# Harry Potter pronunciation help **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396 "2007-03-25T03:46:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Farmwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@Farmwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmwoman)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/1 "2007-03-25T03:46:27Z")
I just started reading book 6 aloud to my son and can’t seem to figure out how to pronounce “Scrimgeour” without sounding feeble. Apologies if this has been discussed before, but I’m avoiding spoilers and don’t want to search HP threads. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/2 "2007-03-25T04:11:17Z")
[This website says “Scrim-jer”](http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sooty/pronoun.html) EDIT: [Here’s something better.](http://scholastic.com/harrypotter/reference/) There’s a link to an official Harry Potter pronunciation guide. It gives the pronunciation more like “Scrim-jour”. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/3 "2007-03-25T04:46:41Z")
On the audiobooks, IIRC, Jim Dale pronounced it “Scrim-jour.” (Of course, in the early books he also pronounced Voldemort with a silent “t”…) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/4 "2007-03-25T07:09:15Z")
I used to have friends when I was a kid whose surname was Scrimgeour, and we used to say (as kids tend to do) “Sriminjer”. In fact, I think it should be “Scrim\*jer” and there’s a kind of, implied but not logically present, pause between syllables. ---
**Author:** ![Farmwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@Farmwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmwoman)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/5 "2007-03-25T12:12:11Z")
Thanks to all. I had a feeling it might be ‘jer’ -ish. But I had tried everything and at one point my 7 year-old asked if this was just one guy. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/6 "2007-03-25T15:30:20Z")
[QUOTE=Rysto] EDIT: [Here’s something better.](http://scholastic.com/harrypotter/reference/) There’s a link to an official Harry Potter pronunciation guide. It gives the pronunciation more like “Scrim-jour”. [/QUOTE] Of course, is this “official” as in “these are the pronunciations that J.K. Rowling intended”? Or is this “official” as in “this is the way that we, the builders of this website, choose to pronounce everything”? > [@Rodgers01](#): > > On the audiobooks, IIRC, Jim Dale pronounced it “Scrim-jour.” In the audiobook, Jim Dale’s pronunciation sounded almost like “Scrim-jaw” a lot of the time. I noticed that the movie version of “Goblet of Fire” pronounced _accio_ with a hard C sound – “Ak-kio”. Jim Dale in the audiobooks used a soft C – “Ass-io”. Hard to tell what the intended pronunciation is sometimes when official publications or adaptations (like audio books and movie versions) say things in different ways. Is there a definitive pronunciation guide somewhere put out by (or sanctioned by) J.K. Rowling? Is that one from [scholastic.com](http://scholastic.com) approved by the author? ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/7 "2007-03-25T15:39:24Z")
[QUOTE=Rysto] EDIT: [Here’s something better.](http://scholastic.com/harrypotter/reference/) There’s a link to an official Harry Potter pronunciation guide. It gives the pronunciation more like “Scrim-jour”. [/QUOTE] That pronunciation guide also claims that Voldemort has a silent T: “Vole-de-more”. It also seems to have a lot of poorly done breakdowns of syllables (not sure if it’s intended as a true phonetic listing or not) on the right when you click one of them. Many of them seem to indicate the wrong accented syllable (assuming that the all-caps syllables indicates accent – which would normally be a logical assumption), so that the listed accent doesn’t coincide with the way the voice on the audio clip is speaking it. I was amused by the first result when you click “Voldemort”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/8 "2007-03-25T19:57:47Z")
[QUOTE=Monstre] That pronunciation guide also claims that Voldemort has a silent T: “Vole-de-more”. [/QUOTE] Well, since he’s British and not French.. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/9 "2007-03-26T02:09:12Z")
I would have pronounced “Accio” as Ak/chio. And I do (not that I am saying it lots or anything…) This could get complicated. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/10 "2007-03-26T03:53:43Z")
[QUOTE=Monstre] That pronunciation guide also claims that Voldemort has a silent T: “Vole-de-more”. [/QUOTE] That’s how Jo Rowling pronounces it, apparently. So, she should know. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/11 "2007-03-26T04:14:11Z")
OK, a question on the name Rufus Scrimgeour - does anyone know why JK Rowling chose that name for the new minister of magic? At first I thought it might be an anagram of something but I couldn’t come up with anything good. Many of her names are giveaways to the character (e.g. Remus Lupin, Dolores Umbridge) but some are not (Sirius Black). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/12 "2007-03-26T04:43:17Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] but some are not (Sirius Black). [/QUOTE] [Sirius](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#Etymology) can change into the shape of a dog. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/13 "2007-03-26T05:10:00Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] That’s how Jo Rowling pronounces it, apparently. So, she should know. [/QUOTE] How do you know? (I’m not necessarily doubting you – I’m just wondering if there’s some place where Rowling has listed official pronunciations. Or has she specifically claimed the one in the link from [scholastic.com](http://scholastic.com) is definitive?) ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/14 "2007-03-26T05:14:49Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] OK, a question on the name Rufus Scrimgeour - does anyone know why JK Rowling chose that name for the new minister of magic? [/QUOTE] Is he red-headed? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/15 "2007-03-26T05:33:11Z")
[QUOTE=Monstre] How do you know? (I’m not necessarily doubting you – I’m just wondering if there’s some place where Rowling has listed official pronunciations. Or has she specifically claimed the one in the link from [scholastic.com](http://scholastic.com) is definitive?) [/QUOTE] [See here](http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/1099-orangecounty-takahama.html), a site dedicated to gathering quotes from JKR interviews. ---
**Author:** ![Boggette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@Boggette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boggette)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/16 "2007-03-26T13:55:21Z")
I’ve heard it pronounces Scrim Jaw. And re: Lupin… His surname was Lupin long before he was bitten. Right? ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/17 "2007-03-26T15:17:36Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] I would have pronounced “Accio” as Ak/chio. And I do (not that I am saying it lots or anything…) This could get complicated. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I pronounce it as I think it would be in Italian, “AH-chee-oh.” You’re right, this is complicated – that’s the fourth pronunciation in this thread, after your “Ak/chio,” the movie’s “Ak-kio,” and Jim Dale’s “Ass-io”! ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/18 "2007-03-26T17:00:45Z")
[QUOTE=Rodgers01] I pronounce it as I think it would be in Italian, “AH-chee-oh.” You’re right, this is complicated – that’s the fourth pronunciation in this thread, after your “Ak/chio,” the movie’s “Ak-kio,” and Jim Dale’s “Ass-io”! [/QUOTE] Then I feel obligated to add that in my head, it’s pronounced “Ack-see-oh.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/19 "2007-03-26T17:18:03Z")
[QUOTE=Boggette] I’ve heard it pronounces Scrim Jaw. And re: Lupin… His surname was Lupin long before he was bitten. Right? [/QUOTE] Yes. Quite a coincidence, isn’t it? I don’t think Scrimgeour is supposed be meaningful except for the way teh word sounds. It calls to mind scourge, scour and scrim (like the translucent curtain). ---
**Author:** ![Farmwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@Farmwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmwoman)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396/20 "2007-03-26T17:29:14Z")
According to the guide, I’ve been putting the acCENT on the wrong sylLAble quite often. I say AL-lastor and oc-CLOO-mency, and Bellatrix’s surname just _needs_ to be pronounced “strange” instead of “strawnge”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-pronunciation-help/397396.md?page=2)