Pronouncing Accio

[davewitley]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:

> My initial instinct was to pronounce it 'ASS-EE-OH', but after 
looking
> in the English dictionary, I find that nearly all words that start
> with 'ACC...' are pronounced with a 'K' sound as in 'accelerate',
> 'accident', and 'access'.
> 
> Since I discovered that I have been trying to force myself to use 
the
> more likely 'ACK-SEE-OH'. 
> 
> The one main exception is with words that begin with 'accO...'. 
words
> that have an 'O' after the second 'C' rarely have the second 'C'
> pronounced which means the loss of any 'S' type sound.

Oddly enough, for once this is just what you'd expect if you follow 
the normal rules for pronunciation of 'c' in English: like s before 
e, i, and y, like tsh when combined with h, and like k otherwise, 
including before another c.  So words like 'accommodate' 
and 'accumulate' aren't really exceptions.  The vowel *before* -cc- 
doesn't matter: 'eccentric', 'Occident', 'occult'.

Like several others here, I tend to assume that words specific to 
the Harry Potter series are English, even if they have clear foreign 
roots, thus I pronounce the final 't' in 'Voldemort', Draco to rhyme 
with Waco, not wacko, and so on.

When discussing the Accio UK conference, though, I'll defer to Ali's 
pronunciation.

David