For the purpose of this writing, let’s assume that the world of Harry Potter is real. Maybe not necessarily the story of “the boy who lived” itself, but rather the history and world that surrounds it. Of course, we have to also consider the possibilities of characters that are real historical figures (Nicholas Flamel), have strong ties to real historical figures (like the Malfoys mirroring an existing member family of the House of Lords), or are based on existing legends (Merlin) — although these specific figures will not have much significance as they are part of modern history, and they really will not be mentioned.
Why the use of Latin?
The information available on schools in Africa and Asia suggests that they do not use Latin and instead have a completely independent form of magic, which makes sense from a historical perspective. There is not enough direct information on the Brazilian school to be certain of anything - but considering that a student exchange with the UK school is possible, we can assume Brazil at least partially uses Latin spells as well. It was interesting to me that spells in the Harry Potter universe are largely derived from Latin, at least in Europe and the United States.
Why would they use Latin? Given the history of Anglo-Saxon witchcraft early in the first millennium, it would make sense for the UK to keep some of its older customs or at least derive its current magic from them; especially when put up against Latin, which despite previous contact would not have solidified its presence in the region until the strong influence of Christianity after Charlemagne in the 8th century. Even more than a century earlier, the Lombard Code in southern Europe punished the mere belief in magic:
“Let nobody presume to kill a foreign serving maid or female slave as a witch, for it is not possible, nor ought to be believed by Christian minds”
Yet, we have reason to believe they did not keep original traditions and shifted to Latin practices instead. What an irony it would be if belief in magic was condemned specifically because the Latin world knew it was real and wanted to keep it a secret. In any case…
Maybe the Latin magic community became the default because it was better organized or had a better understanding of magic, or maybe they drove the original witches and wizards of the UK into hiding (or killed them early on). Whatever the case might be, we can be sure that the UK is not the center of the wizarding world as we may be led to believe from the books alone. In fact, this analysis suggests that for a period in history, there may have been completely separate and distinct wizarding communities in the UK region that had different practices.
What We “Know”
The earliest mentions we have of wizardkind in Europe involve the Ollivander family and Herpo the Foul. We also know that as far east and north as the location of Durmstrang (wherever that may be), the language family of spells is more or less the same.
The Ollivander family is presumed to have originated in a Mediterranean country (with olive trees) and started its business in 382 BC. The founder of this business is believed by G. Ollivander to be a Roman wizard, although if we are to believe the business started in England, this would not make much sense. Classical societies were aware of the British Isles as far back as the 4th century BC, which matches up with the timeline of the Ollivander family; but the societies involved included the Greeks, the Phoenicians, and the Carthaginians, all of whom are not the same as the Romans and do not have Latin as a main language. True Roman contact did not happen until more than 4 centuries after the Ollivander family is believed to have started the business. That being said, the word for olive in Latin is itself derived from the Greek “ἐλαίϝα,” meaning the Ollivander family could have been Greek instead and only Romanized itself to survive as times changed. This also means that “modern” wand-making magic is probably performed in Greek, not in Latin. Since the Ollivander’s business is entirely contained in the Harry Potter universe, it is not possible to make a much more detailed analysis.
Given this, we can assume that organized magic existed with the Greeks and was probably conducted in Greek (or an associated language) before Latin was accepted as the de facto language. This analysis is supported by the existence of Herpo the Foul, an ancient Greek wizard who existed at some point after 500 BC but before the Romans completely overtook the Greeks (within a few decades of the shift from BC to AD). In real-life history, the first mention of a basilisk was by a Roman (Pliny the Elder) in the first century AD, meaning that Herpo’s time period was more likely towards the later end of the estimate. From the same account, we learn that the Basilisk (the name of basilisk itself suggests Greek as a native tongue, taking its name from basileus) was native to the province of Cyrene in Libya, meaning Herpo would have traveled to, or lived in, the region while it belonged to the Romans under Vespasian (directly after belonging to the Egyptians and the Greeks). Vespasian acted simultaneously as a pharaoh and an emperor and was the ruler who truly expanded Roman influence in Britain. Despite this, Latin spells would not be widespread, meaning that horcrux magic, like wand-making magic, is likely entirely in Greek or another, more ancient language / ritual at this time. This is because the educational foundations of the region, like the School of Cyrene, were Hellenistic, and Greek was the scholarly language of the area (along with Proto-Semitic sections).
Now, we come across a fork in possible history. Herpo is clearly a Greek name, and Herpo the Foul definitely visited a land that belonged to the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians, not to mention the impact of various religious beliefs. We can say that Herpo was a native to Cyrene and lived in Northern Africa. In this case, he could be of either Egyptian, Roman, or Greek ancestry, with the last being the most likely. Alternatively, it is possible that Herpo was born in another region that belonged to the continuation of Greeks at the time of his birth, meaning he would be entirely of Greek origins and come from somewhere in the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, although an exact location would be very hard to derive.
Shortly after the existence of Herpo, Greece (under Rome)would have been divided, with part of it turning into the Byzantine Empire. At this point, the magic we know in the Harry Potter universe would have shifted to the west side of this break, as this is where Latin would have strengthened its hold. The eastern side spoke a variant of Greek well into the second millennium, and its succession of magic would make the use of Latin in Hogwarts and Beauxbatons impossible. If magic continued in this half, it likely evolved very differently. We can try to track the movement of magic through Herpo.
