Witches and wizards found in fantasy literature reveal themselves as magical not only through their actions and outward appearances but also through their speech. In The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Gandalf adorns his head with a pointy gray hat and carries a wooden staff. The witches in Whispering to Witches by Anna Dale dress in black and send messages on leaves to other covens with windsprites. Dumbledore has silver hair that tucks into the belt of his purple robes and extinguishes streetlights with a Put-Outer in the Harry Potter series. However, these witches and wizards clearly also sound witchy. Thus, through their witchy speech, which follows the prescriptive grammar of the highest registers, witches and wizards expose their magical natures.

During his exhaustive search for information about Nicolas Flamel in Sorcerer's Stone, Harry stumbles upon the Mirror of Erised. After Dumbledore explains the image the mirror shows, Harry wants to know what Dumbledore sees when the headmaster looks in it. When Dumbledore tells Harry that he sees himself holding a pair of socks, Harry stares at the headmaster in reply. Dumbledore then continues, "One can never have enough socks." (Stone 214) "One," which is the subject of the sentence, is an impersonal pronoun. As Lester Faigley suggests in The Brief Penguin Handbook, the nominative case of the impersonal pronoun "one" should be avoided for stylistic and agreement problems (411). He also suggests substituting "one" with the second-person personal pronoun "you" for better sentence construction (Faigley 411). Lester Faigley, however, is a dolt. "One" as a pronoun is used to refer to an unspecified person. For example, the way in which Dumbledore uses "one" means a human being can never have enough socks. He is not speaking to or about a specific person or persons. If he were making the statement in front of a crowd, then Dumbledore would be gesturing towards his audience but to no one in particular. Thus, Dumbledore follows the prescriptive grammar of the highest registers, which instructs "one" and only "one" can be used as an impersonal pronoun.

Conversely, "you" is a personal pronoun that refers to a specific person, most typically the person to whom the speaker is talking. If Dumbledore used "you" instead of "one," he would be speaking about Harry, meaning that Harry can never have enough socks. When Faigley suggests replacing the impersonal pronoun "you" with the personal pronoun "you" (Faigley 411), he is exemplifying the shift in English grammar to including "you" in the list of impersonal pronouns ("Generic"). Because an overuse of "one" can sound awkward and unnatural — one must tie one's shoe before one runs to avoid hurting oneself — "you" has taken its place in less formal registers. As such, "you can never have enough socks" can have the same meaning as "one can never have enough socks" in all but the highest registers. However, Dumbledore is a wizard. He uses "one" when is he referring to an unspecified person since only "one" is acceptable in the most formal and highest academic registers. Dumbledore thus asserts his identity as a wizard through his witchy speech with his use of the impersonal pronoun "one."

After Harry escapes from the Chamber in Chamber of Secrets, he questions why the Sorting Hat placed him in Gryffindor House instead of Slytherin House even though he bears a striking likeness to Tom Riddle, who was in Slytherin before transforming into Voldemort. Harry eventually answers his own question by telling Dumbledore that he asked the Sorting Hat not to put him in Slytherin. Dumbledore replies, "Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle." (Chamber 333) In stating so, Dumbledore follows the traditional style recommendation concerning prepositions by using the phrase "different from" as opposed to "different than." Although "different than" is commonly used in everyday speech and less formal registers of writing, only "different from" is acceptable in the highest registers (Hopper 166). However, "different than" is gaining acceptance when followed by some sort of clause (Felts). For example, if Dumbledore were to change his statement to "the way Harry Potter acts is different than the way Tom Riddle acts," then "different than" is acceptable in all but the highest academic registers because a noun phrase modified by a clause — "the way Tom Riddle acts" — follows the preposition. Nevertheless, Dumbledore uses the phrase "different from," which only is considered correct in the highest registers. As such, he affirms himself as a wizard through his witchy, and thus formal, speech.

