[HPforGrownups] Phonemics after Midnight

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 775

At 09:53 09/02/2000 -0000, you wrote:

>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***).  

Ouch! On that last point, I hope you mean as in 'Her-MY-OH-knee', rather
than 'Her-MYA-knee'?  Otherwise, I have an uncomfortable life ahead of me in
my 1930s drawing-room.

>"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.

Thanks for posting that.  The term is actually 'diphthong' (pronounced
diff-thong) and I assume you extrapolated to tripthong, but it sort of
works!  You're absolutely right in your explanation, IMO, and this fits in
with my earlier post about the word medieval and UK/US differences (and all
the rest of the Hermy-One posts back in Yahoo HP4GU). 

It's amazing what I've learned in this club.  Until recently, I had confused
diphthongs with digraphs, the latter being where two letters combine to form
a single sound, e.g. 'ea' in head. What you're proposing for Hermione could
almost count as a 'trigraph' (I guess I made that one up).

Neil, being a total pedant (note: the 'ei' is actually a diphthong but can
be said as a digraph 'ee').

            Flying-Ford-Anglia

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   "Then, dented, scratched and steaming, 
   the car rumbled off into the darkness, 
   its rear lights blazing angrily"

 [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]

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