18 The Linguist Vol/54 No/4 2015
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Sue Rose on the challenges of translating the made-
up words of Oksa Pollock – 'the French Harry Potter'
I
t was a hugely enjoyable challenge to introduce English teenagers
to Oksa Pollock, the loveable French heroine with incredible magic
powers. Being a translator is like putting on Harry Potter's Cloak of
Invisibility or wearing a layer of Oksa Pollock's Invisibuls – you don't
want anyone to see you're there. You need to stay out of sight so
that the reader has no idea how much blood, sweat and tears have
gone into the mix.
While trying to stay invisible, you also have to navigate what feels
like a lengthy obstacle course. The first set of walls I had to clamber
over was the names of the many adorable, quirky creatures that
inhabit Oksa's world. These were plays on words in French, which
meant they couldn't be left as they were because an English speaker
wouldn't get the joke. I'd take a long run up and launch myself at
one of these walls, get half way up, then fall flat on my back. Here
are a few examples to show how I finally overcame the obstacles
they presented:
Lunatrix and Lunatrixa. The French – Foldingot and Foldingote – is
a combination of foldingue ('crazy') and dingo ('nutcase'). There are
girl and boy Lunatrixes, which in the French is shown by the 'e' ending
for the girl, so whatever I came up with had to be able to be varied for
male and female. We often add 'ess' in English to names to show they
are female, but that didn't work here. What I came up with was
Lunatrix, which is a combination of 'loony' (since they're crazy little
characters) and 'tricks' (for their weird abilities and the tricks they always
have up their sleeves). They also have very large, moon-like, eyes and
the first part of the name sounds like 'lunar'. It was then easy to add an
'a' on the end to make the female form.
Croakette. The French – Grenette – combines grenouille ('frog')
and the suffix 'ette', which refers to a small version of something in
both French and English. I was happy with 'Croakette', which
combines 'croak' (the sound a frog makes) and 'ette'. I also liked the
way it sounded like 'croquette', as in potato croquette.
Gargantuhen. The French – Gelinotte – refers to a type of hen of
normal size, although the Gelinottes in the book are massive (6ft tall).
The word wizard
CREATING MAGIC
A Foldingote, translated into English as Lunatrixa, which
plays on the words 'loony', 'tricks' and 'lunar' (left); and
(above right) writers Cendrine Wolf (l) and Anne Plichota
