Karkaroffa educator

[clio44a]

No: HPFGUIDX 95486

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, MadameSSnape at a... wrote:
> In a message dated 4/7/2004 8:28:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> slytherin_jenn at y... writes:
> In Russian; last names like that would 
> usially end in a -v so it'd be Karkarov instead of Karkaroff?
> =================
> 
> Sherrie here:
> 
> Depends on the transliterator, I guess - I've seen both spellings 
used, even 
> for the former Imperial Family.  (It bugs me - but not as much as 
> transliterating "tsar" as "czar"! <g>)
> 
> You may be right, that Karkaroff is from one of the other Eastern 
European 
> countries - unfortunately, I don't speak Bulgarian, Romanian, or 
any of the 
> other dialects from that area...  
> 
> Sherrie
> "Unless history lives in our present, it has no future." 
> PRESERVE OUR CIVIL WAR BATTLEFIELDS!




Maybe I'm wrong (since I don't speak Russian), but I think that the 
ending -off points more towards a Russian origin of the name. A 
familiy name ending with an -ov would speak for the origin in 
another slavic language. Written Russian does not use latin letters, 
so this might be up to the translator, as Sherrie pointed out. IIRC 
the ending no matter how it is written means 'son of'.

Anyways, in my ears Igor Karkaroff sounds decidedly Russian, while 
Antonin Dolohov (another DE) for example seems to have a Czech 
origin. I would base this on the -ov ending and the first name 
Antonin which reminds me of the very famous Czech composer Antonin 
Dvorak. Of course I don't want to completely rule out Slovakia or 
Bulgaria.

BTW, calling Bulgarian and especially Romanian, which is not a 
Slavic language at all, 'any other dialects from the area' might 
make a lot of people very unhappy. :)

Clio,
who wonders how far Voldemorts connections reach.