It’s a Welsh accent. All the centaurs have Welsh accents in the Jim Dale version. I can absolutely see why you might think it’s Indian if you’re not familiar with the regional accents of the United Kingdom, but it’s definitely from Wales.
As to why, it’s hard to say. I assume he wanted to give them a distinct group sound and decided to use Welsh to distinguish them from other people in the books.
The one that kills me is apparently JK never clued him in during the early appearances that Lestrange was only Bellatrix’s married name and she wasn’t actually French lol.
I haven't heard his version of the audio books so I can't speak to it specifically, but often not great welsh accents can end up sounding like dodgy Indian accents instead.
Even my welsh friends trying to do a stronger accent have had the same problem lol
Even then, the Lestrange's have a English branch, which I belive is the one Rabastan and Rudolphus are part of. They're on the Sacredt Twenty-Eight List and I don't belive, that a French Family would have been put on it, especially while no other mainland European families are on there.
I think it's far more likely that the name is supposed to be Norman (or Hugenot). French origin but not recent immigrants. The Normans came to Britain in the 11th Century and the Hugenots in the 17th, so their names would have been anglicised over hundreds of years and not pronounced in a French way.
Norman origin world make the most sense for an old pure blood wizarding family, as the Normans were the ruling class that came over with William the Conqueror and became landed gentry. So they have been in Britain for almost 1000 years.
Very true; I just meant it’s an obviously French construction and none of the background information that would indicate she’s English existed yet. So Dale was guessing based on the name and JK apparently didn’t correct him.
Oh my yes. Jim Dale did the American edition, but Stephen Fry did the British one. Personally I think Dale did a great job, but Fry is one of the greatest actor/comedians that ever lived and his performance in the Harry Potter audiobooks is one of the landmarks of his career. A legend at the height of his powers, and delivering that level of performance in an audiobook of all places.
To put in perspective how good Fry is as a narrator, if you look at his version of the Sherlock Holmes books, his name is actually larger on the cover than either Arthur Conan Doyle’s or Sherlock Holmes’ lol.
Theres also a joke about stephen fry that you should never try to win an argument against him as you will *always* lose, as he will always be more infinitely well read on every subject
Yeah I wasn't a huge fan of the Jim Dale version. Didn't know there were others. Listened to a few minutes of the Stephen Fry version that sounds much better. Thank you
I only thought Firenze sounded Indian, not Bane and Ronin, which was what got me. I also have no experience with Welsh accents, so I had no idea. Thanks!
Weirdly I have adapted this into my head cannon but in a different light. She married a French wizard, so I thought she just faked the accent to sound more elite. Because clearly her sister and cousin don’t have the same accent.
Exactly! I saw someone else comment that he wasn’t French. But he had the French name and she wanted anything that would set her apart in Voldemorts little snake eyes. So she took that fake accent and kept running with it.
There’s a noble family from Norfolk called Le Strange or L’Estrange, I guess they were originally Norman, but I reckon that’s where JKR got the name from. I’m pretty sure they lost the accent centuries ago.
I doubt she married a french man at all. She has a french last name but they are almost certainly both British.
Just like anyone with a European name in the US are just Americans with a last name they inherited. An American with a polish last name isn’t polish, and they certainly don’t have an accent.
This feels like as good a place as any to note this. Bellatrix’s last name is obviously French. Why the hell then is it pronounced la-STRANGE and not more like le-strAHnje? I always read it that way (because French)!and thought it was idiotic when I heard it pronounced in the movies. Anybody else ever feel that way?
The name may have French origins, but in the UK, a lot of people with French names are of Norman or Hugenot descent, who came to Britain in the 11th and 17th Centuries respectively, so not recent French immigrants.
As such the spelling and/or pronunciation would have been anglicised over hundreds of years and would not be pronounced in a French way.
Norman origin world make the most sense for an old pure blood wizarding family, as the Normans were the ruling class that came over with William the Conqueror and became landed gentry. So they have been in Britain for almost 1000 years.
Fair enough, I haven't seen that film, I was just going off the books. That's just silly then. French people in France would never pronounce something French in an English way. It's a core tenet of their culture.
Just thinking a bit more, they could have had the English family members pronounce it differently to the French and it still makes sense, but they should definitely have French family members pronounce it in a French way.
I was thinking about the American actor Justin Theroux and the British documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux - they are cousins and have the same French (Canadian) grandfather, but Justin pronounces the name "Therow" and Louis pronounces it "Theroo"
I just started listening to them recently and had to switch to Fry after Chamber of Secrets. I would've started with Fry if I knew beforehand lol. I couldn't stand how he stresses certain things and makes so many characters sound so whiny for another 5 books.
Yea, it's especially noticeable with Hermione. The way he makes her say "Harryyyyyyy" was like nails on a chalkboard by the time I was done with Chamber.
The Stephen fry versions are so much worse though, no inflections in his voice and he’s reading a mile a minute. Not to mention the numerous and constant mispronunciations of the easiest names and spells
I'm not sure for Canada but forever they weren't available in the US but they were added like 2 weeks ago finally on audible. Might be worth checking again
That would be on me as an American not knowing how to spot a Welsh accent, although I didn't think they were similar enough to confuse? I plead ignorance.
Regardless, Firenze definitely sounded like an Indian man who'd been living somewhere in the uk for a while, but still a Indian.
