'slytherin' - pronounciation
zbihniew
boarding school in "Harry Potter" series)? Does it start with /slI-/ or
/slaI-/ ?
Iskandar Baharuddin
Perhaps it is the same as in:
"’T WAS brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
Or perhaps the "y" make it different?
Come to think of it, there is no 'e' after the 'th', so that should
make it a short 'i' sound.
In order to be sure about "Slytherin" we need to know its etymology.
Is it derived from a root word "slythe", or "slyth".
I will cover these issues in more depth in my book:
"Who Says English Ain't Phonetic?: 267,982 Simple Rules for Spelling
and Pronunciation."
It may go up to 267,983.
--
Shalom & Salam
Izzy
In any society morality is inversely proportional to per capita GDP.
- PS Kelly
Harvey Van Sickle
> How do you pronounce "Slytherin" (a name of a house in a fictious
> boarding school in "Harry Potter" series)? Does it start with
> /slI-/ or /slaI-/ ?
I've always assumed it's as in "slither", not as in "slide".
I think there's something about the house having been founded by a
wizard who could speak with snakes. Or something like that.
--
Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 22 years.
(for e-mail, change harvey to harvey.van)
R H Draney
>
>How do you pronounce "Slytherin" (a name of a house in a fictious
>boarding school in "Harry Potter" series)? Does it start with /slI-/ or
>/slaI-/ ?
It's /slI/ in the movies....r
Salvatore Volatile
In the _Harry Potter_ movies, at least, it's pronounced /'slID@rIn/.
I am sure the name is supposed to be suggestive of "slither" (associated
with snakes).
--
Salvatore Volatile
Father Ignatius
"R H Draney" <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:dtaqh...@drn.newsguy.com...
And here:
http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/willandgrace/season8/willandgrace-802.htm
Sara Lorimer
SLITHER-in or SLITHER-nnn, in the audio book (which is surprisingly
good, by the way). "Slither" as in what a snake does.
--
SML
John Lawler
>zbihniew <zbih...@ask.me> writes:
>>How do you pronounce "Slytherin" (a name of a house in a fictious
>>boarding school in "Harry Potter" series)? Does it start with /slI-/ or
>>/slaI-/ ?
>Perhaps it is the same as in:
>"’T WAS brillig, and the slithy toves
> Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
>All mimsy were the borogoves,
> And the mome raths outgrabe."
>Or perhaps the "y" make it different?
>Come to think of it, there is no 'e' after the 'th', so that should
>make it a short 'i' sound.
The spelling convention says that any vowel after a single consonant
will lengthen the vowel before the consonant. The most famous, of
course, is the silent 'e'; but 'y' will do in a pinch. Hence /slaiDi/,
not /slIDi/.
>In order to be sure about "Slytherin" we need to know its etymology.
>Is it derived from a root word "slythe", or "slyth".
In the HP stories, 'Slytherin' is supposedly the proper name of one of the
four founders of Hogwarts, each of which have houses named after them.
BTW, I've recently been paying attention to Dickens' character naming habits
('Bleak House' is on PBS in the States), and they remind me a great deal of
the way Potterian characters are named. You can often tell the Good Guys
from the Bad just by their names.
-John Lawler Linguistics @ umich.edu & wwu.edu
----------------------------------------------
Every act of conscious learning requires the
willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-
esteem. That is why young children, before they
are aware of their own self-importance, learn
so easily; and why older persons, especially
if vain or important, cannot learn at all.
-- Thomas Szász
jerry_f...@yahoo.com
> Iskandar Baharuddin <bren...@mcpc.net.au> writes:
> >zbihniew <zbih...@ask.me> writes:
>
> >>How do you pronounce "Slytherin" (a name of a house in a fictious
> >>boarding school in "Harry Potter" series)? Does it start with /slI-/ or
> >>/slaI-/ ?
>
> >Perhaps it is the same as in:
>
> >"'T WAS brillig, and the slithy toves
> > Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
> >All mimsy were the borogoves,
> > And the mome raths outgrabe."
>
> >Or perhaps the "y" make it different?
>
> >Come to think of it, there is no 'e' after the 'th', so that should
> >make it a short 'i' sound.
>
> The spelling convention says that any vowel after a single consonant
> will lengthen the vowel before the consonant. The most famous, of
> course, is the silent 'e'; but 'y' will do in a pinch. Hence /slaiDi/,
> not /slIDi/.
I agree that it's /'slaIDi/, but only because it comes from "slimy" and
"lithe".
Are you treating 'th' as a single consonant? If so, it appears in
several exceptions to the rule: the cath- words, lather, rather (in
most American dialects), nether, wether, slither (already mentioned),
wither, whither, bother, brother, mother, and maybe southern counts. I
don't think any rule is much help with either "slithy" or "Slytherin".
--
Jerry Friedman
Iskandar Baharuddin
wrote:
In the Olden Days we used to tell by their hats.
We have come a long way.
Iskandar Baharuddin
<jerry_f...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Any _existing_ rules. However, I have draft rules covering all of the
cases you cite.
But if you want to know what they are, you will have to buy the book.