I don't think this post is especially worthy of s&p or mature rating, but if it is, my apologies, please mods be so kind of moving it to the relevant subforum.

According to the latest plotshittic developments, it seems that parseltongue is just a phonetic ability (which means you can learn it comfortably in ten easy lessons while you are stuck in your car in a traffic jam if you use Potent Professor Potter's series of tapes or CDs, that include your own shorter-than-ten-inches garden snake for conversation practice and a convenient mopping cloth to clear your windshield out of spittle, all for 20 sickles, available at Flourish & Blotts, Common Creatures Languages section.)

I cannot believe that one thousand years of teenage girls farting, moaning while masturbating and whispering maliciously in the second floor girls' bathroom (bad Pervy Sal, bad) hadn't produced anything similar to the word 'Open' in parseltongue.

Or does intent count, too?

 

I thought that the ability talk to snakes was a genetic thing. Which is why it only shows up in the Gaunt family, it is passed down by genetics. It doesn't make sense that a person who isn't capable of talking to snakes cnd speak the language, no mater how bad it was. How in the hell would Ron know what open was in Parseltongue anyway?

 

whatever Harry said to open the locket, that's how he knew.
How he remembered it so well considering he isn't the brightest spark is entirely different.

 

That would be like me, an English speaker, remembering how to correctly say open in swahili when I had heard months ago. It just isn't possible, especially with someone of Ron's intelligence.

 

I wonder if you can use the Rosetta Stone tapes.

 

Maybe the Sylvan learning center can be of some assistance.......?

 

People, you're blowing all of this out of proportion.

Ron imitated one word. One. And even then it came out strangled. This doesn't mean Parseltongue can be learned like any other language, and you people are simply extrapolating and seeing things that are just not there.

 

I think people are more pissed at the fact that JKR has shown that Parseltongue is something that should be impossible for someone who wasn't born with the ability. It would be like Ron suddenly having some ability as a Metamorphmagus, it just shouldn't happen.

Edit: Except Harry, he is a special exception to the rule of Parseltongue.

 

Still, snakes don't have ears. That strongly implies that Parseltongue isn't just a series of sounds that one can imitate but that the act of speaking it is a magic of its own.

You have to be a Parselmouth to understood the language when it's spoken by snakes and other Parselmouths. It stands to reason that you also have to be one in order to be understood by snakes and to trigger effects that require Parseltongue, like the door to the chamber. In that case, imitating the noise shouldn't work because the sound isn't imbued by the magic of a true speaker.

It doesn't matter that it was only one word, it still shouldn't have worked.
If snakes had ears, that would be another matter entirely. It's called internal consistency and it's something her system of magic lacks.

Then again, Rowling also had a snake wink in PS and snakes don't have eyelids. Maybe she's just that clueless.

 

You are correct in that last point Warlocke. JKR has said again and again throughout the series about snakes talking and blinking. Even in DH it is said Nagini watched unblinkingly. I too wanted to yell at the book it maybe because she can't but.......

Actually this whole concept of Parseltongue defies logic just like magic. So lets leave that scientifically snakes are deaf and they hear sound through vibrations on the ground they are lying on and their hiss is actually intended to smell the surroundings and warn enemies.

But in JKR's Potterverse, snakes can hear, blink and talk. When we are within Potterverse what Sree said above is absolutely valid.

 

Well, actually, Harry opened the locket. Ron was opening the Chamber of Secrets, so he actually said it to a sink, or a toilet or some such (I forget which, at the moment).

Though, I must say, this clarification does not, in any way, make your point any less valid, Sree; he's still talking at an inanimate object, after all...

 

Seems far easier to enchant a secret entrance to a hidden lair with a magic that responds to a certain sound (or password) than a magic that recognizes another form of relatively obscure magic. After all, if you're going into your hidden lair chances are you've made sure that there's no one around to see or hear you.

So, it makes perfect sense really.

 

It's very likely that the chamber entrance reacts only to the vocal component of the language. While Ron could probably stumble upon the correct sounds to form the word 'Open', it would most likely still sound like a bunch of gibberish to a snake or parselmouth.

 

When Ron repeated the sound to Harry, Harry didn't understand it- it was described as a hissing noise, if I remember correctly.

EDIT Also, "pidgin-parseltounge" has been canon for years- Ginny isn't a parselmouth, and she opened the chamber. Get over it- it's not new.

 

Umm....She was also being possessed by Tom Riddle. That may have been why she could open the chamber.

PS- To who neg reped me, if you are going to do it, please don't pussy out, leave your name so I know who it was. And please don't do it for something a majority of this forum believes. I thought that "Ron isn't as much of an idiot as you seem to think" was a stupid reason, it seems I pissed off a person who likes Ron. If you had a problem with what I said, PM me and we can talk about it.

 

harry understands and can speak it fluently
maybe ron just emulated wat he said!!

 

Yes, I'm aware of that. Despite being possessed by him, however, she still doesn't have the parseltounge gene. What I meant is that it's been canon for years that someone who wasn't born a parselmouth could emulate minuscule parts of the language.

 

Now that I think about it, wasn't Dumbledore able to decipher Parselmouth words in HBP? That may be fanon I am thinking about, but I am sure that Harry mentioned something like that.