History Main / MagicalForeignWords

* Creator/AlanGarner, in the end-notes to ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'', explains that the spells he puts into the mouth of his Witch are genuine ones, extracts taken from mediaeval magical treatises, but that to be on the safe side, the Latin used represents only partial extracts from those source texts.

** Realistically, though, there's really little practical reason to use Esperanto other than to seem mysterious to the {{Muggles}}. The shell used by the 12th century wizards requires some very specific paraphernalia to work. This includes a conical hat, a robe with cuffs of a certain distance, and a staff or a wand of a specific length. Since all spoken phrases do is trigger pre-recorded macros, any new macro can be set to trigger on any word or phrase in any language. In the second novel, Martin sets a teleportation spell to trigger on the completely made-up word "[[Franchise/XMen Bamf]]". The key is to pick a word or phrase that a wizard isn't likely to say in a casual conversation. This is pointed out by Phillip to Martin, who complains that the Esperanto word used to trigger flight is the very uncool-sounding "flugi".

[[caption-width-right:350:Harry's Latin is so bad hw's actually speaking Italian.[[note]]"Forzare" is Italian for "to force". Harry was probably aiming for "fortiāre".]]]]