Not A Dead Language: Harry Potter

Friday, March 18, 2011

Harry Potter

You probably all know that Harry Potter is riddled with Latin references. Well, here's a fun experience I had last semester while I was rereading Harry Potter 6.

One night, after studying Latin vocab with a friend for a couple hours, I was reading the chapter where Hermione and Harry find Ron snogging with Lavender Brown. Hermione gets upset and screams out "oppugno" and some birds start attacking Ron. When I read this I started screaming because I had just learned that oppugno means to fight against or to attack.

That came straight from Latin my friends.

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Explanation of Grammar Terms

Ablative - A case of grammar meaning the noun or adjective is being used in some construction with a “by, in, from, with, on” etc. idea. Called the adverbial case because it modifies verbs.

Accusative - A case of grammar meaning the noun or adjective is being used as a direct object.

Conjugate - Changing the ending of a verb to show the person, number, tense, mood, and voice of the action.

Dative - A case of grammar meaning the noun or adjective is being used as an indirect object or with some other "to" or "for" idea.

Decline - Similar to conjugation, but for nouns and adjectives. Nouns and adjectives decline, singular and plural, into the different cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, vocative. You add endings (that indicate the case) onto the base of the word.

Genitive - A case of grammar generally meaning the noun or adjective is being used in some sense of possession or a construction using "of."

Mood – Indicates the state of the verb. The indicative mood includes statements, facts. The imperative mood shows commands. The subjunctive usually shows hypothetical situations.

Nominative - A case of grammar meaning the noun or adjective is being used as the subject of the clause.

Number – Shows whether the subject of the verb is singular (it) or plural (they).

Person – In relation to a verb, it shows whether the action is being done by the 1^st person (I, We), the 2^nd person (you, you all), or the third person (he, she, it, they). If you have a passive verb it will show who the action is being done to.

Subjunctive - A verb mood in grammar. Used with many types of constructions in Latin. Connotes non-concrete ideas, indirect discourse, different types of dependent clauses, and much more.

Tense – Shows when the action is happening. In Latin the options are present, past, future, perfect, pluperfect, future perfect.

Voice – Shows whether the verb is active or passive. E.g. Caesar killed him. vs. Caesar was killed.