Below are four term projects from the Spring 2020 edition of the course! They should give you ideas about what past students learned from the course.
Eni Darvusl (Amy Darvil of Hufflepuff):
I think Parseltongue would be good for spells that work nonverbally or are meant to be more secretive. Not dark magic persay, but I can't imagine trying to shout with parseltongue. I mean, words like Tasi and slehara don't lend themselves to a sharp shout. Even words that have harder sounds in them like kups and parknent, don't flow completely natural from a ʃemne tongue. There's an inherent stutter when saying them, that weakens any shout you do with them.
But now picture a sleeping charm, being hissed away. "Slife, slife keraʃe nigi, slife'. The way the sounds roll off your tongue is almost hypnotic. You could picture saying it a few times before the ʃem just slips away into sleep. Which would be great in a medical sense with a patient, or even with an iangsteur who suffers from nightmares. Well, it might depend on the iangsteur, not all of them would appreciate hissing sounds. But it could work.
Or in a duel, one could translate/gloss spells into parseltongue, so as to be able to hiss them under your breath. It would make it much harder to combat/block if they can't hear it coming. Even Hari Patur, who's well known for using Expellarimus, if he would have glossed that to ʃpelarinus, would have thrown off a few of his combatants and received more of an advantage in the duels. And that's not even getting into spells written by snek. I can only imagine that if house-elves and centaurs have their own kind of magic, then so should snek who are able to talk. This could be a whole new form of research done that would expand our own understanding of how magic truly works. (Minor aside, why has no one studied how centaur and house-elf magic works? That's a major lacking in the magical research world that should be rectified.)
Going back to volume control, you could possibly ramp up the strength of a spell by starting softly and growing into a louder hiss like sound. Plus there's a bit of intimidation built into it, which could be good for dueling or even animal control spells. I'm wondering if pixies would be more afraid of a snekne spell over a ʃemne spell since they are roughly the right size to be eaten as a snek snack. Hmmm "Piʃi, nisl. Slifai or ai ou giʃe!" Are they even smart enough to realize it's a ʃem talking to them or would they just leave in terror of being eaten? Also, as another minor aside, I'm not sure why I keep picturing snekne spells to be like chants. Maybe it's because they are used to receiving and getting commands and so their spell work would be more like commands? There is quite a bit to ponder here.
Thanks, I actually had a good bit of fun writing this!
Enisli Spensur (Emily Spencer of Slytherin):
I have a confession to make. When I decided to take this class, it was solely for the purpose of amusement. Plus, I felt that, as a Slytherin, it was 'expected' of me. After all, our House symbol is a snake, we have a pet snake in the Dungeon, and I wanted to make a good impression. No one has ever accused me of doing things halfway. I'm an 'all in' kind of girl, and if I was going to represent the tira asa sislvr, I wanted to do it to the best of my ability. Never in a million years did I ever think I would find a use for using Parseltongue in my everyday life. I was wrong.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I am no Parselmouth. The class hasn't been easy for me, and I have long given up hopes of ever being truly fluent in it. But I would like to think that I have gotten along passably well, and even if I never study it formally again, I can, with all honesty, say that I will definitely be using it in my everyday life. Even if Bslas decides not to stick around (which I would be surprised if he did), I can still make use of my newfound knowledge.
For instance, my grandmother loves to garden, and she has passed this gene along to me. Now, that being said, I have not been blessed with the tira than that she has. What better way to learn about the nutrients in the soil or what plant grows best where than to speak to the very creatures that live in that environment?! I would imagine that snakes have a wealth of such knowledge! I have made fraeslis with some of them, and I am more than certain that they would be quite happy to help me out with my gardening woes.
Ai ʃem, so I can speak with certainty on this one. People, in general, are often clueless about their surroundings. We don't generally notice things we consider insignificant or mundane. For example, do you ever really consider the dati or ant on the graund? I know that I don't. So it stands to reason that pipsl would not hesitate to speak freely in front of them, not having a clue that they may be overheard and understood. It is much the same with children and snakes. Adults feel comfortable speaking in front of them because 'surely they don't understand'. If only they knew!!
Point is, snakes hear things. And if you speak their language, they may just pass these things on to you. Now before you get yourself in a frenzy, I'm not suggesting using snakes to cheat on tests or blackmail someone...ha! But it would be nice to get a heads-up on things, that's for sure. It beats being kept in the dark, even if it is done in the most well-meaning of ways. Iangsteur have a raet to know things, too, you know.
