Two random questions occurred to me last night and I thought some francophone Dopers might be able to help out!
So I picked up a French copy of HP and the Order of the Phoenix at the airport and am having fun reading the clever translations of some of Rowling’s more punnishing words.
Anyway, I noticed that Dumbledore switches from saying ‘vous’ to ‘tu’ to Harry half way through – when he grabs Harry’s wrist and tells him to continue with the Occlumency, and then Stupefies Fudge and the others in order to escape from his study.
Is this the first time he says ‘tu’ to Harry in the series? (Or does he swop back and forth?) If so, why did the French editors make this decision? It’s quite an intimate moment but seems like a strange place to start, to me.
I’ve also read a bit of Jane Eyre in French, and noticed that the two main participants say ‘vous’ to each other, even when they were married. Did people do this in real life? If so, when did they stop? If it’s just a literary thing, is it a way of showing that people are kind of aristocratic/upper class, and so do servants etc in C19th literature say ‘tu’ to each other?
Not really sure, but “vous” is more formal, and if they’re trying to escape from somewhere they’re probably not bothering with formalities anymore… as for the Jane Eyre thing, perhaps people back then were just more stuffy and distant. Mrs. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice did after all call her own husband “Mr. Bennet”. I can’t imagine married women doing that today.
Yes, and I wonder if the ‘vous’ thing is the equivalent of the Mr Bennet/Mr Darcy thing, and if so, maybe lower-class types, eg in Zola, maybe say ‘tu’.
The vous-among-married-people thing shows up in the works of Francoise Sagan, who was writing in the 1950 and '60s I think it’s an aristocratic/upper bourgeoisie trait. For all I know, people still do it.
You’ll also see a switch from vous to tu as a signal that the dynamic between two people has suddenly changed, when one person wants to assert power over the other. You see this not infrequently in the Inspector Maigret books, and it’s probably what you’re seeing in Harry Potteur.
I doubt I’m francophone enough to be helpful- though I took French in High School and College.
However, I have a comment which may be helpful (or may not). In Book 6, there is a scene between Professor McGonagol and Harry in which he notices that she called him “Harry” and then switched to “Potter”. In the earlier part of the scene, I think she is trying to reach out to him as a child/friend who is in need of comfort; in the latter part she has switched tactics to appealing to him as an authority.
It might be reasonable to write that scene with the first part using “tu” and the second using “vous”. Certainly, I think you should look to see how Dumbledore addresses Harry. Is he being friendly (“Harry”) or is he being Headmasterish, in which case he may use “Potter”?
Eureka> Dumbledore always calls Harry ‘Harry’, but occasionally he is being headmastery (when others are present), while at other times he is more grandfatherly. That made me wonder if he switches from ‘tu’ to ‘vous’, anyway.
