[HPforGrownups] pronunciation help: Draco

[John Walton]

No: HPFGUIDX 11349

Steve Vander Ark wrote:

> I received a feedback to the Lexicon from someone who questioned what
> I put for Draco's name on the Pronunciation Page of the Lexicon. I
> used DRAY-ko, which is the way my American mouth says it and the way
> Jim Dale says it on the tapes. That just sounds right to me. This
> person suggested that since it's from Latin, it should be pronounced
> DRAH-ko. Granted, it would be /ah/ in Latin (the word draconis would
> be pronounced drah-KO-nus), but DRAH-ko just sounds weird to me. Is
> my American bias showing or what here? Help me out...

IIRC, JKR herself, during that Desert Island Discs interview posted aaaages
ago, pronounces it DRAYko. Stephen Fry pronounces it thus on the audiobooks
he read.

You could explain it away by saying that DRAHko would be Church Latin (which
pronounces Vs as Vs and not Ws, and other funny pronunciation differences).
Plus, he's English, not Roman.

--John

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John Walton                 john at walton.to

"Con-ser-va-tive, n. A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as
distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others."
--Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary", 1842-c.1914

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