Harry Botter - Translating Names from English into Arabic in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.pdf

A quartly Refereed Journal Issued by the DA quartly Refereed Journal Issued by the DA quartly Refereed Journal Issued by the DA quartly Refereed Journal Issued by the Department of Translation epartment of Translation epartment of Translation epartment of Translation SSSStudies tudies tudies tudies ––––BaytulBaytulBaytulBaytul----HikmaHikmaHikmaHikma---- BaghdadBaghdadBaghdadBaghdad

ISSN: ISSN: ISSN: ISSN: +221-9498

Vo no. 21-22 Winter and spring

2014

Translation Studies

Harry Botter Dia Abdullah Sulaibi

(75-86)

Harry Botter Translating Names from English into Arabic in

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Dia Abdullah Sulaibi Department of Translation College of Arts Al-Mustansiriya University E-mail: [email protected]

Introduction Books get translated from their

source language into other languages all the time. Some books get so popular and phenomenal that they get translated into many languages. These books are so good, so loved and so influential that many people in many languages would love to read in their own languages. Like the novels of Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, Paulo Coehlo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Or even the fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm as well as comic books like The Adventures of Tintin, The Adventures of Asterix.

J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter1 books were translated into 72 languages, according to The Bloomsbury Publishing website (2010). This makes the Harry Potter series of books among the most translated works of literature into other languages, thus rivaling Sherlock Holmes, Gone with the Wind, and The Da Vinci Code.

Arabic is one of the languages into which the Harry Potter books were translated.

TTTThis paper discusses the translation of

names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s

Stone, a children’s fantasy novel, and the first

of seven novels that, together comprise the

Harry Potter book series. The paper is to

highlight the importance of names in

translating this particular text and in the

literary genre of fantasy in general. First, it

defines what it is meant by a name and

attempts to present some of the most

important types of “meanings” usually

conveyed by names in literature and in fantasy

literary works, of course, with a focus on the

first book in the Harry Potter series.

Keywords: Keywords: Keywords: Keywords: fantasyfantasyfantasyfantasy,,,, Harry PotterHarry PotterHarry PotterHarry Potter, , , ,

naves, naves, naves, naves, onomastics, onomastics, onomastics, onomastics, translation, . translation, . translation, . translation, .

A quartly Refereed Journal Issued by the Department of Translation A quartly Refereed Journal Issued by the Department of Translation A quartly Refereed Journal Issued by the Department of Translation A quartly Refereed Journal Issued by the Department of Translation SSSStudies tudies tudies tudies ––––BaytulBaytulBaytulBaytul----HikmaHikmaHikmaHikma---- BaghdadBaghdadBaghdadBaghdad



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Arabs are no stranger to stories of fantasy that include magic, supernatural creatures and unnatural beasts. The One thousand and One Nights, also known as The Arabian Nights, has some of the oldest fantasy stories, Such as Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Ali Baba and the Cave of Wonders and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad.

The first book in the series: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone came out in the United Kingdom in 1997 (Rowling, 1997), but it was not translated into Arabic until 2002 (Rowling, 2008). The translation was by an Egyptian Publishing house called Nahdet Misr �� . The same thing happened to the second, third, fourth, and fifth books, it took them years to get them translated. So the translations came out between 2004 and 2007. Only the last two books in the series were translated and published in the same year the original books were published; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007).

The Nahdet Misr Arabic version of Harry Potter is the only official version that there is in Arabic, thus it is the only way an Arab reader, who does not speak or read English, may encounter the English books. The Arabic versions of each of the seven books suffer from many problems, as it is expected due to the fact that the translation of the Harry Potter books were not less problematic when rendered into other languages. This paper will consider only one of these problems, namely the translation of names and analyze it. The paper's scope of research will include only the first book in the series: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone which was translated into Arabic by Sahar Jabr Mahmoud.

The current paper proposes that the translation of names in fiction is not as easy to translate as one may think: a name may not just simply be transferred from one language into another without alteration. This is because of the nature that names play in fiction, and this even gets more complicated when it comes to fiction that belongs to the fantasy genre due to the fact that names in the fantasy genre of fiction have a bigger role to play in the work of fiction. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is, as will be shown later on, an excellent case study in this regard. This will be discussed elaborately in the below sections of the paper.

