Harry Potter's new book in France - a whopping 727 pages.

Adam   Sun Oct 30, 2005 12:00 pm GMT
English is well-known in that it is able to say things in less words than in French. Translate a sentence from French into English and the English version is likely to have less word in it.

So when the latest Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was translated into French, it had 727 pages, compared to just 607 for the British version.



A wave of the 'baguette magique' - and Harry Potter translates into a monstrous 720 pages

By Kim Willsher in Paris

(Filed: 29/10/2005)

The first British tome was a mere 190 pages long while the sixth, and latest, has grown to 607. But in France, Harry Potter is an even bigger phenomenon - by a whopping 120 pages.

Far from losing in translation, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - or Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-Melé to the Francophones - has gained, ending up as a hefty 720-pager.

Throw a "wand" to its translator, Jean-François Ménard, and before you can say abracadabra in a French accent, he's transformed it into a baguette magique.

"English is a magnificent language," he said. "It is so concise and rich compared with French. It's normal that there are a lot more pages in French than in English - words and phrases in French are usually longer.

"In English you can say so many things in so few words." He who must not be named, for instance, becomes in French Celui dont on ne doit pas pronouncer le nom.

"It's true that we have to use many more words to say the same thing," said Mr Ménard. "But then translating is not just a question of being literal but of placing things in their context, of transmitting the humour and the tone."

Mr Ménard is the man who has brought all five previous Harry Potter books, or as they say in France "aREE PohTUR", to a generation of young Gallic readers.

His translation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold 800,000 copies in 24 hours when it was released in France at the beginning of the month. The print run for this current book is a record-breaking two million copies.

"One of the biggest difficulties wasn't the new words; that was fun making them up and I was often spoilt for choice," added Mr Ménard. "No, the greatest challenge is making sure even the youngest French reader can enter this magical universe but also ensure that the book remains quintessentially English.

"How do you convey to French children who, on the whole, don't have any experience of boarding schools, the very English idea of Hogwarts with its prefects and head pupils and living away from home at a young age. It's another world to them."

As Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - the fourth film in the Harry Potter series - is released nationally, Mr Ménard said: "We have never seen people so passionate about a book before - and passionate all over the world. That has to be a good thing.

"It's giving children a taste for reading in a way that is quite extraordinary. I am constantly amazed at the passion with which people speak about Harry Potter."

Like Harry Potter fans across the globe - the books have been translated into more than 60 languages, and sell in 200 countries - Mr Ménard said he doesn't have a clue what fate awaits the young wizard when the seventh and final book is published. It is a prospect he views with mixed feelings.

"I'm impatient to know how the story ends, but there will be a big hole in my life when Harry Potter is gone. This young man has been a point of reference in my life," he said


www.telegraph.co.uk . . .
Guest   Sun Oct 30, 2005 12:14 pm GMT
Big deal
Testing.   Sun Oct 30, 2005 1:06 pm GMT
Adam tu as un conard avec avec d'intelligence de un escargot.

Adam you suck
Guest   Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:01 pm GMT
"Adam tu as un conard avec avec d'intelligence de un escargot."

No, he's just a child who loves to play "my language is better than yours". Some people drop that game when they are grown up, some don't.
greg   Mon Oct 31, 2005 12:18 pm GMT
Pour rebondir sur l'insondable bêtise d'Adam qui semble ignorer la tendance périphrastique du français qu'on peut opposer à la tendance de l'anglais à juxtaposer(1), on pourrait peut-être préciser que 182 des 607 pages rédigées en "anglais" sont constituées de mots français et que 182 autres pages pourraient réunir tous les mots latins (introduits par les francophones), ce qui laisse 243 pages pour les mots non-français et non-latins...

:)



(1) Par ex. :
— une *« or montre » est impossible : une « montre en or »
— une *« dentsbrosse » pour une « brosse à dents »
— une *« foin-fièvre » pour un « rhume des foins »
— *« ils probablement veulpas arriver tard » pour « ils n'arriveront probablement pas en retard »


On trouve la tendance inverse aussi :
— *« il a venu, fit-il pas ? » contre « il est venu, non ? »
Mark   Mon Oct 31, 2005 12:23 pm GMT
Ed   Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:26 pm GMT
<<English is well-known in that it is able to say things in less words than in French. Translate a sentence from French into English and the English version is likely to have less word in it. >>

It's because French words are longer.
Heehee   Wed Nov 02, 2005 7:17 am GMT
If conciseness is to be the principal deciding factor, the best languages would be:

1. Classical Chinese (Wen yan wen)
2. Latin

;)
Ren   Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:58 pm GMT
I wonder how many pages does the German and Dutch version of Harry Potter... considering the monster length of some of their words.
Adam   Tue Nov 08, 2005 7:15 pm GMT
"It's because French words are longer. "

How did you work that piece of nonsense out?

It's because French has to use more words than English does when saying exactly the same thing, as you would have known if you read the article.

---------

"English is a magnificent language," he said. "It is so concise and rich compared with French. It's normal that there are a lot more pages in French than in English - words and phrases in French are usually longer.

"In English you can say so many things in so few words." "He who must not be named", for instance, becomes in French "Celui dont on ne doit pas pronouncer le nom."
greg   Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:23 am GMT
Il y a des alternatives : « celui dont le nom est tu », « celui dont tu dois taire le nom », « celui que tu ne nommeras point », « celui qui ne doit pas être nommé », « celui qui ne saurait être nommé », « celui qu'il est défendu de nommer » etc.
JJM Again   Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:51 pm GMT
Extra large yawn.
Turn it up   Thu Nov 10, 2005 2:26 am GMT
Here in Australia, we have a news reporter named Harry Potter. The kiddies doing their activities near the TV get excited and sidetracked at the mention of his name. They should get other journalists in with kiddy-friendly names or give them such stage names.

What an innovative way to get them to stop whatever their doing to watch the news!
Treebeard   Thu Nov 10, 2005 7:00 am GMT
As far as I know English is one of the "shortest" languages in the world, I mean to say something in English you have to use less words than t do it in other languages. So it's no surpise, that French version has over pages more. Polish verison of the firs part, The Philosopher's Stone had over 260 pages !!! So more than 70 pages more than English.
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:20 am GMT
I believe that quite often a single English word requires several words in some foreign Languages to express exactly the same meaning...so yes, English may be called a "short" Language. If I had more time available I'd check some out...maybe some other time.