JK Rowling says we have all been pronouncing Voldegif wrong

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we did? i call him Voldermortorta... i think the 2 t's made it worse.

No, we didn't.

Everybody i know IRL who liked the books back then pronounced the T because thats how you naturally read it in Spanish.

Also most people had to be told how to properly pronounce Hermione.
 
Indeed. His name is a composition of French words (vol de mort, "flight of death") and in "mort", the t is silent.

Because 'mort' is the french word for death, and it is pronounced with a silent T.

In fact, Vol de Mort would basically mean 'Flight of Death'

Edit - As per the above, 'Flight from death' is also correct, and makes even more sense, given what he's trying to do.

Vol also means "theft" in french.

So I always thought of "Voldemort" as "Theft of death" or "Death's theft", whatever you prefer.
 
Yep, Jim Dale pronounced it Volde-more early on. For those who haven't read the books and who are on the road a lot driving, I highly recommend listening to the audio books to pass the time while in traffic. I prefer Jim Dale over Stephen Fry's narration for what it's worth.
 
No, we didn't.

Everybody i know IRL who liked the books back then pronounced the T because thats how you naturally read it in Spanish.

Also most people had to be told how to properly pronounce Hermione.

this. hahaha i always read the T. in spanish and in english.

I remember Rowling talking about Hermione. She was so dissapointed in people into saying her name right, that she had to have the phonetics of her name explained in book 4.

I don't recall her every saying anything about Voldy.
 
tumblr_mugqbyt2mE1s9p5e7o1_500.gif
"Stahp it, Ron. ssssSTAAAAHP."
 
...until now I didn't know anybody pronounced the "t"!

I just naturally always read it with a silent T. But then I am not a native speaker of English and also don't mangle words into "Eye-talian"

Team J-K-knows-what's-up
 
Garçon, give my complements to the mod. This title change is exquisite.

It's Her-my-nee
What a horribly ugly name. If someone I knew wanted to name their child that, I'd ask them why they wanted to do that to their child. I always read it as Harmony, and name that sounds nice and has a good meaning.
 
it's easy to think "mort" as a 't' in it because English has words like "mortician" and Plants Vs Zombies has jokes like "morticulture".
 
I always used to say Voldemore when reading the books...then the movies came out and they said Voldemort....so I was like "Okay then."
 
Hermy-own

I like how Rowling actually put a conversation in Goblet of Fire between Hermione and Viktor Krum that only existed to tell people how to pronounce her name (she even said that was why she put it in the book). I legit was just calling her Hermy-own up until that conversation.
 
Fun fact in spanish, his name is Tom Sorvolo Ryddle as oppossed to Tom Marvolo Riddle.

That way, the letters can spell "Soy Lord Voldemort"

Is his name also changed in other languages?
 
Fun fact in spanish, his name is Tom Sorvolo Ryddle as oppossed to Tom Marvolo Riddle.

That way, the letters can spell "Soy Lord Voldemort"

Is his name also changed in other languages?

Tom VORLOST Riddle in Germany = ist Lord Voldemort. He talks about himself in third person.

Funfact: That middlename is entirely madeup.
 
Fun fact in spanish, his name is Tom Sorvolo Ryddle as oppossed to Tom Marvolo Riddle.

That way, the letters can spell "Soy Lord Voldemort"

Is his name also changed in other languages?

In french his middle name is Elvis so they can write "Je Suis".
 
Fun fact in spanish, his name is Tom Sorvolo Ryddle as oppossed to Tom Marvolo Riddle.

That way, the letters can spell "Soy Lord Voldemort"

Is his name also changed in other languages?

Speaking of Tom Riddle, if the T in Voldemort is supposed to be silent then I'm gonna start making it silent in Tom as well.
 
In french his middle name is Elvis so they can write "Je Suis".

He's not even named Riddle in French, but Tom Elvis Jedusor. It's a little far-fetched but still a clever play on words, since "Jedusor" sounds like "Jeu du sort" which can be interpreted as "trick of destiny" (among other things). It's less convincing as a last name, though.
 
How did you guys pronounce Hermione?

Personally, before being corrected, i pronounced it "Her-Mee-On", but i was corrected by the time book 4 or so was out, funnily enough, the local tv ads for one of the game adaptations pronounced it like that too, heh.
 
Don't be rude. Philsopher has a different meaning in the larger, more influential US market, so of course an international franchise is going to want to be aware of that.

It has nothing to do with the meaning of the word "philosopher," really. A Philosopher's Stone is an actual thing that Rowling did not invent, but the assumption was that American audiences wouldn't know what it was. That assumption was, of course, correct.
 
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