In this paper, the general term “Name” is used to refer to the word or words that are used to refer to something in the outside world. This wide term was purposefully used here instead of the narrower terms: Proper Noun or Proper Name (the name of a person, a place or institution), Common Noun (the name of an object or a thing), and Abstract Noun (the name of an idea or a quality that is not a physical object). Although in the case of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (and almost all works of fiction the belong to the fantasy genre), the outside world is not the outside world per se; as it is a work of fiction, and a fantasy fiction, for that matter. This, also, will be explained further in the following sections.

Harry Potter is a very rich subject for study. Almost everything about this very popular series of novels has been studied over and over again. Tens of papers were written on Harry Potter from literary, linguistic, educational, political, historical, anthropological, philosophical, psychological and even theological viewpoints. The translation of Harry Potter into dozens of languages around the world have also ignited




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the publishing of many academic papers focusing on the different aspects of the novels and how they were translated into other languages. In this paper, the researcher adds one more paper to the corpus of papers dealing with the translation of the literary phenomenon. But translating the names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone into Arabic has never been dealt with till now, which gives the current paper some privilege.

1. Studying names There is a science that studies names and it is known as Onomastics (Greek

onomastikos from onoma ‘name’) (Crystal, 1997: 112), usually divided into the study of personal names (Anthroponomastics from Greek anthropos ‘human being’) and place names (Toponomastics from Greek topos ‘place’). In more popular usage, the term Onomastics is used to refer to personal names and Toponomastics for place names. The division is ultimately an arbitrary one, as Fernandes (2006, 45) suggests, as places can be named after people, just like in the case of the city of Lincoln in Nebraska, USA which was named after Abraham Lincoln, the 16th American President, and Prince Albert, the Canadian city that was named thus after Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband. The same thing can happen the other way round; i.e. people can be named after places, for example Paris and Dakota are used as first names for females, while Orlando is used to name males. It is true that most name studies fall under one of these two major headings, but that does not mean that they are limited by them.

Onomastics is the study of names. Names of all kinds – Names of people (e.g. first names, middle names, surnames, nicknames), names of

places (e.g. countries, districts, cities, towns, villages), names of landscape features (e.g. seas, rivers, streams, lakes, mountains, hills, valleys, forests, woods, moors, marshes), names of buildings (e.g. houses, churches, pubs, schools, airports, hotels, railway stations), names of routeways (e.g. roads, streets, paths, tracks, bridges, fords, canals, shipping routes), names of animals (e.g. pets, greyhounds, racehorses, cows), names of ethnic and social groups (e.g. nations, tribes, political parties, clubs, sports teams), names of events (e.g. competitions, fairs, races), names of astronomical features (e.g. planets, stars), names of vehicles (e.g. aircrafts, locomotives, ships), names of commercial products (e.g. chocolates, lipsticks, wines), names of creative works (e.g. books, films, plays, poems), names in fiction as well as in the real world.

(Hough, 2013) The sheer fact that an academic study of names exists, magnifies the important role

that naming, as a phenomenon, plays in the world. To name something, as Algeo and Algeo (2000, 265) propose, is to make it. The unnamed is the unnoticed, and the unnoticed is for cognitive and communicative purposes nonexistent. Algeo and Algeo (ibid, 265-9) even state a number of disciplines that are connected with study of names: anthropology, genealogy, history, lexicography, linguistics, and the list goes on and on.




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What is of interest to the subject of the current paper is the mention of literature as one of those disciplines.

2. Names in literature The name of a character, a place or a thing in the real world could be reflected in

works of literature. Literature, after all, represents a language or a people: culture and tradition (Lombardi, 2013). This could be seen almost in every work of literature. When Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace, he gave us an account of a historical event that included names of real people (Napoleon, Tsar Alexander I), real places (Saint Petersburg, Moscow) and real things (the Battle of Austerlitz, the Decembrist Uprising), such thing usually takes place in historical fiction. Some other literary works have used certain real elements that already have their own names and have merged them with a number of fictitious elements to which fictitious names were created.

