Harry Potter: The Characters so far

Harry Potter and the Primary

School English Teacher

Teachers’ Workshop

Jhubei Elementary School

May 17, 2006

Johanna Katchen (

柯安娜教授

)

National Tsing Hua University http://mx.nthu.edu.tw/~katchen katchen@mx.nthu.edu.tw

Harry Potter and the Primary School English Teacher

Teachers’ Workshop, Jhubei Elementary School

Why Use Harry Potter?

•

The stories are popular with all ages from upper primary school through adult

•

Students may read the stories and see the films in their L1

•

Recently I have been teaching listening or listening/speaking classes with university freshmen—and they are like big children

May 17, 2006 Harry Potter and the Primary School English Teacher


•

The books contain many cultural elements, good for speaking and writing activities

•

Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night, differences between the US and British education system, etc.

•

The orphan as hero, beliefs about the deceased, etc.

•

Can look at comparisons with Chinese culture



• As a linguist, I have focused on Rowling’s clever use of language; the names are full of cultural meaning that is for the most part lost in translation to the students’ L1

• In 2005 I published a “popular” book for the Taiwan audience, English and Chinese facing pages— Names in the Harry Potter

Books: Etymology and Word Play

• What I’m talking about comes from the book and materials from the classes I have been teaching





Advantages of Using DVDs for

Language Learning

•

Better than VCDs because we can change subtitle/caption options

•

Beginners can use L1 (Chinese) subtitles to enjoy the film and get general meaning



•

Intermediate students can use L2

(English captions) to study and identify the language by reading it

•

We can turn off captions to challenge and quiz ourselves

•

We can turn the English captions back on to check our answers



English Names

•

You meet someone named Thomas Peter

Martin.

•

Is this a man or a woman?

•

What is the personal name?

•

What is the family name?

•

What if we write Martin Thomas?

•

What if we write Martin, Thomas?



In a list, which way is correct?

Bones, Susan

Grainger, Hermione

Malfoy, Draco

Potter, Harry

Draco Malfoy

Harry Potter

Hermione Granger

Ron Weasley

Weasely, Ron Susan Bones

Do you say Miss Susan or Miss Bones?



English Family Names

•

What do Chinese family names mean?

How many names are there?

•

Native English names are more varied and come from native Celtic, Germanic,

Scandinavian, or even of Latin and

French background through the Anglo-

Normans. They have four major sources.



•

1. Names based on the first name of the ancestor's father, e.g., Anderson is literally the son of Anders or Andrew;

Browning meaning son of Mr. Brown.

•

2. Names based on places where ancestors originated, e.g., Hill, Beach , or

York (for a person whose ancestors originated in or near the city of York).



•

3. Names reflecting the occupation or status of the ancestor, e.g., Farmer, Smith,

Baker, also Potter (one who makes pottery).

•

4. Names that probably functioned as nicknames describing some characteristic of the ancestor, e.g., Small, Longman

(perhaps a tall person). Of course, these characteristics can seem rather ridiculous now, as Mr. Small could be a big man.



•

More recent immigration has brought in even more varied names.

•

Students that enter Hogwarts the same year as Harry include Morag MacDougal

(Scottish), Seamus Finnegan (Irish),

Blaise Zabini (probably of Italian background), Padma and Parvati Patil

(Indian).

•

Hogwarts is obviously an ethnicallymixed school, reflecting the population of

Britain.



Situation in the USA

•

In the USA we also see traditional

English names as well as names from all over the world.

•

Many native speakers can identify in general the nationality of ancestors by family name—but after a few generations the original ethnicity may be quite diluted.



English Personal Names

•

How do Chinese choose personal names?

•

Many common names in English can be traced to Biblical times, for example,

Mary, Sarah, Anna , and Rebecca for women; John, Matthew, Nathaniel , and

Stephen for men.



•

Others developed later but are still considered English, for example, Alice and Mandy for women, Richard and

Edward for men.

• Women’s names can be quite varied; sometimes names of virtues are used—

Faith, Hope, Chastity ; or names of plants or jewels— Rose, Olive, Ruby, Amber .

•

Personal names come into fashion and go out of fashion.



•

In more traditional families, children are named after older relatives.

•

Sometimes a first-born son is given the same name as his father.

•

Sometimes the first male child is named after a grandfather, the first female after a grandmother.



•

Other names in the family may be chosen.

•

Strongly Christian families may choose names from the Bible or names of saints.

•

People sometimes choose the name of a friend, a popular singer or movie star, or just because they like the sound of the name.

•

Why is my personal name Johanna?



