Language of Magic: Difference between revisions

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== [[Comics]] ==

* In [[The Sandman]], one of the most [[Tear Jerker|tearjerky]] scenes appears to be a case of magic language:

{{quote| {{spoiler|''The Furies'': Gryphon, you are old. Your flesh is meat, and the meat is decaying. Your bones are dry and brittle. Within you now, lion and eagle abandon their battle for dominance and surrender to time and to the grave.}}}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|''The Furies'': Gryphon, you are old. Your flesh is meat, and the meat is decaying. Your bones are dry and brittle. Within you now, lion and eagle abandon their battle for dominance and surrender to time and to the grave.}}}}

** That's probably not magic language, that's beings more powerful than gods declaring what shall be, and then watching it happen.

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** Apparently it's a [[Language of Truth]] to them. [[Unreliable Narrator|It's a well recorded fact of Earthsea lore.]]

*** Not quite. The True Speech is indeed a [[Language of Truth]] to humans, but dragons can and do lie in it. From ''A Wizard of Earthsea":

{{quote| ''Although use of the Old Speech binds a man to truth, this is not so with dragons. It is their own language, and they can lie in it...'' }}

{{quote|''Although use of the Old Speech binds a man to truth, this is not so with dragons. It is their own language, and they can lie in it...'' }}

* The Divine Language in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', spoken by Servant Caster, which allows her to summon plague winds or 'rains of light' (read: [[Beam Spam|lasers]]) with a single word. Represented by Ancient Greek, but supposedly, it's cannot be pronounced by modern humans (which was probably a problem when they were making the voiced edition). The Fairy Letters written on [[Wave Motion Gun|Excalibur ]] also count.

** Also from [[Nasuverse]], the [[Karano Kyoukai|Unified Language]], which was 'spoken' to another plane altogether; it allows for the retrieval of a soul's 'recordings', essentially giving access to all knowledge possessed by every human being in existence.

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* The Old Speech in [[Susan Cooper]]'s ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'' series, spoken by those of both the Light and the Dark.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "Shadows in the Moonlight", a sample from a talking parrot:

{{quote| ''Abruptly the bird spread its flaming wings and, soaring from its perch, cried out harshly: "Yagkoolan yok tha, xuthalla!" ''}}

{{quote|''Abruptly the bird spread its flaming wings and, soaring from its perch, cried out harshly: "Yagkoolan yok tha, xuthalla!" ''}}

* The [[Dragonlance]] series has wizards who, like standard [[Dungeons and Dragons]] characters, speak magical words in order to activate their spells. However, unlike most verbal components, Dragonlance wizards can use their magical language in actual conversation. According to [[Word of God]], the examples used in the books are based on a kind of proto-Indonesian language structure, though the words themselves have no real world equivalent.

** Raistlin Majere, in fact, learned the activation word to the light spell in his staff through extensive trial and error. Finally, in frustration, he blurted out "Shirak, damen du!", which translates as "Light, damn you!". After the staff lit up, he went back and realized that "Shirak" (light) was the keyword, while "Dulak" (dark) was used to cancel the spell.

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** However, Latin does not appear to be vital to spellcasting; a sufficiently powerful witch can skip it. See in particular the seventh season episode "Get It Done," in which Willow struggles for a while with a Latin incantation. She finally gives up and yells in English, "Screw it! Mighty Forces, I suck at Latin, okay? But that's not the issue! I'm the one in charge, and I'm telling you, ''open a portal, now''!"

*** Spoofed in one episode where Xander thinks that there's more to magic than just saying things in Latin, but accidentally sets a book on fire when he tries it himself.

{{quote| Giles: Xander, don't speak Latin in front of the books.}}

{{quote|Giles: Xander, don't speak Latin in front of the books.}}

* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' seems to use Old English for this purpose. This is weird, given that Old English would have been the language of the Saxon invaders that King Arthur fought against. Chalk it up to [[Translation Convention]].

** However, probably due to the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Harry Potter]]'' examples above, quite a few fans have mistaken it for Latin and written their fanfiction accordingly. Despite the fact that the two languages don't sound at all similar.