A good example of this is Charles Dickens and his writings that usually presented and criticized some aspects of British society. His writings are well-known to take place in real places and to deal with real things, but all his characters are fictitious. Some of his characters were based on real people but with names that were devised for the purpose of emphasizing the characteristics of those characters. One example is the name of the untidy old nurse, Sairy Gamp, from the novel Martin Chuzzlewit, which was felt to be suggestive of the disreputable umbrella she carried, for her name was retained as a contribution to the language in order that large and baggy umbrellas might thenceforth be designated as 'gamps' (Gordon, 1917: 5). Another example is no other than Oliver Twist the hero of the self titled novel. There is suggestiveness in the meaning of the word twist that hints at the "wrenching out of place," the intertwining of forces good and evil that seek to influence the course of the boy's life. That this interpretation is not fanciful may be seen from Dickens' own comment: "I wish to show, in little Oliver, the principle of Good surviving through every adverse circumstance and triumphing at last." (Dickens quoted in Gordon, 1917: 7).

Characters' names can be used artistically to achieve a number of goals like encoding a central trait in a particular character's signification, embracing crucial thematic motifs, ideological toning as well as even showing the particular writer's point of view. Some of these qualities are easily lost in translation (Wamitila, 1999: 35), something that is captured in the formula traduttori tradittori (translators are traitors).

Bertilles (2004) proposed the following categorization regarding proper names in fiction: 1. Conventional personal names, including first names and/or family names that belong

to the general anthroponomy. This category includes only names that are found as such in the general name register and which cannot be defined as suggesting any characteristic traits of the name-bearer. She made a distinction between completely conventional names and modified conventional names which refers to names that are clearly derived from conventional




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names (first names or family names). These are names which include elements that can be transparently traced back to ordinary names, or whose orthographic form is modified from conventional names.

2. Invented names or coined names which are semantically loaded and are formed or invented for the purpose of a certain narrative context. Most of these names are clearly or unclearly semantically loaded, or have a clearly discernable origin. In this regard there is a distinction between invented or names derived from other words and imaginary names. She used the term imaginary names with reference to names that have no transparent semantic content, that is, they do not include already existing word forms. They are still coined for a specific narrative context.

3. Classic names (also historical, universal or literary names) contain a universal content, that is, the name is associated with certain characteristics independently of cultural or linguistic context. For instance, the classic names of literary characters Hamlet. She stated that these are not conventional and do not have any noticeable meaning.

3. Names in Fantasy Literature There are three important types of meaning that names usually convey in fantasy

literature (Fernandes, 2006:46). First there is Semantic Meaning in order to describe a certain quality of a particular

narrative element and/or create some comic effects. A character’s name is a personification of either vices or virtues or of general qualities relevant to human life (Manini, 1996). For example, the surname “Fowl” in the fantasy novel Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. Fowl /faul/ has the same pronunciation as the English word “foul” /faul/, which means “evil” or “wicked” (The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 2004). This gives the reader an idea of what they are about to expect from the members of the Fowl family, especially from Artemis Fowl himself, the evil main character of the novel and the wicked criminal in the story.

The second type of meaning is Semiotic Meaning. Names in many cultures act as signs, generating ancient or more recent historical associations, indicating gender, class, nationality, religious identity, intertextuality, mythology and so on. According to Tymoczko (1999), these are the most problematic to be translated, especially due to their semiotic significance which is often culture-bound. The fantasy novel The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan is a good example, as it is mostly based on Greek mythology. In this novel we find references to characters like Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades that are totally not related to Arabic culture and may create a real challenge to the translator. The first name of the main character, the kid Percy Jackson, is a reference in itself. It is revealed in the novel that his name “Percy” is short for “Perseus” which is yet another reference to a Greek mythological hero. Just knowing this information explains a lot of the character’s behaviors and even foreshadows what comes later in the story.




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The third is Sound Symbolic Meaning which refers to “the use of specific sounds or features of sounds in a partly systematic relation to meanings or categories of meaning” (Matthews 1997: 347). Some examples of imitative sound symbolic meaning can be found in names such as “Breehy-hinny-brinny-hoohy-hah” (a horse in the fantasy novel The Horse and His boy by C. S. Lewis), and “Rumblebuffin” (a giant in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe also by C. S. Lewis), which attempt to imitate respectively the whining of a horse, and the booming voice of a giant. Imitative sound symbols often have component phonesthetic sound symbols just like the examples mentioned above.

4. Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone A lot of names were used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; they can be

classified as follows: 1- First names of people (Harry, Vernon, Petunia, Dudley, Albus, Minerva, Rubeus, Lily,

James, Sirius, Cornelius, Griphook, Hermione, Hedwig) 2- Surnames of people (Potter, Dursley, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, Black,

Fudge, Weasley, Longbottom, Flamel, Gryffindor) 3- Names given to people or taken by them (Voldemort, You-Know-Who, He-Who-

Must-Not-Be-Named, Nearly Headless Neck) 4- Names of places (Privet Drive, Britain, Godric’s Hollow, Hogwarts, Bristol, Brazil, the

Forbidden Forest, King’s Cross, Kent, Bristol) 5- Names of groups and creatures (Muggle, wizard, witch, goblin, dragon, vampire, hag,

unicorn, phoenix, werewolf, centaur, zombie, ghost) 6- Names of devices and things (the put-outer, Remembrall, the Quaffle, the Bludger, the

Golden Snitch, Knut, Sickle, Galleon, parchment) 7- Names of holidays (Bonfire Night, Christmas and Halloween) 8- Names of creative works, like songs (Tiptoe through the Tulips) 9- Names of titles (Supreme Wugwump, Prefect, Head boy, Head girl, Keeper of Keys

and Grounds at Hogwarts, Seeker, Beater, Chaser) 10- Names of buildings and shops (Gringotts, Ministry of Magic, Flourish and Blotts, the

Great Hall, Eeylops Owl Emporium) 11- Names of printed works (Daily Prophet, Standard Book of Spells, History of Magic,

Magical Theory, Beginner’s Guide to Transformation) 12- Names of Products (Nimbus Two Thousand, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans,

Cleansweep Seven, Drooble’s Best blowing Gum) 13- Names of dishes (Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes, pork chops, bacon, Pumpkin

Pasties, Licorice Wands, Yorkshire pudding, Jell-O) 14- Names of classes and games (Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, History of Magic,

Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts, Quidditch) 15- Names of plants (Willow, Mahogany, Yew, asphodel, wormwood) 16- Names of spells and incantations (Alohomora, Locomotor Mortis, Petrificus Totalus,

Wingardium Leviosa)




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This classification includes all the aspects of naming that were used in the novel, but the examples given between the brackets are not all the names in the novel as there are many more that were not included here but might be mentioned later on.

The Harry Potter books take place between two worlds, which is almost one of the distinctive features of fantasy novels. These two worlds are the ordinary world (called the “muggle world” in the novel but will be called the “real world” in this paper) and the magical world (called the “wizarding world” in the novel and will be called so in this paper as well). This literary fact requires the following further elaboration. Within the classes of this elaborate classification, it is more accurate to indicate four types2 of names that can be pinpointed in several of the abovementioned classes: A- Names that can be found in the real world and can be used to refer to real people and

things in the real world (e.g. Harry, Petunia, London, Brazil, Christmas, Prefect, King’s Cross etc.)

B- Names that can be found in the real world and can be used to refer to things in the real world figuratively, or to refer to things that are not in the real world, only in myths (e.g. wizard, witch, ghost, dragon, unicorn, goblin, zombie, vampire, werewolf etc.)

C- Names that cannot be found in the real world [were coined by Rowling] and refer to things that can be found in the real world (e.g. muggle: a word that was coined by Rowling to refer to ordinary people who do not have magical powers)

D- Names that cannot be found in the real world [were also coined by Rowling] and refer to things and people that cannot be found in the real world [things that can only be found in the wizarding world of Harry Potter], this type of names is the one most used in Harry Potter (e.g. Voldemort, Supreme Wugwump, Daily Prophet, Gringotts, Gryffindor, Quidditch, Alohomora, Hogwarts etc.) Naturally, the distinction that Fernandes (2006) have introduced can be applied to

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as well. The Semantic Meaning was repeatedly used in names that carry in their meaning(s) the good or bad qualities of the characters. Examples: Albus in Latin means white, emphasizing the whiteness of Albus Dumbledore’s beard and his personal traits; the color white symbolizes things that are sincere, spotless, and faithful (Ferber, 1999: 234). Binns, the name of one of the professors at Hogwarts, sound like the plural form of “bin” which is what the British call "a garbage can." and many students consider Professor Binns' information to be rubbish. Gryffindor, is made of two parts. In its first part it has a reference to "griffin" which is "a creature in mythology with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle." Also known in Greek Mythology as the "gryphon," it was the protector of a god's gold from mortal men. In Greek, "gryphon" means "protector of wealth." In French "d'or" means "of gold," one of the Gryffindor House colors. The gryffin is fitting, considering lions are characterized as brave and courageous and eagles are described as being noble birds, all traits of the Gryffindor House.3

As far as Semiotic Meaning is related, there are several examples. In Gender there is Hermione and Ronald, in class there is Sir Nicolas De Mimsy-Porpington, and in mythology there is centaur, unicorn and many others.