Legal Names to Nicknames—Men

Richard

David

Stephen

John

Henry

Edward

James

Charles

Thomas

Theodore

William

Rich (Richie), Rick (Ricky), Dick

Dave, Davey

Steve, Stevie

Jack (Johnny)

Hank

Ed (Eddie)

Jim (Jimmy)

Charley, Charlie, Chuck

Tom (Tommy)

Ted (Teddy)

Bill (Billy), Will (Willy)



•

Legal names are the full names, but many people are called by shortened forms.

•

Forms ending in –y or –ie tend to be for children, but they may be used for older people, e.g., President Jimmy Carter , singers Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder , and

Willy Nelson

•

Short forms used with actor Tom Hanks ,

President Bill Clinton



Legal Names to Nicknames—Women

Catherine/Katherine Katy, Kathy, Kit, Kitty

Elizabeth

Susan

Betty, Beth, Lisa, Liza

Sue, Suzie, Suzy

Margaret

Dolores

Dorothy

Penelope

Patricia

Virginia

Marge, Maggie, Peg, Peggy

Dora, Dolly

Dot

Penny

Pat, Patty

Ginny



•

For women, the –ie/-y form is not considered as childish as it is for men

• As with men’s names, however, shortened forms are considered for informal and tend to be used by close friends or family



Nicknames

•

What is a nickname?

•

How to Chinese make nicknames?

•

In English, in addition to shortened forms of personal names, people may also have nicknames.

•

Men seem to be more likely to have nicknames then women



•

Another source of nicknames derives from some characteristic of the person or his name.

•

Schoolchildren often make up names for each other to tease; occasionally such a nickname is acquired later, perhaps in the military or the workplace.

•

A tough guy might be called Butch , a fellow slow to understand Fog , a boy with prominent front teeth Beaver . Or there may be some quirky individual reason why a person is called a certain name.



•

Females are less likely to be given nicknames. They may be called names in school, especially by the boys (e.g., I got

Johanna Banana , and my mother got

Helen, Helen, Watermelon and also

Tomato Can because she liked to eat tomatoes), but the names do not usually stick after graduation unless the girl has some strongly negative characteristic.



•

In Harry Potter Snape was called Snivellus when he was a student at Hogwarts, and this was a derogatory nickname meaning he was whining and sniveling.

•

Draco Malfoy calls Harry and Ron Potty and the Weasel . Potty means crazy and

Weasley sounds like weasel.

•

Luna Lovegood is called Looney , meaning crazy, because she believes unusual things and is rather individualistic.



Why Do People Have Middle Names?

•

In the first Christian church, baptism and chrismation were performed together, shortly after birth in the case of infants.

•

In the Middle Ages these were separated in the Western Church, and chrismation was changed to confirmation and became a separate ceremony to initiate a school-age child into the church.

•

It became a custom at confirmation to give children a second name, the name of a saint.



•

Sometimes the middle name carries on a personal or family name that has been in the family for a long time.

•

Some people take the family name of their mother as their middle name.

•

Middle names are not required. Some people prefer their middle name to their first or personal name and use it instead.

Many people who have middle names use as their legal signature their personal name, middle initial, and family name, in that order, for example, David L. Jones.



Nicknames and Nursery Rhymes

Georgie Porgie , pudding and pie

Kissed the girls and made them cry.

When the girls came out to play,

Georgie Porgie ran away.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat;

His wife could eat no lean …



Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.



Characteristics of Nursery

Rhymes

•

Keep the rhythm of the language

•

Use rhyme

•

Use alliteration—repetition of sounds, e.g., Peter Piper, Humpty Dumpty



•

Native speaking children use language play in their L1—nicknames, nursery rhymes, jumping rope rhymes

Mabel, Mabel, set the table

Put on vinegar, salt, and red hot pepper!

(the rope is swung as fast as possible when red hot pepper is reached)



•

These days we hear a lot about phonemic awareness, the ability to distinguish the individual sounds of a language that distinguish meaning.

•

Research is showing that rhymes and language play can help children acquire this awareness.

•

Even making up nonsense words that could be words is useful because this is practice with the sound patterning of the language (e.g., Dr. Seuss).



Language Awareness Activity

We know Harry Potter can speak

Parseltongue. That is, he can talk to snakes. How does snake language sound?

Take a short dialogue from your lessons and turn it into snake language. Make sure your snake words sound different from each other. You can do this by sound, duration, pitch, or other means, but make distinctive sounds.



Names for Women from Flowers

•

How do you feel about the following names for women?

Rose, Lily, Violet ?

•

How about Daffodil, Pansy,

Petunia, Geranium, Hyacinth

(British comedy)?

