therealsnape (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
therealsnape) wrote2009-09-27 11:24 am
therealsnape) wrote2009-09-27 11:24 am
Harry Potter and the Wooden Shoes
We recently had a few lovely discussions at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tetleythesecond's journal, about the various Potter translations.
I rashly offered to give some of the Dutch names and explanations and was taken up on that.
Below an overview of assorted Dutch Pottermania and (sorry, folks, ever the teacher) some comments on the choices made by the Dutch translator.
kellychambliss just regaled us with a laugh out loud story about an academic who had bored her rigid for 90 minutes. Well, I'm not an academic, and I'm offering you the option not to click.
I think the Dutch translation of Potter is special, in that the translator, Wiebe Buddingh’ decided from the very start to turn it into a truly Dutch book. Absolutely everything is translated.
He wants the books to be as accessible to Dutch 9-year olds as they are to British.
As a result, all Latin names and spells are kept in the original. So are difficult connotations, such as Cassandra, Vablatsky, Cerberus, Remus. Lupin is changed into Lupos since that is clearer to Dutch 12-year olds starting on Latin.
Buddingh’ is also an exceedingly creative translator (the Tom Sharpe novels are among his earlier work) who can do wonders with puns. So here are some of his more interesting decisions / translations.
Asqueen_of_snapes pointed out in Tetley’s journal entry, the German translator first had Sirius Black translated; then, after PoA he changed that back to English. Buddingh’ kept it in translation. As a result, Sirius joke in OotP about the Noble House of Black that gets blacker every day is much more likely to get a laugh from Dutch children.
Accidentally, the PM’s comment in HBP about ‘a certain Serious Black’ still works in Dutch: Sirius – Serieus.
An equally happy decision was made about Leo Jordan. At first, I felt that changing that in Jordaan was over-conscientious. There’s no difficulty in pronouncing Jordan, and even if it isn’t a normal Dutch name, we do have a widely sold brand of ‘Jordan’ toothbrushes.
However, when Leo, in DH, chooses ‘River’ as a Resistance name, the joke stands as it wouldn’t have done with ‘Jordan’.
Some of the names have typically British connotations, and Buddingh’ decided to give up on these as a hopeless cause.
Hence Anderling for McGonagall – she who is different, anders from the rest. This has led to an interesting development: in the first book, McGonagall’s tartan outfits are described as simply ‘checked’, (geruit). In Dutch a tartan is called ‘Scottish check’.This would have led to a ridiculous amount of adjectives in the description. Since Buddingh’ had decided to skip the Scottish connotation, he didn’t bother about the tartan. Then this turned out to be a running gag throughout the books, and he has had to add it. In GoF for instance the tartan dress robes and the thistle wreath are mentioned. It’s one of his few mistakes, not that he could have foreseen the running gag effect.
The English association names seem to have been the ones causing most trouble, probably because taking away an intentional meaning, or even changing it completely, is just the thing that will get you into problems in a long-running series.
For instance, Finch-Fletchley became Flets-Friemel. Here, the connotation changes from ‘upper class’ to simply ‘negative’. Quite unnecessarily, Finch-Fletchley isn’t a bad chap at all. Buddingh’ did admit to one case where he gave a negative name to someone who, in the end, turned out to be allright. It may well have been this one. flets is ‘faded’, friemelen is to fidget.
When names have, by sound or meaning, general connotations (Longbottom, Snape, Fudge, Dursley, Dudley) he tries to maintain those.
Hence “Sneep” for Snape. We have, albeit to a lesser extent, the same negative connotations of ‘sneer and sniper’ (but not of ‘snake’), but in order to keep that, the pronunciation must not change.
ForLongbottom he came up with Lubbermans. lubberen is the sagging of tweed skirts or hemlines, or elastic that has lost its elasticity.
Fudge became Droebel. Troebel is murky.
The Dursleys are called Duffeling. Duf is dumb, uncool, boring.
Dudley is Dirk, a normal Dutch name, but old-fashioned. A fat bully could well be a ‘Dirk’. Does the UK name have the same association with a fat, dumb guy? I didn't need JKR's depiction of gluttony as a Dudley sin to feel that he wasn't a lithe athlete, but that may be because of Dutch associations.
