Does DD understand parseltongue? (was: Saving Ginny (was Re: Lockhart's incompet

[mercurybluesmng]

No: HPFGUIDX 143759

> > > Potioncat:
> >  So, yes, I think DD speaks parseltongue.
> 
> bboyminn:
> 
> So, my point is that Dumbledore might recognised Parseltongue 
without
> understanding it.

MercuryBlue:
Recognizing Parseltongue is not terribly difficult. If you hear 
snakelike hissing coming from a human mouth, particularly a human 
wizard mouth, and see snakes in the area (or other people who have 
been hissing the same way), odds are it's Parseltongue.

> Further, it's not hard to gather someone's intend
> but their inflection and tone of voice, and general 
demeanor. ...Even further, this idea is supported by the
> fact that the Gaunt's weren't engaged in long drawn out deeply
> intellectual conversations in Parseltongue, the statements are few,
> blunt, emotional, and to the points. Again, not hard to guess their
> intent.

Actually, from the perspective of someone who neither already knows 
nor can understand what's being said, I'd say it'd be very difficult 
to guess. In particular, Morfin was hissing about Merope leaning out 
the window to look at Tom. An observer who was out of the loop could 
tell from that that Morfin was taunting Merope, and from the next 
few lines of hisses that whatever-it-was infuriates Marvolo, but how 
would they be able to tell that the subject of conversation was 
Merope's crush? Let alone who on.

> To the central point, in general Dumbledore may or may not speak
> parseltongue, but the conversation in question does not actually
> reveal this fact for us.

MercuryBlue:
Yes, exactly. Dumbledore must know what is being said, but it 
doesn't necessarily follow that he understands it. Like I could look 
at the first page of Sorcerer's Stone en Espanol and know it's 
introducing the Dursleys, but it doesn't necessarily follow that I 
understand the words on the page. Which, as my Spanish vocabulary 
consists of maybe thirty words, I can't.

Since Dumbledore DOES know what's being talked about, he MUST have 
(had?) some way to translate it into English. It might be that he 
speaks Parseltongue, but that's terribly unlikely; it might be that 
he understands Parseltongue though he can't speak it, but it seems 
that those two skills go hand in hand; it might be that one of the 
weird silver things takes care of it; or...

We know Dumbledore met with a known Parselmouth while in possession 
of the memory, because he got it from Morfin Gaunt. Is it too much 
of a stretch to suppose he asked Morfin for a translation?