Magical Latin

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186103

Shelley wrote:
> <snip>
> 
> Actually, a simple answer to "why Latin at all" might simply date back to a time when only the most learned men had formal studies in magic, similar to the dark ages when only monks could read and kept learning alive, if the general population did not have access to magic schools. Those select few would have been educated in Latin, meaning most of the spells they created would have Latin names as part of keeping that learning segregated from the general population.

Carol responds:

It could go back even farther to the days of the Roman Empire, when Latin was the lingua franca for the western half of the empire (as Koine Greek was for the eastern half). The various Latin tribes and Romanized Celts (except for those in Britain) all eventually ended up speaking some form of Latin (which later evolved into the Romance languages). Meanwhile, as you say, Church Latin was kept alive and taught to the educated few in western Europe during the Dark Ages and was still taught in the schools and colleges of medieval and Renaissance Europe. Before the Statute of Secrecy, it was probably taught at Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and possibly Durmstrang (depending whether it's east or west of the dividing line between Roman and Greek Orthodox Christianity. We have magical monks and friars at Hogwarts who may well have attended Hogwarts and joined Mugglle monasteries, no questions asked (either that or the Wizards had their own monasteries). Naturally, most of the spells from that era (approximately the 382 BC of the Ollivander family's wandmaking beginnings to AD 1692), at least those created west of what became the Byzantine Empire, would be in Latin because they'd be created by educated Wizards--or, at least, the spells taught at Hogwarts and Beauxbatons would be. Meanwhile, other(probably equivalent) spells would be created in Greek, Arabic, Sanskrit, Persian, Gaelic, Chinese, and many other languages. As the Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic peoples became Christianized, they would begin casting most of their spells in Latin (or Greek, in the case of some Slavic peoples) as well.

At any rate, that's how I envision it.

Carol, who is currently reading a history of Europe because she can't find any fiction to hold her interest