> > > Can't wait to hear what other differences are revealed in the Harry Potter series.
> >
> > Wolf showed me a brief article that mentioned a handful of the differences. "Father Christmas" was changed to "Santa Claus," which was the most conspicuous atrocity. I don't remember all the others -- Wolf, do you think you could type some of those in?
>
> Sure. In fact, I'll quote from the original article by Michael Shaye of Chapters.ca. You'll notice he's careful to come across as neutral about the terribly puerile decision to change the cover-art, title, and text. I would've liked to know why he didn't discuss the Canadian distributors' decision to retain the books in their original UK incarnation.:
>
> / / / / / / "You may have noticed that the cover art is different on the Canadian/British version of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" than that of the American. You also may have noticed that the title of the American version of the first book is "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". While differing cover art is rare, different titles are virtually unheard of. Scholastic, the U.S. distributor of the Potter books, (Bloomsbury published the books in the U.K) thought that a change of look and title would better suit its American audience (the books' author Rowling is from Great Britain). Though the cover art for the subsequent titles "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was also changed, the titles remained the same. Thomas Taylor illustrated the Canadian/British versions. Mary Grandpre illustrated the American books.
>
> / / / / / / "The next step in Americanizing the Harry Potter books was to change the language itself. Words that describe food are found in the Canadian/British versions as jelly and pudding. The Americans read them as jello and dessert respectively. Time-related events are changed from "time-table," "holiday" and "Father Christmas" to "schedule," "vacation" and "Santa Claus." The adjectives "barking mad," "cracking" and "wonky" became "complete lunatic," "spanking good" and "crooked." Finally, "bobbles" became "puff balls" and "bogey" became "booger." "
>
>
> I agree... the "Father Christmas" turned "Santa Claus" is a particularly regrettable change...

What's very peculiar about the whole thing is that "mum" stayed the same. I remember when I was reading the first book I came across "mum" and I thought, well, OK, they've kept it in British form. Later in the book I saw them use the word "soccer" and realized they had translated it. Of course, by the time I got to soccer i had forgotten completely about mum, and I didn't think anything of it until I read this thread.

-eric "the silly gits" sleator
Tue 11 Jul A.D. 2000