated Briton will probably associate with

the wife of the king of Sicily in The Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare (Brøndsted and

Dollerup, 2004).

In 2010, Mäkinen examined the Finnish and German translations of Harry

Potter to explore translation challenges. The study found that hidden meanings,

creative aspects of names and the original casual style were often lost in

translation. On the other hand, Mut Miralles (2016) compares the translation

between Spanish and Catalan. Surprisingly, the strategies applied by the

translators are quite different, even though they are geographically close. For her

part, Brazill (2016) highlights frequent issues in Chinese to English translations

in formal and professional contexts. The study involves interviews with 20

Claudio Mastrangelo

teachers and surveys with over 300 students from seven Chinese universities. It

identifies four main problematic areas: Chinglish, cultural awareness, machine

translation and the translation profession. The findings reveal differences

between Chinese and English expressions, with causes of Chinglish rooted in

vocabulary, grammar and cultural differences. Emphasising cultural awareness

was crucial for improving translation quality, especially for idiomatic

expressions. The study recommends creating more intelligible translations to

enhance Chinese-English translation quality.

Zabir and Haroon (2018) examine the translation procedures for proper names

in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire into Malay, using Fernandes’s (2006) theory.

They also assess the impact of translation programmes using the concept of

“translation loss”. The study identifies several translation procedures that result

in the loss of hidden meanings, creative elements and the original casual style in

the translated names. Finally, Xinyu et al. (2022), whose research aims to identify

challenges and propose solutions in translating Harry Potter books from English

into Chinese, highlight the fact that, due to linguistic differences, the

transcription strategy is often necessary to maintain phonemic and semantic

fidelity between the source text and the target text.

This approach involves choosing Chinese characters that approximate to the

pronunciation and meaning of English proper names, which typically consist of

multiple characters in Chinese. Additionally, the recreation strategy is discussed

as a method to create new target text proper names based on the meanings found

in the original source text, particularly suitable for the inventive names

characteristic of fantasy literature like Harry Potter. The authors also emphasise

the use of the rendition strategy to directly translate proper names with formal

unity across both languages, preserving the unique atmosphere of the magical

world in the translations. Their findings underscore the importance of cultural

understanding and structural considerations in improving the quality and

appropriacy of translations, especially in children’s literature and fantasy genres.

2. Methodology

2.1 The corpus HAROMUS

To compare the translation across nine different Romance languages, a corpus

named HAROMUS was compiled. The name is derived from the Latin first

name of the main character, Harrius, and the language family chosen for this

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

study, Romance. HAROMUS contains the following texts in digital format:

1. Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale (Italian)

2. Harry Potter à l’École des Sorciers (French)

3. Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal (Spanish)

4. Harry Potter şi Piatra Filozofală (Romanian)

5. Harry Potter e a Pedra Filosofal (Brazilian Portuguese)

6. Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal (Asturian)

7. Harry Potter e a Pedra Filosofal (Galician)

8. Harry Potter i la Pedra Filosofal (Catalan)

9. Harry Potter e la Pèira Filosofau (Occitan)

It should be noted that the American version of the book used as a reference

point (i.e., Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) shows slight differences compared

to the British version. Examples of these differences are lexical (Sorcerer’s Stone

instead of Philosopher’s Stone) and morphological (British English spelling vs.

American English spelling, such as favour/favor, realise/realize, etc.). The same

phenomenon applies to the Portuguese version from Europe and the translation

into Brazilian Portuguese, with a major impact on the translation process. For

this reason, the Brazilian version was specifically included in the study. It should

be noted that due to the absence of a digital format of the book in Asturian,

Catalan, Galician and Occitan, a digital copy was created using Acrobat Scan,

followed by the digitisation of the texts with an OCR programme. Finally, the

Valencian edition of the book was considered; however, due to its similarity to

the Catalan version, only the latter was included in this research.

2.2 Data gathering instruments

The data used in this work were collected in an Excel file and divided into four

main categories (proper names of the characters, places, objects and the four

houses of the Hogwarts school). For the first category (characters’ names), 36

items were selected. The place category included seven entries, while the object

section comprised 14 items. Finally, the names of the four Hogwarts houses

constituted the last category analysed.

Claudio Mastrangelo

For the quantitative approach, the main instrument used to analyse the data was

the 6.0 version of WordSmith Tools. All the three functions (i.e., Keywords,

Wordlist and Concordance) were used to investigate the translation strategies

used by the different translators. The Keywords option was used to identify the

keywords in the original book by comparing it to the British National Corpus

(BNC). The Wordlist tool examined the 10 most frequent words in each

translation, while the Concordance option calculated the number of entries for

each selected word. This analysis helped in understanding the translator’s choices

in translating or omitting specific terms. For the qualitative approach, after the

data were gathered, a translation analysis was conducted for each language

described by using Davies’s (2003) strategies in translation. To provide plausible

explanations for the terms used by the authors involved, dictionaries of the nine

Romance languages selected and the results of the previously mentioned studies

were referenced.

