[HPforGrownups] Re:Alohomora

[Jen Faulkner]

No: HPFGUIDX 23565

On Mon, 30 Jul 2001 rcraigharman at hotmail.com wrote:

> > But on the level of form, I really don't see how one could derive
> > 'aloha' from 'aloô'.  The vowels aren't the same.  (The first o in
> > 'aloô' is short, the second long.)  'Alaho' I could see as being
> > related, but not 'aloha'.
> 
> But it isn't "alohA", it's "alohOmora".  Notice the vowels:

You're absolutely right.  Too carried away by liking the 'aloha'
etymology, I was. :)

That doesn't change the fact that 'aloô' has a *short* o
first.  In 'alohomora', that first o is long.  It may seem trivial, but
the quanity of a vowel really makes a big difference in an etymology,
even of the constructed sort JKR is producing.  'Aloho' just cannot come
from the imperative form.

If you wanted to posit an incorrect active form 'alô' -- a first person
singular present active indicative, like the other spells (accio,
etc.) -- I'd be much more willing to grant that could be a source.  I
don't think it would make any difference that the verb is deponent in
Greek; did Latin deponents survive into modern Romance languages, or
ancient Greek into modern, anyway?  JKR doesn't seem concerned with that
kind of formal nicety in the other spellwords.

> Moreover, just because the Greek doesn't have the aspiration, doesn't
> mean that JKR didn't add the h to make it obvious that the vowels
> are distinct.  Otherwise, the result would have been:
> 
> Aloomora.
> 
> which every reader is going to pronounce with a long "u" sound,
> instead of two distinct o's.

I just don't think she would've felt compelled to use 'aloô' in that
exact form.  And as I said, the quantity of the vowels becomes wrong by
adding an (orthographic) 'h' to mark their separateness, as big a
pronunciation problem, in its way, as a long u for a long o.

I don't suppose 'homora' has any meaning?  

> As for the meaning of the verb "aloo", no, it isn't the most common
> verb meaning to "leave", but if she liked the sound of it, why not?

Why not, indeed.  It's possible, as I said before.  I think it's mostly
the analysis of it coming from the imperative form that bothers me, due
to the lengthened vowel.  I actually rather like using 'alô'...

--jen, who was out of town for a few days and thus couldn't respond
sooner :)

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