A message?

[muscatel1988]

No: HPFGUIDX 178912

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
 
> Carol responds:

> linguistic criticism

Mus's ears perk up:

I'm a linguist (syntax is my field), and if I might make one final
stab at the house elf thing, there's one thing that always irked me
about it.  JRRT was scrupulous in his treatment of languages, devising
coherent grammars for his invented languages; it's possible to write a
grammar of  Yodish (the English-lexified language that Yoda speaks);
Klingon has spawned a vast fandom (though this isn't really comparable
to the other two, since they were actually devised by their authors).
 So JKR, in inventing the English-based creole that house elves speak,
had antecedents.

I've never, however, been convinced that House Elvish is a coherent
language, in the sense that it *should* be possible to write a grammar
for it, and it doesn't seem to be.  When I first read Dobby's speech,
I thought "Oh goody! a puzzle".  But it was a puzzle without an
answer.  For example, the House Elvish use of proper names instead of
pronouns doesn't seem to have any consistent basis.  An opportunity
missed, I thought.

But that's another whine.

Here's a new topic, though, and I don't think I've seen it discussed
on the list before: the notion of father in the heptateuch. 

There are a number of fathers in canon: Vernon (if Muggles count),
Arthur, Lucius, Xenophilous, Riddle Snr, Marvolo Gaunt, Amos Diggory,
and James, of course.  But fathers in the main seem either curiously
absent, or, when present, unsatisfactory in various ways.  James, the
sainted father, turns out to have been less heroic both while at
school and in death than we were led initially to believe.  Percival
Dumbledore is a much more minor character than his wife, and ends in
Azkaban for his attack on the Muggle children.  Xenophilous is
charmingly described, but is plainly quite weird.  Oddly, for this
reader, the most fully realised father is Amos Diggory, bursting with
pride for his lovely boy frantic when Harry brings the body back,
sobbing when Harry tells them about his death (though that scene is
reported from a point of view a month after it happened).

Riddle Snr and Marvolo bear little scrutiny, of course.

So, if anyone wants to take this and run with it, it's a possible topic.

You know, I haven't been quite able to get out of my head the fact
that right through the series runs a cry of "DADA", the cursed
position.  There's something a little chilling to my ear about that.

Mus, who discovered the word heptateuch this evening, to her great
delight, and is determined to use it <g>.