When Joe Binks is unable to answer why every copy of Mabel's Book is missing page five hundred and thirteen while perusing the Midnight Market with Twiggy in Whispering to Witches, the witch behind the book table asks him, "To which coven do you belong?" (Dale 125) In the sentence [1], "to which coven" is the adverbial complement of the verb phrase "do belong" because it completes the verb. If changed from an interrogative to a declaration, the statement would read "you belong to which coven." In either sentence type, "which coven" is clearly the object of the preposition "to." However, had the witch behind the book table chosen to use the grammar of a lower register, she could have asked the same question but with a slightly different structure: "Which coven do you belong to?" In such a sentence [2], "to" is the adverbial complement, and "which coven" is still the object of the preposition.

However, the object of the preposition is less obvious because it does not directly follow the preposition. When a preposition is lacking or separated from its object, it is considered marooned (Hopper 31). Nevertheless, the preposition and the noun phrase together are still semantically the adverbial complement.

According to prescriptive grammar, although possible and common in English, particularly spoken varieties, marooned prepositions should be avoided in the highest registers. Instead, prepositions should be pied-piped as in the original example of what the witch behind the table asks Joe: "To which coven do you belong?" First described by linguist John R. Ross, pied-piping occurs in a prepositional phrase when a correctly marooned preposition is moved to the fronted position of its object. Objects of pied-piped prepositions always begin with a wh-word: whom, where, whence, whither, which, what, whose, when, and how ("Wh-movement"). Like "different from" and "different than," marooned prepositions are acceptable in lower registers such as everyday speech and informal writing while only pied-piped prepositions are considered corrected in the highest registers such as academia and witchy speech. Therefore, the witch behind the book table in Whispering to Witches narrates her magical nature through her high register of grammar.

During the first meeting of the Dueling Club in Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart loses both his balance and his wand when Snape hits him with a Disarming Charm. But, as always, once Lockhart gathers himself together again, he pompously states, "[Y]es, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do." (Chamber 190-191) In the sentence [3], the function of the noun clause "my saying so" is the direct object of the verb phrase "don't mind" because "my saying so" receives the action of the verb. However, the form of the direct object is not a noun phrase as the majority of direct objects are. Instead, the form of the noun clause "my saying so" is a gerund phrase, which always contains at least a gerund but also other words that complete the noun clause. Unlike a typical noun, which is simply a noun, a gerund is a verb in the form of a present participle that acts like a noun (Smith). "Saying" is the present participle of the verb "say" and could therefore be a verb, adjective, or gerund. But, because it is performing the function of direct object, which can only be performed by a noun phrase, "saying" is a gerund.

Since gerund phrases are generated from other sentences (Smith), the example of what Lockhart says to Snape — "you don't mind my saying so" — can be peeled apart into two subject-verb-object sentences: "I say so" and "you don't mind this." In the original sentence, a gerund phrase created from "I say so" replaces the pronoun "this," which is the direct object. To construct the gerund phrase "my saying so" from "I say so," the verb is first conjugated into the present participle (Smith). Like other nouns, gerunds can be preceded by a determiner. In the example "you don't mind my saying so," the gerund "saying" is determined by the possessive adjective "my," which effectively replaces the nominative pronoun "I" to maintain a sense of the subject in the gerund phrase (Smith). According to the traditional rule of prescriptive grammar, only forms such as articles, demonstratives, and possessive adjectives [4] can function as determiners for gerunds (Smith).

Like with "you" as an impersonal pronoun, however, the use of objective pronouns [5] as determiners for gerunds is gaining acceptance in all but the highest registers.

As such, "you don't mind me saying so" would not be considered incorrect in everyday speech and informal writing. The problem with "me" arises, though, in that the objective pronoun "me" technically becomes the direct object of "don't mind" with "saying so" modifying the pronoun. With "me," "saying" is no longer the direct object. Thus, Lockhart as a proper although pompous wizard uses the prescriptively correct "my" instead of "me," which reflects the high register of witchy speech.