2.3 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Plot

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by the British writer J. K. Rowling is the first

book of a saga composed by seven books. The story is about a young boy called

Harry Potter, who lives with his uncles in London after his parents were killed

by a dark wizard called Lord Voldemort when he was little. On his 11th birthday,

he receives a letter from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Subsequently, he starts to attend the school to become a wizard. In Hogwarts he

meets new friends, such as Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and makes

some enemies too, for instance, Draco Malfoy and the Potion teacher Severus

Snape. In the meantime, the dark Lord is trying to come back thanks to a

powerful stone which can produce the elixir of life, the philosopher’s stone. The

seven books tell about the adventures of Harry and his two best friends in the

magical world.

3. Data Analysis and discussion

3.1 Wordsmith analysis: Keywords function

Before the analysis of HAROMUS, an analysis of keywords was conducted in

the original book in English compared to the BNC. The first 22 keywords related

to proper nouns were selected to conduct this study. The keywords in the text

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

are the main characters of the story (Harry, Hagrid, Ron, Hermione,

Dumbledore, Snape and Malfoy). These are followed by the house to which the

main character belongs (Gryffindor), the name of the school (Hogwarts) and

finally the wizard sport (Quidditch). By looking at the keywords only, it is

possible to estimate that the story mainly talks about the adventures of the main

characters in the school.

3.2 Wordsmith analysis: Wordlist function

The total number of words contained in the corpus is 801,157. Firstly, a

comparison between the total number of words per language was conducted. As

Table 1 shows, the Brazilian Portuguese version of the book displays the smallest

number of words (77,911), only five words below the original version (77,916).

However, it is not surprising that the Catalan, Italian and French versions enjoy

the greatest number of words. These three languages are known to use longer

sentences than English. It should be noted that the English language prefers the

use of verbs, whereas Catalan, Italian and French tend to use nominalisation

instead.

PT (BR)

CAT

GAL

OCC

77,916

83,215

85,734

78,525

77,911

80,555

71,415

88,938

74,817

82,131

Table 1. Total number of words in each version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Secondly, the total number of different words (types) was calculated for each

version. Table 2 shows that the Italian version uses almost the double of

different words (10,306) than the original version in English (5,986), followed

by Galician with 9,276 different terms. However, the other versions display an

average of 8,530 different words. A possible reason may be the use of synonyms

by the Italian translator, not to mention the lexical variety of the Italian language

due to its close relation to Latin compared to the other Romance languages. The

possible reason for the Galician variation in terminology may be attributed to

the translator’s choice of using terms from various areas within the region.

PT (BR)

CAT

GAL

OCC

5,986

10,306

8,723

8,629

8,376

8,737

8,922

7,334

9,276

8,992

Table 2. Total number of different words (types) in each version of Harry Potter and the

Philosopher’s Stone

Claudio Mastrangelo

The Wordlist option was used to extract the 10 most frequent proper names in

each version of the book (see Table 3). Interestingly, the first four names are

consistent across seven languages, including the three central characters: “Harry

Potter” and his two closest friends, “Ron Weasley” and “Hermione Granger”.

It is intriguing that Hogwarts’s gamekeeper, “Rubeus Hagrid”, appears more

frequently than “Hermione Granger”. One possible explanation is Hagrid’s early

introduction in the story. However, in the Catalan and Occitan versions, the

word for “head” ranks second and third, respectively.

From the fifth word onward, divergences among translations become apparent.

While four out of the nine versions mention the Potions teacher Severus Snape,

the English and French editions feature “professor” in the fifth position,

whereas Galician and Occitan opt for “face” (cara) and “people” (monde). This

discrepancy may stem from the use of different titles in these languages to refer

to individuals in the book, such as señor (“sir”) and señora (“madam”) in the

Spanish version.

Although the positions of other main characters’ names vary across versions

(Dumbledore, Malfoy, Vernon), certain nouns are shared among multiple

translations: “time” in English; “head” (testa, tête, cabeça, cap) in Italian, French,

Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan and Occitan; “door” (puerta, porta) in Spanish,

Catalan and Brazilian Portuguese; and “eyes” (olhos) in the Brazilian Portuguese

version. Additionally, the Occitan version places “room” (sala) seventh. These

recurring terms may reflect various factors: different languages using synonyms

or different structures for discussing time; the recurrent use of “head” due to

the Sorting Hat ceremony; the prevalence of “door” in Spanish possibly due to

castle descriptions; the focus on “eyes” in Brazilian Portuguese descriptions of

main characters; and the prominence of “room” in Occitan, reflecting the

school’s setting with multiple classrooms.

