Why Latin?

[rcraigharman at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 21363

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., eccleston at c... wrote:
> 
> It's funny, isn't it, how we want our words to have a power and 
> potential beyond that which we know they have. Perhaps thats why we 
> so readily accept latin-esque words and want them to be "magic". I 
> think it is the same with Tolkein, Ursula Le Guin etc.

I assume you don't mean that Tolkien used Latin-esque words, right?
Especially given that Quenya is based morphologically on Finnish,
and Sindarin on Welsh, to name but a few of his languages.


> Why is it, do you think, that it tends to be Latin that is used in
> this way?

The mystery that Catholicism imbued into it certainly had a large
part to play--after all, imagine the "magic" involved in a priest
taking the bread and wine, and after speaking the "magic words"
(at least from the view of the peasantry who couldn't speak them)
transmogrifying them into the very Body and Blood of Christ.  I
don't think you can get more magical/mysterious.  Latin gave both
terrestrial and celestial power to the Catholic clergy, so it's
little wonder that it has become linked to magic....

....Craig