Words And Their Power

Incantations

It's important to understand the origin of written language to understand how an incantation exerts its power. Incantations are almost always one or two words long. Most incantations we will cover have Latin origins and originate within Europe. Of course different magical practices exist in many other countries as well, but we only have enough class time (this year at least) to study European magic and we must focus on one specific tradition. Latin is one of the oldest known languages that we have a fairly comprehensive grasp of. Most European languages descend from Latin in some form, and even many English words have Latin roots, though there are some exceptions. 

Consider the incantation for the Hover Charm, Levioso. As you'll recall, this spell allows the caster to lift things that they are touching off the ground effortlessly. The Latin root for the incantation, the word "levis", literally means "light of weight." It's also important to understand why an incantation requires precise pronunciation to be effective. Let's take a simple word, like "butter" for example. If we were to say "Please pass the better," people may understand what you mean but they will more than likely be confused as well. There isn't much harm in saying "better" instead of "butter," but consider cases when being slightly off matters a great deal.

Alphabets

The earliest known alphabet is known as the Phoenician Alphabet. This alphabet, dating back to at least 1050 B.C.E., contains ancient forms of most of the letters that we use today. The alphabet didn't have representations for the vowels, which were usually left to the reader to supply themselves. 

Later iterations, such as the Greek, Latin, and later English alphabets, contain specific symbols for the vowels. Figure 1 shows an example of the Latin language. Note that there are many instances of the letter 'V' while no instances of 'U.' In early Latin text the letter 'V' was used as both a consonant and a vowel, while 'U' was only adopted much later to represent the unique 'U' sound.

The Fire-Making Charm

Wand Movement: Curved flick up and down (as a flame)
Willpower: Low to very high depending on the distance of the target and the difficulty of igniting the target.
Concentration: Less needed for a simple light, more needed for a continuous stream of fire. On the target to be ignited.

The Locomotion Charm

Incantation: Locomotor (‘LOH-koh-moh-tor’)
Wand Movement: Full circle with an upward flick toward the target at the end, then pointed where the object should go.
Willpower: Moderate to very high, depending on the distance and weight of the object.
Concentration: Minimal concentration should be maintained on the target object.