PT (BR)

CAT

GAL

OCC

Harry

Ron

Rony

Ron

Cap

Ron

Hagrid

Ron

Hagrid

Cap

Hermione

Malfoy

Hagrid

Hermione

Hagrid

Professor

Piton

Professeur

Snape

Plesneala

Snape

Hermione

Cara

Monde

Snape

Silente

Tête

Dumbledore

Hermione

Cosa

Snape

Dudley

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

PT (BR)

CAT

GAL

OCC

Dumbledore

Dudley

Rogue

Dudley

Duda

Dudley

Profesora

Snape

Dumbledore

Sala

Uncle

Malfoy

Dumbledore

Malfoy

Cabeça

Vernon

Dudley

Dumbledo

Dudley

Malafé

Time

Testa

Dudley

Puerta

Olhos

Draco

Cara

Porta

Malfoy

Dumbledore

Dudley

Vernon

Malefoy

Vernon

Porta

Neville

Gryffindor

Dudley

Neville

Gryffindor

Table 3. Top 10 most frequent words in each version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

3.3 Wordsmith analysis: Concordance function

3.3.1 Main characters

The final WordSmith Tool function used to analyse HAROMUS was the

Concordance option. The first analysis consisted of investigating any differences

in the number of entries of the 35 selected characters of the story. Although 30

out of the 35 main characters’ entries were consistent across all translated

versions, five entries differed unexpectedly. As illustrated in Table 4, the

Brazilian Portuguese translation presents a scarce number of entries compared

to the original version and the other translations.

To interpret the results, a comparison with the Brazilian Portuguese version was

manually conducted. The Transfiguration teacher, Minerva McGonagall, appears

under her surname only three times in the Brazilian Portuguese version.

Apparently, the translator opted to address her using her first name, possibly

reflecting a cultural preference typical of Brazil, where people often refer to

others by their names with a title. Similarly, the gamekeeper Hagrid (52 tokens)

is referred to by his first name Rúbeo (309); the bad boy of the Slytherin house

Draco (82) is more frequently used than Malfoy (46); the Gryffindor student Simas

(19) of Irish origin occurs more than double Finnigan (7); and the Gryffindor

Quidditch keeper Olívio (44) is used instead of Wood (11).

Notably, the Romanian translation adopts a similar strategy to the Brazilian

Portuguese version referring to Draco more frequently by his first name (118

tokens) rather than his surname, Malfoy (8). In the Occitan version, a

comparable pattern is observed with Finnigan, where his first name, Seamus (6

tokens), occurs more often than his surname, Finnigan (2 tokens).

Claudio Mastrangelo

Character

PT (BR)

CAT

GAL

OCC

McGonagall

100

Hagrid

336

355

320

362

351

243

351

370

272

Malfoy

109

123

126

Finnigan

Wood

Table 4. Number of entries of the main characters in each version of Harry Potter and the

Philosopher’s Stone

3.3.2 Places

The second category analysed with the Concordance function was the main

places in the story. The Romanian version exhibits the most significant

difference compared to other versions of the book. This difference could be

attributed to the typical structure of Romanian sentences, which are generally

longer than their English counterparts. As a result, references are created using

synonyms and relative pronouns. Table 5 provides statistics extracted from

different translations compared to the original. The Occitan and the Asturian

translations also show a lower use of “Forbidden Forest”, with 11 and 14 entries,

respectively. This is due to the use of synonyms for “forest” in the text (e.g.,

bosc).

Place

PT (BR)

CAT

GAL

OCC

Privet

Drive, 4

Hogwarts

Gringotts

Forbidden

Forest

Table 5. Number of entries of selected places in each version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s

Stone

3.3.3 Objects

Among the 13 selected objects for the analysis of this study, only one shows a

difference between the versions: the “Remembrall”. This magical object, which

aids in remembering things by changing color, was mentioned only once in the

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Romanian version, while it typically displays between six and eight entries in the

other versions. The discrepancy arises because the Romanian translator opted to

use a synonym (globul, meaning “sphere”) to refer to this particular object.

3.3.4 Hogwarts Houses

The final items explored with the Concordance function of Wordsmith were the

four houses of Hogwarts School. The entries indicate that the most frequently

mentioned houses in the book are “Gryffindor”, the house of the main character

Harry Potter, and “Slytherin”, the house of his rival, Draco Malfoy. No

variations in entries were identified across the translated versions.

3.4 Translation comparison

3.4.1 Comparison of proper names and lexical constructions to name people

3.4.1.1 Creation strategy for proper names

This section is dedicated to the translation strategies used by the different

translators, according to the taxonomy proposed by Davies (2003). The results

show that 14 terms were transformed for the children’s audience. This strategy

is used the most in the Italian version (12 entries as shown in Table 6) followed

by French (8) and Romanian (6). As can be observed, these three languages

adopted this strategy to adapt the hidden allusions for each character to their

readers.

