According to author J.K. Rowling, people have been mispronouncing the name “Voldemort” throughout the world, except maybe in France.
It’s been over eight years since the final book in the Harry Potter book series came out, and over four since the last entry in the movie franchise was released, but it’s never too late to learn that we’ve been reading and watching them all wrong. According to author J.R. Rowling herself, we’ve all been pronouncing the name “Voldemort” incorrectly. The ‘T’ is silent, so it should be pronounced “Voldemore,” in the French style.
I have so many questions. To start, is Voldemort still “He Who Must Not Be Named” if his name isn’t pronounced properly? Did the characters who spoke it aloud in the movies only think they were committing a taboo? Along those lines, why didn’t Rowling ever tell someone at Warner Bros. that the cast was mangling the name? Maybe she did and they ignored her? How high does this go? HOW HIGH DOES THIS GO?
While I process this information, here’s how it came out. Someone brought up the pronunciation issue in a tweet…
…and Rowling responded by dropping a bomb on what we thought we knew about Harry Potter and the world at large.
This reminds me a little of the time shortly after the release of the final book when Rowling revealed that Albus Dumbledore, the wizened headmaster of Hogwarts, was gay. In both cases, she’s revealed (or confirmed, depending on how you look at it) a bit of information that recontextualized something we thought we knew about the series, although this latest announcement will be harder to adjust to, since we know now everyone in the movies is saying it wrong. Hopefully Warner Bros. will take this into account when they inevitably remake the series in however many years.
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