Severus Piton

[donnaimmaculata]

The discussions that evolved from my latest post on Harry Potter-influenced naming of children made me think of this site. It offers a list of the translations of HP names (both characters and objects) they use in various European languages. Some of them are funny. Did you know that Minerva is called "Minerva McSlurp" in Norwegian? And that "Moony" is "Luna"? (Quite an identity crisis coming up in OotP. Or maybe the Norwegian translator is giving us subtext.) The Finnish Padfoot is "Anturajalka", and I simply love the Czech versions of all female names, all of which come with the -ova suffix; Rita Holoubková, Madame Pomfreyová, paní Norrisová.... Snape is called Severus Piton (Italian), Perselus Piton (Hungarian) and Severus Kalkaros (Finnish.) Kalkaros? Kalkaroff? Subtext? I know that one of the meanings of "piton" in French is "large nose", but what does it mean in Italian? Or Hungarian, for that matter?

Can anyone tell me how you convince the Cat that it's time to vacate the chair and let the human sit on it with more than half a buttock?

Comments

[madamemim.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link.
Very entertaining.
I´m rather partial to the Scandinavian languages myself, particularly Swedish.
Sounds so amusing!

As for the cat: try to bribe her (or his?) Highness by offering your lap as an additional cushion. :-)

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

The link's very entertaining indeed. I love the sound of some of the words, even though I don't understand their meaning - like the Finnish and Hungarian stuff.

The Cat (he) decided to use me as massage cushion (cushioning lap + stroking hand) after a while, so I was allowed to sit on the chair properly.

[mimine.livejournal.com]

In Greek most of the names remained the same, just transcribed. It's odd, "Sirius" was transcribed to the Greek name for the constellation (something like "Seirios") but "Remus" wasn't changed to the right name for the brother in Remus and Romulus (in Greek it should be "Romos"). Worst ever were the names for the Marauders. They were translated to huge names: "Elafokeratos" (Prongs, literally translating Deer Horn), "Alafropatitos" (Padfoot, "softly treading"), "Feggarogoitemenos" (Moony, "charmed by the moon") and "Pontikoouras" (Wormtail "Mouse tail" and I can understand that since use of word for worm in Greek would have been too disgusting. Same was done with Wormtongue who is Snaketongue in the Greek translation of Lord of the Rings)

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I missed the Greek translations on the list, so thanks for supplying. The translations of MWPP seem so wrong - because of the length. I mean, the boys were using them as nicknames, and those are supposed to be easy to handle. "Feggarogoitemenos" seems to be quite a mouthful for 15-year-old boys to call each other. "Oy, Feggarogoitemenos, watch out! There's Filch!"

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

'Worm' is a disgusting word in Greek?

[mimine.livejournal.com]

Yes. "Skouliki", the Greek word for "worm" sounds very disgusting and naming someone "Skoulikooura" (Wormtail) or even worse, "Skoulikoglosso" (Wormtongue) could very well result in readers feeling queasy. I know I would be.

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

I assume the Italian is meant to be a snake reference - pitone is python.
I'm reading through the books in French and love the different words, my favourite is choixpeau for sorting hat but Rogue for Snape is a bit boring. I want to go into Italian next but the books are a bit expensive to get from here

convincing cats - um, no!

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation. I was surprised that the name is the same in Italian and Hungarian, because the Hungarian language belongs to an entirely different language family. I should like to find out what it means in Hungarian.

I read the books in German (partly) and English only, though I was considering getting a Russian copy when I was in the Ukraine last year, but decided that I wouldn't fight my way through it anyway.

Luckily, the Cat decided that he might as well accept me as a cushion and now I'm allowed to sit on his chair.

BTW - totally unrelated and regarding user info: I've got a stuffed ring-tailed lemur as well, and he is the best of friends, I must say

[madamemim.livejournal.com]

Your best friend or the Cat´s?
I imagine they gang up on you and take turns sitting on your chair!

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

The Cat doesn't care about Lemur. Lemur doesn't wriggle and squeak in an interesting way when Cat pounces. And Lemur lives almost exclusively in my bed, which is rarely occupied by cats.

[madamemim.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I missed the fact that the little bugger is stuffed before, tee hee!
Though that wouldn´t keep my cats from pouncing on him.
They love cuddly toys, even the non-squeaking ones, and will abduct them from the beds of visiting children if the owners are not careful!
Cats!!