Etymology of 'Accio' and more

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 160931

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:

 Carol:
> As an American, I have Sirius problem with this one <wink>--not with
> the accented syllable, which I'm sure is the first, or with the final
> vowel, which I'm sure is a schwa (unaccented neutral vowel sounding
> like "uh"), but with the initial vowel, which Brits say is different
> from the long "es" sound in "serious." Can anyone give me a word with
> a short "i" sound *followed by r* rather than some other consonant
> that represents the "i" in "serious"? I think maybe the problem is
> with "serious" itself being pronounced rather differently by Brits and
> Americans. My gut feeling (probably wrong) is that Americans pronounce
> both "serious" and "Sirius" the way that Brits pronounce "Sirius," and
> the Brits pronounce "serious" with a stronger, longer "ee" sound. I'm
> thinking that the first syllable of "cirrus" (as in cirrus cloud)
> illustrates the sound I hear in both "serious" and "Sirius." Is that
> what anybody else hears?
> 
> At any rate, not hearing the difference makes it difficult for me to
> appreciate the Prime Minister's mispronunciation, "Serious Black."
> It's not funny to me because I see, erm, hear no difference.

Geoff:
I overlooked this bit of Carol's post at first reading.

It probably does make it obvious if you read it carefully that the Prime 
Minister's comment to Cornelius Fudge occurs because he CAN make 
that error perhaps because he misheard it initially but Fudge can then 
correct him. I can assure Carol that it is amusing in a subtle JKR-ish way.

Referring back to Accio (what - again?) it occurred to me that right from 
my initial encounter with the word, which I think is used for the first time  
in GOF, I mentally read it as having the 'akk" sound despite words, of 
which Steve reminded us, such as accelerate etc. I think I was probably 
seeing it in the context of its Latin source and therefore subconsciously 
'seeing' the hard value.

For what it's worth, in "the medium which dare not speak its name", 
Harry uses "Akkio" in the First Task scene with the dragon.