Accio was: Re: Scholastic's heretical pronunciations

[Ali]

 Carol wrote:

> > >I was wondering what anyone else thinks of Scholastic's 
 pronunciation of "Accio" as "AH seo." Surely if it's derived from 
Latin, it must be pronounced "AH keo"? The Romans used the 
letter "S" for the "s" (soft "c") sound and used "C" for the "k" 
(hard "c") sound. (The letter "K", which was superfluous, dropped 
out of use in Latin but was revived by the English after the Norman 
Conquest for use in English words of Saxon origin.)

Is the "Ah seo" pronunciation JKR's? If not, does anyone know where 
Scholastic got the idea that it's pronounced that way? And how is it 
pronounced in the British and American audiotapes?>>>

Ali responds:

Stephen Fry pronounces it "Ak seo" similar to the pronunciation of 
accident.

There has been a lot of argument over the pronunciation of this 
word, with the committee and volunteers of Accio UK very divided 
about how it should be pronounced, we've got a poll on our forums to 
try and settle the dispute:

http://www.accio.org.uk/forums

I personally pronounce it "Ah cheo", probably as a result of 
learning Italian for a few years, but I'm tempted to think that "Ak 
seo" is the "correct" way to say it. 

BTW, I'm fairly certain that Stephen Fry has gone on record saying 
that JKR has provided no guidance on pronunciations or accents: that 
certainly explains why Fry chose to give Tonks a semi-Lancashire 
accent rather than the London accent I imagine her with!

Ali,

summoning you all to Accio UK 2005:

http://www.accio.org.uk