Considering how many of the names of characters, places and spells in the "Harry Potter" world come from words from other languages (mostly Latin, although French is also a recurrent theme and there are even some that come from Ancient Greek), there's little surprise that some names are hard to pronounce to English audiences - but J.K. Rowling's Twitter has just corrected the pronunciation of one particular name.
Though it's known that the latter part of Lord Voldemort's name, "mort," comes from the French word for "death," up until now just about everyone, including the actors from the Harry Potter adaptations, have pronounced the "T" in the end, though that might be about to change after the last J.K. Rowling Twitter revelation.
According to Radio Times, the multi-million dollar author has just revealed via her favorite social network, through J.K. Rowling's Twitter, that, in fact, the "t" at the end of Voldemort's name takes after its original French, and is actually silent.
Time Magazine reports that J.K. Rowling's Twitter comment came as she replied to Michael Lucero, who pointed out that the author has already said this in the past, although obviously nobody listened to her at the time, to which she replied that she was "the only person who pronounces it that way" at this point.
Interestingly enough, Jim Dale, who narrates the U.S. version of the "Harry Potter" books, had been saying it right all along.
In other words, thanks to J.K. Rowling's Twitter, now He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named officially shares a silent "t" with "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert!
Of course, as UK's Daily Record reports, the revelation about the correct pronunciation of Voldemort created drama all over social media, with "Harry Potter" fans on Twitter going so far as to say that "my whole life is a lie."
In any case, the pronunciation of the word "Voldemort" still makes more sense than Hermione Granger's name - so thanks to J.K. Rowling's Twitter for clarifying!
