Phonemics after Midnight

[Jim Flanagan]

No: HPFGUIDX 773

I was already very familiar with the name Hermione, from the two 
actresses and from old movies.  I have always heard it 
pronounced "her-mi-nee" (except perhaps in 1930s-era English drawing-
room movies in which the actors all spoke as if they had the Union 
Jack stuck up their a***).  

"Hermione" can said as three syllables instead of four if -io- is 
taken as a dipthong (two pure vowels spoken rapidly together, for 
example: "I" = ah-ee) or a tripthong.  

If the -io- is taken as the tripthong ah-ee-o, the sound could be 
approximated in rapid speech by saying "ah" while closing the lips 
down quickly to an "o" shape.  This may be what Jim Dale is saying on 
the tapes.

Forgive me -- it's very late here.

-JF