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The third is Sound Symbolic Meaning. Examples are Madam Norris (a cat in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) which attempts to imitate the angry hiss and growl of a cat, Another example is the initial cluster /sl/ which can be found in words such as slime, slug, slithery, slobbery, slog, and they are usually connected with “unpleasantness”. In Harry Potter the name of Salazar Slytherin – the founder of the ill-reputed Slytherin house in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – follows this phonesthetic pattern, thus showing how useful such a concept can be to understand some patterns of naming.

5. Translating Names in Literary Works Newmark (1988: 70) discusses many methods of translating proper names from one

language into another. Within proper names he includes names of people (historical figures, biblical names, and classic writers), trademarks, brand-names, geographical names, forms of address, names of firms, private institutions, schools, universities, hospitals, etc., and names of newspapers, journals, periodicals.

He gives some space to specifically deal with translating proper names in literary works. His descriptive approach suggests that names in works of literature should not be translated into the target language but should be conveyed as they are in the source language. If the names belong to characters that are naturalized along with social environment then they can be translated. He still believes that this can also be avoided if the names were left intact and the connotation of the meaning of the name was given in a glossary.

The popularity of the literary work is an important factor in the translation of names according to Newmark; if a work and its characters’ names are well known in the target culture then it is not recommended to translate the names. But if it is an old or unheard of literary work then this might be done, especially in allegorical works.

These are very interesting points and can be applied to the translation of proper names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone from English into other languages. The Italian and the Spanish translations will be considered here to focus on the translation of proper names. The translators in both these translations have kept the names of the characters without alteration but there are examples where explanations of the meanings of the names were given to readers as in Draco (dragon) Malfoy (Spanish translation) where instead of translating the meaning of the name, the meaning of Draco is given between two brackets. In other cases the names are translated in accordance with their connotation to create new names in the target language: Slytherin becomes Serpeverde, Snape becomes Piton, Filch becomes Gazza and Quentin Tremble becomes Dante Tremante (Italian translation). There are some cases in which the translator is after the comic effect of the English name and tries to create an equivalent effect in the target text as in Babbani to stand for Muggle and Supremo Pezzo Grosso that replaced Supreme Mugwump in the Italian translation. Also in the Italian translation, there were cases where the translator kept the name without translating it but altered it a little to suit the linguistic




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(in this case, the phonological) preferences of the TL reader; case in point is Gryffindor which was translated into Grifondoro. (Munday, 2006: 121)

6. Translating Names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

into Arabic Translating names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone into Arabic can be

categorized in the following categorization proposed by the researcher to indentify the many strategies utilized for that purpose.4

1. Rendition: This strategy is used when the name has apparent meanings and can be easily translated

Ministry of Magic � وزارة ا�The Leaky Cauldron ا��ا ��ا The Black Forest داء� ا�� ا�Pumpkin Pasties ع�� ا�� The Great Hall !"#$�%�� ا�ا The Bloody Baron &'ا��%�رون ا�ا The Fat Lady �)*'%�ة ا'" ا�2. Transliteration: This strategy was the one most used in the Arabic version; the names

were copied from the ST to the TT directly without changes except in the process of changing Latin letters into Arabic letters, i.e. transliteration.

Harry Potter �+�� ھ�ري Privet Drive .*0/ درا*�� Albus Dumbledore %�س د�%1'ور�ا Voldemort رت��'�� Sirius Black 6"�*�س �5ك Hogwarts 7+ھ��ور Rubeus Hagrid '*رو�"�س ھ�� There are cases where one part of the name is transliterated and the other is translated Diagon Alley (د*��ن) رة�: Mirror of Erised ('" ��آة (ار*Elfric the Eager 7�<��0*=) ا�(ا But there were some changes that the differences between the two languages have made

inevitable, such as the fact that Arabic lacks some of the consonants that exist in the English language (/p/, /g/, /v/, /tʃ/) which were replaced with their closest phonological equivalents in Arabic; (/b/, / dʒ/, /f/, /ʃ/) respectively.