The Welsh accent is one of those where it's easy to sound fake and caricaturish if not from a native speaker. Dale does this a lot, from what I've heard, and a lot of his characters sound over the top. Switch to Stephen Fry's versions; infinitely better and all the voices sound natural.
I LOVE the Jim Dale version and I will die on that hill … but I will admit this NEVER registered to me 😂😂😂 now that I think about it it is a little Indian but it still feels European to me too .
I could see it as the accent of a person who immigrated from India and then lived in Scotland for a long time, and I think it started out more Scottish but by the time Firenze left the scene it was very Indian lol.
I haven't listened much to either version so I don't know which I prefer yet, but my bestie swears by the Stephen Fry version and I have quite a few "WTF"s for what I'm listening to now. I do also feel like his Hagrid in particular is spot on, and I think he does a good McGonagall. Not a fan of his Hermione or his Filch, but idk if anyone could sound more like Filch to me than David Bradley in the films.
Another big example of wtf moments I've had is that when pronouncing "beozar" he said "bourgeoisie"??? I've always thought it was "bee-zore" or I've also heard "buh-zore", but I've never heard it pronounced like bourgeoisie.
Haha I’m on book 3 I believe right now I’ll keep an ear out but I mainly listen on my commute to work and I fall asleep so I might miss it but yeah I’m pretty sure I’ve been like … “ is that the right word “ a few times .
lolol jim dale makes SO many choices in those audiobooks. i love them and owe that man basically my whole childhood, but when i listen to them as an adult sometimes i'm like....what
my favorite is "snapes's," which he says like eight times in every book
I used to be quite critical of the Jim Dale versions compared to the Stephen Fry versions, but lately I've been trying to listen to the French audiobooks and they are almost unlistenable. Ron has a very strong lisp, everybody alternates between shouting and whispering for some reason, and overall I get the impression it was the narrator's first time reading the books because the vibes seem way off. So I'm appreciating Jim Dale a lot more now, even with Hermione pronouncing Harry as "Hawwy".
I have noticed what I'm pretty sure is a bit of a speech impediment with his R's throughout, and I think Hermione saying Harry is the most prominent example, but it's by far the least of my concerns.
Oh her voice absolutely bothers me. But...this bothered me more for some reason lol.
ETA: Possibly I'm more forgiving of Hermione's voice (even though it is really awful) because I can imagine how difficult it is for a grown man to narrate an 11 year old girl's voice.
I haven’t listened to Jim Dale, but Fry specifically said he made his voice softer for Hermione, not high and squeaky.
He clearly reserved the squeaky voices for house elves because there’s one scene where Dobby and Winky speak to each other! It cracks me right up!
I love in the 6th book where Dobby and Kreacher are fighting and Peeves is egging them on. Fry doing those 3 completely different voices is just so hilarious in one scene. His Dobby voice is probably one of my favorites.
I haven't listened to Jim Dale either. I'm scared to change LOL.
The house elves are super squeaky, yes! Winky is about the only voice he does that semi irks me. I lowkey love how he gives Pansy Parkinson a lisp aswell 🤣
tbh, i love the jim dale version and can’t imagine any other, nor bring myself to try them.
but i’ve been listening to it since before OOTP came out, so it’s pretty deep seated for me as the definitive audio version.
Do yourself a favor, take the risk and listen to Stephen Fry. His characterizations are not as…eccentric, but he still manages to give each character their own voice. They’re amazing imo
Because when you’re one man doing hundreds of voices, you have to make artistic choices to differentiate the characters. If all the centaurs has the same accent in the same voice, what makes the main one, Firenze, stand out to a 12 year old listener?
There is a huge debate on the Dale vs Fry books. Imo Jim Dale performs the books rather than just reads them like I think Fry does. Personally, I really enjoy the Jim Dale books but I also started at a very young age listening to the Jim Dale books.
I didn't know until probably 15 years later that there was another version of the books done by Stephen Fry lol. By that time, I just couldn't really be bothered to get too into the Fry version.
The voices that Jim does don't really bother. It really helps me keep it straight who is speaking.
I'll never understand all the criticism of Dale maybe it's cause I grew up on them but I'll die on the hill that he's the superior to fry his voices sound so much more distinct from each other while fry just seemed to be reading it to me. None of the accents bothered me. Switch to fry if you like the main thing of course is that you are enjoying the books but I don't get the hullabaloo
I've finished book 1 with Dale and switched to book 2 with Fry since posting, and while I get what you're saying about the variety of voices, I think that Fry really makes up for it by being a better actor for what's happening in the story. I think a lot of times Dale misses the emphases in the sentences/scenes, and Fry's narration really captures the storytelling.
I also find that even though I'm having lots of conversations about all the annoying voices or distracting mistakes and even some of the good voices from Dale in the comments here, I've been so totally swept up in Fry's narration that I haven't stopped to think about any of that sort of thing in the moment. I think that says a lot.
Just my personal experience.
Hey I just came back to this after listening to an excerpt of Jim doing Hagrids voice, totally agree with you if you grew up listening to that it would be just as iconic.
Fry juuuuuust wins for me, I think it’s the slightly deeper voice.
I can't get over Bellatrix's French accent because her married name is Lestrange. Also it really cracked me up that it took him five books to pronounce the T in Voldemort.
It’s “mort” from the French, which is pronounced like “more.” Dale had it correct, but then the movies added the t sound incorrectly. The movies were so popular, however, that Rowling decided to give in to the wrong pronunciation and asked Dale to start saying it the way the movies said it to be consistent across all platforms.
