Creating spells

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186076

Montavilla47 wrote:

> <snip> Beyond that, I remember wondering about the language issue. For some reason, "Langlock" struck me as more Anglo-Saxon than Latin. <snip>

Carol responds:
Well, "lock" is certainly English, but "lange" (tongue) is French. Maybe young Severus was literate in several languages! And, clearly, a spell doesn't have to be Latin-based to work. Maybe alliteration and other sound effects play a role?

Montavilla 47:
> Then, there may be some spells are more regional, or with regional variants that are invoked using the language of that region.

Carol responds:
No doubt. Maybe Latin is the usual (but not the only) language among European wizards, but Chinese or African wizards would have little reason to use it.

Montavilla47:
> Elphias Dodge mentions that he and Dumbledore were supposed to go on a Grand Tour together--as was the custom at the time.  Why go on a tour if not to see the regional differences in magical practices? <snip>

Carol responds:
I just assumed that their Grand Tour was a wizarding variant of the Grand Tour that young English gentlemen (in the sense of young men of the upper classes) conventionally took to complete their education in the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries (I don't know whether the Grand Tour continued into the twentieth century, at least when no World War was being fought): London to Paris to Rome and often Florence and Venice, the places regarded by the English as cultural centers. (Athens was off limits because of Ottoman rule of Greece--unless, like Lord Byron, you wanted to fight and die there.) Wizards being Wizards and capable of Apparating could probably extend the tour. I can't imagine Albus and Elphias turning down a chance to see the Egyptian pyramids, for example, had circumstances not intervened. I would hope that they'd include natural wonders, such as Mont Blanc, as well as centers of civilizaion (Wizard or Muggle).

Carol, hoping that Harry and Ron took a Grand Tour together while Hermione was belatedly finishing her last year at Hogwarts since, apparently, they didn't return to school