I study Latin in school, and yes, many charms do come from latin. Eg. the charm 'nox' literally means night, and as mentioned before 'expecto patronum' i am waiting for my guardian/owner.
But magic has been in a lot of old stories people used to gather round and tell each other about extraordinary things and extreme creatures and beasts. Witches came along with time, traditionally on a broomstick. Then, the wand. I think modern times (JKR) have developed the charms taking words deriving mainly from Latin or Greek. I think it is a very intelligent and interesting technique.
I love the world JKR put us into. It's like no other. Like no other author,but her, can do with words. Truly amazing.
Cheers,
i_luv_dan13
Full Version: Creation Of Spells...
I came here across an opinion, that there's some formula how to create new spells. I must disagree, there cannot be exact guide how to create them, just realize, that only powerfull wizards (from what we know) managed it - e.g. Dumbledore, Voldemort and Snape. There may be some advices (like to translate the expected effect of spell to latin), but you simply must feel it, try a lot and probably have good intuition.
As for origin of magic - I think, that it was always there, but (accidentaly?) people learned to manage it, those ones with sense of it became wizards gradually, but in some muggles there were untestified signs of it and that could be transmisse through generation and that's the reason of muggle-borns occurance.
As for origin of magic - I think, that it was always there, but (accidentaly?) people learned to manage it, those ones with sense of it became wizards gradually, but in some muggles there were untestified signs of it and that could be transmisse through generation and that's the reason of muggle-borns occurance.
lol. a weird post as my first post but....
Magic was always there. Magic is life. Magic flows in your blood. People learned to "will" that magic into doing things. (taken from Eragon). The wand is just a way to bend that magic more directly. Like sewing, you can do it with your hands, but a needle helps perfect it. And the words help ditrect the magic. The words would, say change the color of the cloth and the wand woul;direct the cloth into becoming what you want.
The wand is like, the spout on a faucet. the magic is in you, and the wand helps it come out. The words change the magic to do different things.
Magic was always there. Magic is life. Magic flows in your blood. People learned to "will" that magic into doing things. (taken from Eragon). The wand is just a way to bend that magic more directly. Like sewing, you can do it with your hands, but a needle helps perfect it. And the words help ditrect the magic. The words would, say change the color of the cloth and the wand woul;direct the cloth into becoming what you want.
The wand is like, the spout on a faucet. the magic is in you, and the wand helps it come out. The words change the magic to do different things.
I believe that, like Snape, a lot of people just created spells, charms, hexes, enchantments. That those who created enough wrote books that would be used to teach at Hogwarts, or just to learn new magic. I think they could just keep creating spells and ensure that they are passed on. But that's really confusing. Still, though, good theory.
I like this question muchly so! Tis wonderful indeed...
Sense this is not about the whole idea about what a wand is, I'm just kinda going to ignore that bit, cause I just did a whole long post about the wand part. I don't think that the language has anything to do with the charms, but that latin is a base language. I can bet that the asian wizards did not use latin, seeing as many of their languages are not based in latin. The choice of latin for english speaking, and other romantic language-based nations can be seen as another notion back to the days when all church services were done in latin, and most of the pop didn't speak latin. It was like this high holy language, if you get what I'm trying to say. Even now, the number of people who speak latin is really small. So the choice of latin can not only reflect the fact that latin is a dead language, but that it's the basis for most of our languages. If that made any sense, I'd be surprised.
By creating spells, I think the main focus of that is that they are the words to call the magic, to make sure it does what we want. I bet that the early wizards said those words, what they said happened, and they stuck with it. So, even though the words don't have to necessarily be in latin, the peeps just believed it had to be in latin, so they kept it like that. The idea of nvbl spells comes to mind. While we don't know what the spell means (as most don't speak latin), the spell doesn't even have to be said, but thought, and since latin is a base language... What I think I was trying to get at is that the words don't matter so much as the effect. I dunno. Just scratch that. I might come back once I know what I'm trying to say.
So, to sum it all up, I think what I meant is that the choice of latin doesn't mean much really. The spells were probably not really created, but discovered. The idea of magic exists in all cultures, and they do not all share common languages. Most mages spoke in their language, such as chinese, or african, or norse. The choice of latin is a common choice in english speaking cultures. Like english speaking wiccans, their spells are often in latin. So, really, I guess I could have said it shortly like. It's a culture thing.
~Aeryn~
Sense this is not about the whole idea about what a wand is, I'm just kinda going to ignore that bit, cause I just did a whole long post about the wand part. I don't think that the language has anything to do with the charms, but that latin is a base language. I can bet that the asian wizards did not use latin, seeing as many of their languages are not based in latin. The choice of latin for english speaking, and other romantic language-based nations can be seen as another notion back to the days when all church services were done in latin, and most of the pop didn't speak latin. It was like this high holy language, if you get what I'm trying to say. Even now, the number of people who speak latin is really small. So the choice of latin can not only reflect the fact that latin is a dead language, but that it's the basis for most of our languages. If that made any sense, I'd be surprised.
By creating spells, I think the main focus of that is that they are the words to call the magic, to make sure it does what we want. I bet that the early wizards said those words, what they said happened, and they stuck with it. So, even though the words don't have to necessarily be in latin, the peeps just believed it had to be in latin, so they kept it like that. The idea of nvbl spells comes to mind. While we don't know what the spell means (as most don't speak latin), the spell doesn't even have to be said, but thought, and since latin is a base language... What I think I was trying to get at is that the words don't matter so much as the effect. I dunno. Just scratch that. I might come back once I know what I'm trying to say.
So, to sum it all up, I think what I meant is that the choice of latin doesn't mean much really. The spells were probably not really created, but discovered. The idea of magic exists in all cultures, and they do not all share common languages. Most mages spoke in their language, such as chinese, or african, or norse. The choice of latin is a common choice in english speaking cultures. Like english speaking wiccans, their spells are often in latin. So, really, I guess I could have said it shortly like. It's a culture thing.
~Aeryn~
Most of the spells have Latin influences so I suppose you look up the words say it wave and hope for the best. i highly dought that's how you do it but we can never really know now can we? 
This is one of the things I wish JKR had elaborated on... I am rereading Half-Blood Prince and everytime, I wonder how spells were created. I don't think they were discovered, because not only would that be extremely difficult to do, but Snape said he 'created' some. I really think they were created. And I don't think the language has anything to do with it either... JKR probably just thought it sounded nice and magical AND it makes sense... I find that learning about the meanings and origins of the spells is so fascinating. JKR is really a genius. What I don't understand though is HOW they are created! I wish we could know, because it doesn't make much sense to me. Anyone could just make spells.
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