JKR is Getting Obvious: Regulus is R.A.B.

[i_heart_ron]

IMDB is rumour-mongering that the Norwegian came out as RAS.  

[Basil Musible]

I have a part Austrian friend of mine over right now and she helped me do a google search in German. She read the book in English but can read German just as well and from what she gathers Sirius is Sirius Black in the German version and the letters are "RAB" in that version as well.  

[flying_wings]

Wikipedia on R.A.B.

There are no characters mentioned in the books who have exactly R.A.B. as initials, apart from those identified by Hermione. There are some who have incomplete names, or whose initials might be correct if they customarily use their second name, or have a changed surname (perhaps by marriage). However, there is further evidence for the identity of R.A.B. from foreign language editions of the book. These contain various alternative names for the principal characters. In particular, the Dutch edition translates the initials to R.A.Z. while 'Black' becomes 'Zwarts', and the Norwegian edition has R.A.S. and 'Svaart'. The different names of other characters between editions then eliminates most as candidates. However, it should be noted that the Norwegian translator have admitted that his translation is a guess, although an educated one based upon information not disclosed to the public, and that Rowling has not disclosed the identiy of R.A.B. to her translators. Further information is expected from the forthecoming Finnish edition.

Well, educated guesses aren't just guesses based on luck and chance. Especially with extra info from JKR, even if the said info isn't the identity of R.A.B.  

[Aci Dixinic]

I was just thinking how pissed off JKR would have been having to tell a whole lot of language buffs the secrets to her books just for the sake of accuracy, with her well-known hush hushness. But okay, that last post explains that, thanks wings.
Still, I suspect they would have checked with her to make sure that they were using the right letters. So I think we can be reasonably sure of the initials we are given in any language.  

[i_heart_ron]

Basil_Hallward

I have a part Austrian friend of mine over right now and she helped me do a google search in German. She read the book in English but can read German just as well and from what she gathers Sirius is Sirius Black in the German version and the letters are "RAB" in that version as well.

I'm reading the series in German right now!!! (does it make sense to say that certain characters and lines of dialogue are just waaaaay cooler in that language?) That translator is definitely almost distractingly faithful to the original English, though, to the point where I think that kids who didn't have "English classes" or contact with the language could easily be confused in places.  

[Aci Dixinic]

Mmm room should be made for language/culture differences.
I can't speak a cool language like German, I'm stuck with Spanish... and I'm only on my second year of that too...
Es mal, b***h-o. xd  

[Basil Musible]

i_heart_ron

Basil_Hallward

I have a part Austrian friend of mine over right now and she helped me do a google search in German. She read the book in English but can read German just as well and from what she gathers Sirius is Sirius Black in the German version and the letters are "RAB" in that version as well.

I'm reading the series in German right now!!! (does it make sense to say that certain characters and lines of dialogue are just waaaaay cooler in that language?) That translator is definitely almost distractingly faithful to the original English, though, to the point where I think that kids who didn't have "English classes" or contact with the language could easily be confused in places.

Sweet, I want to get my hands on a copy. I'm taking German myself and am pretty good at it but had Saskia do it because I would probably make a mistake. I really want to read it in German though. I've read Cornellia Funke's Inkspell in German because I couldn't wait for the English translation.
I think the translator might be sticking so close because JKR is so cryptive and leaves so many hidden clues. He or she probably wants the German readers to be kept in the loop. I could see where it could get confusing to someone with little to no English though.  

[i_heart_ron]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]  

[Basil Musible]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]  

[i_heart_ron]

That's interesting; I hadn't realised he was in the running...I'd rather assumed he was dead long before Riddle, but vielleicht?  

[ode[2]sokka]

i_heart_ron

That's interesting; I hadn't realised he was in the running...I'd rather assumed he was dead long before Riddle, but vielleicht?

That had always been my assumption as well.

Actually...the whole language thing is really interesting! Anyone want to make a thread for it?  

[i_heart_ron]

Well, do we know offhand (or have any way of finding out) what languages (other than English) are spoken here?  

[Basil Musible]

Binns was the only name I can remember hearing other than Regulus during the big swoop of the RAB thing. I never thought he was in the running either until I read a bunch of people's posts saying they thought it was Binns. A bit of a stretch in my opinion.
A language thing would be pretty cool. I know a few people are at least learning a language other than English. Flying wings said something about rabbits and French class in the vent, so I'm assuming she is learning French. Reggie is working on Japanese, aren't you? And Acidic Cynic is in second year Spanish. I'm learning German; i_heart_ron is too, either that or she already knows it. You could probably start a thread asking members to post which languages they have experience in and then later revamp it and turn it into the thread it was meant to be, or start another.  

[ode[2]sokka]

I agree with Basil, and yeah I'm working on Japanese. Mostly self teaching until next fall, which sounds a long way off right now but I don't think it really is...anywho...
I used to have a list of non-native English speakers in the guild, but I lost it sweatdrop .  

[i_heart_ron]

I've had four years of German, and can't get any more; three (highly nonconsecutive) of French, high school spanish, and a semester of Gaeilge. I might start either Russian or classical Greek next fall.

German's the only one I'm comfortable in, and I wouldn't quite consider myself fully fluent just yet.