Chapter 12: The Polyjuice Potion

 

(For the romanisation of Chinese and Japanese, see Transliteration. To understand the writing systems of CJV, see Writing Systems. For word order notes, see Word Order)

Where a Vietnamese word has been borrowed from Chinese, the original Chinese character is shown in parentheses.

 

Chinese (Mainland)	复方汤剂 Fùfāng tāngjì	复方 fùfāng = 'multi ingredient'. 汤剂 tāngjì = 'decoction'.	Multi-ingredient Decoction
Chinese (Taiwan)	變身水 Biànshēn-shuǐ	變身 biànshēn = 'change-body' = 'transfiguration'. 水 shuǐ = 'water'.	Transfiguration Water
Japanese	ポリジュース薬 Porijūsu-yaku	ポリジュース porijūsu = 'Polyjuice'. 薬 -yaku = 'medicine'.	Polyjuice Medicine
Vietnamese	Món thuốc Đa dịch	món thuốc = 'course of medicine' Đa dịch (多液) = 'multiple liquid'	Multi-liquid Medicine

The Mainland Chinese version comes up with an ingenious translation for 'polyjuice' -- it uses concepts from traditional Chinese medicine.

The word 复方 fùfāng ('multiple prescription') refers to a medicine made up of two or more ingredients, in other words, a Polyjuice: 'poly-' ('many' in Greek) + 'juice'.
The word 汤剂 tāngjì is a Chinese term for a 'decoction or potion'.

'Polyjuice potion' is thus a 'multi-ingredient decoction' in traditional medical terms.

The Taiwanese translator directly expresses the transfigurative effect of the potion ('change body water').

Japanese simply represents the English word 'polyjuice' phonetically as ポリジュース porijūsu, which is not a problem for Japanese speakers because jūsu ('juice', usually meaning 'orange juice' unless qualified) is a common word.

The Vietnamese translator comes up with a Chinese-style expression. Written in Chinese characters Đa dịch becomes 多液 duōyè, 'multiple liquid'.

(A summary of this chapter can be found at Harry Potter Facts. Detailed notes on the chapter can be found at Harry Potter Lexicon)

Chapter 11

Chapter 13