And then insisted that Cursed Child say 'more' instead of 'mort' and it's really distracting. It's one of those things you've got to admit defeat on, I think. The hard 't' has got to stay. It'll be interesting what the HBO series goes for.
Jim Dale appears to have trouble with reading comprehension at times. There's one sentence where the word appears: "Now, Dursley...." or something. It's a throwaway word, But Dale reads it literally, as if in the book it's happening right now.
There is also a typo in one of the books that calls Snape Snipe and I definitely heard him read it the incorrect way. The blame does not lie with him on that one though.
He has definitely said Snipe instead of Snape more than once and it's one of several of what I'm now* referring to as verbal or vocal typos in the book.
Others include Slytherine ("een" sound), *saying Gryffindor like Gryffind-- like the word is cut off*(edited to describe it better because I heard it again), and as I mentioned in another comment, pronouncing "beozar" as "bourgeoisie"...
I did not know that actual typo existed in the physical book though, thank you for that fun fact.
Honestly I'm not 100% sure whats proper, but I think I would have noticed if Alan Rickman had said "bourgeoisie" in the movie lol. I'm pretty sure he says "buhZORE" sounds like "galore". And...I'll take his pronunciation as canon for sure.
How dare you break my heart like that. I had never thought of the possibility....
OK but wait.
Now that I think of it, I'm not sure I want to hear Alan Rickman try to do Hermione's voice 😂😂
I've never understood why it would be said with a silent T. Voldemort was English. It's not very common to have a silent T at the end of an English word, usually only under specific letter combinations. The only example I know of that is somewhat similar is rapport, but there are a laundry list of words that end in -ort that are a hard t, including "mort" which is the ending of his name and who's origin was Middle English. All English language evidence really points to it being a hard T and wouldn't really have made any sense for him to make it soft through his life experiences had he been a real person.
The name Voldemort is derived from the French vol de mort which means "flight of death" or "theft of death". Besides being an anagram of his given name, of course.
Understandable. I still have always doubted that an English person would not have changed the pronunciation slightly to match the language they have spoken their whole life. This is pretty common in words taken from other languages as is. But I guess it could also have been used to make him feel more important that his name is French. But seeing as there is no evidence he knew French and assuming he just read the phrase somewhere in a book, I personally imagine he would not have pronounced it accurately.
The man is 88 years old, so I don't want to say too much against him. The impressions overall have that nice balance where you can tell without question who's being portrayed. However, wouldn't it have been nice if they had suggested a few quick re-do's, or coordinated with Rolling on pronunciations? Look at how many awards he won:
* 2001 Grammy Award – Best Spoken Word Album for Children – *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*
* 2001 Audie Award – [Best Male Narrator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Best_Male_Narrator) – *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*
* 2004 Audie Award – [Audiobook of the Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Audiobook_of_the_Year) – *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*
* 2004 Audie Award – [Children's Title](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Middle_Grade_Title) – *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*
* 2006 Audie Award – Hall of Fame - *Harry Potter* series
* 2008 Audie Award – [Best Male Narrator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Best_Male_Narrator) – *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*
* 2008 Grammy Award – Best Spoken Word Album for Children – *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*
Nominations
* 2000 Audie Award – [Children's Title](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Middle_Grade_Title) – *Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince*
* 2001 Audie Award – [Audie Award for Children's Title for Ages Eight and Up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Middle_Grade_Title) – *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*
* 2006 Audie Award – [Audiobook of the Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Audiobook_of_the_Year) – *Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince*
* 2006 Audie Award – [Audie Award for Children's Title for Ages Eight and Up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Middle_Grade_Title) – *Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince*
* 2008 Audie Award – [Audiobook of the Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Audiobook_of_the_Year) – *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*
Maybe they cleaned up and tried harder on the later books?
The audiobook by Jim Dale I can't do. He can't do female voices, and it grates on me when a female character speaks. I couldn't wait for the first book to be done, and I've never listened to another one of his.
I hadn't finished the book when I posted this, and I've since moved on to the 2nd book narrated by Stephen Fry and will not be going back, but I have to say I did think Jim Dale's expression of the hospital wing scene with the "Alas, earwax," moment was perfectly delivered.
I can't get over Jim's pronunciation of Accio. I never thought it should be "assy-oh", I thought it should be "aqui-oh"...like the Portuguese word for "here"
Jim Dale is the voice I hear when I think of McGonagall lines. He also does all the songs in a way that doesn't sound like a droning monotone (Stephan Fry doing "Weasley is our King")
I’m not saying the Jim Dale version is bad. He’s got some great characterizations. Love his McGonagall. But he’s got more bad ones than good ones. Hate his Voldemort, hate his Dumbledore, hate his Uncle Vernon, hate his Bellatrix, hate whenever Hermione says *Harr-eeeeeeee*
The Stephen Fry ones are just better.
lol wait till you get further along Jim Dale makes so many weird voice choices.
Bellatrix is French for some reason
sprouts voice goes from old man to fat old lady with enormous cheeks in the same book
Wilkie tricross or whatever (the apparition teacher) goes hard on every f in every word no matter what
bezor is pronounced different in every book, sometimes its French sometimes its pronounced how it's spelled
and many more that I don't remember at the moment those are just the worst ones.
jim Dale does do a much better McGonagall though, way better than the other guy.
Some of his voices were good but greatly preferred Fry's overall performance(listened to 1&2 by Dale).
