Creating spells

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 186075

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "montavilla47" <montavilla47 at ...> wrote:

Montavilla47:
> I think this is an extremely interesting question, but I haven't had
> the energy in the last week or so to dig up what I came up with
> when I tackled it in a Snape-fic.
> 
> This is a conversation I had between Dumbledore and a 14-year-old
> Snape after Snape has demonstrated a spell that he accidentally 
> created:

<Snip>

> ****
> 
> Beyond that, I remember wondering about the language issue.
> For some reason, "Langlock" struck me as more Anglo-Saxon
> than Latin.
> 
> "Avada Kadavra" is not Latin, so I don't think spells are 
> limited to Latinesque phrasing--it may simply be that the Latin
> is a universal spell language (at least in Europe).  

Geoff:
As has been pointed out in the past, Latin was for centuries the 
lingua franca of educated people, certainly in Europe. It held this 
position because of the influence of the Catholic church and 
because much of education was handled by monks.

"Langlock" is most certainly not Latin. It does strike me as being
 from a Germanic language.

I did comment on "Avada Kedavra" and its source on post 186044
 earlier in this thread.