English

Italian

Muggle

Babbano

Albus Dumbledore

Albus Silente

Minerva McGonagall

Minerva McGrannit

Madame Pomfrey

Madama Chips

Professor Quirrell

Professor Raptor

Neville Longbottom

Neville Paciock

Claudio Mastrangelo

Crabbe

Tiger

Severus Snape

Severus Piton

Argus Filch

Argus Gazza

Madame Hooch

Madama Bumb

Oliver Wood

Oliver Baston

Firenze

Fiorenzo

Table 6. Creation strategy in the Italian version

1) “Muggle”: this term in English is used to refer to people without magical

power. Judith Inggs (2003: 167) claims that the lexical term has

“connotations of stupidity” or plainness, as in the English expressions “a

real mug” or “what an ugly mug”. The Italian term Babbano derives from the

adjective babbeo, meaning stupid. Similarly, Brazilian Portuguese calls these

people Trouxa, which has the same form of the adjective trouxa, meaning

“silly person”. The French version uses Moldu, meaning “soft-brained” (mol

de cerveau), someone who does not really understand things (Ménard, 2010).

For its part, Occitan uses the term Mángol, meaning “simpleton, fool”.

Finally, the Romanian translator chose Încuiat, meaning “narrow-minded”.

2) “Dumbledore”: according to Ménard (2010), the author of the book chose

this name from chapter 20 of the book The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas

Hardy. In the book, a woman living in the countryside speaks in a peculiar

dialect. The term seems to derive from the regional version of the word

“bumblebee” since the character is very active and goes from one place to

the other. Valero Garcés (2003) provides another explanation, claiming that

the word comes from the term “dumb” or “bumbling”. Only the Italian

version changed the surname into Silente, giving another connotation to the

term. The words can derive from silenzio, meaning “silent”, since the

Headmaster of Hogwarts is a reflexive person who keeps silent on Harry’s

past. This term also alludes to the term senile, adjective used for old people

suffering from weak health, since the character is very old.

3) “Minerva McGonagall”: as mentioned above, the first name of the

Transfiguration teacher appears in the book written by Hardy. It is a clear

reference to the Roman goodness of wisdom and strategic warfare. Although

her name is unchanged in every version, her surname becomes McGrannit in

Italian, alluding to the granite rock, showing the severe and strict character

of this professor.

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

4) “Madame Pomfrey”: this character works as a nurse in the school’s hospital.

As Valero Garcés (2003) mentions, the term refers to potato chips from the

French pomme de terre (“potato”) and the verb “to fry”. She becomes Madame

Pomfresh in French and Madame Pomafresca in Occitan, both adapting the

lexical term “potato” with frais and fresca, meaning “fresh, good”. Since the

allusion to potatoes was not clear to the Italian readers, the translator named

her Madam Chips, referring to chips using a synonym that could be better

understood by Italians.

5) “Professor Quirrell”: the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher becomes

Professor Raptor in the Italian version. The term indicates a connection with

the term raptus, meaning “fit, burst”, since the teacher seems to be quite mad

and hosts a part of Lord Voldemort on the back of his head.

6) “Neville Longbottom”: this shy and clumsy Gryffindor student was

translated into Neville Paciock in Italian. It seems to derive from the adjective

pacioccone, meaning “fatty and calm person” (Benati, 2002). The translator

chose the ending in –ck to keep the term similar to an English word. The

French version called him Longdubat (“long” and “bottom”), whereas the

Romanian translator used the word Poponeaţă, a slang word for “bottom”.

7) “Crabbe”: the surname of this character, who is one of the bodyguards of

Draco Malfoy, refers to the crustacean “crab”. The Italian version prefers

the term Tiger.

8) “Severus Snape”: the Potion master’s surname alludes to the term snake. In

the Italian version, he is called Professor Piton, alluding to a type of snake,

whereas in French it is referred as Professeur Rogue, meaning “arrogant”. The

Romanian translator chose Plesneală, from the verb “to snap”.

9) “Argus Filch”: the custodian of Hogwarts is in charge of catching students

who break the rules. His surnames come from the slang verb “to filch”,

meaning “to steal”. In Italian, he is called Gazza (“magpie”), whereas in

French it is Rusard, from the verb ruser, meaning “use cunning” or “go

around”, since the character is always inspecting the castle.

10) “Madame Hooch”: the Flying Instructor is called Madama Bumb in Italian

and Madame Bibine in the French version. The English term refers to a cheap

and poor-quality alcoholic drink, which is respected in the French term.

However, the Italian version seems to refer to the onomatopoeia for an

Claudio Mastrangelo

explosion.