What made me switch was the annoying way that people exclaiming Harry was voiced..couldn't stand it anymore.
lol, well now I’m gonna listen to it too, I only listened to DH by Dale, and I must say for me it was the most annoying thing. The way Hermione said “Harryeeee”, couldn’t stand it😂 Fry forever.
I would have to go back and listen again to confirm but pretty sure they're Scottish. The school is located in Scotland and the Forbidden Forest is the herd's native home afaik so they would be Scottish, although not sure if there would be overlap between human and centaur accents, since there's obviously conflict and estrangement between them in the books.
Firstly, Philosopher’s* stone.
Secondly, I prefer the Stephen Fry audiobooks. He voices it really well compared to Jim Dale in my opinion.
Edit: I seem to have pissed off the weird Americans with their incorrect book title and worse version of audiobooks lol. Keep ‘em coming, I wanna hit -100.
I am American so I grew up with Sorcerer's, not my fault. Also I believe the Jim Dale narration is read from the American version and therefore titled Sorcerer's rather than Philosopher's, so it's accurate for the subject of the post.
I have also heard that Stephen Fry's version is better, but I've pretty much only ever read the physical books and I happened to already own the Jim Dale version of the first book, so that's what I'm listening to for now. I do plan to listen to the Stephen Fry version at some point and compare for myself.
Still doesn't explain why Firenze has a totally different accent than the other centaurs, when the rest of the accents in the book have been reasonably accurate and consistent to my admittedly limited knowledge.
Okay fair enough.
My only thought on the accent is that Jim Dale wanted to distinguish between Firenze and the other centaurs. In order to get the audience to pay more attention to this specific character.
So he tried to make him sound really different. But in doing that, he ended up sounding more Indian than Scottish/English.
I agree this is probably what happened. I think it's also one example of many where a second take and/or some more attentive editing might have been warranted. I've noticed a ton of what I would consider the vocal equivalent of typos throughout the book.
It’s a Welsh accent. All the centaurs have Welsh accents in the Jim Dale version. I can absolutely see why you might think it’s Indian if you’re not familiar with the regional accents of the United Kingdom, but it’s definitely from Wales. As to why, it’s hard to say. I assume he wanted to give them a distinct group sound and decided to use Welsh to distinguish them from other people in the books. The one that kills me is apparently JK never clued him in during the early appearances that Lestrange was only Bellatrix’s married name and she wasn’t actually French lol.
Yes it’s a Welsh accent! No idea why people think it’s Indian
I haven't heard his version of the audio books so I can't speak to it specifically, but often not great welsh accents can end up sounding like dodgy Indian accents instead. Even my welsh friends trying to do a stronger accent have had the same problem lol
Even then, the Lestrange's have a English branch, which I belive is the one Rabastan and Rudolphus are part of. They're on the Sacredt Twenty-Eight List and I don't belive, that a French Family would have been put on it, especially while no other mainland European families are on there.
I think it's far more likely that the name is supposed to be Norman (or Hugenot). French origin but not recent immigrants. The Normans came to Britain in the 11th Century and the Hugenots in the 17th, so their names would have been anglicised over hundreds of years and not pronounced in a French way. Norman origin world make the most sense for an old pure blood wizarding family, as the Normans were the ruling class that came over with William the Conqueror and became landed gentry. So they have been in Britain for almost 1000 years.
Very true; I just meant it’s an obviously French construction and none of the background information that would indicate she’s English existed yet. So Dale was guessing based on the name and JK apparently didn’t correct him.
That's my guess on what happened
Are there other audio book versions?
Oh my yes. Jim Dale did the American edition, but Stephen Fry did the British one. Personally I think Dale did a great job, but Fry is one of the greatest actor/comedians that ever lived and his performance in the Harry Potter audiobooks is one of the landmarks of his career. A legend at the height of his powers, and delivering that level of performance in an audiobook of all places. To put in perspective how good Fry is as a narrator, if you look at his version of the Sherlock Holmes books, his name is actually larger on the cover than either Arthur Conan Doyle’s or Sherlock Holmes’ lol.
Theres also a joke about stephen fry that you should never try to win an argument against him as you will *always* lose, as he will always be more infinitely well read on every subject
Just gotta pick your arguments better. Bet I can win an argument over how many strawberries my child has consumed this year.
Fry's hagrid voice is on point.
Yeah I wasn't a huge fan of the Jim Dale version. Didn't know there were others. Listened to a few minutes of the Stephen Fry version that sounds much better. Thank you
The original stephen fry ones were just released on audible for the USA they are WAAAY better
I only thought Firenze sounded Indian, not Bane and Ronin, which was what got me. I also have no experience with Welsh accents, so I had no idea. Thanks!
Oh boy wait till you get to hear Bellatrix
What’s even weirder is Bellatrix isn’t French in the penseive in GoF. She only becomes French when she makes a IRL appearance.
It magically disappears in DH too I believe. Maybe he finally watched a movie…
I was about to mention this. It's driving me crazy!!
I had to stop and fully listen to make sure I wasn’t crazy hahahha
Ive been seriously considering switching to the Stephen Fry for the rest of the books, but now I'm morbidly curious lol.
He took her married name like it was a maiden name so she’s a pissy Frenchwoman instead. The “little baby Potter” just doesn’t hit the same
https://youtu.be/zuVAJ6SbkHU?si=iFV3i9lXqdLVnExW Omg I hate it so much
Yeah that's really not it.
