[HPFGU-OTChatter] Pronunciation of "Animagus"

[Jen Faulkner]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2001 linman6868 at aol.com wrote:

> The subject heading ought to tell you what I'm on about.  How do you 
> pronounce "Animagus"?  I'm asking because I just recently looked up 
> the word "magus" in the dictionary and it has a long 'a', as 
> in "bagel."  *snerk*  But I'd been pronouncing "Animagus", rather 
> awkwardly, with two deep 'a's as in "father."  So what's correct?  Or 
> do we know?

According to the Scholastic site,
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/books/pronunciation/play.htm, it's
"An-i-MAYJ'us."  

The first a is short (as in 'cat' or 'apple')  due to the short vowel in
the Latin 'animal'.  

Perhaps I'm just being dense, but the long a is baffling me, since
'magus' in Latin has a short a.  (The alpha in Greek 'ma/gos', however,
may be long? *stares at the online LSJ entry: [a^]* But etymologically
I'm sure 'magus' is a Latin and not a Greek borrowing anyway.)  I
suppose there is a connection with the long a of 'mage', since the other
words in the family ('magic', 'magi') have a short a -- French
influence?  Either there is simple analogical change at work (more
likely, IMO) or a different etymological history than 'magic' and
'magi'.

(I'd like to check the OED but I'm away from my computer and so not
able to use Rutgers' OED account.  Anyone?)

I suspect analogical change from 'mage' (or from 'magic' or 'magi') is
also to be counted responsible for the soft 'g', since it would
otherwise be a hard g (coming before a 'u').  Here, I'd be not at all
surprised if the Scholastic site were wrong.

HTH!

--jen :)

"Will you be the one I've wanted, will you read my mind?
Will you ask me where I hurt, and heal me with your eyes?"
			--melissa ferrick

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