Question: Baruffio and the buffalo

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90279

> Neri:
I would have thought that the editors got it mixed up as usual 
and it actually should have written "said `f' instead of `s' ", but
what the @$#& is a "bussalo"??? Do we need a Latin expert here?

 
Ravenclaw Bookworm:
According to the dictionary.com/translate page, 'bussalo' is Italian 
for 'it knocks'. <snip>
> 
> 
> Geoff:
> That assumes that the word "buffalo" was part of the spell. I would 
> agree that to mix up 's' and 'f', it might have to be in a different 
> language (such as Latin). <snip>

Carol:
I'm also assuming that the spell was in Latin, like most spells in the
HP books. (Maybe "accio something-or-other"). I tried looking up the
Latin for "buffalo" using an online English-to-Latin dictionary and
came up with "bubalus." That would mean that Baruffio meant to say
something like "accio bubaluf" and said "accio bubalus" instead. But I
don't think that would work. "Bubaluf" is worse than "bussalo."
Besides, he didn't just conjure up a buffalo by mistake. It landed on
his chest! Also, IIRC, the letter "f" isn't all that common in Latin
words (except possibly as a spelling to represent that sound in words
borrowed from Greek containing the lieeter phi). It's been a very long
time since I studied Latin, so I could be wrong.

I'm down to the theory that it was just a comic example intended by
both Flitwick and JKR to illustrate the importance of correct
pronunciation (much like the Diagon Alley/floo powder example that
someone (I think Geoff) used in an earlier post.

Carol, who thinks the Baruffio story is hilarious regardless of what
he was trying to say or do