Firenze (was: Re: Pronunciation of Voldemort)

[looscann]

No: HPFGUIDX 75730

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Shirley" <shirley2allie at h...> 
wrote:
Additionally, 
> Jim Dale pronounced "Firenze" differently in book 5 than in book 
1.  
> (We have all 5 audiotapes; when my daughter was younger, they held 
> her interest much better than reading the books; and they're great 
> for long car trips! :))  In the first book's tape, he pronounced it 
> with two syllables: fir-ENZ (which also happens to be the way 
Hagrid 
> pronounces it in the first movie, not that that's canon); but in 
book 
> 5, he says it with three syllables: fir-EN-zee.  Personally, I 
don't 
> like the 3-syllable version; it sounds uneducated, for lack of a 
> better way to say that....

I don't know why JKR chose the name Firenze, but that is the Italian 
name for the Italian city we call Florence in English.  Dale's 3-
syllable pronunciation is closer to how it's said in Italian than his 
2-syllable version.

Perhaps JKR sees Firenze as the centaur version of the Renaissance 
Man and named him after one of the leading cities of the 
Renaiassance, choosing the Italian Firenze rather than the English 
Florence, as we use Florence as a woman's name. <g>

Are there female centaurs?

Les