Magical Latin

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 186139


> Carol again:
> 
> first, thanks for responding to my post. I'm glad that someone else is interested in the hypothetical history of the (European) WW.

Potioncat:
If we as a group were trying to invent the WW, we might have taken a different turn. But I think JKR was sticking pretty close to our history. I think she wanted the WW to have a familiar feel, all the more to make her little twists show up better.

 
>Carol: 
> Setting aside real Muggle history and speculative WW history, probably the spells are in Latin (or dog Latin, not to be confused with pig Latin!) is that they "sound" magical (and vaguely medieval, in keeping with robes, cloaks, and castles with dungeons).

Potioncat:
Pig Latin I know, what is dog Latin?

(barco, barcas barcat..)


> Carol:
> As a sidenote, I'm surprised that JKR's magical world contains so few Celtic elements. The Celts, especially the Druids, seem much more magical and mystical than the practical-minded Anglo-Saxons.

Potioncat:
It looked like wandlore had a Celtic base, but it didn't really pan out, did it?
 
> Carol, noting that the continued use of Latin as a lingua franca after the fall of the western Roman Empire is intimately connected with the Roman Catholic Church and the concept of Europe, especially Western Europe, as "Christendom" throughout the "Dark" and Middle Ages


Potioncat:
I took Latin in middle school--I'm not sure where it helped more as I continued through college, in science or in English--but I'm glad I had it.

btw, Carol, which history book(s) are you reading?