Translation Convention: Difference between revisions

**** It is, in fact, a frequently recurring joke in the Discworld books that the languages are basically schoolboy-pidgin versions of their real-world counterparts. Pidgin Latin the most frequently seen. Pratchett uses approximations of the languages that are ''almost'' Latin, or Arabic, or French, but with [[Blind Idiot Translation]] in effect so we get the jokes in the other languages.

** In ''Pyramids'', there's a footnote to the effect that Ptaclusp's concern that his accidentally two-dimensional son will spend the rest of his life "sleeping cheaply in hotel trouser-presses" is a rather loose translation, as Ptaclusp's language doesn't even have words for "hotel" or "trousers". It does, oddly, have a word for "press for barbarian leg-coverings".

** Even in the second book Parseltongue is represented as English. It's only in the second ''movie'' that it's represented as a different language.

*** This is because the books, while in third person, are told from Harry's point of view. Harry couldn't tell the difference between Parseltongue and English, thus neither can we. This can be seen easily in a scene later in the book where Harry is trying to speak Parseltongue to open the Chamber of Secrets, but since he doesn't know when he's speaking Parseltongue, it takes him a few tries. Every try, including the successful one, is written as "open" in English in the book. The movie doesn't have this because the movie is completely third person, and is not connected to Harry. Also, when Harry tells a snake "Get away from him!", all observers hear it as hissing and spitting.