Pronunciation Police!

[Amy Z]

Haggridd wrote:
 
> > bezoar-  Dale says it to rhyme with bourgeois-- UGH!  Should be 
> first syllable accented, "BEE zore"

Sam wrote:
 
> I'd never come across this word (I think) before HP, so I really 
have 
> no idea how to pronounce it; having said that, I definitely agree 
> that it doesn't rhyme with bourgeois. I pronounce it 'be-zore', with 
> an accent on the second syllable. The 'e' in the 'be', BTW, is 'e' 
as 
> in 'educate'.

I got to this word in Dale's reading and thought "really?!" but didn't 
remember to look it up until now.  It is a real word, it means what 
Snape says it means and really was considered an antidote for poison 
at one time (how could I doubt the Potions Master?) and in the opinion 
of the American Heritage dictionary, it's pronounced either BE-zohr 
("o" sounds like "aw") or BE-zor ("o" sounds like "oh").  The "e" 
rhymes with bee.

Sam continued:

> I also pronounce Voldemort with a silent 'T'; whenever I say this in 
> front of my friends they look at me as if I am stupid. 

You have none other than JKR backing you up on this one.  Not that 
she's the final authority (1000 students?!) <g>.

> I'm also the (very smug) authority on how to 
> pronounce Hermione correctly.

I say just shake your head in smug sorrow and let 'em keep saying it 
wrong 'til they get to GF, and then they'll be forced to acknowledge 
your genius.

I'm always sympathetic to people who pronounce Voldemort, etc. wrong 
<eg> because as a voracious and solitary reader, I had a lot of words 
in childhood that I had my own pronunciations for.  I recall reading 
my parents my oral report on stars and being stunned when they 
corrected my pronunciation of infrared.  I thought it was pronounced 
with two syllables, as if it were the past tense of infrare--I hadn't 
noticed the word "red" in it at all.  Good thing I ran it by my 
parents before reading it in front of the class.

Amy Z