thumb|The Russian translation of The Deathly Hallows goes on sale in [[Moscow, 2007]]

The Harry Potter series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling is one of the most translated series of all time, being available in 85 languages. This includes languages with fewer than a million speakers such as Basque, Greenlandic, and Welsh, as well as the Classical languages Latin and Ancient Greek. Additionally, regional adaptations of the books have been made to accommodate regional dialects such as the American English edition and the Valencian adaptation of Catalan.

For reasons of secrecy, translations were only allowed to begin after each book had been published in English, creating a lag of several months for readers of other languages. Impatient fans in many places simply bought the book in English instead. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix became the first English language book to top France's best-seller list. In some cases, fans have created their own unofficial translations, either ahead of a licensed translation or when a licensed translation is unavailable.

Issues arising in the translation of Harry Potter include cultural references, riddles, anticipating future plot points, and Rowling's creative names for characters and other elements in the magical world which often involve word play and phonology.

Translation process

For an authorised translation, the publisher must first negotiate and sign a contract with Rowling's agents, The Blair Partnership. The publishers select translators locally.

So as to prevent plots being leaked, translators were not granted access to the books before their official release date in English; hence, translation could start only after the English editions had been published, creating a lag of several months before the translations were made available. This necessary delay has boosted the sales of English language editions of the books to impatient fans, in countries where English is not the first language. Such was the clamour to read the fifth book that its English edition became the first English-language book ever to top the bookseller list in France. In Italy, impatient Potter fans organised "Operation Feather", deluging the publisher Salani with feathers (reminiscent of Hogwarts' messenger owls) to demand expedited publication for the Italian translation of the seventh and final book in the series. This has also caused unauthorised translations and fake versions of the books to appear in many countries.

The high profile and demand for a high-quality local translation means that a great deal of care is often taken in the task. In some countries, such as Italy, the first book was revised by the publishers and issued in an updated edition in response to readers who complained about the quality of the first translation. In countries such as China and Portugal, the translation is conducted by a group of translators working together to save time. Some of the translators hired to work on the books were well known before their work on Harry Potter, such as Viktor Golyshev, who oversaw the Russian translation of the series' fifth book. Golyshev was renowned for his translations of William Faulkner and George Orwell, and was known to snub the Harry Potter books in interviews and refer to them as inferior literature. The Turkish translation of books two to five was undertaken by Sevin Okyay, a popular literary critic and cultural commentator.

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<section begin=bloomCount />88<section end=bloomCount /> <- the presumed Bloomsbury total of authorized translations of Philosopher's Stone + English

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In 2017, Bloomsbury celebrated the series' 20th anniversary with an announcement that it had been officially translated into 79 languages. Since 2017, Bloomsbury has published or licensed translations into Scots, Hawaiian, and Māori.

List of translations by language

The original British English versions of the book were published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury. Note that in some countries, such as Spain and India, the series has been translated into several local languages; sometimes the book has been translated into two dialects of the same language in two countries (for example, separate Portuguese versions for Brazil and Portugal).

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;"

|+ Translations of the Harry Potter series

!

! Language

! Country

! Publisher(s) and distributor(s)

! Translator(s)

! Title(s)

|-

|

! English (original version)

|

|

:UK/Ireland: Bloomsbury Publishing

:Australia/New Zealand: Allen & Unwin

:Canada: Bloomsbury/Raincoast Books (currently dist. through Penguin Books):

:South Africa: Jonathan Ball Publishers

:United States: Scholastic Corporation/Arthur A. Levine Books

:India: Bloomsbury

:Malaysia/Singapore/Philippines/Hong Kong: Scholastic Corporation

||

||

  1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone<br />Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (US)
  2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

|-

|

! Afrikaans

| || Human & Rousseau (pty) Ltd. ||

  1. Janie Oosthuysen (I-V)
  2. Kobus Geldenhuys (VI-VII)

||

  1. Harry Potter en die Towenaar se Steen
  2. Harry Potter en die Kamer van Geheimenisse
  3. Harry Potter en die Gevangene van Azkaban
  4. Harry Potter en die Beker Vol Vuur
  5. Harry Potter en die Orde van die Feniks
  6. Harry Potter en die Halfbloed Prins
  7. Harry Potter en die Skatte van die Dood

|-

|

! Albanian

| <br /> || Publishing House Dituria || Amik Kasoruho

||

  1. Harry Potter dhe Guri Filozofal
  2. Harry Potter dhe Dhoma e të Fshehtave
  3. Harry Potter dhe i Burgosuri i Azkabanit
  4. Harry Potter dhe Kupa e Zjarrit
  5. Harry Potter dhe Urdhri i Feniksit
  6. Harry Potter dhe Princi Gjakpërzier
  7. Harry Potter dhe Dhuratat e Vdekjes

|-

|

! Arabic

| Arab world<br />(Translation origin: Egypt) || Nahdet Misr

||

  • Sahar Jabr Mahmūd (I, VI ed., VII)
  • Rajā' 'Abdullah (II, III ed.)