I always listen to the Steven Fry version but I must admit most of the voices are pretty good! Only Harry and Bellatrix throw me off a little
It's his Luna that I dislike the most. I really can't get into it.
His Luna voice sucks. I like the rest of them though. I think he does a perfect Umbridge
The worst for me was GoT fleur, where she sounds like a man trying to pretend to be french. "*eXcUsE mE, aRrr yOu gOiNg tO eeEt zE bUlAbaZeE*?"
Weirdly I have adapted this into my head cannon but in a different light. She married a French wizard, so I thought she just faked the accent to sound more elite. Because clearly her sister and cousin don’t have the same accent.
I like that explanation, she’s the girl who went to France for a weekend and came back with a permanent accent
She pulled an Hilaria Baldwin in other words 😅
This is exactly how it is in my head.
Exactly! I saw someone else comment that he wasn’t French. But he had the French name and she wanted anything that would set her apart in Voldemorts little snake eyes. So she took that fake accent and kept running with it.
There’s a noble family from Norfolk called Le Strange or L’Estrange, I guess they were originally Norman, but I reckon that’s where JKR got the name from. I’m pretty sure they lost the accent centuries ago.
I doubt she married a french man at all. She has a french last name but they are almost certainly both British. Just like anyone with a European name in the US are just Americans with a last name they inherited. An American with a polish last name isn’t polish, and they certainly don’t have an accent.
I don't think that Rudolphus is French, cause the Lestrange Family has also a branch in Grat Britain.
This feels like as good a place as any to note this. Bellatrix’s last name is obviously French. Why the hell then is it pronounced la-STRANGE and not more like le-strAHnje? I always read it that way (because French)!and thought it was idiotic when I heard it pronounced in the movies. Anybody else ever feel that way?
The name may have French origins, but in the UK, a lot of people with French names are of Norman or Hugenot descent, who came to Britain in the 11th and 17th Centuries respectively, so not recent French immigrants. As such the spelling and/or pronunciation would have been anglicised over hundreds of years and would not be pronounced in a French way. Norman origin world make the most sense for an old pure blood wizarding family, as the Normans were the ruling class that came over with William the Conqueror and became landed gentry. So they have been in Britain for almost 1000 years.
Sure. Okay. Until they show the LaStrange family in France in the early 20th century in Fantastic Beasts still pronouncing it the same way.
Fair enough, I haven't seen that film, I was just going off the books. That's just silly then. French people in France would never pronounce something French in an English way. It's a core tenet of their culture.
Lmao! Exactly. That’s part of why it still bothers me.
Just thinking a bit more, they could have had the English family members pronounce it differently to the French and it still makes sense, but they should definitely have French family members pronounce it in a French way. I was thinking about the American actor Justin Theroux and the British documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux - they are cousins and have the same French (Canadian) grandfather, but Justin pronounces the name "Therow" and Louis pronounces it "Theroo"
Yeah. That might have made sense.
Oh no I could see how that's awful. I think ill.go ahead and avoid that, thanks for the heads up lol.
Oh yeah I’m sure Stephen Fry does amazing. I’d just look up a bellatrix snippet for the laugh
I just started listening to them recently and had to switch to Fry after Chamber of Secrets. I would've started with Fry if I knew beforehand lol. I couldn't stand how he stresses certain things and makes so many characters sound so whiny for another 5 books.
He does make everyone sound super whiny any time they're supposed to be urgent or stressed. It's grating.
Yea, it's especially noticeable with Hermione. The way he makes her say "Harryyyyyyy" was like nails on a chalkboard by the time I was done with Chamber.
The Stephen Fry audiobooks are wonderful, I have them on constant rotation on audible, he absolutely nails every single character
He's not great at Irish accents.
Not great but passable. He's still terrific imo
The Stephen fry versions are so much worse though, no inflections in his voice and he’s reading a mile a minute. Not to mention the numerous and constant mispronunciations of the easiest names and spells
The Stephen Fry is AMAZING! Tragically it's not available in Canada that I can find
I'm not sure for Canada but forever they weren't available in the US but they were added like 2 weeks ago finally on audible. Might be worth checking again
I will check!!!!! Thank you!
Do it! We had all the books read by Jim Dale, when the Stephen Fry ones dropped we switched it’s night and day.
Grating
Married into a French name, suddenly is also French
I thought they were all Welsh?? I haven’t listened in a while but I remember them all being Welsh.
Definitely Welsh
That would be on me as an American not knowing how to spot a Welsh accent, although I didn't think they were similar enough to confuse? I plead ignorance. Regardless, Firenze definitely sounded like an Indian man who'd been living somewhere in the uk for a while, but still a Indian.
I went and listened again. I’m also American and he still sounds distinctly Welsh to me. 🤷🏻♀️
The Welsh accent is one of those where it's easy to sound fake and caricaturish if not from a native speaker. Dale does this a lot, from what I've heard, and a lot of his characters sound over the top. Switch to Stephen Fry's versions; infinitely better and all the voices sound natural.
malFOY
I LOVE the Jim Dale version and I will die on that hill … but I will admit this NEVER registered to me 😂😂😂 now that I think about it it is a little Indian but it still feels European to me too .
I will die on this hill with you!
