@horologically reblogged your post and added: âHarry Potter and the Cursed Child Part 1: Korean translation notes...â
...Iâm intrigued why certain scenes between characters (Harry and Draco at Kingâs cross, Rose on the train) come across as friendlier, less uptight than the English translation. Is it the use of a certain case? I suppose Iâm thinking of Spanish, which uses a formal usted, or Russian, which has a case for both informal (ŃŃ) and formal (вŃ) you. When you have the time, would you mind translating the weaponized bookcaseâs riddles and Delphiâs prophesy? Iâm fascinated by translation of rhyme and meter.
I think itâs because Korean has two distinctive sets of expressions of speech, non-formal and honorific(polite), which have differing suffixes for the last word in a sentence. Itâs difficult to explain, but basically non-formal is what you use for people you are friends with or are younger than you, while honorific is for people who are older than you, are of authority, or are simply not very close to yet. (Thereâs also a specific way of talking to younger people as a parent/guardian/grandparent, which is the speech Harry uses in his conversations with Albus.) In both Harry/Draco and Albus/Rose interactions, they use the non-formal type of speech in a friends sort of way (since in both cases, the characters are the same age) and I think that contributes to the friendly feel? Itâs weird I know haha!
Also I think you saw the post regarding the riddles! The riddles were translated quite literally so unfortunately the original rhyme/rhythm was lost, but then Korean style riddles donât have rhythm to them to begin with so I donât think anyone would find that part odd unless they read the original script first. :D
As for the prophecy, thatâs in Part 2 but the book is due to be released on the 24th so weâll have to wait for that!