Even though Gandalf convinced Bilbo to accompany the group of dwarves as a burglar on their adventure to the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit, the wizard frequently slips away from the travellers. However, after the incident during which the dwarves are almost eaten by three trolls, Gandalf decides to lead the journey for a while. As the group reaches the beginning of the Misty Mountains, he says, "We must not miss the road, or we shall be done for." (Tolkien 46) In the sentence, Gandalf uses two modal auxiliary verbs, the second of which is "shall." Because English does not have a future verb tense, modal verbs such as "shall" and also "will" are used to express the future as well as orders and requests. The subtle difference between the two words is that "shall" indicates command or obligation and "will" indicates wish or desire ("Shall"). As Gandalf says, if the travellers fail to take the right road through the Misty Mountains, they will be obligated to die because only one path is the correct path. They do not wish to die but rather to reach the Lonely Mountain, which marks the desired destination of their journey, but all other roads except the correct road lead to death. Thus, "shall" is the correct modal auxiliary verb according to traditional prescriptive grammar because of a mandate to die as opposed to a request.

Along with command or obligation, "shall" is also used to express the future tense for the first person subjects "I" and "we," particularly in England ("Helping"). In fact, while American English leans towards the use of the modal "will" to indicate a future tense for all persons, British English still consistently prefers the modal "shall" for both the singular and plural first person (Faigley 515). For example, "I shall learn the subtle distinction between 'shall' and 'will'" is generally used in England as opposed to "I will learn the subtle distinction between 'shall' and 'will,'" which is likewise more generally used in the United States. Nevertheless, prescriptive grammar for formal writing hitherto indicates that "shall" should be used for first-person subject and "will" should be used for second- and third-person subjects to express the future tense. Therefore, "shall" is correctly used in the statement Gandalf gives Bilbo and the dwarves because the subject of the sentence is the first-person "we." In either case — future tense or obligation — Gandalf correctly uses the modal auxiliary verb "shall" according to the prescriptive grammar of the highest registers and ultimately asserts himself as a wizard through his witchy speech.

In Half-Blood Prince, Narcissa Malfoy sneaks to the very last house on a street called Spinner's End accompanied by her sister. Before Bellatrix can stop her, Narcissa knocks on the door and is quickly greeted by a pale man with greasy black hair and a hooked nose. Tensely, she whispers through the crack in the door, "May I speak to you?" (Prince 22) Like in the previous "we shall be done for" (Tolkien 46), the distinction between the modals "may" and "can" is similar to "shall" and "will." In the highest registers of English, "may" expresses permission while "can" expresses ability ("Helping"). Narcissa therefore correctly uses the modal auxiliary verb "may" to ask for authorization to speak with the man at the door. Dissimilarly, if she were to ask "can I speak to you," she would be questioning her ability to participate in the physical act of speaking. However, like other areas of English grammar that are dictated by prescriptions from the highest registers, "can" has completed the shift to also expressing permission in all but the most formal and academic writing ("Helping"). Regardless of its changing definition, Narcissa rejects the modal auxiliary verb "can" when asking for permission and uses "may" instead. In doing so, she fortifies through her witchy speech her identity as a witch.

Even though witches and wizards often dress and act in ways that disclose their witchiness, they also reveal their magical natures through their witchy speech. Unlike Muggles in their everyday conversations, Dumbledore correctly uses the impersonal pronoun "one" as opposed to the personal pronoun "you" when referring to an unspecified person. Similarly, the bookseller witch at the Midnight Market in Whispering to Witches pied-pipes her prepositions instead of marooning them. Even Gandalf exposes himself as a wizard through his accurate traditional use of the modal auxiliary verb "shall." Witches and wizards in fantasy literature not only appear witchy but sound witchy as well because of their absolute adherence to the prescriptive English grammar of the highest registers.

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—. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. New York: Scholastic, 1997.

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