The French Word For “Muggle” Is Almost As Basic As “No-Maj”
The French may gladly die for love, but hopefully they’re not as dead set with their linguistics choices.
TheFantastic Beastsfranchise is proving itself to be quite the globetrotting series, taking place first in New York City before jetting off to Paris forFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. And with Paris come French witches and wizards, who have their own lingo for non-magical people.Fantastic BeastsdirectorDavid Yateshas revealed what that French word for “muggle” is, and to be frank, it’s a bit disappointing.
WhenFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themopened in theaters in 2016, we learned that American wizards had a different phrase for non-magical people than their U.K. counterparts: “No-Maj.” And if you thought that was silly, well, you’re about to experience some…déjà vu.
David Yates reveals that the French word for “muggle” is: “Non-magique.”
Pardon my French, but that is simplyterrible. If you didn’t guess it, “non-magique” means literally “no-magic.” So why am I so disappointed in this reveal when it’s no different than the American version? First, because I’d expect it of American wizards. Historically, the American language has made a habit of abbreviating words into slang or commonly used phrases. Moving pictures became “movies,” a gymnasium is more commonly called a gym, soda pop is either called “soda” or “pop” depending on whether you live in the Midwest or not. Culturally, it makes sense that Americans would have a bastardized word to refer to muggles, but I’d expect better of the French — they’re in charge of the language of romance after all.
But what’s done is done, and J.K. Rowling probably okayed this lame, disappointing French version of the word. However, Yates promises that at least the setting of the secondFantastic Beastsfilm will live up to our expectations. “[The wizarding world in Paris is] quite glamorous, it’s quite beautiful, Yates toldEntertainment Weekl.y. “There’s a community that lives alongside the muggle community, it’s much freer than in New York, where there’s segregation. Paris is a bit like England, actually, not so hung up about the differences between the two. Magical people can freely move into non-magical communities as long as they’re discrete about their talents…”
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of GrindelwaldfollowsNewt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as he travels to Paris to team up with his old professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to hunt the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp). They’re joined by Newt’s American friends from the first film, Tina (Katherine Waterston), Jacob (Dan Fogler), and Queenie (Alison Sudol).
Here is the synopsis forFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald:
Magizoologist Newt Scamander joins forces with young Albus Dumbledore to prevent the devious Gellert Grindelwald from raising pure-blood wizards to rule over all non-magical beings.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwaldopens in theaters onNovember 16, 2018.