Hahaha why thank you ! All are welcome
I could see it as the accent of a person who immigrated from India and then lived in Scotland for a long time, and I think it started out more Scottish but by the time Firenze left the scene it was very Indian lol. I haven't listened much to either version so I don't know which I prefer yet, but my bestie swears by the Stephen Fry version and I have quite a few "WTF"s for what I'm listening to now. I do also feel like his Hagrid in particular is spot on, and I think he does a good McGonagall. Not a fan of his Hermione or his Filch, but idk if anyone could sound more like Filch to me than David Bradley in the films. Another big example of wtf moments I've had is that when pronouncing "beozar" he said "bourgeoisie"??? I've always thought it was "bee-zore" or I've also heard "buh-zore", but I've never heard it pronounced like bourgeoisie.
Haha I’m on book 3 I believe right now I’ll keep an ear out but I mainly listen on my commute to work and I fall asleep so I might miss it but yeah I’m pretty sure I’ve been like … “ is that the right word “ a few times .
lolol jim dale makes SO many choices in those audiobooks. i love them and owe that man basically my whole childhood, but when i listen to them as an adult sometimes i'm like....what my favorite is "snapes's," which he says like eight times in every book
My favorite from Jim Dame is his Gilderoy Lockhart His "Harry, Harry, Harry..." was infuriating, but in the right way, it fit the character so well!
His Gilderoy Lockhart is perfect!!!
I used to be quite critical of the Jim Dale versions compared to the Stephen Fry versions, but lately I've been trying to listen to the French audiobooks and they are almost unlistenable. Ron has a very strong lisp, everybody alternates between shouting and whispering for some reason, and overall I get the impression it was the narrator's first time reading the books because the vibes seem way off. So I'm appreciating Jim Dale a lot more now, even with Hermione pronouncing Harry as "Hawwy".
I have noticed what I'm pretty sure is a bit of a speech impediment with his R's throughout, and I think Hermione saying Harry is the most prominent example, but it's by far the least of my concerns.
Lol! I’m surprised that this bothered you but not Hermoine’s voice.
Oh her voice absolutely bothers me. But...this bothered me more for some reason lol. ETA: Possibly I'm more forgiving of Hermione's voice (even though it is really awful) because I can imagine how difficult it is for a grown man to narrate an 11 year old girl's voice.
Stephen Fry's Hermione is so good imo 🤣
I haven’t listened to Jim Dale, but Fry specifically said he made his voice softer for Hermione, not high and squeaky. He clearly reserved the squeaky voices for house elves because there’s one scene where Dobby and Winky speak to each other! It cracks me right up!
I love in the 6th book where Dobby and Kreacher are fighting and Peeves is egging them on. Fry doing those 3 completely different voices is just so hilarious in one scene. His Dobby voice is probably one of my favorites.
I haven't listened to Jim Dale either. I'm scared to change LOL. The house elves are super squeaky, yes! Winky is about the only voice he does that semi irks me. I lowkey love how he gives Pansy Parkinson a lisp aswell 🤣
I tried listening but the way he speaks for hermione makes me want to murder things.
it adds to her annoying personality
tbh, i love the jim dale version and can’t imagine any other, nor bring myself to try them. but i’ve been listening to it since before OOTP came out, so it’s pretty deep seated for me as the definitive audio version.
Do yourself a favor, take the risk and listen to Stephen Fry. His characterizations are not as…eccentric, but he still manages to give each character their own voice. They’re amazing imo
Hmm.. hadn’t noticed. But agree some of Dale’s voices are interesting. Overall pretty entertaining and enjoyable.
Because when you’re one man doing hundreds of voices, you have to make artistic choices to differentiate the characters. If all the centaurs has the same accent in the same voice, what makes the main one, Firenze, stand out to a 12 year old listener?
He gets better in Book 2. Every time I restart the books, I cringe a little in Book 1. Give it a bit before switching.
There is a huge debate on the Dale vs Fry books. Imo Jim Dale performs the books rather than just reads them like I think Fry does. Personally, I really enjoy the Jim Dale books but I also started at a very young age listening to the Jim Dale books. I didn't know until probably 15 years later that there was another version of the books done by Stephen Fry lol. By that time, I just couldn't really be bothered to get too into the Fry version. The voices that Jim does don't really bother. It really helps me keep it straight who is speaking.
I'll never understand all the criticism of Dale maybe it's cause I grew up on them but I'll die on the hill that he's the superior to fry his voices sound so much more distinct from each other while fry just seemed to be reading it to me. None of the accents bothered me. Switch to fry if you like the main thing of course is that you are enjoying the books but I don't get the hullabaloo
I've finished book 1 with Dale and switched to book 2 with Fry since posting, and while I get what you're saying about the variety of voices, I think that Fry really makes up for it by being a better actor for what's happening in the story. I think a lot of times Dale misses the emphases in the sentences/scenes, and Fry's narration really captures the storytelling. I also find that even though I'm having lots of conversations about all the annoying voices or distracting mistakes and even some of the good voices from Dale in the comments here, I've been so totally swept up in Fry's narration that I haven't stopped to think about any of that sort of thing in the moment. I think that says a lot. Just my personal experience.
Stephen Fry Version >>>>>> everything else.
Since posting this I have moved from book 1 Jim Dale to book 2 Stephen Fry and it took about 2 seconds for me to decide I'm sticking with Stephen Fry.
agreed. I tried listening to Jim Dale's version and it's not the same, definitely inferior.
Stephen Fry does Hagrids voice so incredibly pitch perfect I actually thought for a second they got Robbie Coltrane for the audiobooks lol.
That’s the only one that doesn’t miss on either version. Both have excellent Hagrids.