Filch is Vilder in Dutch, a vilder being a slaughter of animals.
Here’s a list of some more translations. If you want the Dutch version + explanation for anyone not mentioned, post a comment!
Bagman, Ludo: Bazuyn, Ludo. A bazuin is a horn as used by town criers, the idea is ‘loud, noisy’. rondbazuinen is to shout something from the rooftops.
Prof. Binns: Prof. Kist. A kist is a crate or a coffin.
Blast-Ended Skrewts: Schroeistaartige Skreeften. The Dutch translator is excellent in alliteration and rhythm. As is happens, he’s the son of one of our best-known poets, who had a remarkable gift for puns and self-made words. Chip of the old block, our Buddingh' is.
schroeien is to scorch, staart is tail, kreeft is lobster. A skreeft is nothing, but it does keep the alliteration.
Bones, Amelia: Emilia Bonkel. bonkel has an association with carbuncle, (karbonkel, and with bonk solid block. The change from Amelia into Emilia may well be made because we have a royal princess Amalia (now age 7), our future queen. So the name carries an immediate association with the Dutch royal family.
Bulstrode, Millicent: Margriet Bullemans. A bul of a man is a great, threateningly big man. The word is not normally used for a woman. And Bullemans is close to boeman, boggart. The idea of the great, big bully shines through. Anyone knows whether the Bulstrode – Bully connotation is strong in English?
Crabbe, Vincent: Korzel. No first name given. To be korzelig is to be curt, irritable.
Crouch, Bartemius (Barty) : Krenck, Barto. To krenken is to hurt, to insult. In old Dutch, a ‘c’ in front of a ‘k’ occurs often. Therefore it’s still a part of many old Dutch surnames. Here, it helps to create a real ‘name’ feeling, as opposed to the “Pius Thicknesse” school of sledgehammer allegory.
Death Eater: Dooddoener. At first I thought this a little masterpiece. dood is death, doener is he who does, he who makes. But the whole, a dooddoener is another word for ‘trite remark, a conversation-stopper’. ‘Ah, well, as long as you have your health!’ ‘What a dooddoener!. When the DE’s were seen as a bunch of loosers who are to be despised for sidling with Voldemort, this worked fine. Towards the end, it no longer reflected their true malevolence.
Granger, Hermione: Hermelien Griffel. A griffel is a slate-pencil, and we have a Dutch saying: Je krijgt een tien met een griffel!: You get a 10 (highest grade) and a slate-pencil, as in ‘a small present from your teacher, for doing so well’.
Grubbly-Plank, Wilhelmina: yes, I have to admit, Wilhelmina Varicosus. And insult that is not remedied by keeping Wilhelmina, another of our queens, and one who, both in shape and in character, could have been cast for the part.
Fawkes: Felix. It combines the scholarly, Latin nature of the Dutch Dumbledore (Albus Perkamentus = Parchment, although I can’t see Albus as white sheet of parchment that must yet be filled … ) and the idea of happiness. In the end, it worked marvelously, both for Felix who heals with his tears and for the healing, uplifting song after AD’s death.
Pomfrey, Poppy: Poppy Plijster. A pleister is a band-aid, the pronunciation remains the same.
Skeeter, Rita: Rita Pulper. pulp is pulp fiction. An absolute masterpiece is the Quick-Quote-Quill: de Fantasiteer-veer. Fantaseren is to fantasize, citeren is to quote and a veer is a quill. The wonderfulkellychambliss, who patiently answers my endless questions on all things English, assured me that the ‘fantasize’ aspect isn’t present in the original.
Trelawney, Sybill: Sybille Zwamdrift. zwam is funghus. The verb zwammen is ‘to prattle, to babble’, drift is, in a slightly archaic meaning, urge, lust.
Weasley, family: The name became Wemel. Wemelen is ‘to teem’, the way The Burrow (Het Nest, not just bird’s nest, we use the word for the habitat of mice, too) teems with children. In GoF, Crouch calls Percy Wezel, weasel.
All Weasley first names are kept as they are.
Weasleys’ Wizarding shop or whatever it’s called: ToverTweelings TopFopShop.
Toveren is to do wizardry, Tweeling is twin, foppen is to pull pranks. I absolutely love the alliteration and rhyme in this one!
