Ginny comes out of nowhere, but how about Ron?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 123142


"Brian Brinkman" wrote:
<snip interesting discussion of Ginny> 
 
> Onto Ron...
> I had a hard time taking in what I perceived as Ron's "new" 
> persona.  When Ron re-enters the scene in OOTP, he seems different.  
> In fact, he seems more life Steve Irwin from "Crocodile Hunter" than 
> the Ron I came to know in the first four books.  Since when did he 
> begin speckling his addresses to Harry with "mate"?  Or is this 
> simply an example of my misunderstanding of British English.  I was 
> aware of the "mate" designation, but its relative infrequency in GOF 
> vs. its frequency in OOTP had me wondering, "What does it mean?"  Is 
> JKR attempting to show Ron employing a strategy in dealing with 
> Harry's new emotional state? <snip>


Carol responds:
The "mate" business surprised me, too. It sounds more like the twins
than Ron. (IIRC, one of them addresses Sirius as "mate.") I didn't
think of Steve Irwin--it sounded British, not Australian, to me--but
it did strike me as "not Ron," if you understand my meaning. Is he
trying to sound more grown up, or at least more like a teenager and
less like a child? Or is it a means of stating his affection and
empathy for angry!Harry is a way that will be acceptable to another
teenage boy? Did Ron talk this way in the British editions of the
other four books, or is it indeed something new? If so, has JKR just
forgotten how Ron talks or does it mean something that we Americans
(who think of "mate" as the sexual partner of an animal) are missing?

Carol