J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter has been translated into how many languages?

The Harry Potter novels by J. K. Rowling have become one of the most widely read children’s literature pieces throughout the world, with nearly 450 million copies sold.  The novels have been translated and published into around 70 distinct languages, as well as distinct adaptations for American English, Valencian and Serbian Cyrillic.

In some countries (ie. Spain and India), the novels have been published into several local languages; and the books have been adapted into variations of the same language (i.e. Portuguese for Brazil and for Portugal, Traditional and Simplified Chinese).

Translations, better yet,  localization into local markets for these novels were somewhat complex due to many challenges, such as rhymes, acronyms, dialects, culture, riddles, jokes, invented words, and plot points that revolve around specific British icons or meanings.

J.K. Rowling invented many words and phrases such as spells, incantations, magical words and place names.  Many of such involve wordplay and historical references very specific to the UK.  In many cases of translations, new words and phrases where invented by the linguists in a manner known as “transliteration”.

One interesting area of challenge relates to the differences between the British and American editions of the books, notably the difference in the titles of the first book: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the UK, versus Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the US.

Publisher Arthur Levine of Scholastic explained some of the changes in an interview in The New Yorker (Sept. 1999):

I wasn't trying to, "Americanize" them... What I was trying to do is translate, which I think is different. I wanted to make sure that an American kid reading the book would have the same literary experience that a British kid would have."

Additionally, some British dialect was retained in the books to keep with the British nature and charm of the stories.

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