3. Deletion: There are many cases in which the name was deleted altogether from the Arabic version. The reason behind the deletion is that the translator either deems the name expendable in itself or that the whole paragraph or sentence in which the name exists is not important and can be cut out. Sometimes a part of the name is deleted while the rest remains.

Mars Bars XXXX Licorice Wands XXXX Tiptoe through the Tulips XXXX Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum �@0<��1%�ن ا�ا




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4. Addition: This is usually done in the translation of names that the translator thinks need introduction, explanation, or elaboration that were not in the name in the original text.

Godric’s Hollow (��7 ھ�A*در��) 1'ة� The Daily Prophet (&��"�ا B%)<��0 (ا"C Hogwarts: A History (7+ھ��ور) D*ب +�ر�<F Potions �0تC��دة ا�� Broomstick �*�6 �G�� H King’s Cross I@)"F) ��(وس�F 5. Phonological Replacement: where the TT name attempts to mimic phonological

features of a ST name by replacing the latter with an existing name in the target language which somehow invokes the sound image of the SL name being replaced. There is only one example, and a very interesting one, in this category.

Morgana �� 6. Elaboration: Here the names were not translated but were replaced by words, phrases

or sentences that clarify the meaning of the name and/or minimizes its strangeness. Muggles ��$�ا� Bonfire Night �*(�ر�ب ا�$�Jا ��" �$G+ &<�ت اJ�0<:Jا:' ا Supreme Wugwump K*ذ�$G�1� M1HJ@71 ا��7 ا"� رGoblin ري��م ا6IO Hag �6:�ة ��*�ة Herbology (%�+�ت�1! اH Bezoar م�� :��ة +>Q'م P' ا�Remebrall �"FR<�ة ا�F 7. Conventionality: This was used hen a TL name was conventionally accepted as the

translation of a particular SL name. It is commonly used with names of historical/literary figures and geographical locations. This also worked with the names of mythical creatures since their names are already established in the TL.

London ن')� Brazil �*%�از�ا Dragon K")+ Vampire ص د��ء�� Werewolf T�R<� Centaur ر��)O 8. Substitution: The TL name and the SL name exist in their respective referential

worlds, but are not related to each other in terms of form and or semantic significance. Troll ل�V Despite all of these strategies, there are few things to be noted about the Arabic translation

of names here. First, there was no consistency in translating some of the names, like Prefect which was sometimes translated into ��0�ا '� at other times. Knuts were ر�"7 ا�>and into R"�5 راtranslated into (�+�ت�ا in some places and into (�+�ت�ا in other places. Also some of the different names in English had the same translation in Arabic. Head boy and Head girl were translated into !�� & واد��ا and Prefect was also translated into ��0�ا '� which is practically the راsame. The same thing happens to Poltergeist which is translated into �*�G�ا �%G�ا and �%G�ا




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TV�G��ا on different occasions and also parchment which was once translated into رق �1'ي and then into '1@�ا X%G* ورق while there is an excellent equivalent for it in Arabic that is ن�� or %��ن�ورق ا.

It should also be mentioned that there are some names that obviously confused the translator who had to follow her instinct and make a choice, such as Griphook which could be read as Grip hook or Grifook. Strangely, it is not translated into ك��%*�� or �0ك*�� but into %Bogie was translated into $�Y .(n/ sound/) ن with an extra ��*(�0ك although it meant “mucus” and this can be deducted through the many uses of this word in the novel.

There were a number of names of historical figures that could have been translated well by simply going back to related books or websites and find out their already established names in the TL, for example, Ptolemy which was translated into &��<� while it should have been translated into 1"��س��.

Conclusions Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a creative work with many creative sides to it,

like the names that are either straight forward or layered with allusions and references. Such creativity needs creative translators to convey it other languages that will try to recreate the creativity or even, sometimes, outdo it. This happened in many translations like the Italian, the Spanish, the French and many others, but it was not that successful in the Arabic version. When the translation of names where studied in this paper, it was found out that the amount of creativity that was utilized was very limited as the translation was very strict and play on words, or any other method of linguistic manipulation, was rarely attempted. The translator has resorted to elaborating names extensively to solve many problems that faced her, like in Muggle which was simply translated into ��$�ا instead of looking for a more creative word like the original one. Even Supreme Wugwump, which is supposed to have a comic effect on the reader, is minimized into the formalK*ذ�$G�1� M1HJ@71 ا��7 ا"� and Herbology, which is supposed to be the study of ,رmagical herbs, is made mundane by translating it into (%�ت�1! اH; the same name used to translate Botany. The Arabic translation of the names in Harry Potter and the philosopher’s Stone is marred by confusion and lack of creativity; two things that the original text is farthest from.

