In the movie title Return of the Jedi, is Jedi singular or plural?
UPDATE: Further research suggests that no one is really certain, not even the official translators. The French version of the movie is called Le Retour du Jedi, which is singular. (If it were plural it would be Le Retour des Jedi(s). Unless of course Jedi is a collective noun in French, but I don't know if a borrowed word in French can automatically be a collective noun referring to human beings without it meaning ALL the Jedi, ever, which would be a bit inaccurate). The German version of the movie is called Die Rueckkehr der Jedi-Ritter, which is plural. If it were singular it would be Die Rueckkehr des Jedi-Ritters, assuming Jedi as a modifier doesn't decline. (And pardon my umlaut-free spelling - I can't always get diacritics to appear with any consistency in this blog).
Unfortunately I don't know where to find international titles of Star Wars movies other than on international Amazon sites, and the only international Amazon sites I can read are the French and German ones. Any further thoughts on the matter are most welcome.
3 comments:
Yes
Oooh! Where did you get those from?
Useless update: the Polish title, Powrót Jedi, has the exact same ambiguity as the English because Jedi cannot decline in Polish. Of course, that might mean the Polish translator thought it was singular, because Jedi could plausibly be a non-standard plural in Polish, and then it would be Powrót Jedów. Possibly, I'm not sure.
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