Harry Potter a me ka Pōhaku Akeakamai

[Teango]

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source: hawaii.edu (University of Hawaiʻi News)

For anyone interested in the Hawaiian language (ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi), I'm delighted to announce that Richard Keao NeSmith (a professor at the University of Hawaiʻi) has published Hawaiian translations of both "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (Ke Kāula Kamahaʻo o ʻOza) and "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (Harry Potter a me ka Pōhaku Akeakamai) this year!

I've been looking forward to Hawaiian joining the ever-growing pantheon of languages into which Harry Potter has been translated, and am thrilled to hear that NeSmith has plans for translating the remainder of the Harry Potter series along with the Lord of the Rings series (he previously translated Ka Hopita back in 2015). Along with the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi version of Disney's Moana that came out earlier in 2018, this is all excellent news for the Hawaiian language!!

[iguanamon]

I found this article in Hawaii News interesting about how Professor NeSmith translated the book into Hawaiian.

NeSmith, who teaches Tahitian language courses at UH, said it took about six weeks to translate the book titled “Harry Potter a Me Ka Pohaku Akeakamai.”
He completed the project while on a train from Paris to Barcelona.
“As I translate, I often hear the voice of my grandmother, whom I lived with growing up and who taught me Hawaiian,” he said, in a press release. “But I also hear the voices of other Hawaiian-speaking relatives and acquaintances. All of these voices help the way I translate.”

Six weeks?!!! Wow! Any time literature gets translated into a minority language it will help learners tremendously. I have read "The Little Prince" in Ladino and Haitian Creole, and "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Ladino in both Latin and Hebrew Rashi script. The familiarity with the text and the ability to check the translation in L1 when the dictionary fails is a huge benefit. If HP were ever translated into Ladino, Haitian Creole, or Lesser Antilles French Creole, I'd probably read it even though I've never been a fan or read it in any language before.

[Cèid Donn]

Well, that is fortunate news for Hawaiian speakers and learners.

Meanwhile, we Scottish Gaelic learners/speakers are still waiting for an approved official Scottish Gaelic translation of the 1st Harry Potter....a novel that was written in Scotland even...