Parseltongue

[physicssquid]

I've had this thought going around my head for a while now, and even though I have no idea of the answer, I thought I'd bring it to the attention of others. What would Harry hear if he met a Brazilian wizard who spoke to him in Parseltongue?
I only thought of it when I re-read the scene in the first book, where the Boa Harry set free, called him Amigo. Would Parseltongue, when spoken by a Brazilian Parselmouth, sound like English or Brazilian to Harry or any other Parselmouth?

[unbeastly]

Parseltongue is it's own language so surely they would understand it no matter what human tongue they speak.

[RandomPasserby]

That's an interesting thought. Parseltongue must be some kind of universal language, so it translates immediately into your first language.

One thing that did make me laugh was Ron being able to imitate Parseltongue to open the Chamber. It's a language made up entirely of sibilants, so tone has got to be ridiculously important. Even if it took him a few tries, the chamber was created by an actual Parselmouth - can you picture Salazar Slytherin being OK with sloppy pronunciation

That's like if I attempted to speak Mandarin Chinese after hearing somebody else speak it. I'm probably going to end up saying something completely different/absolute gibberish.

[Kitty279]

Very likely. My brother once was on holiday in China and looked into the language a bit. He said there's often the same word for different things, and the actual meaning depends on the accentuation. And a friend of me spent two years there as English teacher. He told me one day he used a sentence about muffins for breakfast in his class. At which the students turned red and awkward, and after much explaining and thumbing through a dictionary, it turned out that sounded like 'ma-fen' - which means horseshit in Chinese. Not what you'd put on the breakfast menu!

So, maybe that was JKR's way to make Ron look good enough for Hermione to fall in love? That pairing never made sense to me anyway.

[RandomPasserby]

I had a housemate while I was at university who came from China and spoke Mandarin.

Listening to him talk to his friends was part of what made the Ron-speaking-Parseltongue thing seem so unlikely. Sometimes they would use what seemed like the exact same word in a conversation, but it obviously meant different things because they said it differently. He taught another housemate a couple of phrases and stressed pronunciation a lot.

It's far too complicated for me. I can speak passable French (funny thing, seeing Hermione Jean cracks me up every time because I read it as Hermione John. I have an Uncle Jean and while I know there's an English version which is female, I automatically pronounce it the French way) and read a decent amount of Latin and Old English. That's about my limit.

[Kitty279]

Yeah, that fits with what my brother said. Not for me, either. Besides, English isn't even my first language, and I am happy with two, thank you very much.

To be honest, I always thought Jean to be French for John, and the English female version to be Jeanne or something, though I am more familiar with Joan / Joanne anyway.

[RandomPasserby]

I can deal with three because my written French is abysmal and I'm not really required to speak the other two. I still have to make sure I have conversations in French a couple of times a year and that I keep up with my other languages otherwise I tend to begin losing them.

I assume Jean, in English speaking countries, went down as the popularity of jeans went up. They're pronounced exactly the same, that's just huge teasing potential.

And I find it a little petty to change a character's name just because she happens to share one with another character who is unsympathetic.

[eskimoRock]

You're right, Jean is basically a nonexistent name here now. It's my grandmas name, but it fell out of fashion after world war 2. Joan and Joanne just got more popular

I can kind of understand changing character names though.. sometimes I think people dig too hard to find hidden meanings. Like, if somebody had the name Tom you just know people would convince themselves Voldemort had a child, just so they could write fanfiction about it.

[Kitty279]

True, when you don't use a language, you begin to forget. Had that with English, too, as I didn't use it for ages after school, and one day I looked at a children's picture book and realised that I didn't even understand all of that! That was quite a shock, I can tell you. But some time later I got back into it, luckily. And thanks to fanfiction, I ended up learning it again.

Ah, that would explain why I barely ever see Jean, at least not in English. Yeah, some names are quite out of fashion, it's the same here. Though some are coming back.

While I am sure some would try to find hidden meanings, that example would be ridiculous, Tom is one of the most common names in English, as far as I know. Not every name has to have a special meaning! And can you see Tom, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, as son of Moldyshorts??

[eskimoRock]

Indeed they are! My mum runs a preschool and she recently had a child sign up called Clive... That's not the kind of name I associate with a child! I like to think the Jean in Hermione's name is after a grandmother or something like that, that's the reason why a lot of people I know have more old fashioned middle names.

Hey, I've seen people convinced harry is voldemorts son just because they used to both have dark hair... It's kind of pathetic, really.

[Kitty279]

See, and my grandmum's name was Hermine - the German version of Hermione. So, that doesn't even seem that strange of a name, though I know no one else with that name.

Wha...? *stared in disbelief* You've got to be joking! If that alone would be a proof, then half the world would be descended from that bastard! *bangs head* That's beyond ridiculous! Though logic like that would prove all the 'Harry is Snape's son' stories as well.

[eskimoRock]

Are you really that surprised, with some of the utterly appalling fanfiction out there?

[Kitty279]

A bit, actually. Appalling stories are one thing, but that level of stupidity leaves me speechless.

[RandomPasserby]

All dark haired main characters are clearly related. Except those that canon says are related.[/fandom logic]

[Kitty279]

*snicker* You are onto something, I believe ;D
That reminds me even more of all the stories where Harry is Snape's son despite looking like a James clone. So far I can't remember one story where the author even tried to explain that properly. Though that might be because I, if some initially harmless stoy turns out like that, I tend to run away as fast as I can and never come back.