Herpo as a historical figure cannot be verified, although there are records of of a notable line by the name of Herpo in the “Patrologiae Cursus Completus,” which contains writings spanning more than a millennia and begin in the year 230 (interestingly, shortly before the divide of Greece would have happened and about a generation or two after Herpo the Foul). In this case, the Herpo line existed somewhere in the region of Burgundy but were considered foreigners. This family would have had Greek ancestry but would have managed to gain power in the Roman world in one way or another. This line appears to have ended during the early middle ages (before Charlemagne) in Transjurania, after the murder of Herpone Franco, whose death was advised by the Bishop of Sion and Aletheo Patricio. The extant Herpo family has records in Germany.
I heavily doubt this is the same family line as that referenced in the Harry Potter universe, but it is interesting to note and consider in a cross-mapping of universes, as it does paint a move from northern Africa to western Europe and a strong distaste of the family from the Catholic church shortly before Christianity’s denial of magic takes place.
Lastly, we need to consider how Latin spells reached a school like Durmstrang. It makes sense for them to reach Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and the schools in the Americas (due to colonialism), but what about Durmstrang? If we believe the school was started by Bulgarians after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, this would make sense regardless of where Durmstrang actually is.
The existence of Durmstrang, the history of the Ollivander family, and the story of Herpo the Foul all point to an origin in the western region of ancient Greece. Considering that the Greeks received much of their information about the British Isles from the Carthaginians (and it appears not many Greeks actually went to the region), we can assume that the few Greeks who did travel to the British Isles in the beginning (like the Ollivander family) were those who lived among or regularly spoke to the Carthaginians. This would place the origin of modern European and North American magic somewhere in the southern tip of current Italy along the border and sea regions of Carthage (South America is excluded from this because the Brazilian school was founded before colonialism, meaning their magic would have a more diverse origin).
Etymology of Spells
For the most part, the above analysis works… that is until you consider the etymology of spells. While the majority of spells use Latin, there are some distinctly English spells, like Wingardium Leviosa and Scourgify. These can be justified by saying they are newer and come from the UK itself. Then we have spells like Episkey, which are Greek. These spells also follow the discussed history, which is not surprising.
Then there is Alohomora. The word itself comes from Arabic as al-homra, but the Madagascar variant of the word is also spelled alahamora, and it is meant to represent the diviner or luck device in geomancy. The original practice carries the intent of illumination or revelation of knowledge, meaning that it does not necessarily open locks, rather opens something that has secrets to reveal. Do we take the original Arabic meaning or the modified version from Madagascar?
The recorded history of Arab influence in Madagascar doesn’t begin until the seventh century, meaning that we would have to wait a few centuries more for the new variant of the work to make its way back to the British Isles, probably around the time Hogwarts is founded. This would also depend on the same form of magic being followed in Madagascar, that is, one involving spoken incantations and (possibly) wands. This seems unlikely unless the reintroduction of the spell happens much later, and even that assumes that the European use of wands has become the norm worldwide (which we are led to believe is not the case even as late as the 20th century). The other option is to assume the original Arab meaning became the foundation of the spell, which would make more sense if the spell traveled through northern Africa directly around the seventh century.
Conclusion (?)
For the following, we have to know that Arabic is a Proto-Semitic language, along with other languages spoken in the northern region of Africa and the western end of the Asian continent. The Proto-Semitic roots of Arabic would have interacted with Greek in Africa before and around the time of Herpo the Foul, either developing into a distinct branch of Arabic magic or at the very least helping with the foundations of future magic in the language, but both Greek and Proto-Semitic magic would have derived from a more ancient language, probably following the Proto-Semitic line, especially if magic only entered Greece through Carthage and was not native to it. The origins of Greek as a language are unclear, however, so there might be a common, distant ancestor between the two.
“A 5,000-year-old Semitic text dealing with magical spells and snakes has been deciphered from an ancient Egyptian pyramid inscription, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced Monday. The texts, which were first discovered a century ago in a 24th Century BCE Egyptian pyramid, are the earliest continuous Semitic texts ever to have been deciphered, said Semitic languages Prof. Richard Steiner of New York’s Yeshiva University in a premiere presentation at the Hebrew University.”
From this, we can take a (very large) leap and assume that modern European magic originated in Egypt and later spread to southern Greece and Carthage (or from Carthage to Greece by the fourth century BC). From there, Greek and Proto-Semitic variants would have developed as the most ancient existing magics. Through need for survival, or through societal pressure, Latin would become the de facto language for spells, with some local additions later on.
We don’t get much insight into Beauxbatons. Of any school mentioned, this school is the most likely to retain Proto-Semitic influence in Europe and probably has a more diverse curriculum when it comes to magic origins than Hogwarts (although nowhere near that of Castelobruxo in Brazil).
Greek magic seems to have a focus on the body and the soul, as even the surviving Greek magic in Hogwarts’ curriculum revolves around healing spells. This also ties in with the idea that wand creation magic and horcrux magic are both based on Greek magic, as they involve matters of the body and soul. As eastern Europe would have more of this influence from the Byzantine Empire, it makes sense that Durmstrang would have a tendency towards the more obscure arts. These practices are probably not often seen in Latin, which seems to be the main basis for study at Hogwarts.
Final Note
I am definitely not a historian nor a linguist. I just became interested in this after someone asked me if the Japanese school would use Latin spells. The idea seemed ridiculous to me, so I tried to figure out why anyone would ever use Latin in the first place, especially in a non-romance country. The target was Hogwarts, since this is what we have the most information about.
I spent my birthday doing this. Whoop.
