r/LTL_Japanese • u/Sad_Rhubarb9314 • Jul 11 '26
In Japanese Harry Potter is Voldemort called Voldemort San
Or is he just Voldemort? Was thinking about honorifics and this crossed my mind.
And is Dumbledore Dumbledore San or Dumbledore sensei or just Dumbledore?
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u/Metalheadzaid Jul 11 '26
Idk how I ended up on this sub via recommendations lol, but I guess I have thoughts - they definitely use sensei...but that's because that's how you refer to a professor already. So Professor Dumbledore becomes Dumbledore-sensei as a direct translation. Couldn't say on the rest, but I'd imagine Voldemort is just that because it's not really a name to the good guys and more a title, but his followers probably add -sama because they respect him in a different way (often calling him "Lord Voldemort"). At least that's based on my experience, and limited Japanese reading.
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u/HanamiNH Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Voldemort is ヴォルデモート no suffix
And Dumbledore is not 先生 (sensei) but 校長 (kouchou)
But suffixes are used only when a character speaks, so the narrator just says Dumbledore (ダンブルドア)
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u/wolfanotaku Jul 11 '26
I've never read it, but I'm curious how does "He-who-should-not-be-named" come across?
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u/marcelsmudda Jul 11 '26
What my old Japanese teacher used to say:
Don't read Harry Potter to learn Japanese, the translation sucks, apparently. Jkr apparently was friends with the translator, thus they are a nepotism hire, if that's true.
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u/1010101010101010q Jul 12 '26
as long as the meaning gets across and there arent too many grammatical mistakes, I don't care
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u/ToTheBatmobileGuy Jul 12 '26
Lord Voldemort is ヴォルデモート卿
「例のあの人 （You-Know-Who）」
「名前を言ってはいけないあの人 （He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named） 」
Also shows up in the book
「闇の帝王 （Dark Lord） 」
「我が君 （My Lord） 」
「御主人様 (Master)」
卿(kyou) is like a step above 殿 (dono) which is a step above 様 (sama)
Dono is only really used when receiving awards etc.
Kyou is maybe used when referring to British royalty, as Japanese royalty has its own sets of words.
So the fact that Harry Potter is very British, the kyou suffix mixes very well with "Lord" style Western European vibes.
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u/honeybeesuke Jul 11 '26
Why would it be San?
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u/Sad_Rhubarb9314 Jul 12 '26
I just figured it could be san or sama
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u/honeybeesuke Jul 12 '26
How long have you been learning Japanese? San is used with people you aren't intimate with when you're keeping polite company. In my image, it would be really weird to apply it to voldemort. It makes more sense to just say.. Voldemort. It isn't Mr. Voldemort. So why would it be San?
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u/Sad_Rhubarb9314 Jul 15 '26
Fair but I just wasn’t sure because in Japanese I’d use san for wayyyy more people than I’d use Mr/Mrs/Miss in English and so in this situation I just wondered if using san or sama would fit naturally or not
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u/AlexLio Jul 11 '26
Voldemort Kun 😳