Harry Potter is funny. The tricky task of translating humour and character voices in the Harry Potter books

Abstract

Harry Potter (HP) has been translated into 45 languages, including Ancient Greek and Latin. It has also been adapted for an American-English audience, with minor but significant changes. Most HP translators have been daunted by the amount of specific terms and names. This specific lexicon has been the main concern in the translation of these books and translator choices have varied from book to book and from language to language. In the Spanish translations, they borrow the neologism in spite of the loss of meaning. The interviews that I carried out with a number of official HP translators highlighted how practical issues such as time constraints and editorial practice can determine translators’ decisions.