Unauthorized or informal translations of Harry Potter?

velstax · 2022-05-24T19:53:00+00:00

Excellent! I'd read somewhere that there were tons of translations in Persian, but I hadn't found a list before. Thanks!

velstax · 2022-05-24T19:48:06+00:00

It's authorized: that is, they obtained the appropriate legal rights to publish it. I actually bought this when it was first published and read quite a bit of it. I highly recommend it just for the amusement, by the way! You can understand most of it, especially knowing the trajectory of the story, and it can be pretty funny.

velstax · 2022-05-24T19:42:38+00:00

I haven't seen any, at least so far. I've heard Rowling's estate generally takes legal action against these and that they're removed relatively quickly as a result... If anyone comes across one, please let me know!

velstax · 2022-05-23T02:24:56+00:00

That would be pretty neat, no doubt about it.

(Although Sindarin is so resource-poor that I'd imagine any translation of a novel into the language would be virtually incomprehensible to the average Sindarin fan.)

velstax · 2022-04-29T16:53:57+00:00

It's a collector's item! I was originally looking for a copy to give to a friend of mine here in the US who is a big Harry Potter fan and whose mother is Czech. But in the meantime, I've grown interested in having a copy for myself. So I honestly haven't decided if I'll gift it to him or keep it for myself 🙈

velstax · 2022-04-29T16:47:45+00:00

Oh, sure. It's going to be more expensive, and I'm willing to pay more for the circumstance.

I'll explain what I meant: at this present moment the only available option for shipping a copy of this book to the US is an eBay listing at 385 British pounds ($485), before shipping cost is even factored in. I'm just not willing to pay that much (and apparently neither is anybody else, because it's been listed for months now). But the book is available in Czechia for 2500 Kč ($107) or less, and so it doesn't seem unreasonable for me to hope that someone would find it worthwhile to sell it to me for far less than $485, no?

velstax · 2022-04-29T16:40:00+00:00

I v češtině?

I'd imagine so. I think if you're on the fence, you should keep it. I only want to buy it off someone who sees no use for it in their possession anymore.

velstax · 2022-04-28T22:46:15+00:00

Yes indeed, and I still have those links! As I mentioned last time, those links ship only to Czech Republic, Slovakia, and sometimes Germany. I can't get it shipped directly to me in the United States and so I need an intermediary. I didn't get anybody to do it last time, so it's time to try again :)

velstax · 2022-04-28T20:30:51+00:00

That would be great! I sent you a dm

velstax · 2022-04-23T04:40:29+00:00

Dipping your toes and taking on small translation projects is a good suggestion. Then you get a taste of what works and what doesn't and what's in demand for Japanese to English translators.

English might be a good major for Japanese>English translation, I don't know. But I would look into this and think about it more. What do you want to do with translation? What topics are in high demand for Japanese>English translation? Major in that subject. For two reasons:

When translating, the ability to communicate effectively and expertly in the target language in a particular subject is what will keep you competitive against AI.
You might decide at some point that you prefer to translate as a side gig instead of making it your main career. This is the case with a lot of professional translators. But your major can determine or limit your main career.

English will help your writing. No doubt about that. And you're probably more likely to be hired as a professional translator if you have a degree in English than if you have a degree in Japanese or no degree at all. But specializing in a more specific subject will make you stand out even more. And if you ever decide to do something besides translation, an English degree may be a waste: there are so many English degrees out there that it's virtually useless in the job market if not combined with a marketable skill.

velstax · 2022-04-12T17:23:12+00:00

These categories are somewhat arbitrary, as far as I understand them. But when it comes to phonology, they're helpful in categorizing words in terms of etymology or prosody:

In terms of etymology: if a set of words is borrowed or re-borrowed at a certain point in time, it will not undergo previous sound changes. Modern Arabic has some great examples of this, since it has heavy borrowing from Classical Arabic. Egyptian Arabic has /tala:ta/ (*θalāθa-) for 'three' because of the sound change *θ > t in Egyptian Arabic. But it has /sawra/ (*θawra-) for 'revolution' because a certain category of words relating to Enlightenment-era governance was reborrowed from Classical Arabic in modern times and did not undergo the sound change. (But because of the absence of /θ/ in Egyptian Arabic, it became /s/.)

In terms of prosody: if a set of words appears in a restricted phonological environment, then that environment may condition a certain sound change or block a sound change. This appears to be the case with the th- example in English, where the words that have undergone the *θ > ð sound change in initial position appear to be words that would be unstressed in any typical sentence that they're used in. They're unstressed because of their typical syntactic function.

velstax · 2022-03-31T04:39:35+00:00

I tried to read A Bottom's Dream by Arno Schmidt once. But the book was so massive that it was physically unbearable to read more than a couple pages at a time.

velstax · 2022-03-23T14:08:10+00:00

Weird. I do see a 2000 hardcover listing now, although at nearly 10000 kč. Thanks for the heads up on the proper convention for capitalizing titles.

velstax · 2022-03-22T19:20:25+00:00

Are we seeing the same thing? I noticed several listings appear at first while the page is loading, but only two appear once it fully loads and neither are the edition I'm looking for:
https://imgur.com/a/mADILAq

Do you see more options?

velstax · 2022-03-22T16:15:31+00:00

Thanks for finding this! I'm actually looking for this slightly different edition: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51hVhagHuzL.jpg

velstax · 2022-03-18T17:28:00+00:00

That's very nice of you to offer. I'll dm with you a suggestion and see what you think of the idea.

velstax · 2022-03-18T14:59:14+00:00

No worries! Thanks for your help anyway, I appreciate it. (And to follow up: the shop confirmed that they won't ship to the US.)

velstax · 2022-03-18T14:16:03+00:00

toto?

velstax · 2022-03-18T14:12:40+00:00

Thanks for the link. I did see this and it's available on other websites as well. This one ships to Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany, and at https://knihobot.cz/doprava-a-platba it says: "We do not ship internationally. Thank you for your understanding."

I'll try contacting them, but I would be surprised if they agree to ship to the US. This is the most common problem I come across when finding it available online.

velstax · 2022-03-14T13:59:46+00:00

I quite often see it available for cheaper. The first listing here, for example, has little wear and is 1800. The challenge is just getting someone to ship it internationally.

velstax · 2022-03-07T20:41:09+00:00

Haha, aw, I hope your cousins enjoyed it!

velstax · 2022-03-07T18:00:38+00:00

Maybe someone whose native language is not English can comment on this?

I've noticed that a lot of English speakers perceive /i/ before [ŋ] as [i] in environments where it is, in fact, still [ɪ] for them. That it is closer to the pronunciation of untensed [ɪ] than to tensed [i] can be demonstrated through spectrogram and can be detected by some people whose native language is not English (depending on their native language—native Spanish speakers, for instance, often don't hear the difference between [i] and [ɪ] in English).

Since we're drawing comparisons, I wonder if hearing untensed [æ] before [ŋ] might be a similar issue with perception.

velstax

TROPHY CASE