Voldemort pronunciation

[Phil Nel]

No: HPFGUIDX 31387

Dear all:

broken at pixicore.org asks:

>*delurks* silly question, but I've always read (even in the HPL) that
>Voldemort was pronounced the french way, sans T (presumably so it would
>sound more like "vol de mort," flight of death. But in the move Rubeus says
>"VoldemorT", with a really loud T. So who's right?

It's not a silly question, but I don't know of a definitive answer.  On the 
American audiobooks, Jim Dale pronounces "Voldemort" the French way (no "t").  
On the British audiobooks, Stephen Fry pronounces "Voldemort" with the "t."  
Of course, Rowling herself was a French teacher; one imagines that she does 
not pronounce the "t."  Then, on the other hand, one could make the argument 
that the British audiobooks are the "correct" audiobooks because they use the 
British texts, in which case we'd have to agree with Fry's pronunciation.  So, 
I can't provide an answer, but I can at least give some possible (and 
conflicting) answers.

Best regards,

Phil

-------------------------
Philip Nel
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Denison Hall
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
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www.ksu.edu/english/nelp/
philnel at ksu.edu