Chapter 7: Bagman and Crouch
| Simplified Chinese (Mandarin: China) | ||
| 巴格曼和克劳奇 Bāgémàn hé Kèláoqí |
巴格曼 Bā-gé-màn = 'Bagman'. 和 hé = 'and'. 克劳奇 Kèláoqí = 'Crouch'. |
Bagman and Crouch |
| Traditional Chinese (Mandarin: Taiwan) | ||
| 貝漫與柯羅奇 Bèimàn yǔ Kēluóqí |
貝漫 Bèimàn = 'Bagman'. 與 yǔ = 'and' (written language). 柯羅奇 Kēluóqí = 'Crouch'. |
Bagman and Crouch |
| Japanese | ||
| バグマンとクラウチ Baguman to Kurauchi |
バグマン Baguman = 'Bagman'. と to = 'and'. クラウチ Kurauchi = 'Crouch'. |
Bagman and Crouch |
| Korean | ||
| 베그만과 크라우치 Begeuman-gwa Keulauchi |
베그만 Begeuman = 'Bagman'. 과 -gwa = 'and'. 크라우치 Keulauchi = 'Crouch'. |
Bagman and Crouch |
| Vietnamese (Chinese characters show etymology) | ||
| Bagman và Crouch | Bagman (pronunciation: Bách-man). và = 'and'. Crouch (pronunciation: Cờ-rúc). |
Bagman and Crouch |
| Mongolian (new) | ||
| Бэгмен, Крауч хоёр Begmen, Krauch khoyor |
Бэгмен Begmen = 'Bagman'. Крауч Krauch = 'Crouch'. хоёр khoyor = 'two'. |
Bagman, Crouch two |
The chapter title refers to two ministry officials that Harry met at the Quidditch World Cup: Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch senior.
How are 'Bagman' and 'Crouch' treated in translation?
This chapter title provides another example of how English names are treated in translation. Unlike many European translations (e.g., the French translation), which try to come up with local equivalents for Rowling's whimsical English names, all of the translators in East Asian editions transliterate the names or use the original English.
- Japanese (using katakana) follows the normal rules of transliteration for English words, yielding バグマン Baguman and クラウチ Kurauchi. As usual, Japanese deals with many consonants by adding extra vowels (the consonants 'g' and 'k' are followed by the vowel 'u', and 'ch' by the vowel 'i'). English 'r' is represented by Japanese 'r', which has a pronunciation somewhere between 'l' and 'r'.
- Korean is similar to Japanese, giving 베그만 Begeuman and 크라우치
Keulauchi. There is an ㅡ eu inserted after the 'g' of 'Bagman' and the 'k' of 'Crouch', and an ㅣ i inserted after the 'ch' of Crouch. In Korean, the 'a' in 'Bag' is ㅐ e, close to the 'a' (phonetically /æ/) of English. English 'r' is represented by ㄹ l in Korean.
- The Mongolian transliteration of the two names Бэгмен Begmen and Крауч Krauch has a peculiar quirk: The two 'a's in 'Bagman' are rendered as э in the first syllable and е in the second. Originally Mongolian would have spelt this as Багман, following Russian, but the current trend in Russian is to try to reproduce English /æ/ with the Cyrillic letter э. 'Bagman' is thus spelt Бэгмен in Harry Potter in Russian and the Mongolian translator has simply followed suit. (Similarly, the name 'Radcliffe' was at one time spelt Радклифф Radkliff in Russian but Daniel Radcliffe's name is Рэдклифф Redkliff. (Confusingly, Mongolian uses Редклифф Redkliff in this case.)
Mongolian has long slavishly followed the Russian spelling of foreign words, although there are some signs of change. (Incidentally, the closest Mongolian sound to English /æ/ is actually ай ai, but this is reserved for what is often called long 'i' in English. For example, 'online' is borrowed as онлайн onlain but pronounced by Mongolians as 'on-lan' /ɔnlæn/.) - The Vietnamese translator uses the original English. In the originally published instalments, the pronunciation (Bách-man and Cờ-rúc) was given in a footnote. These transliterations are not a very good reflection of the English. The first sounds like 'Baikman' (in English spelling), the second like 'Kerook'.
- The two Chinese-language translators use slightly different methods of transliteration into Chinese characters. 'Bagman' is 巴格曼 Bāgémàn in the Mainland translation and the somewhat abbreviated 貝漫 (Simpl. 贝漫) Bèimàn in the Taiwanese translation.
'Crouch' is 克劳奇 (Trad. 克勞奇) Kèláoqí in the Mainland translation and 柯羅奇 (Simpl. 柯罗奇) Kēluóqí in the Taiwanese. All of the characters used to write these names have particular meanings, but these are irrelevant here because they are being used solely for their pronunciation. (See Names of People and Places).
How is 'and' translated?
It might seem uncontroversial how 'and' should be translated, but 'and' in the languages treated here is not the same as 'and' in English. Even more interestingly, one of the languages uses a completely different expression.
Most translations use a word meaning 'and' to link the two names. In each case the words meaning 'and' can be used only to join nouns; that is, they cannot be used to join verbs or sentences. For instance, they could not be used if you wanted to say "Harry laughed and cried at the same time", nor could they be used if you wanted to say "Roses are red and violets are blue".
- In the Chinese-language translations, the Mainland version uses the spoken form 和 hé 'and' while the Taiwanese translation uses the more literary form 與 (Trad.) / 与 (Simpl.) yǔ, both meaning 'and'.
- Japanese uses と to 'and'.
- Korean uses 과 -gwa 'and', which is customarily written affixed to the preceding noun.
- Vietnamese uses và 'and'.
The exception among our translations is Mongolian. While it would be possible to say Бэгмен ба Крауч Begmen ba Krauch 'Bagman and Crouch', normal usage when referring to two people together is to list the two names, followed by хоёр khoyor 'two'. The resulting expression, Бэгмен, Крауч хоёр Begmen, Krauch khoyor, literally means 'Bagman, Crouch the two'.
(Korean appears thanks to "Hiro".)
(Detailed notes on the chapter can be found at Harry Potter Lexicon)
| ⇚ Chapter 6 |  |