[HPforGrownups] Pronunciation

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 6708

Simon wrote:

> Rita wrote: "I've heard that the British are almost equally pathetic about
> learning languages. Perhaps there is something about the English language
> such that learning English as a first language does permanent damage to the
> language learning areas of the brain?"
>
> I would try and argue with this slur of the British if it were not for the
> fact that I agree with it and said something very similar in the chat on
> Sunday about foreign languages and myself.

Which brings me to a related question I've been meaning to ask. In my experience
(limited to other people's observations, who've been to England more) the
English almost pride themselves on pronouncing foreign words in English.
Examples--garage, Nazi. In American English these have a warped but faithful
echo of the French and German pronunciation, but in British English the "g" and
the "z" are the standard ones of English pronunciation.

Sooooo, why, Caius, do you think the British would pronounce Voldemort with a
French accent? I've always thought it would rhyme with "short," not "more." Does
anyone have any evidence for the pronunciation that I'm missing? (audiotapes
don't count; they are an interpretation, not the original.) And am I right about
the British? [I've been told they mispronounced Nazi deliberately, as an insult,
so perhaps it doesn't hold true for all foreign words..?]

--Amanda