Blyton Translations - How Many Languages?

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 09 Jun 2007, 10:14

In the recent Go4It radio programme, it was mentioned that Enid Blyton's works have been translated into over 90 languages. I was thinking that we could try to make a list of as many of those languages as possible, copying and pasting the whole list and slotting in new languages in alphabetical order as we go. I know that Enid Blyton books are/have been available in:

Arabic
Danish
Dutch
English
Flemish
French
German
Icelandic
Swedish
Welsh

That leaves 80 or so languages to add!

Anita

Moose · Post by **Moose** » 09 Jun 2007, 21:35

Well I know that they are available in Finnish cos my boyfriend is from there

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 09 Jun 2007, 22:01

Has he read much Enid Blyton, Moose?

I've also just realised that I missed out Portuguese and Spanish, so now the list is as follows:

Arabic
Danish
Dutch
English
Finnish
Flemish
French
German
Icelandic
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish
Welsh

Moose · Post by **Moose** » 10 Jun 2007, 19:36

I am not actually sure .. I will ask him when next we speak

. But I do know that they are in Finnish. Ming, are the books in Bangla too?

Would be interesting to know what the most obscure (ie least spoken) language that the books have been put into is

tix · Post by **tix** » 12 Jun 2007, 03:42

Here are four more for the interesting collection - Hebrew, Swahili, Fijian & Indonesian. The UNESCO count in 1970 found that EB was the world’s widest-read author and that she lives on in 123 different languages - topped only by Lenin (222), and Georges Simenon (143). Can’t think why we don’t all speak just one tongue because it would make life and living in this international and internet world much easier. Going through the languages together with all their dialects and then weighing up the pros and cons I think the most appropriate would be English.

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 12 Jun 2007, 11:08

[Tiq:] Can’t think why we don’t all speak just one tongue because it would make life and living in this international and internet world much easier. Going through the languages together with all their dialects and then weighing up the pros and cons I think the most appropriate would be English.

That would be very convenient for many of us on this Forum

, but on the other hand how about Chinese Mandarin?:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... guage.html

There are also specially-devised languages like Esperanto.

Thanks for adding to the list, Tiq. Malay is another one as well, so now we've got:

Arabic
Danish
Dutch
English
Fijian
Finnish
Flemish
French
German
Hebrew
Icelandic
Indonesian
Malay
Portuguese
Spanish
Swahili
Swedish
Welsh

Still heaps more to add! Is Chinese Mandarin one of them, I wonder?!

Anita

Ming · Post by **Ming** » 12 Jun 2007, 16:53

Moose wrote:Ming, are the books in Bangla too?

No.

Not that I know of, anyway. If I get some help from Bangla experts I might get down to translate them myself!

How about Hindi? Are they available in Hindi?

Bill Smugs · Post by **Bill Smugs** » 12 Jun 2007, 17:12

Anita Bensoussane wrote:There are also specially-devised languages like Esperanto.

Yes, one vote from me for esperanto, a language I use probably about half the time at home. I'm not aware though, that any of EB's books have been translated into esperanto. I'll keep a look-out!

Mollybob · Post by **Mollybob** » 12 Jun 2007, 17:17

They have definitely been translated into Italian and I think the 1970s Famous Five TV series was also quite popular over there (probably more so than the books).

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 12 Jun 2007, 17:37

Thanks. Afrikaans is another one. So far we have:

Afrikaans
Arabic
Danish
Dutch
English
Fijian
Finnish
Flemish
French
German
Hebrew
Icelandic
Italian
Indonesian
Malay
Portuguese
Spanish
Swahili
Swedish
Welsh

Post by **Tony Summerfield** » 12 Jun 2007, 19:00

I have got Blyton books in both Chinese and Japanese - but don't ask me what Chinese language it is as I haven't read it yet - Noddy Goes to Toyland, so at least I can read the illustrations!

Moose · Post by **Moose** » 12 Jun 2007, 19:57

I'd love to see Japanese or Chinese copies. They read right to left don't they? I have a CHinese friend.. I will ask her if she's read any Blyton in her native tongue.

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 12 Jun 2007, 21:14

[Tony:] I have got Blyton books in both Chinese and Japanese - but don't ask me what Chinese language it is as I haven't read it yet - Noddy Goes to Toyland, so at least I can read the illustrations!

I'll just put it as "Chinese" for now. I'm also adding Norwegian.

Edit: And Catalan and Tamil, which are mentioned in David Rudd's book EB and the Mystery of Children's Literature:

Afrikaans
Arabic
Catalan
Chinese
Danish
Dutch
English
Fijian
Finnish
Flemish
French
German
Hebrew
Icelandic
Italian
Indonesian
Japanese
Malay
Norwegian
Portuguese
Spanish
Swahili
Swedish
Tamil
Welsh

Adventure · Post by **Adventure** » 17 Jul 2007, 12:54

Anita Bensoussane wrote: There are also specially-devised languages like Esperanto.

What's Esperanto? Sounds like Spanish or something.

Almas · Post by **Almas** » 17 Jul 2007, 15:34

Hi Anita, all the Famous Fives, Secret Seven, and Adventure series have been translated into Arabic. The Five Find-Outers have gone out of print, unfortunately, but they are quite easy to get from charity shops.

By the way - what is Tamil?