Etymology of 'Accio' and more

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 160832

---  "cubfanbudwoman" <susiequsie23 at ...> wrote:
>
> Geoff:
> > > The pronunciation of Sirius is interesting. As a 
> > > UK English speaker, I would never rhyme Sirius with
> > > Serious. The former has a short 'i', the latter a 
> > > long one. 
>  

> 
> 
> SSSusan:
> I do, yes.  Jim Dale pronounces Alicia Spinnet as 
> "Ah-LEE-see-ah" but pronounces Lucius Malfoy as 
> "LU-shuhs."  Shouldn't it be LU-see-uhs" to be 
> consistent ...
> 

bboyminn:

Well, blow me down, I always said 'Alih-Ka', but now that 
you mention it, I suppose 'Ah-Lee-see-ah' probably is
correct, and perhaps 'Ah-lee-she-ah' might be a close
second.

> SSSusan:
> The spell I struggle with is "accio."  I've always 
> prounounced it "AH-see-oh" but I know some pronounce it
> "ACK-ee-oh."  ...  The "ACK-" version makes sense if one
> considers the word "accelerate," but somehow I've 
> latched onto the "AH-see-oh." ...
> 

bboyminn:

Upon looking in my dictionary, I find that nearly all 
words starting with 'ACC...' are neither 'Ah-See...' nor 
'ACK-ee..'. In the example you gave 'accelerate', it is a
combination of the two, as in 'ACK-see-oh'. So, I suspect
that true to common English pronunciation, indeed, 
'ACK-see-oh' is probably correct. However, I admit to
mentally saying 'Ah-see-oh' when I read it.

That does bring up the question that has already been 
discussed; for a spell, should we use common English, 
should we use /modern/ Latin, Church Latin, or Ancient
Latin? On one hand, if the vocalization is important 
then Ancient Latin would seem best, but the same spell
must work in other areas of the world where Latin is
not the base language. For example, perhaps Swahili is
the ancient language in Africa, and the very non-Latin 
ancient African root for 'summon' forms the intent of 
the spell. In south and southeast Asia, perhaps Sanskrit
is the ancient language upon which the root sound and 
effects are based. Given that, can spells evolve in the
way they are spoken? Does the ancient 'ATCH-ee-oh' or
'Akk-ee-o' remain, or has it evolved into the modern
'ACK-see-oh', and does it matter? Perhaps, slight 
variation do to modern French, Italian, and English
pronunciations don't matter if the core intent is 
there.

> Susan:
> ... I now know I was mispronouncing Felix Felicis [which
> I said as "FEH-lih-kuhs" instead of as "Feh-LEASE-us"] 
> and Knuts [which I said as "k'nuts" instead of as 
> "k'noots"]. :-> )  'Course, I'm not sold on this site 
> being totally correct.  Listen to "Madam Maxime" if you
> would, and look at their phonetics.  Makes no sense for
> a woman who's French.  They also *say* Mer-OH-pee but 
> the phonetics show MER-o-pe.
> 

bboyminn:

I disagree with a few of the pronunciation on the 
Scholatic website. I guess they should know what they are
talking about, but some of the pronunciation seem 
inconsistent with general common pronunciations, though I 
admit that may be because I am an American. Though I will
further note that some of their written pronunciation 
guides don't match their actual vocal pronunciations. 
Again, a lot of these hinge on the correct pronunciation
of the letter 'C'.

For example-

Felix Felicis - They say 'Fe-LICKS FE-lease-us', I say
'Fee-LICKs FE-Lih-see-us'. That is consistent with words
like 'felicitate'.

Knuts - as you point out, they write "k'nut" but they 
say 'ka-noot'. I say 'ka-nut'. In normal American
English the 'K' in 'KN...' is always silent, but that 
didn't seem appropriate for a work like 'Knut', so I 
left the 'k' sound on.

Sirius - the pronunciation guide in my dictionary doesn't
make a distinction between 'Sirius' and 'Serious', but I
think there is a very subtle difference. Sirius is
'SEAR-ee-us' or 'SEAR-ee-ihs', where as Serious is 
'sear-ee-OUS'. Just a slightly different accent and 
inflection at the end.

Madame Maxime - is completely mispronunced and misspelled.
They say and write 'MaxiNe'; note the 'N' instead of the
'M'. I say 'MAX-seaM'. The real problem is with her first
name which I believe is 'Olympe'. Having no experience 
with the French Language beyond French Toast and French 
Fries, I've never been sure about this one. I generally 
say 'OH-limp-ee' as if I were mispronuncing 'Olympia' but
without the 'A' at the end. I suppose if I tried to put 
some fancy sounding inflection on the end, it would be 
'OH-limp-ay'.

Rufus Scrimgeour - Again, it seems like a French
pronunciation would be correct, but we Americans have
never let that get in our way. I say, 
'ROO-fuss Scrim-gouwer' ('gouw' rhymes with 'cow' but with
a slightly elongated inflection, hence the 'ou', and with 
a 'g' not a 'j' sound).
 
> Susan:
> I do wonder whether JKR has ever stepped up to correct 
> Jim Dale or Stephen Fry if she's felt their 
> pronunciation was off.
> 
> Siriusly Snapey Susan
>

bboyminn:

To some extent, I'm not sure it is necessary. In daily 
life around the world we have slightly different ways
of saying the same thing. I have a friend named 'Schewe'
which could be reasonably pronounced 'Shew-EE' but since
it's German, the correct way is 'Shave-EE'; though never
'Chevy'. I have another friend 'Iten' who claims the
correct way of saying it is 'EE-chen', but will accept
'EYE-ten'. My point is  that if you carry your name (for
example) around the world, you are going to get regional
variations in the way it is pronounced.

Of course...just one man's opinion.

Steve/bboyminn