11) “Professor Sprout”: the Herbology teacher’s surname indicates a clear

reference to the term “sprout”. The French Professeur Chourave alludes to chou

(“cabbage”) and rave (“turnip”), remaining in the same semantic field of

plants and vegetables as the Catalan Professora Coliflor and the Occitan

Professora Caulet-Flòri, synonymous terms for “cauliflower”. The Romanian

Profesoara Lăstar makes reference to a “sapling”.

12) “Voldemort”: the English term seems to derive from French vol (“theft”)

and mort (“death”). The dark wizard in fact splits his soul in order to become

immortal. The Romanian term Cap-de-Mort seems to derive from cap (“head,

leader”) of death.

13) “Oliver Wood”: the Capitan of the Gryffindor Quidditch team’s surname

clearly derives from wood. The surname was translated as Dubois, which

means “of wood” in French, and Maderu in Asturian, from madera (“wood”).

The Occitan version also alluded to an olive tree and wood (Oliu Husta). The

Catalan Roure seems to derive from the term used for an oak tree, whereas

both Italian and Romanian translators used the term Baston from bastone

meaning “woodstick”.

14) “Firenze”: the centaur that lives in the Forbidden Forest and later becomes

a Divination teacher has its name derived from the Italian city of Florence.

For this reason, the Italian translator changed its name into Fiorenzo from the

verb fiorire (“to bloom, to prosper”).

3.4.1.2 Localisation strategy for proper names

This strategy consists of adapting the name to the readers by following the

morphology, phonetics or syntax of the target language. Among the 18 items

selected for this study, it seems that this strategy is mostly used in the Brazilian

Portuguese version (17) as represented in Table 7. The names are adapted to the

phonetic of the target languages using accentuation (aunt Petunia is Pétunia,

Petúnia) or by using the corresponding name in the language (uncle Vernon is

Válter, James becomes Tiago and George is Jorge in Brazilian Portuguese). The

referring expression for Lord Voldemort, You-Know-Who, was literally

translated in every version except for the Catalan version which calls him

Innominable (“unnamable”). It is relevant to note that the surname of Draco

Malfoy, from the French mal foi (“bad faith”) was literally translated into

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Romanian with Reacredinţă and adapted to French and Occitan morphology with

Malefoy and Malafé. It is interesting that the Portuguese version from Portugal

keeps the proper names in English instead. The Occitan version of the book also

adapted proper names to the language spelling and names (Jórdi Weasley and Ròn

Weasley).

English

Brazilian Portuguese

Vernon Dursley

Válter Dursley

Petunia Dursley

Petúnia Dursley

Dudley Dursley

Duda Dursley

Lily Potter

Lílian Potter

James Potter

Tiago Potter

You-Know-Who

Você-Sabe-Quem

Albus Dumbledore

Alvo Dumbledore

Rubeus Hagrid

Rúbeo Hagrid

Ginny Weasley

Gina Weasley

George Weasley

Jorge Weasley

Ron Weasley

Rony Weasley

Nicolas Flamel

Nicolau Flamel

Seamus Finnigan

Simas Finnigan

Dean Thomas

Dino Thomas

Severus Snape

Severo Snape

Argus Filch

Argos Filch

Oliver Wood

Olívio Wood

Table 7. Localisation strategy in the Brazilian Portuguese version

3.4.1.3 Preservation strategy for proper names

Among the 36 proper names chosen for this research, only five are kept as the

originals in the nine different versions: the main character of the story, Harry

Potter, and one of his best friends, Hermione Granger; two of the brothers of

the Weasley family, Fred and Percy, and the other “bodyguard” of Draco Malfoy,

Goyle. While it is clear that all the translators decided not to change the name of

the main character, the choice of not translating these other names seems

unclear. A possible reason may be that three of them are very short names and

Claudio Mastrangelo

easily understood by the audience (Fred, Percy and Goyle). A possible

localisation for Hermione could have been Hermión for the languages spoken in

the Iberian Peninsula though.

3.4.2 Comparison of places

3.4.2.1 Creation strategy for places

Six places were taken into account for this study. The creation strategy seems to

occur only three times.

1) “Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry”: the famous name of the

magic school derives from a word game by switching the position of the two

syllables from the term warthog (Phacochoerus), which is also the symbol of

the school. While eight out of nine languages maintain the original term, the

French translator Jean-François Ménard explains that he chose the term

Poudlard by interpreting the English word as a pig (lard, “the pig fat”) with lice

(poux). In an interview (Ménard, 2010), the translator commented that the

French readers asked him if the word had to be pronounced as an English

word. This phenomenon seems to represent an excellent translation of

the term, since it contains a French meaning while having the shape of an

English word.

