Latin in spell words

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 12583

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Steve Vander Ark" <vderark at b...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Jim Flanagan" <jamesf at a...> wrote:
> > It's been a long time since I took Latin, but a lot of JKR's 
> > incantations don't look quite correct.  Perhaps that's 
> intentional.  
> 
> You're right here. 
> 
> They aren't correct LATIN, no, and some of them aren't Latin at all 
> (e.g. serpensortia, alohomora). She borrows Latin words for her 
> incantations but she freely changes endings and mixes non-Latin 
roots 
> right in there with the Latin ones. There are no Latin words that 
> start with W for example, yet Wingardium is a spell word. 

Of course, one could argue that in JKR's alternate universe, Latin is 
a living thriving tongue unlike the frozen language it became amongst 
us Muggles ("cum mortua in lingua mortis"  - with the dead in a dead 
language), and as with any living language, new coinages and 
expressions arise continouously.

   - CMC