This is a ridiculously long entry. If you want anyone / anything special, just ask!
tetleythesecond's journal, about the various Potter translations.I rashly offered to give some of the Dutch names and explanations and was taken up on that.
Below an overview of assorted Dutch Pottermania and (sorry, folks, ever the teacher) some comments on the choices made by the Dutch translator.
kellychambliss just regaled us with a laugh out loud story about an academic who had bored her rigid for 90 minutes. Well, I'm not an academic, and I'm offering you the option not to click.I think the Dutch translation of Potter is special, in that the translator, Wiebe Buddingh’ decided from the very start to turn it into a truly Dutch book. Absolutely everything is translated.
He wants the books to be as accessible to Dutch 9-year olds as they are to British.
As a result, all Latin names and spells are kept in the original. So are difficult connotations, such as Cassandra, Vablatsky, Cerberus, Remus. Lupin is changed into Lupos since that is clearer to Dutch 12-year olds starting on Latin.
Buddingh’ is also an exceedingly creative translator (the Tom Sharpe novels are among his earlier work) who can do wonders with puns. So here are some of his more interesting decisions / translations.
As
queen_of_snapes pointed out in Tetley’s journal entry, the German translator first had Sirius Black translated; then, after PoA he changed that back to English. Buddingh’ kept it in translation. As a result, Sirius joke in OotP about the Noble House of Black that gets blacker every day is much more likely to get a laugh from Dutch children. Accidentally, the PM’s comment in HBP about ‘a certain Serious Black’ still works in Dutch: Sirius – Serieus.
An equally happy decision was made about Leo Jordan. At first, I felt that changing that in Jordaan was over-conscientious. There’s no difficulty in pronouncing Jordan, and even if it isn’t a normal Dutch name, we do have a widely sold brand of ‘Jordan’ toothbrushes.
However, when Leo, in DH, chooses ‘River’ as a Resistance name, the joke stands as it wouldn’t have done with ‘Jordan’.
Some of the names have typically British connotations, and Buddingh’ decided to give up on these as a hopeless cause.
Hence Anderling for McGonagall – she who is different, anders from the rest. This has led to an interesting development: in the first book, McGonagall’s tartan outfits are described as simply ‘checked’, (geruit). In Dutch a tartan is called ‘Scottish check’.This would have led to a ridiculous amount of adjectives in the description. Since Buddingh’ had decided to skip the Scottish connotation, he didn’t bother about the tartan. Then this turned out to be a running gag throughout the books, and he has had to add it. In GoF for instance the tartan dress robes and the thistle wreath are mentioned. It’s one of his few mistakes, not that he could have foreseen the running gag effect.
The English association names seem to have been the ones causing most trouble, probably because taking away an intentional meaning, or even changing it completely, is just the thing that will get you into problems in a long-running series.
For instance, Finch-Fletchley became Flets-Friemel. Here, the connotation changes from ‘upper class’ to simply ‘negative’. Quite unnecessarily, Finch-Fletchley isn’t a bad chap at all. Buddingh’ did admit to one case where he gave a negative name to someone who, in the end, turned out to be allright. It may well have been this one. flets is ‘faded’, friemelen is to fidget.
When names have, by sound or meaning, general connotations (Longbottom, Snape, Fudge, Dursley, Dudley) he tries to maintain those.
Hence “Sneep” for Snape. We have, albeit to a lesser extent, the same negative connotations of ‘sneer and sniper’ (but not of ‘snake’), but in order to keep that, the pronunciation must not change.
ForLongbottom he came up with Lubbermans. lubberen is the sagging of tweed skirts or hemlines, or elastic that has lost its elasticity.
Fudge became Droebel. Troebel is murky.
The Dursleys are called Duffeling. Duf is dumb, uncool, boring.
Dudley is Dirk, a normal Dutch name, but old-fashioned. A fat bully could well be a ‘Dirk’. Does the UK name have the same association with a fat, dumb guy? I didn't need JKR's depiction of gluttony as a Dudley sin to feel that he wasn't a lithe athlete, but that may be because of Dutch associations.
Filch is Vilder in Dutch, a vilder being a slaughter of animals.