2) “Diagon Alley”: this street in the middle of London is the place where

wizards and witches live and go shopping. As mentioned in Mut Miralles

(2016), if the word is read very fast, it sounds like diagonally. For this reason,

the Catalan translator decided to use the same strategy by employing the

term Ronda d’Alla which sounds as rondalla (“a fairytale”). For its part, the

French version changed it into chemin de traverse (“the cross path”). Finally,

the Occitan version chose the term via de l’Embarca from the term embarca, a

shortcut, “detour”, or from the verb embarcar, “to board”.

3) “Platform Nine and Three-Quarters”: this is the platform hidden behind a

magic wall where students take the train to go to Hogwarts. Surprisingly,

the Portuguese version from Brazil used the term Plataforma nove e meia

(“Platform nine and a half”), while the version from Portugal keeps the

original term.

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

3.4.2.2 Localisation strategy for places

This strategy seems to be the most widely used in for toponyms. Five out of six

terms are adapted to the language according to different strategies.

1) “Privet Drive, 4”: Harry Potter’s uncle’s house where the protagonist grows

up. The term seems to derive from the plant “privet” from the Ligustrum

family. In the Romanian version, the street is called Aleea Boschetelor, 4, which

seems to derive from the term boschet (“bush”). The Brazilian Portuguese

version translated the name of the plant into Portuguese calling it Rua dos

Alfeneiros, 4, referring to a general shrub belonging to the Fabaceae family.

The same process is used in Asturian with Camín de los Sanxuaninos, 4, from

the Hypericum Perforatum, also known under the name of St. John’s Wort. In

Catalan, they changed only the term drive into carrer instead.

2) “Diagon Alley”: the term becomes Callejón Diagon literally translated into

Spanish, Diagon-al (“diagonal”) in the Portuguese version from Portugal and

Beco Diagonal in Brazil. Aleea Diagon (Romanian), travesa Diagon (Galician) and

Caleyon Diagon (Asturian) are translating literally only the term “alley”.

3) “Gringotts”: the famous wizard bank operated by goblins is morphologically

modified in Italian by taking the English ending out (Gringott), whereas the

Brazilian Portuguese added the ending –es transforming it into Gringotes.

4) “Forbidden Forest”: finally, the forest near the castle full of fantastic

creatures is literally translated in every language as shown in Table 8.

5) “Platform Nine and Three Quarters”: the term “platform” is literally

translated in the nine translations (binario, voie, andén, plataforma, peronul, via,

andana).

PT (BR)

CAT

GAL

OCC

Forbidden

Forest

Foresta

Proibita

Forêt

Interdite

Bosque

Prohibido

Floresta

Proibida

Pădurea

Interzisă

Bosc

Prohibit

Fraga

prohibida

Seuva

defenduda

Viesca

Vetada

Table 8. Translation of ‘Forbidden Forest’ in every version

Claudio Mastrangelo

3.4.2.3 Preservation strategy for places

The two terms that are unchanged in the majority of the translated version are

“Privet Drive, 4” (Italian, French, Spanish, Galician and Occitan) and

“Gringotts” (French, Spanish, Romanian, Catalan, Galician, Occitan and

Asturian). The term “Hogwarts” is changed only in French, whereas the term

“Diagon Alley” is only kept in Italian.

3.4.3 Comparison of objects and things

3.4.3.1 Creation strategy for objects and things

Thirteen items were chosen to be analysed in this section. Ten out of 13 objects

were creatively created by the translators. Differently from the two previous

types of proper names, the translators seem to use this strategy more often with

these kinds of words.

1) “Put-Outer”: also known with the term “Deluminator” in the American

version, is a device to remove light sources from the surroundings. It is

similar to a cigarette lighter. Whereas the American term refers to “taking the

light” from the Latin prefix de– and lumos, all the translators chose a word

related to the phrasal verb “to put out”. This is evident in the British English

version, which clearly alludes to the term (Put-outer). It is called Spegnino

(from spegnere) in Italian, Éteignoir (from éteindre) in French, Apagador in the

languages from the Iberian Peninsula (from apagar) and Apagueiro in Brazilian

Portuguese. In Occitan it is called tirahuec, literally a lighter. The Romanian

Brichetă also literally means a lighter.

2) “Sickle”: is a form of currency in the wizarding world. The term seems to

derive from the object, a sickle. The French translator chose a word from

argot, the secret language used in France during the 19th century. He called

this coin a Mornille from mornifle (“money”). The Portuguese version from

Portugal used the term Leões (“lions”).

3) “Knuts”: the origin of this word is unknown. It could derive from the Dutch

knut, referring to a small insect. The Italian version called this object zellino

from which vaguely reminds one of a schilling. For their part, the French

version adapted the word to noise and the Brazilian Portuguese version

adapted it to nuque.