•

Positive-sounding flower names are Rose, Violet, Lily, Daisy , and perhaps some others popular in the past.



•

Lily Evans Potter

, Harry’s mother, deceased, was killed by Voldemort.

•

Lily is a pleasant and normal name of a flower; it signifies purity. The lily stands tall, proud and beautiful, a noble flower.



•

Petunia Evans Dursley

, Harry’s aunt, is sister to Lily (Potter).

•

Petunia is a name said to denote anger and resentment, and

Harry’s aunt resents the idea that she got stuck with the responsibility of providing a home for Harry.



•

Petunia is a rare name and is considered rather silly. Although a petunia has the same general shape as a lily, it is small and cheap and easily blown over by the wind.

• In animated cartoons, Porky Pig’s sister was called Petunia Pig .



May 17, 2006

•

Moaning Myrtle is the ghost that lives in the first floor girls’ bathroom.

• Myrtle is said to mean ‘joy’, a description opposite to that of this ghost; it is not a popular name today.

•

A female student of Slytherin

House—the bad guys—is named Pansy Parkinson .



•

Narcissa Malfoy , Draco’s mother, takes her personal name from Greek mythology.

•

Narcissus was a young man who fell in love with his own reflection in the mirror and spent so much time looking at it that he died.

•

It then also became the name of a beautiful flower, the narcissus.

• The root is the Greek “narke”, meaning

‘sleep’ or ‘numbness’. We see the root today in the word narcotic.



•

While narcotics have beneficial uses in medicine, their abuse causes real problems, increasing the number of criminals and ruining people’s lives.

•

The Malfoys are rich; Narcissa is beautiful and comes from a longestablished wizarding family. She also is or pretends to be ignorant of or numb to the evil around her in her own family.

Like the classical Narcissus, she is selfobsessed.



May 17, 2006

•

Poppy Pomfrey is the school nurse and often administers medicine to her pupils.

•

One source of very strong drugs

(e.g., opium) is the poppy plant.

•

In Central Europe, poppy seeds are widely used in baking breads, cakes, and other pastries. They taste a little like black sesame seeds.



Also Names of Trees and Plants

•

Olive (also Olivia , and man can be named Oliver ), Lavendar, Rosemary

(both parts already names)

•

Names of juicy fruits for women tend to have sexual connotations (e.g., cherry, tomato) or may function as nicknames

(e.g., carrot for a red-headed person of either gender)



Names for Pets

•

How do we name our pets?

•

When I was a child, many dogs, especially those owned by old ladies, were called Princie.

•

Some cultures play on the color, such as

Blackie, in Chinese 小黑

•

This comparison of kinds of pet names is a great topic bringing out childhood memories.



May 17, 2006

•

Hagrid calls his dog

Fang ( 牙牙 ) , an odd name for this dog because he’s so gentle.

•

A fang is ‘a long tooth of an animal’.

In mammals it is used for tearing flesh, in spiders and snakes for injecting poison.



•

In the movies, when they want to show a man turning into a vampire, they show his teeth turning into fangs for sucking out his victim’s blood.



•

Fluffy ( 毛毛 ) is the name Hagrid gives to the three-headed dog guarding the trapdoor leading to where the philosopher’s stone is kept.



•

In Greek mythology a three-headed dog named Cerberus guarded the gates of the underworld.

•

The name Fluffy would normally be given to a friendly pet dog with a lot of hair that is kept clean and well-groomed.

•

Hair and feathers in pillows might be described as fluffy when they are clean and puffed up with enough air to make them feel soft.



•

However, giving the name Fluffy to a vicious beast is consistent with Hagrid’s habit of adopting monstrous creatures and considering them cute and harmless.

•

Have you just come from the hairdresser?

Your hair looks so fluffy! Actually, I did it myself. It’s that new shampoo that’s different. Isn’t it great?



May 17, 2006

•

Scabbers is the name of

Ron’s pet rat.

•

A scab is the body’s natural-made ‘crust covering of a wound until it heals’ and is often considered an ugly and somewhat dirty thing.

Rats are not known for cleanliness, and Ron’s rat is ugly.



•

Scab can also refer to ‘someone who replaces a union worker during a strike’, or to a union member who does not honor strikes or other union rules’. The term scab in these contexts is negative and insulting.

•

We eventually find out that Scabbers is really Peter Pettigrew, the person who betrayed Harry’s parents. His character is dirty, ugly, and without honor.



• Don’t pick at that scab. It will heal better if you leave it alone!

•

On the second day of the strike, the union members surrounded the factory and wouldn’t let the scabs in.



Names of People Based on or

Reminiscent of Animal Names

May 17, 2006

•

Ron Weasley

, Harry’s good friend, from a poor wizarding family.

