I decided to take a look at the book Harrius Potter et Camera Secretorum, the second in the series, and was very surprised to find a discrepancy in the latinity compared to the first book. For those who don't know, Harry Potter's parents are dead, and instead he lives with his aunt (his mother's sister) and her husband, Mrs and Mr Dursley. The translator, Peter Needham, is of course intimately familiar with this fact; indeed, the very second paragraph of the book makes it clear: “Dominus Vernon Dursley horis matutinis expergefactus erat gemitu magno e conclavi Harrii, filii sororis uxoris, exorto.â€
Yet, some fifteen lines below, the aunt is referred to as “Amita Petuniaâ€, and, from what I have seen, that is how she is constantly called throughout the book. But all dictionaries I have consulted make it clear that an ămÄta is indeed the father's sister, not the mother's. The reason why I think this is so remarkable, is that in the first book, Needham always refers to her by the undoubtly correct “Matertera Petuniaâ€! (I mean, while such a lapse could be understandable—even though he should know better—, the change for the worse is simply astonishing.)
My question, then, is if there is possibly any way “amita†could be justified or explained?
