The Strange Case of the Altered Spelling

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 92762

Lexicon Steve:
Am I correct in thinking that it's spelled differently in the US
editions than it is in the UK ones? My US books say Sibyll, while
someone emailed me that it's spelled Sybill in the UK version. Can
anyone verify this for me? I'd like to add a note to the page about
Trelawney as well as a note on the "Differences" page, but I don't own
the UK versions to be able to check.

Amanda Geist:
You appear to be correct.

Page 228, PoA, US--"Sibyll, this is a pleasant surprise!" said 
Dumbledore...
<snip>
Page 169, PoA, Canadian (and thus UK as well, I believe)--'Sybill,
this is a pleasant surprise!' said Dumbledore...
<snip>

Honey(just to be complete):
The Bloomsbury (UK) version is identical to the Canadian. Paperback
page 169 "Sybill, this is a pleasant surprise!" said Dumbledore...

Barb:
page 228
 
"Sibyll, this is a pleasant surprise!"

from USA hardback with following info on the page where I find edition 
> (I believe it indicates the printing but I don't remember what the 
> coding means, I have faith that Steve will know)
> 
> 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15             9/9 0/0 1 2 3 4    
> 
> Printed in the U.S.A.    23
> 
> First American edition, October 1999


Carol:
For the record, it *ought* to be "Sibyl(l)" to conform with "sibyl"
(prophetess) unless the British spelling of that word differs from the
American one. (I've recently been told that the British spelling of
"artifact" is "artefact," which to my eyes still looks like a typo.)

As for those mysterious numbers, they're the printing history of your
edition of PoA. Ignoring that mysterious 23, which doesn't appear to
fit the picture, the numbers on the left (which for God knows what
reason should be read from right to left) indicate that this is the
fifteenth printing of the American first edition, with nine subsequent
printings anticipated (numbers 16-24). The numbers on the right are
the years in which some of these new printings are anticipated, with
9/9 as the date of the present impression (printing).

If anyone's curious (and I'm sure nobody is), my Scholastic Trade
Paperback (first printing, September 2001) has the same reading and
page number as your hardback and the following printing code

12 11 10 9 8 7         1 2 3 4 5 6/0

meaning that my copy of PoA was the seventh printing of this paperback
edition (with five more anticipated in 2002-2006) and it was still
2001 at the time.

I'm sure that *everyone* is thrilled with this information, which I
hope casts some small light on the original question.

If not, please accept my apologies, but I had to play Hermione and
raise my hand high in the air because I knew the answer even though
I'm not the one who was called on.

Carol