Voldemort pronunciation

[egility]

No: HPFGUIDX 31409

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Phil Nel <philnel at k...> wrote:
> Dear all:
> 
> broken at p... 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.

I have had this discussion in other groups and I an satisfied that 
JKR wants to leave most pronunciations (with the notable exception 
of 'Hermione') up to each reader.  She clearly knows how Dale and Fry 
have pronounced this for years and has apparently done nothing to
correct the 'mistaken' one and I am fully confident that she could 
have had the movie pronounciation changed too if she wanted, given 
the reported influence she had on its production.

I like to believe that JKR wants to leave such things to her readers 
and that until a Hermione-like clarification occurs in canon, 
whatever sounds right to your ear is just fine.

BTW, there were other pronounciation conflicts I noticed with the 
movie (e.g. "Firenze") but that's a discussion for another group I 
suspect.

Chris:)