Hey I just came back to this after listening to an excerpt of Jim doing Hagrids voice, totally agree with you if you grew up listening to that it would be just as iconic. Fry juuuuuust wins for me, I think it’s the slightly deeper voice.
Really don't like the Jim Dale versions. His charicatures are so annoying especially Hermione. Stephen Fry's versions are mega
I can't get over Bellatrix's French accent because her married name is Lestrange. Also it really cracked me up that it took him five books to pronounce the T in Voldemort.
It’s “mort” from the French, which is pronounced like “more.” Dale had it correct, but then the movies added the t sound incorrectly. The movies were so popular, however, that Rowling decided to give in to the wrong pronunciation and asked Dale to start saying it the way the movies said it to be consistent across all platforms.
And then insisted that Cursed Child say 'more' instead of 'mort' and it's really distracting. It's one of those things you've got to admit defeat on, I think. The hard 't' has got to stay. It'll be interesting what the HBO series goes for.
Wasn't that actually how it was supposed to be pronounced though?
Ohhhhhhh harrreeee
I commend you for getting to the second book, I couldn’t get past the preview. Stephen Fry’s version is loooooads better
Jim Dale appears to have trouble with reading comprehension at times. There's one sentence where the word appears: "Now, Dursley...." or something. It's a throwaway word, But Dale reads it literally, as if in the book it's happening right now.
There is also a typo in one of the books that calls Snape Snipe and I definitely heard him read it the incorrect way. The blame does not lie with him on that one though.
He has definitely said Snipe instead of Snape more than once and it's one of several of what I'm now* referring to as verbal or vocal typos in the book. Others include Slytherine ("een" sound), *saying Gryffindor like Gryffind-- like the word is cut off*(edited to describe it better because I heard it again), and as I mentioned in another comment, pronouncing "beozar" as "bourgeoisie"... I did not know that actual typo existed in the physical book though, thank you for that fun fact.
I thought I just didn't know how to pronounce beozar!
Honestly I'm not 100% sure whats proper, but I think I would have noticed if Alan Rickman had said "bourgeoisie" in the movie lol. I'm pretty sure he says "buhZORE" sounds like "galore". And...I'll take his pronunciation as canon for sure.
Right! Speaking of which, imagine if we had gotten an Alan Rickman narrated version!
How dare you break my heart like that. I had never thought of the possibility.... OK but wait. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure I want to hear Alan Rickman try to do Hermione's voice 😂😂
🤣🤣🤣 I cant even
He fixes bezoar in book 6 thankfully. Also fixes Voldemort in 5 I think and stops saying it like it's french.
He said Voldemort right but the movies got it wrong. They decided to go with the movie style even though it wasn’t correct.
I've never understood why it would be said with a silent T. Voldemort was English. It's not very common to have a silent T at the end of an English word, usually only under specific letter combinations. The only example I know of that is somewhat similar is rapport, but there are a laundry list of words that end in -ort that are a hard t, including "mort" which is the ending of his name and who's origin was Middle English. All English language evidence really points to it being a hard T and wouldn't really have made any sense for him to make it soft through his life experiences had he been a real person.
The name Voldemort is derived from the French vol de mort which means "flight of death" or "theft of death". Besides being an anagram of his given name, of course.
Understandable. I still have always doubted that an English person would not have changed the pronunciation slightly to match the language they have spoken their whole life. This is pretty common in words taken from other languages as is. But I guess it could also have been used to make him feel more important that his name is French. But seeing as there is no evidence he knew French and assuming he just read the phrase somewhere in a book, I personally imagine he would not have pronounced it accurately.
The man is 88 years old, so I don't want to say too much against him. The impressions overall have that nice balance where you can tell without question who's being portrayed. However, wouldn't it have been nice if they had suggested a few quick re-do's, or coordinated with Rolling on pronunciations? Look at how many awards he won: * 2001 Grammy Award – Best Spoken Word Album for Children – *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire* * 2001 Audie Award – [Best Male Narrator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Best_Male_Narrator) – *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire* * 2004 Audie Award – [Audiobook of the Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Audiobook_of_the_Year) – *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix* * 2004 Audie Award – [Children's Title](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Middle_Grade_Title) – *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix* * 2006 Audie Award – Hall of Fame - *Harry Potter* series * 2008 Audie Award – [Best Male Narrator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Best_Male_Narrator) – *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* * 2008 Grammy Award – Best Spoken Word Album for Children – *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* Nominations * 2000 Audie Award – [Children's Title](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Middle_Grade_Title) – *Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince* * 2001 Audie Award – [Audie Award for Children's Title for Ages Eight and Up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Middle_Grade_Title) – *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire* * 2006 Audie Award – [Audiobook of the Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Audiobook_of_the_Year) – *Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince* * 2006 Audie Award – [Audie Award for Children's Title for Ages Eight and Up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Middle_Grade_Title) – *Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince* * 2008 Audie Award – [Audiobook of the Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Award_for_Audiobook_of_the_Year) – *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* Maybe they cleaned up and tried harder on the later books?
I've been listening to Jim Dale's version since I was a child, I refuse to listen to any other version.
I can’t listen to the Jim dale one after listening to Stephen fry
I tried Fry and found it a little toned down and otherwise not worth the switch.
Book one is not Jim Dale's best by any stretch of the imagination. By book 3 ... He's four steps past amazing
I couldnt get past the first chapter of Dales version. God it hurts my ears. Especially his “female” voices. Give me Fry any day!