Notes

1. This is not a mistake. The letter “b” was used instead of the letter “p” in the surname of Harry Potter, so it became Harry Botter. This is because in Arabic the sound /p/, which is always represented in English by the letter “p”, does not have a phonetic equivalent in Arabic; it simply does not exist in the Arabic phonological system. So, in the Arabic translation of Harry Potter, it was replaced by the sound /b/, which is always represented in English by the letter “b” and in Arabic by the letter ""ب , which is the closest to an equivalent to the /p/ sound. The result is �+�� ھ�ري which is pronounced Harry Botter by Arab readers.

2. It is stated, in types C and D, that these names cannot be found in the real world, but they do exist now in the real world after the books were published and can be used by real people in real situations to refer to real people or things, an can also be used figuratively, but they were not there before that.. The word “Muggle” was even added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003 because it was being used every day by so many people all over the world. In the fiction of J. K. Rowling the word means a person who possesses no magical powers. But in




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Translation Studies


(75-86)

allusive and extended uses it started to refer to a person who lacks a particular skill or skills, or who is regarded as inferior in some way (BBC, 2003).

3. All of the meanings and origins of names of Harry Potter characters and other things are quoted from Muggle Net a website dedicated to the Harry Potter literature (www.mugglenet.com)

4. Most of the titles of classes in this classification were based on the ones suggested by Fernandes (2006: 50).

References

� Algeo, John and Algeo, Katie (2000) “Onomastics as an Interdisciplinary Study”. Name: Journal of the American Name Society, 48 September/December, 265-274.

� Bloomsbury Publishing (2010) Retrived August 17, 2013 from http://harrypotter.bloomsbury.com/author.

� Crystal, David (1997) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (2nd ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

� Ferber, Michael (1999) A Dictionary of Literary Symbols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

� Fernandes, Lincoln (2006) “Translation of Names in Children’s Fantasy Literature: Bringing the Young Reader into Play”. New Voices in Translation Studies, 2, 44-57.

� Gordon, Elizabeth Hope (1917) The Naming of Characters in the Works of Charles Dickens. University of Nebraska Studies in Language, Literature, and Criticism, 5, 3-35.

� Lombardi, Esther (2013) “Literature”. About.com Guide. Retrieved September 2, 2013, from http://classiclit.about.com/od/literaryterms/g/aa_whatisliter.htm

� Manini, Luca (1996) “Meaningful Literary Names: Their Forms and Functions, and their Translation”. The Translator, 2, 161-178

� Matthews, Peter (1997) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

� ‘Muggle’ Goes into Oxford English Dictionary (2003) BBC. Retrieved May 1, 2013, from http://www.bbc.co.uk

� Munday, Jeremy (2006) Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. Oxon: Routledge.

� “Name Origins” (2013) Muggle Net. Retrieved September 2, 2013, from http://www.mugglenet.com/books/name_origins_characters.shtml

� Newmark, Peter (1988) Approaches to Translation. New York: Prentice Hall. � Rowling, J. K. (1997) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. NewYork: Scholastic. � Rowling, J. K. (2005) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. NewYork: Scholastic. � Rowling, J. K. (2007) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows nce. NewYork: Scholastic. � Rowling, J. K. (2008) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. (Sahar Jabr Mahmoud

Trans.) Cairo: Nahdet Misr. � Tymoczko, Maria (1999) Translation in a Postcolonial Context, Manchester: St Jerome. � Wamitilia, Kyallo Wadi (1999) “What’s in a Name: Towards Literary Onomastics in

Kiswahili Literature”. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere – Schriftenreihe des Kölner Instituts für Afrikanistik, 60, 35-44.

� Yvonne Bertills (2003) Beyond Identification: Proper Names in Children’s Literature. Pargas: Abo Akademi University Press.

Documents

Harry Botter - Translating Names from English into Arabic in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.pdf