[HPforGrownups] Re: Etymology of 'Accio' and more

[Stacey Nunes-Ranchy]

No: HPFGUIDX 160836

Steve wrote:

<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'.>

Stacey:  Finally!  A post that I can respond to with the utmost certainty.
As a fluent speaker of French, (having lived there for some time, achieving
certification to teach the language and now married to Frenchman) I can tell
you that “Olympe” would be pronounced ‘oh-LEHMP’.  It is a frequent mistake
for Americans (and with lesser degrees of frequency- Kiwis, Aussies, Brits
and on the rarest of occasions, a purely-anglophone Canadian) to want to add
extra accents to French names and words, but for her name to be spelled the
way your pronunciations you suggest, it would either have to be written
‘Olympie’ or ‘Olympé,’ respectively (note however that the ‘y’ is not
pronounced as you suggest in ‘limp” but rather ‘lemp’).  Maxime is
pronounced as you have surmised but with equal stresses on each syllable.  

Steve wrote:

<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).>

 

Stacey:  I’m not so sure that a French pronunciation is warranted but if a
francophone were to attempt it, I’m not sure if they would pronounce the
final s on Rufus and his last name would probably be along the lines of
“skrehm-jhoar”.  Again, I think this name is not French in derivation and
therefore I’m merely providing a guide to how the French would murder it
<grin>.

 

Stacey, who has to sigh at the mention of “freedom fries” (don’t they know
they’re Belgian by invention, it’s just the “cut” that makes them French?)
and wonders why the toast is not American since it is a much more popular
(and available) delicacy in the States. 





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