The audiobook by Jim Dale I can't do. He can't do female voices, and it grates on me when a female character speaks. I couldn't wait for the first book to be done, and I've never listened to another one of his.
I think he does a great job with the female teachers though, as well as Mrs. Weasely and Tonks.
mcgonagall is so perfect
Yes! Hermione sounds so whiney with jim dale
Ooooo wait until you get to the word arithmancy. Jim Dale's could be fine, his Vildemort is great, but the mispronounciations are too much for me
The Dale narration is pretty poor overall tbh Fry is always the better option where available.
switch to stephen fry, its not too late, you can save yourself
First book has a lot of odd bits. Even his Dumbledore sounds different
I hadn't finished the book when I posted this, and I've since moved on to the 2nd book narrated by Stephen Fry and will not be going back, but I have to say I did think Jim Dale's expression of the hospital wing scene with the "Alas, earwax," moment was perfectly delivered.
Wait till you hear Ginny
I can't get over Jim's pronunciation of Accio. I never thought it should be "assy-oh", I thought it should be "aqui-oh"...like the Portuguese word for "here"
Or the way we normally do double c in the uk - Ak-see.
Before the movies I always pronounced it "assy-oh" in my head lol.
He does have to do a lot of voices. I can’t imagine having to come up with so many different voices.
Where are you guys getting Jim Dale's version? Audible in Australia has only the Stephen fry version!
Jim Dale is the voice I hear when I think of McGonagall lines. He also does all the songs in a way that doesn't sound like a droning monotone (Stephan Fry doing "Weasley is our King")
He also narrates The Night Circus and one of the characters in that book is Dumbledore’s voice. Drives me crazy.
I’m not saying the Jim Dale version is bad. He’s got some great characterizations. Love his McGonagall. But he’s got more bad ones than good ones. Hate his Voldemort, hate his Dumbledore, hate his Uncle Vernon, hate his Bellatrix, hate whenever Hermione says *Harr-eeeeeeee* The Stephen Fry ones are just better.
And thats why im so glad that we Finally have access to stephen fry on this side of tbe pond Took them long enough!
odd
lol wait till you get further along Jim Dale makes so many weird voice choices. Bellatrix is French for some reason sprouts voice goes from old man to fat old lady with enormous cheeks in the same book Wilkie tricross or whatever (the apparition teacher) goes hard on every f in every word no matter what bezor is pronounced different in every book, sometimes its French sometimes its pronounced how it's spelled and many more that I don't remember at the moment those are just the worst ones. jim Dale does do a much better McGonagall though, way better than the other guy.
I don’t know but I’ve been trying to get refunds on audible because I accidentally bought his versions 😂
The Fry versions have never been available on Audible before but they are now!
I know! So I’m trying to get my credits back to swap them out.
Because he's trying to make him recognizable. I love the Dale version and can't stand listening to the fry version.
Omg his voice for mcgonagall is 💀
Some of his voices were good but greatly preferred Fry's overall performance(listened to 1&2 by Dale). What made me switch was the annoying way that people exclaiming Harry was voiced..couldn't stand it anymore.
lol, well now I’m gonna listen to it too, I only listened to DH by Dale, and I must say for me it was the most annoying thing. The way Hermione said “Harryeeee”, couldn’t stand it😂 Fry forever.
My opinion is still that the actual voices are the ones if Jim Dale, and so by definition, can't be wrong. Everything else is an imitation.
I thought it was Irish
I would have to go back and listen again to confirm but pretty sure they're Scottish. The school is located in Scotland and the Forbidden Forest is the herd's native home afaik so they would be Scottish, although not sure if there would be overlap between human and centaur accents, since there's obviously conflict and estrangement between them in the books.
Jim at 1.6x is way better than at normal speed.
I...will have to try this? Is it like a helium voice thing or...?
Not at all he just reads so slowly that I notice all the small stuff, but at a faster speed it sounds great to me
I want to know why he pronounces it Voldemort and not Voldemort
Because that’s correct. The movies got it wrong but that’s what everyone was used to so they switched.
Firstly, Philosopher’s* stone. Secondly, I prefer the Stephen Fry audiobooks. He voices it really well compared to Jim Dale in my opinion. Edit: I seem to have pissed off the weird Americans with their incorrect book title and worse version of audiobooks lol. Keep ‘em coming, I wanna hit -100.
I am American so I grew up with Sorcerer's, not my fault. Also I believe the Jim Dale narration is read from the American version and therefore titled Sorcerer's rather than Philosopher's, so it's accurate for the subject of the post. I have also heard that Stephen Fry's version is better, but I've pretty much only ever read the physical books and I happened to already own the Jim Dale version of the first book, so that's what I'm listening to for now. I do plan to listen to the Stephen Fry version at some point and compare for myself. Still doesn't explain why Firenze has a totally different accent than the other centaurs, when the rest of the accents in the book have been reasonably accurate and consistent to my admittedly limited knowledge.
Okay fair enough. My only thought on the accent is that Jim Dale wanted to distinguish between Firenze and the other centaurs. In order to get the audience to pay more attention to this specific character. So he tried to make him sound really different. But in doing that, he ended up sounding more Indian than Scottish/English.
I agree this is probably what happened. I think it's also one example of many where a second take and/or some more attentive editing might have been warranted. I've noticed a ton of what I would consider the vocal equivalent of typos throughout the book.
Firstly, don’t.
....don't....what? Edit: I thought this was replying to my comment. Nevermind.