You recognize this book, right? A glance at the cover makes it obvious what book this is.

But then…

You look again and start asking yourself why it says Garri, not Harry.

And that reminds you of two things:

• It reminds you of that tee shirt you used to see around Harvard Square, the one that’s obviously a Harvard shirt…and yet it says Garvard—but of course it says it in Cyrillic letters as Гарвард.
• It reminds you of your grandmother’s surname, Yohalem, which was originally spelled Yoglum in Russian.

But…this book cover is clearly not in Russian! In fact, it’s not in Cyrillic letters at all.

Furthermore, why is Rowling’s name spelled Rouling?

And what’s up with “va falsafiy tosh”? That doesn’t make any sense at all.

If you’re stuck, here’s a hint:

Categories: Books, Linguistics