Here’s a list of some more translations. If you want the Dutch version + explanation for anyone not mentioned, post a comment!
Bagman, Ludo: Bazuyn, Ludo. A bazuin is a horn as used by town criers, the idea is ‘loud, noisy’. rondbazuinen is to shout something from the rooftops.
Prof. Binns: Prof. Kist. A kist is a crate or a coffin.
Blast-Ended Skrewts: Schroeistaartige Skreeften. The Dutch translator is excellent in alliteration and rhythm. As is happens, he’s the son of one of our best-known poets, who had a remarkable gift for puns and self-made words. Chip of the old block, our Buddingh' is.
schroeien is to scorch, staart is tail, kreeft is lobster. A skreeft is nothing, but it does keep the alliteration.
Bones, Amelia: Emilia Bonkel. bonkel has an association with carbuncle, (karbonkel, and with bonk solid block. The change from Amelia into Emilia may well be made because we have a royal princess Amalia (now age 7), our future queen. So the name carries an immediate association with the Dutch royal family.
Bulstrode, Millicent: Margriet Bullemans. A bul of a man is a great, threateningly big man. The word is not normally used for a woman. And Bullemans is close to boeman, boggart. The idea of the great, big bully shines through. Anyone knows whether the Bulstrode – Bully connotation is strong in English?
Crabbe, Vincent: Korzel. No first name given. To be korzelig is to be curt, irritable.
Crouch, Bartemius (Barty) : Krenck, Barto. To krenken is to hurt, to insult. In old Dutch, a ‘c’ in front of a ‘k’ occurs often. Therefore it’s still a part of many old Dutch surnames. Here, it helps to create a real ‘name’ feeling, as opposed to the “Pius Thicknesse” school of sledgehammer allegory.
Death Eater: Dooddoener. At first I thought this a little masterpiece. dood is death, doener is he who does, he who makes. But the whole, a dooddoener is another word for ‘trite remark, a conversation-stopper’. ‘Ah, well, as long as you have your health!’ ‘What a dooddoener!. When the DE’s were seen as a bunch of loosers who are to be despised for sidling with Voldemort, this worked fine. Towards the end, it no longer reflected their true malevolence.
Granger, Hermione: Hermelien Griffel. A griffel is a slate-pencil, and we have a Dutch saying: Je krijgt een tien met een griffel!: You get a 10 (highest grade) and a slate-pencil, as in ‘a small present from your teacher, for doing so well’.
Grubbly-Plank, Wilhelmina: yes, I have to admit, Wilhelmina Varicosus. And insult that is not remedied by keeping Wilhelmina, another of our queens, and one who, both in shape and in character, could have been cast for the part.
Fawkes: Felix. It combines the scholarly, Latin nature of the Dutch Dumbledore (Albus Perkamentus = Parchment, although I can’t see Albus as white sheet of parchment that must yet be filled … ) and the idea of happiness. In the end, it worked marvelously, both for Felix who heals with his tears and for the healing, uplifting song after AD’s death.
Pomfrey, Poppy: Poppy Plijster. A pleister is a band-aid, the pronunciation remains the same.
Skeeter, Rita: Rita Pulper. pulp is pulp fiction. An absolute masterpiece is the Quick-Quote-Quill: de Fantasiteer-veer. Fantaseren is to fantasize, citeren is to quote and a veer is a quill. The wonderful
kellychambliss, who patiently answers my endless questions on all things English, assured me that the ‘fantasize’ aspect isn’t present in the original.Trelawney, Sybill: Sybille Zwamdrift. zwam is funghus. The verb zwammen is ‘to prattle, to babble’, drift is, in a slightly archaic meaning, urge, lust.
Weasley, family: The name became Wemel. Wemelen is ‘to teem’, the way The Burrow (Het Nest, not just bird’s nest, we use the word for the habitat of mice, too) teems with children. In GoF, Crouch calls Percy Wezel, weasel.
All Weasley first names are kept as they are.
Weasleys’ Wizarding shop or whatever it’s called: ToverTweelings TopFopShop.
Toveren is to do wizardry, Tweeling is twin, foppen is to pull pranks. I absolutely love the alliteration and rhyme in this one!
This is a ridiculously long entry. If you want anyone / anything special, just ask!