Wordplay/ What's fun about the HPs?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 152553

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "inufan_625" <inufan_625 at ...> wrote:
>
> Geoff:
> This, I believe, is one of the factors which makes some "children's"
> books so engaging to all ages.
> <snip>
> I have always be highly amused by JKR's wordplays which are sometimes 
> lost on young people and also will leave readers who are not native 
> English speakers lost.
>  
> Consider names such as Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, Hogwarts, 
> Durmstrang, Grimmauld Place and Umbridge just to list a handful....

Inufan_625:
 
> This caught my eyes as it was mentioned by another poster...something
> about being embarassed about not getting the joke with Knockturn Alley
> for so many reads.
> 
> I guess I should be supremely embarassed then because I still don't
> get it. I know that JKR choses her names carefully using a variety of
> sources to put meaning behind her choices (mythology, history, ect.),
> but I feel like I am missing something, especially pertaining to the
> above examples.
> 
> I would appreciate it if someone would feel this clueless reader in. I
> have no excuse as I am a native speaker and not all that young...lol

Geoff:
I may be repeating some answers, but I am posting the text of an 
off-group email reply I sent today to someone making a similar enquiry:

<quote>
Thanks for your email.

Can I say first that I'm never sure where a fellow group member is living 
so I don't know whether English is their first language or not so I apologise 
if I'm "teaching my grandmother to suck eggs".

Knockturn Alley, as I think you see, is a play on "nocturnally" which means 
to do with the night and this street has a lot to do with Dark magic, so it 
has been suggested that this was behind JKR's play on words. 

Similarly, Diagon Alley is a play on "diagonally" and I have seen the idea 
that JKR is suggesting that the Wizarding World is diametrically opposite 
to the real world, if you see her line of thought.

Grimmauld Place (Grim Old Place) is a tip of the hat to the fact she lives 
in Edinburgh. In Scots dialect, "auld" = "old" and Edinburgh has the very 
old nickname of "Auld Reekie" = "Old Smelly"

The others I mentioned. "Umbridge" is a play on the English word
"umbrage".  To "take umbrage" means to "take offence", to "get annoyed". 
If someone was to say something rude about me, I could easily "take 
umbrage". Professor U. is someone who easily gets annoyed if her 
wishes are not obeyed to the letter...

In English, there is a wordplay called "spoonerising", named after an 
Oxford professor who tended to do it accidentally. What happens is that 
the first letter or letters of two adjacent words are tranposed usually to 
humorous effect. By way of example, Spooner is reputed to have turned 
a toast of "bless our dear Queen" into "bless our queer Dean".

In Germany in the 19th century, there was an artistic and literary 
movement expressing emotional unrest called "Sturm und Drang" (storm 
and stress) to which Beethoven contributed. JKR has spoonerised this 
to "Durmstrang.

Finallly Hogwarts. This is got by playing around with "warthog" which 
is an African wild pig.

Hope this helps
</quote>