Joy of HP on Audio

[Vicki Merriman]

No: HPFGUIDX 1916

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer -Knee (4 
syllables).
> clearly enunciates all 4 syllables & pronounces it properly in the 
2-3
> places in GoF where Hermione is pronounced for someone else's 
benefit.

It is SO ODD.  He clearly states "Her My Uh Nee" in the paragraph and 
promptly returns to Her mah nee.

> Then again -- supposedly Dale consults with JKR on quite a bit, so 
maybe> she's approved this pronounciation.

May be.  Perhaps book one was virtually finished and everyone just 
decided to keep it that way for consistency's sake, but I agree that 
it just sounds wrong to me.

They've been loaned out
> to various friends and played over & over & over . . . .they are 
great

My mother is in the middle of book two. She and Dad listened to book 
one on a lengthy road trip and I suggested that there was no reason 
she couldn't listen in the car going to and from work. On the first 
day she started book two she actually called me at work in the middle 
of the morning to tell me that "I hadn't told her it would be 
difficult to leave her car once she got to work."  Such a thing is 
unheard of in my experience.  For my mother to actually interrupt her 
day to call is a really strong recommendation of both the books and 
audio tapes (she's an attorney and very dedicated.  Type A 
personality)

And some people still maintain these are "children's books."

> (although Dale's pronounciation of Hermione AND his voice for her
> character really bug me -- she comes off sounding whiny & shrill.  
While> that might be appropriate in the beginning of PS, she's 
changed quite a > bit in the later books).

He should definitely adjust it.  If he has email, or even a snail 
mail address, you could write and tell him that Hermione will be 15 
or thereabouts in book five, and that it really is time for him to 
readjust her "voice."  From what I've read, Jim Dale works hard to 
figure out the characters voices, and he should be amenable to such a 
suggestion.

Frankly, I also think he got the Beauxbatons headmistress wrong.  JKR 
said that she had a deep voice, but Jim Dale gave her a voice deeper 
than most of his male characters.  Her voice may be deep, but its not 
a baritone.  If a listener wasn't told she was a woman, I am sure he 
would think the character was male.  No one's perfect.

Vicki