Lastly, by nature, I am a rather ʃae sort. And as much as I enjoy my pis asa kvae'et, it does get lonely at times. Mother says I tend to have my nosl stuck in my pard all the time, and actually she is right. (I told you that I was almost sorted into Revinkla!) People tend to leave me alone, perceiving (wrongly) that I am stak-ap. Snek don't tend to mind my quietness and vit sarna as much as my fellow ʃem tend to do. I may not be a Parselmouth, but maybe..just maybe, I have found my kindred spirits. So for that, Visl, ai ou thank.
Febi'uvairi Forteski'u (February Fortescue of Slytherin):
The languages of Parseltongue and English have many cognates or "loanwords" which appear rather similar. This makes sense, because one of the main purposes of spoken language is communication, and it since some humans have the ability to speak to snakes and also to understand them, why wouldn't some of the same words be shared by both languages? I would think this would be even more common if the word was important to humans and the snake had no use for them in their own natural environment, so they would adopt the English word.
The English work "youngster" comes to mind. In Parseltongue, it's "iangsteur," which definitely appears to be a cognate. Most baby snakes never meet their mothers, and the rare ones who do usually only spend about two weeks time with them. While the size of a creature would be important to a snake, or its speed, labeling one a "youngster" wouldn't matter as much, especially since creatures are usually viewed in limited categories as "food, " "danger," "mate," "den mate," or, on occasion, "friend."
Parchment is a another good example of a cognate. Its Parseltongue form is "parknent." This word was most likely acquired from the English language and brought over to Parseltongue, as snakes have zero use for it. Lamp? Yeah - not a snake invention. I definitely suspect they got "slanp" from the humans. Cup? Not a common object in the world of snake, so they took the word "cup" and created "kups" so they could communicate with their human friends. Couch and chair - koukh and khair? These two cognates also prove my point. Sure, a snake could lounge in them, and identify them on sight, but they have no place for them in their world and would not have names for them if not for speaking with their human friends. As for apple - apsle - snakes don't actually eat fruit, and therefore differentiating one fruit from another wouldn't be important to them, unless it was to converse with a human.
I'm sure there may be exceptions to this concept, but it appears to me to be a good rule of thumb.
Tarna Kura (Prof. Tarma Amelia Black of Hufflepuff):
The whole concept of Parseltongue (to me) is something which started with the Harry Potter books. A spoken language, which was linked to 'parseltongue' / snakes and was something which wizards and witches could say -- was even inborn -- just seemed that it would stick to monsters - to the basilisk. Not talking with snakes at all. Right? But no, because it was in the zoo, that Harry Potter first communicated with a snake. But he wasn't talking in parseltongue, he was talking in English. So the Snake could understand Harry Potter! Now that was something which seemed logical to me, and natural, so I don't know why the concept of a witch speaking in the language of snakes seemed 'not good'.
So the story goes along and soon it seems that Harry Potter can understand the language of snakes and again, that is something which is not done by 'good' people. Folks like Voldemort? Oh, sure, he could talk with snakes, and probably so could Salazar Slytherin. Another strike at the snakes.
The difficulty with this entire scenario though is that I like snakes. If I encounter a snake, and it is in a safe place, I say hi to the snake and leave it alone. If it is in a place where it can get hurt (like in a driveway or by the road) I do whatever needs to be done to move it to a safe place.
Oddly enough, after taking this class, I started talking more to the snakes. No, I didn't use the words of these lessons, partly (probably) because I didn't remember many of them. But the wish to communicate with some sort of language was there. That's really nifty. :)
As for the class itself, I found it very interesting. The way snakes 'think' is pointing to a thing of something much other than how the 2-leggers usually think (especially in English, which was devised as a language in which to conduct business affairs, most likely). Snakes are very practical. They are very much a 'now' sort of creature.
Is what they are talking about dangerous or food? Those issues are priorities to snakes, I feel. Also, if it is in the past, it's not here and now, so .... why focus on whatever 'it' is? I think there is an inherent wisdom in the minds of the snakes, which has a tendency to keep things 'now'.
-Why Parseltongue relies so heavily on 'reading between the lines.'
This idea (above) pretty much points to what I wrote. 2-leggers have a tendency to dwell excessively on the past and worry about the future. They are not used to being in the moment, in the 'now' of here we are. Snakes, on the other hand, being creatures of nature and not relying on intellect in control but more on the native intelligence of their form and soul, are rather direct. What is that thing I read ... Found it!
"Simplicity is very difficult for twisted minds."
The minds of snakes are not twisted. I don't know that it is 'reading between the lines' so much as that something said straight and clear to a 2-legger, heard by that 2-legger and translated in their head, ends up being a distortion of the communication of what the snake actually wished to convey. Of course, I could be all wrong, too.
And it's a rather pretty language, isn't it.