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

4) “Bettie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans”: this sweet similar to jellybeans is

translated into Italian by the strategy of omission and creation. The Italian

translator relieved of the creator’s name calling them caramelle Tuttigusti +1

(“every flavour plus one sweet”). In French they are known as Dragées

surprises de Bertie Crochue (“surprising sweets by Bertie Hooked”).

5) “Sorting Hat”: the magical hat that sorts the new students to the different

Hogwarts’ houses. In Italian becomes the “speaking hat” Cappello Parlante,

which is a familiar object in the Italian fairytales. The French Choixpeau

Magique is a word game between choix (“choice”) and chapeau (“hat”).

6) “Remembrall”: this sphere-like object helps the owner to remember things

by changing colour. The Italian Ricordella comes from the verb ricordare (“to

remember”) and the diminutive suffix –ella. The French version used the

term Rapeltout from rappeler (“remind”) and tout (“everything”). The same

technique is used for the other languages, by deriving the name of this object

from verbs such as recordar, lembrar, a-şi aminti and brembar (“remember,

remind”), which gives birth to Recordadora, Lembrador, Aminteşte-ţi tot and

Brembatóri.

7) “Quaffle”: one of the balls used in the wizard sport of Quidditch. This is an

invented word which becomes Pluffa in Italian, Souafle in French, Goles in

Brazilian Portuguese (with probably a reference to a goal in English), Balon

in Romanian, Bomba in Catalan, Larpadela in Galician and Cuatriada in

Asturian.

8) “Bludger”: another item used in Quidditch. This ball is extremely fast and it

is enchanted to hit players who are flying on their brooms. It is translated

into Bolide in Italian, alluding to something that goes really fast, and into

Cognard in French, from the verb coigner (“to hit”) and the negative suffix –

ard (Valero Garcés, 2003). The Occitan translator opted for the same

technique with the term Tustard, from the verb tustar (“to hit”). In Romanian

it is called Baloane-ghiulea, from ghiulea (“cannon ball”). The Galician version

called it Fungueira, and Porriador in Asturian.

9) “Golden Snitch”: the smallest winged ball of Quidditch is called Boccino d’oro

in Italian from boccino (“jack”) (the small ball in the game of balls as

mentioned in Valero Garcés, 2003), Vif d’or in French from the adjective vif

(“alive”), Papallona from (“butterfly”) in Catalan and Raitana dorada in

Asturian from the bird raitán (“robin”). In Occitan, however, it is called Petòfi

Claudio Mastrangelo

durat, likely derived from the term petòfia, meaning rumor or gossip, and the

adjective durat, golden. The term alludes to the sound the object makes when

it flies and perhaps evokes the speed at which gossip spreads.

10) “Mirror of Erised”: the second term of this phrase is written that way so that

if read from right to left it would give the word “desire”. In Italian, however,

this game of words is omitted in the first translation of the book. The

translator preferred to allude to a magical object present in the fairytale of

Snow White, calling it Specchio delle brame from the famous sentence “Mirror,

mirror on the wall” (Specchio, specchio delle mie brame) and later translated into

specchio delle emarb.

3.4.3.2 Localisation strategy for objects and things

The seven objects which were adapted to the children audience are the ones

described in this subsection.

1) “Bettie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans”: the terms were literally translated into

the different languages, such as feijões de todos os sabores de Bertie Bott in

Portuguese from Portugal or gominoles Bertie Bott de toos tastos in Asturian.

2) “Chocolate Frog”: this sweet is literally translated in the 10 languages. For

example, it became Cioccorana in Italian from cioccolata (“chocolate”) and rana

(“frog”), Chocogrenouille in French, Ra de chocolate in Galician and Broaşte de

ciocolată in Romanian.

3) “Sickle”: this term was literally translated into Italian as Falce and Focetus in

the Asturian version. The Romanian version preferred Stecli and in Occitan

it became Sèclos.

4) “Knuts”: it is adapted to the Romanian orthography into Cnuţi, whereas

Asturian used Kuenxos.

5) “Sorting Hat”: the function of the hat is literally translated into Spanish

(Sombrero Seleccionador), Portuguese (Chapéu seleccionador), Romanian (Jobenul

Magic care face Sortarea), Catalan (Barret que tria), Galician (Escolla do sombreiro),

Asturian (Gorru Escoyedor) and Occitan (Capèth causidor).

6) “Mirror of Erised”: the word game is kept in every language, except for

Italian, and with the translation of the term “mirror” (i.e., Miroir du Riséd,

Oglinda lui Erised, Miralh d’Erisdat and Espeyu d’Uésed).

7) “Philosopher’s Stone”: the magical stone which can produce the elixir of life

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

and turns base metals into gold is literally translated in every version. For

instance, it is called Pierre Philosophale in French, Piedra Filosofal in Spanish and

Piatra Filozofală in Romanian.

3.4.3.2 Preservation strategy for objects and things

Only four entries were kept as the original version in the translations.