•

Weasley reminds us of a weasel, a small and somewhat insignificant mammal that eats rodents and small birds. It is not so beautiful or elegant.



•

Ron feels rather small and insignificant because he is the sixth child in a family of seven children.

•

Since the weasel can be a clever and tricky animal, there is a verb to weasel out of meaning to get out of doing something, probably by making excuses.



•

Vincent Crabbe, one of Draco’s cronies, reminds us of the sea creature “crab”, and the Latin word for crab is cancer, as in the astrology sign. Crabby people are also unpleasant.



•

Gregory Goyle is Draco’s other crony.

•

Goyle reminds us of gargoyle , a sculpted representation of an ugly animal creature put on medieval buildings for protection and to scare away evil spirits. Goyle looks and acts like a gargoyle.



•

Professor Severus Snape , teacher of Potions, Head of

Slytherin House.

•

Snape sounds like snake , and he is head of Slytherin House, whose mascot is the snake. He also quickly snaps at people.



•

Professor Quirrell , teacher, supports evil Voldemort.

•

His name sounds like squirrel , a meek animal. A person likened to a squirrel is considered small and inconsequential.



•

Rita Skeeter is the news reporter who gives Harry trouble.

•

Skeeter is a slang word for mosquito, a pesty insect.

She can also transform herself into an insect, a beetle.



Names of People from

Mythological Sources

•

Remus Lupin , teacher of

Defense Against the Dark

Arts during Harry’s third year, has the unfortunate affliction of turning into a werewolf during the full moon.

His condition is hinted at by both parts of his name.



•

In Roman mythology we read that the city of Rome was founded by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus ; Romulus later killed Remus.

•

When they were babies, they were abandoned by their mother but rescued by a she-wolf, who nursed them.

•

The second part of the name, Lupin, comes from “lupis”, the Latin root for wolf.



May 17, 2006

•

Sirius Black , the prisoner who escaped from Azkaban, can turn himself into a black dog.

•

The brightest star in the constellation known as Canis

Major is called Sirius, and the shape of the constellation is said to resemble a dog. In

Latin “canis” means ‘dog’, and we see it in the English word canine.



•

Minerva McGonagall, head of

Griffindor House. Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and the patron of teachers.

•

Sybil Trelawney, divination teacher. In Greek mythology,

Sybil was one of ten female prophets, all of whom were called sibyls.



May 17, 2006

•

Hermione Granger

, Harry’s good friend, from Hermes, messenger god, very quick, and her intelligence is quick.

•

Luna Lovegood , student who helps Harry in the Order of the

Phoenix. Luna was the name of the Roman goddess of the moon. Her nickname is Looney , meaning ‘crazy’.



Sound Symbolism

•

Sound symbolism has to do with how certain sounds and sequences of sounds are perceived by native speakers as carrying elements of meaning. These perceptions are very specific to individual languages.



•

Words starting with snin English are usually negative, e.g., snafu, snag, snap, snare, snarl, snatch, sneak, sneer, snide, sniff, snigger, snip, snipe, snitch, snivel, snob, snoop, snooty, snort, snot, snub, snuff , perhaps even snore and there is often the sense of a quick motion ( snap, snatch, sniff, snip, snort ) or secret movement ( snatch, sneak, snoop ).



•

Thus Professor Snape as well as snake are negative.



•

The sound shwa [ә] tends to imply something negative or unpleasant, e.g.,

mud, lug, slug, lump, puddle.

•

Other words with this negative connotation of “duh” include dumb, dirt, dull, dump .

•

The

“duh” sound is used to indicate a stupid person



May 17, 2006

•

Dudley Dursley

, Harry’s cousin, about the same age as Harry

•

Dudley sounds like dud ‘a firecracker or explosive that does not detonate’. Dudley is in one sense a dud, too, because he is not intelligent, not hard-working, not good-tempered, and not even good-looking.

•

Poor Du dley Du rsley is twicecursed linguistically.



•

Words beginning with sl, like Slytherin

House and the word slither , have a certain wet, slippery, and somewhat negative quality: sleazy, sleek, slick, slide, slimy, slink, slip, slippery, sliver, slob, slobber, slop, sloppy, slosh, slot, sludge, slug, sluice, slump, slur, slurry, slurp,

slush, slut, sly.



Slytherin House

•

The mascot of Slytherin House is the snake, and when snakes move, they slither.

Both snakes and the action of slithering can indicate that someone is sneaky, moving from side to side rather than taking a direct and hence honest course.

Indeed, many of the members of Slytherin

House have these qualities.