Thank you for teaching this class. :)
Eni Darvusl (Amy Darvil of Hufflepuff):
I think Parseltongue would be good for spells that work nonverbally or are meant to be more secretive. Not dark magic persay, but I can't imagine trying to shout with parseltongue. I mean, words like Tasi and slehara don't lend themselves to a sharp shout. Even words that have harder sounds in them like kups and parknent, don't flow completely natural from a ʃemne tongue. There's an inherent stutter when saying them, that weakens any shout you do with them.
But now picture a sleeping charm, being hissed away. "Slife, slife keraʃe nigi, slife'. The way the sounds roll off your tongue is almost hypnotic. You could picture saying it a few times before the ʃem just slips away into sleep. Which would be great in a medical sense with a patient, or even with an iangsteur who suffers from nightmares. Well, it might depend on the iangsteur, not all of them would appreciate hissing sounds. But it could work.
Or in a duel, one could translate/gloss spells into parseltongue, so as to be able to hiss them under your breath. It would make it much harder to combat/block if they can't hear it coming. Even Hari Patur, who's well known for using Expellarimus, if he would have glossed that to ʃpelarinus, would have thrown off a few of his combatants and received more of an advantage in the duels. And that's not even getting into spells written by snek. I can only imagine that if house-elves and centaurs have their own kind of magic, then so should snek who are able to talk. This could be a whole new form of research done that would expand our own understanding of how magic truly works. (Minor aside, why has no one studied how centaur and house-elf magic works? That's a major lacking in the magical research world that should be rectified.)
Going back to volume control, you could possibly ramp up the strength of a spell by starting softly and growing into a louder hiss like sound. Plus there's a bit of intimidation built into it, which could be good for dueling or even animal control spells. I'm wondering if pixies would be more afraid of a snekne spell over a ʃemne spell since they are roughly the right size to be eaten as a snek snack. Hmmm "Piʃi, nisl. Slifai or ai ou giʃe!" Are they even smart enough to realize it's a ʃem talking to them or would they just leave in terror of being eaten? Also, as another minor aside, I'm not sure why I keep picturing snekne spells to be like chants. Maybe it's because they are used to receiving and getting commands and so their spell work would be more like commands? There is quite a bit to ponder here.
Thanks, I actually had a good bit of fun writing this!
Enisli Spensur (Emily Spencer of Slytherin):
I have a confession to make. When I decided to take this class, it was solely for the purpose of amusement. Plus, I felt that, as a Slytherin, it was 'expected' of me. After all, our House symbol is a snake, we have a pet snake in the Dungeon, and I wanted to make a good impression. No one has ever accused me of doing things halfway. I'm an 'all in' kind of girl, and if I was going to represent the tira asa sislvr, I wanted to do it to the best of my ability. Never in a million years did I ever think I would find a use for using Parseltongue in my everyday life. I was wrong.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I am no Parselmouth. The class hasn't been easy for me, and I have long given up hopes of ever being truly fluent in it. But I would like to think that I have gotten along passably well, and even if I never study it formally again, I can, with all honesty, say that I will definitely be using it in my everyday life. Even if Bslas decides not to stick around (which I would be surprised if he did), I can still make use of my newfound knowledge.
For instance, my grandmother loves to garden, and she has passed this gene along to me. Now, that being said, I have not been blessed with the tira than that she has. What better way to learn about the nutrients in the soil or what plant grows best where than to speak to the very creatures that live in that environment?! I would imagine that snakes have a wealth of such knowledge! I have made fraeslis with some of them, and I am more than certain that they would be quite happy to help me out with my gardening woes.
Ai ʃem, so I can speak with certainty on this one. People, in general, are often clueless about their surroundings. We don't generally notice things we consider insignificant or mundane. For example, do you ever really consider the dati or ant on the graund? I know that I don't. So it stands to reason that pipsl would not hesitate to speak freely in front of them, not having a clue that they may be overheard and understood. It is much the same with children and snakes. Adults feel comfortable speaking in front of them because 'surely they don't understand'. If only they knew!!
Point is, snakes hear things. And if you speak their language, they may just pass these things on to you. Now before you get yourself in a frenzy, I'm not suggesting using snakes to cheat on tests or blackmail someone...ha! But it would be nice to get a heads-up on things, that's for sure. It beats being kept in the dark, even if it is done in the most well-meaning of ways. Iangsteur have a raet to know things, too, you know.
