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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone:
Read about the Project in The Rowling Library
Read about the Project on Languagehat.com
The Book that Lives
Harry Potter was first published in 1997, in English in the United Kingdom. In the twenty years that followed, the world has fallen in love with the boy who lived, so it's not a surprise that translations and adaptations of the book began being published shortly after Philosopher's Stone was published. Of the authorized translations and adaptations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone there are eighty-nine, with many of the following six books being translated and adapted as well. Alongside these authorized translations, there are many unauthorized as well. Interestingly, some of these authorized translations and adaptations began as unauthorized editions and translations that were once thought to be authorized are found to not have been at all. These languages of Potter not only allow many others throughout the world to experience Potter in their own language, but also give the story a life of its own. Because of these Potter translations and adaptations, more original cover art exists, each one giving its own little spin on this lovable and time-enduring series. And because of these translations and adaptations, many Potterheads around the World have been able to hear Harry speak in their own voice.
The Boy Who Lived
I chose the name from this project from the title of Chapter 1 of the Philosopher's Stone, The Boy Who Lived--the first paragraph of which I have used for this project. I love the idea of language paired with life. To me, to give language to something, or in this case many, allows that thing to live in a new context, and I think this idea applies very well to Harry Potter and its many translations and adaptations, whether official or not. Additionally, I love the idea of this book, originally printed in a print run of 5,650 between soft and hardcovers, from an author who was an unknown selling millions and millions of copies worldwide with both becoming legends in their own time.
Below are native and second-language speakers reading the 1st Paragraph of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in their own language(s).
I hope you enjoy listening Potter come alive from all over the world. I know I most certainly have.
Unauthorized Potter Languages:
The Authorized Languages of Potter:
Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Asturian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Catalan, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, UK English, US English, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, West Frisian, Galician, Georgian, German, Low German, Modern Greek, Ancient Greek, Greenlandic (Kalaallisut), Gujarati, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Khmer, Korean, Latin, Lithuanian, Latvian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Maori, Marathi, Malay, Malayalam, Mongolian, Montenegrin, Nepali, Norwegian, Occitan, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Scots, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Valencian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish
There are also Braille editions for most of these languages
Braille US English
Since its inception, this project has branched out to include languages that do not yet have Potter translations; speakers were nice enough to translate and record the 1st paragraph of book 1 for us; you can find these languages under Non-Potter Languages. The Authorized Potter Languages will be under that heading :)
Are YOU a native or near-native speaker of one of the languages of Potter? If so, would you like like to a part of my project below? If yes, drop me a line through the Contact Me feature here, OR, find me on Instagram @AllThePrettyBooks
Non-Potter Languages
Elfdalian
Translated from the Swedish Philosopher's Stone Translation by Inga-Britt Petersson
A VERY Endangered Language in Sweden. Click HERE to Read More About It.
Esperanto
Uzbek
Afrikaans
South Africa
Authorized Potter Languages
Harry Potter en die Towenaar se Steen
Arabic
Middle East Areas
هاري بوتر وحجر الفيلسوف
Armenian
(Official) Translation
Armenia
Հարրի Փոթերը և Փիլիսոփայական քարը
(Unofficial) Translation
Armenian
Armenia
Asturian
Asturias, Spain
Azerbaijani
Azerbaijan
To learn more about the Azerbaijani translations of Harry Potter, Click Here
Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal
Harri Potter və fəlsəfə daşı
Basque
To Read more about Basque, Click Here
Basque Country
Spain
Belarusian
Belarus
To Read more about Belarusian, Click Here
Harry Potter eta sorgin-harria
Гары Потэр і філасофскі камень
হ্যারি পটার এন্ড দ্য ফিলোসফার্স স্টোন
Bengali
Bangladesh
To Read more about Bengali, Click Here
Bosnian
Bosnia
Harry Potter i kamen mudrosti
To Read more about Bosnian, Click Here
US English, Braille
Reader: Harrison Tu
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
