More on Parseltounge...

[Scott]

I just wrote:
"I meant about parseltounge that when the snake speaks in the wall 
it's in English, albeit with a slithery sound but still-, and when 
Harry or Tom speak it we hear another language all 
together...shouldn't their's be all slithery english too...I suppose 
this is a plot point that takes its ambiguity from the book, but  
it's not as confusing on paper since we can't *hear* it."

--Let me expound upon this point a bit more. There's a problem with 
speaking Parselmouth, I think, that's present in both the books and 
the movie (but makes more sense whe on screen). Someone's probably 
talked about this before, somewhere, sometime, but I'm sayin' it 
again. ;)

If a person comes up to me and starts speaking French I will 
understand him or her, but I'm still going to hear them in French. 
If I want to know what they said in English then *I* have to 
translate it in my mind. If I speak French to someone I will *know* 
what I'm saying English (and French) but all I'm going to *hear* is 
the French. 

Basically when we speak or hear a language we speak and hear that 
language. That's incredibly obvious but an important point, because 
Parselmouth has a completely different set of circumstances. When 
Harry *hears* parselmouth he hears English. The snake is speaking in 
English; hence, he doesn't know that it's a snake, just a voice.  
But when Harry speaks *to* a snake it comes out in a voice that he 
cannot understand (if he can hear it at all, which perhaps he 
can't), although he knows *what* he's saying. Right? I'm getting a 
bit confused, the logistics don't make a whole lot of sense. 

Also if a French person isn't around I can still speak French, not 
so with Harry and Parseltounge . It just happens. Harry doesn't try 
to speak parseltoungue and can't just start speaking it 
randomly...so it's inherently tied not only the ability to speak it, 
but to the prescence of snakes as well...

Someone made another point about in the first/book movie Harry isn't 
*aware* what he's speaking. Is he still speaking it? The short 
answer is yes, but then I still can't decide whether Harry know's 
he's speaking it, or if it just seems that he did (like in the 
bathroom opening the chamber portal- it opened so he must've.)...now 
I'm really lost and I think I might've lost you guys too!

Help me out on this eh? 

Scott
who really wishes that they'd just done subtitles. Oy!