Double Meanings and Word Play

•

Professor Binns is the only professor at

Hogwarts who is a ghost. His name is a pun on the word been. He had been alive but now he is not. We might also say his boring teaching method is from the past.



•

Diagon Alley is the wizard street in London where witches and wizards shop and where

Hogwarts students get their school supplies.



•

Diagon Alley obviously means diagonally ; the wizard’s world exists at the same time as the world we see, but on another plane or angle or dimension, hence diagonally to our own.

•

An alley is ‘a small street, often narrow’.



•

Floo Powder is a rapid means of transportation that witches and wizards use; they enter a chimney, take a handful of Floo

Powder, announce where they want to go, and they immediately arrive in the nearest chimney.

•

Floo sounds like flew ( fly, flew, flown ), and they travel very rapidly, even faster than flying.



•

A flue is part of a chimney, the part through which the smoke from the fire escapes. Witches and wizards travel through chimneys, too, through the flue.



•

Knockturn Alley (a seedy place where one could get knocked about, sounds like nocturne, where sinister activities take place under cover of darkness)

•

Grimmauld Place

(it’s a grim old place)

•

Kreacher (a house elf, treated like a creature, sub-human)

•

The Knight Bus (comes at night, rescues like a knight)

• Mrs. Skower’s All Purpose Magical Mess

Remover (to scour a sink)



•

Boggart , a creature that takes the shape of that which we fear, is based on a term known to children. In the United States it is called the bogeyman.

•

What meaning do you find in the name

Igor Karkaroff?



May 17, 2006

•

Igor Karkaroff , the Headmaster of Durmstrang, has a Slavic name.

Igor is a common personal name in Russia.

•

In older American films, the name Igor was often given to a sinister character, usually portrayed as large and strong but somewhat stupid, willing to do anything his master commanded, even quite horrendous things.



•

The name Karkaroff sounds like carcass, a dead body, or the sound crows make—

Caw-caw!

• The “–off” (or “-of”, “-ov”) suffix is common in Slavic names.

•

There was an actor with a similar name,

Boris Karloff, who was tall and thin and a bit scary-looking, and he played sinister roles. Karkaroff is described as looking and behaving very much like the Karloff roles.



•

In many dialects of English, including a more Standard British English, the post vocalic [r] is not pronounced too prominently.

•

That would mean that the first [r] would not be pronounced.

•

The second [r] would be pronounced as the first sound of the last syllable.

•

Thus we would get [ka ka rof]

•

Kaka is a children’s word for feces.



Rowling uses the English language very cleverly, hiding puns in the names.

There is much in the Harry Potter books to stretch the minds of EFL/ESL learners of all ages toward the many nuances of

English vocabulary.



Recommended Websites

• http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/b ooks/guides/index.htm

, educational and reliable, for teachers of native English speaking children, but ideas can be adapted in Chinese for language arts

• http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/index

.html

, commercial site but it has games and information



• http://www.jkrowling.com/

Rowlings’s own site. Some useful information about her and her opinions.

• http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/eng

.php

A good source for the origins and meanings of English first (personal) names with all their variations, very thorough.



Harry Potter: The Characters so far

Harry Potter and the Primary

School English Teacher

Why Use Harry Potter?

Advantages of Using DVDs for

Language Learning

English Names

In a list, which way is correct?

English Family Names

Situation in the USA

English Personal Names

Legal Names to Nicknames—Men

Legal Names to Nicknames—Women

Nicknames

Why Do People Have Middle Names?

Nicknames and Nursery Rhymes

Characteristics of Nursery

Rhymes

Language Awareness Activity

Names for Women from Flowers

Also Names of Trees and Plants

Names for Pets

Names of People Based on or

Reminiscent of Animal Names

Names of People from

Mythological Sources

Sound Symbolism

Slytherin House

Double Meanings and Word Play

Recommended Websites

Related documents

Products

Support

Harry Potter: The Characters so far

Harry Potter and the Primary

School English Teacher

Why Use Harry Potter?

Advantages of Using DVDs for

Language Learning

English Names

In a list, which way is correct?

English Family Names

Situation in the USA

English Personal Names

Legal Names to Nicknames—Men

Legal Names to Nicknames—Women

Nicknames

Why Do People Have Middle Names?

Nicknames and Nursery Rhymes

Characteristics of Nursery

Rhymes

Language Awareness Activity

Names for Women from Flowers

Also Names of Trees and Plants

Names for Pets

Names of People Based on or

Reminiscent of Animal Names

Names of People from

Mythological Sources

Sound Symbolism

Slytherin House

Double Meanings and Word Play

Recommended Websites

Related documents

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