Interestingly, three of them are the balls used in Quidditch.

1) “Knuts”: the term is the same in Spanish, Portuguese from Portugal,

Catalan and Galician.

2) “Quaffle”: the item remains unchanged in Spanish, Occitan and Portuguese

from Portugal.

3) “Golden Snitch”: it is known as “Snitch” with the omission of the

adjective only in the Spanish version.

3.4.4 Comparison of the four houses of Hogwarts School

3.4.4.1 Creation and localisation strategies for the Hogwarts’ houses

The four main houses of the Hogwarts School are the following: Gryffindor,

whose symbol is a lion; Slytherin, represented by a snake; Ravenclaw, whose

emblem is an eagle/crow; and Hufflepuff, indicated by a badger.

3.4.4.1.1 Italian

The houses are then the following: Grifondoro (“golden griffon”), Serpeverde

(“green snake”), Tassorosso (“red badger”, even if the colours of this house are

yellow and black) and Corvonero (“black raven”). In the translation of the first

three books, this last house was called Pecoranera (“black sheep”). However, the

name was changed in the reprinted version and the last books to match with

the house emblem.

Claudio Mastrangelo

3.4.4.1.2 French

Slytherin became Serpentard from serpent (“snake”) and the suffix –ard. Serdaigle is

used for Ravenclaw, from serrer (“to grip”) and aigle (“agle”). Finally, the story

behind the translation of Hufflepuff is quite interesting. Jean-François Ménard

used the term Poufsouffle for this house. As he mentioned in an interview in

2010, the English author chose Hufflepuff from the fable The Three Little Pigs. It

is actually the sound that the wolf makes to blow away the houses built by

the piglets. Not only did he adapt it to the French audience, but he also gave

an extra connotation: the students of this house are known to have problems

passing the difficult exams of the school. As he said in the interview above

mentioned “les étudiants de cette maison courent après leurs études” (“the students are

running behind their studies”) (Ménard, 2010).

3.4.4.1.3 Brazilian Portuguese

The translator from Brazil chose Grifinória for Gryffindor (localisation), Sonserina

for Slytherin (adaptation), Corvinal for Ravenclaw from corvo (“crow, raven”) and

Lufa-lufa for Hufflepuff from the onomatopoeia of somebody in a rush (similar

to French strategy for this house).

3.4.4.1.4 Romanian

The translation into Romanian changed Gryffindor into Cercetași, which seems

to derive from the word for “scout” alluding to the bravery and strength of the

students from this house. Slytherin became Viperini from vipera (“poisonous

snake”). Ravenclaw is Ochi-de-Çoim (literally “the eyes of the hawk”) and finally

Astropufi for Hufflepuff, which seems to derive from astro (“star”) and the

preposition puf (“under, down”).

3.4.4.1.5 Occitan

The Occitan translation of the book introduced two terms and adapted the other

two. The first change is Slytherin, which becomes Eslissin, from the verb eslissar,

meaning to slip. Taishpof is used for Hufflepuff, derived from taish, meaning

“badger” and pof, similar to the English word puff. Gryffindor is translated as

Harry Potter in Translation: Comparison of Nine Romance Languages in the

Translation of Proper Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Gridondaur, combining the noun “griffin” with the adjective golden, daur. Lastly,

Ravenclaw becomes Arpagraula, combining arpa, meaning “talon”, with graula,

meaning “crow”.

3.4.4.2 Preservation strategy for the Hogwarts’ houses

The translations taken into account (Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Asturian)

preferred to maintain the original form of the houses’ names. Interestingly, the

Portuguese version from Portugal also kept the original names. The possible

reason is that the translator wanted to keep the Anglo-Saxon background, since

the school is supposed to be in a hidden place somewhere in Scotland.

Conclusions

The aim of this study was to analyse the translations of Harry Potter into nine

Romance languages using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, classified

according to Davies’s (2003) translation taxonomy. The results revealed that, for

character names, the most commonly employed strategy is localisation, adapting

the spelling or morphology to suit the readers. An exception is found in the

Italian translation, which often creates entirely new names. In examining the

places in the story, the predominant strategy also appears to be localisation.

While some neologisms were introduced, the majority aligns with the English

version by either adapting the words to the language’s spelling or retaining the

original term. Four of the translations maintained the four houses of Hogwarts

in their original forms, while the other five preferred to adapt them to readers

by introducing new terminology.

Future research should focus on differences in transcreation among languages

from different families to deepen understanding of how linguistic and cultural

influences shape translation strategies. Additionally, exploring other books in the

Harry Potter saga, particularly the translation of names of magical creatures,

potion ingredients and spells, could provide valuable insights into the challenges

and creative solutions involved in translating fantasy literature across diverse

languages.

Claudio Mastrangelo

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