Lastly, by nature, I am a rather ʃae sort. And as much as I enjoy my pis asa kvae'et, it does get lonely at times. Mother says I tend to have my nosl stuck in my pard all the time, and actually she is right. (I told you that I was almost sorted into Revinkla!) People tend to leave me alone, perceiving (wrongly) that I am stak-ap. Snek don't tend to mind my quietness and vit sarna as much as my fellow ʃem tend to do. I may not be a Parselmouth, but maybe..just maybe, I have found my kindred spirits. So for that, Visl, ai ou thank.
Febi'uvairi Forteski'u (February Fortescue of Slytherin):
The languages of Parseltongue and English have many cognates or "loanwords" which appear rather similar. This makes sense, because one of the main purposes of spoken language is communication, and it since some humans have the ability to speak to snakes and also to understand them, why wouldn't some of the same words be shared by both languages? I would think this would be even more common if the word was important to humans and the snake had no use for them in their own natural environment, so they would adopt the English word.
The English work "youngster" comes to mind. In Parseltongue, it's "iangsteur," which definitely appears to be a cognate. Most baby snakes never meet their mothers, and the rare ones who do usually only spend about two weeks time with them. While the size of a creature would be important to a snake, or its speed, labeling one a "youngster" wouldn't matter as much, especially since creatures are usually viewed in limited categories as "food, " "danger," "mate," "den mate," or, on occasion, "friend."
Parchment is a another good example of a cognate. Its Parseltongue form is "parknent." This word was most likely acquired from the English language and brought over to Parseltongue, as snakes have zero use for it. Lamp? Yeah - not a snake invention. I definitely suspect they got "slanp" from the humans. Cup? Not a common object in the world of snake, so they took the word "cup" and created "kups" so they could communicate with their human friends. Couch and chair - koukh and khair? These two cognates also prove my point. Sure, a snake could lounge in them, and identify them on sight, but they have no place for them in their world and would not have names for them if not for speaking with their human friends. As for apple - apsle - snakes don't actually eat fruit, and therefore differentiating one fruit from another wouldn't be important to them, unless it was to converse with a human.
I'm sure there may be exceptions to this concept, but it appears to me to be a good rule of thumb.
Tarna Kura (Prof. Tarma Amelia Black of Hufflepuff):
The whole concept of Parseltongue (to me) is something which started with the Harry Potter books. A spoken language, which was linked to 'parseltongue' / snakes and was something which wizards and witches could say -- was even inborn -- just seemed that it would stick to monsters - to the basilisk. Not talking with snakes at all. Right? But no, because it was in the zoo, that Harry Potter first communicated with a snake. But he wasn't talking in parseltongue, he was talking in English. So the Snake could understand Harry Potter! Now that was something which seemed logical to me, and natural, so I don't know why the concept of a witch speaking in the language of snakes seemed 'not good'.
So the story goes along and soon it seems that Harry Potter can understand the language of snakes and again, that is something which is not done by 'good' people. Folks like Voldemort? Oh, sure, he could talk with snakes, and probably so could Salazar Slytherin. Another strike at the snakes.
The difficulty with this entire scenario though is that I like snakes. If I encounter a snake, and it is in a safe place, I say hi to the snake and leave it alone. If it is in a place where it can get hurt (like in a driveway or by the road) I do whatever needs to be done to move it to a safe place.
Oddly enough, after taking this class, I started talking more to the snakes. No, I didn't use the words of these lessons, partly (probably) because I didn't remember many of them. But the wish to communicate with some sort of language was there. That's really nifty. :)
As for the class itself, I found it very interesting. The way snakes 'think' is pointing to a thing of something much other than how the 2-leggers usually think (especially in English, which was devised as a language in which to conduct business affairs, most likely). Snakes are very practical. They are very much a 'now' sort of creature.
Is what they are talking about dangerous or food? Those issues are priorities to snakes, I feel. Also, if it is in the past, it's not here and now, so .... why focus on whatever 'it' is? I think there is an inherent wisdom in the minds of the snakes, which has a tendency to keep things 'now'.
-Why Parseltongue relies so heavily on 'reading between the lines.'
This idea (above) pretty much points to what I wrote. 2-leggers have a tendency to dwell excessively on the past and worry about the future. They are not used to being in the moment, in the 'now' of here we are. Snakes, on the other hand, being creatures of nature and not relying on intellect in control but more on the native intelligence of their form and soul, are rather direct. What is that thing I read ... Found it!
"Simplicity is very difficult for twisted minds."
The minds of snakes are not twisted. I don't know that it is 'reading between the lines' so much as that something said straight and clear to a 2-legger, heard by that 2-legger and translated in their head, ends up being a distortion of the communication of what the snake actually wished to convey. Of course, I could be all wrong, too.
And it's a rather pretty language, isn't it.
Thank you for teaching this class. :)