Thicknesse: Question on Pronunciation - All and Oil in Texas

[Carol]

marion11111:
> But see, that's the tricky part.  I don't say see-re-us.  i say
seer-ree-us.  There's not a clean break where the "r" is - it blurs
the two syllables which I suppose is why the two words come out the
same for me.  It must be a midwestern drawl thing.
> 
> Have we beaten this horse to death yet?  Or is it hoarse?
>
Carol:
Would "SIHR ree us" /"SEER ree us" work to indicate the distinction?
I'm sure it's the r-modified accented vowel sound that's causing the
problem (which I share). (I use the first pronunciation for both.)

I don't think we've beaten the poor "hoarse" to death yet, in any
case. No one has explained to me yet how the pronunciation of "faint"
differs from that of "feint" in "Wronski feint"/"wonky faint."
(Obviously, I can tell "Wronski" from "wonky" without help. <smile>)

Carol, thinking that if Americans have this much trouble with the puns
in the HP books, readers of the translations must be *really* confused