||

  1. Alvard Jivanyan

||

  1. Հարրի Փոթերը և Փիլիսոփայական քարը
  2. Հարրի Փոթերը և Ազքաբանի կալանավորը
  3. Հարրի Փոթերը և Կրակի գավաթը
  4. Հարրի Փոթերը և Փյունիկի միաբանությունը
  5. Հարրի Փոթերը և Կիսարյուն արքայազնը

|-

|

! Asturian

| () || Trabe|| Xesús González Rato

||

  1. Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal

|-

|

! Azerbaijani

| || Qanun

||

  1. Fəxrəddin Ağazadə (I)
  2. Kifayət Haqverdiyeva (II)
  3. Fərid Hüseynli (III)
  4. Gülmira Fətullayeva (IV)
  5. Nərmin İskəndər (V-VII)

||

  1. Harri Potter və fəlsəfə daşı
  2. Harri Potter və sirlər otağı
  3. Harri Potter və Azkaban məhbusu
  4. Harri Potter və alov qədəhi|| Iñaki Mendiguren (I-VII)

||

  1. Harry Potter eta sorgin-harria
  2. Harry Potter eta sekretuen ganbera
  3. Harry Potter eta Azkabango presoa
  4. Harry Potter eta Suaren kopa
  5. Harry Potter eta Fenixaren Ordena
  6. Harry Potter eta Odol Nahasiko Printzea
  7. Harry Potter eta Herioaren erlikiak

|-

|

! Belarusian

|

|| Januskevic|| Alena Piatrovič

  1. Гары Потэр і Келіх агню

|-

|

! Bengali

|

|| Ankur Prakashani||

  1. Sohrab Hasan and Shehabuddin Ahmed (I)
  2. Muniruzzaman (II-III)
  3. Asim Chowdhury (IV-VI)
  4. Mohsin Habib (VII)

||

  1. হ্যারি পটার এন্ড দ্য ফিলোসফার্স স্টোন
  2. হ্যারি পটার এন্ড দ্য চেম্বার অব সিক্রেটস
  3. হ্যারি পটার এন্ড দ্য প্রিজনার অব আজকাবান
  4. হ্যারি পটার এন্ড দ্য গবলেট অব ফায়ার
  5. হ্যারি পটার এন্ড দি অর্ডার অব দ্য ফিনিক্স
  6. হ্যারি পটার এন্ড দ্য হাফ ব্লাড প্রিন্স
  7. হ্যারি পটার এন্ড দ্য ডেথলি হ্যালোজ

|-

|

! Bosnian

| || Buybook

|| Mirjana Evtov

  1. Harry Potter i zatvorenik Azkabana
  2. Harry Potter i plameni pehar
  3. Harry Potter i Red feniksa

||

  1. Mark Kerrain

||

  1. Harry Potter ha Maen ar Furien
  2. Harry Potter ha Kambr ar Sekredoù ||
  3. Teodora Dzhebarova (I)
  4. Mariana Ekimova-Melnishka (II-IV)
  5. Emiliya L. Maslarova (V-VII)

<!-- Thus far this page has not included the Cursed Child and shouldn't without discussion

  1. Ralitsa Boteva (VIII)

-->

||

  1. Хари Потър и Философският камък
  2. Хари Потър и Стаята на тайните
  3. Хари Потър и Затворникът от Азкабан
  4. Хари Потър и Огненият бокал
  5. Хари Потър и Орденът на феникса
  6. Хари Потър и Нечистокръвния принц
  7. Хари Потър и Даровете на Смъртта

<!-- Thus far this page has not included the Cursed Child and shouldn't without discussion

  1. Хари Потър и Прокълнатото дете

-->

|-

|

! Catalan

|

  • ,
  • (Alghero)

||

  1. Editorial Empúries
  2. Tàndem Edicions, S.L.: Valencian adaptation of I and II

||

  1. Laura Escorihuela Martínez(I-IV)

<!--# Marc Alcega (IV)

Publisher's page does not list Marc Alcega as a translator, so it's not clear why he's here... have a source before adding him back

-->

  1. Xavier Pàmies Giménez(V-VII)

||

  1. Harry Potter i la pedra filosofal
  2. Harry Potter i la cambra secreta
  3. Harry Potter i el pres d'Azkaban
  4. Harry Potter i el calze de foc
  5. Harry Potter i l'orde del Fènix
  6. Harry Potter i el misteri del Príncep
  7. Harry Potter i les relíquies de la Mort

|-

| rowspan="2" |

! Chinese (Simplified)

<!--Since the context of this list is written language, not spoken language, using the "macrolanguage" "Chinese" is probably most relevant since the writing system(s) are applicable to multiple spoken languages. Although there is a difference in the writing system of these two translations, the motivation for having multiple translations is probably primarily political not linguistic. For instance, either could have been adapted for the other region without a new translation; in the case of trad->simplified, almost entirely algorithmically. Therefore, for the purposes of this list, this should be considered two translations into the same language that also happen to use different writing systems. They are separated into two table rows for the sake of legibility since the titles are completely different (in contrast to other dual-translations where there are only slight differences in titles).-->

|

||

People's Literature Publishing House ();

||

  1. Su Nong () (I)