The Influence of Linguistics in Tolkien's World

[Periantari Andruil]

"The name "Tolkien" (pron.: Tol-keen; equal stress on both syllables) is believed to be of German origin; Toll-kühn: foolishly brave, or stupidly clever - hence the pseudonym "Oxymore" which he occasionally used."
http://www.lordotrings.com/biography.asp#War

As we all know, Tolkien invents a whole new language in his fantasy world of Middle Earth. He describes the language Elvish extensively in the appendices he provides in the end of ROTK, hoping that all will take note of the importance the Elvish language is. In the Silmarillion, he describes extensively upon how the different race of Elves gradually came to use the Sindarin language the most. His love for languages encouraged him to play around with languages and because of that he made up the beautiful language of Elvish. He is recognized for being one of the finest philologists in the world. His favorite languages were those that belong to those classical languages like Greek and Latin, as well as Welsh, Old English and the Germanic languages. Such exposure to all these languages and the tales and folklore that influenced his writing and creation of the Elvish language has to taken into account and is a reason to his genius.

I note this because i find it amazing how he can make up so many different names of people, geography, things, and creatures.

What does everyone else think? and if anyone has more info, please feel free to share =) :thumbs:

[HobbitFriend]

I think it's so amazing how Tolkien knew so much about languages! The only languages I know are English and a little French.... and the occasion Elvish lines ;) lol But the languages of the book are in themselves a whole new thing. Just imagine if you went through the languages and looked at what the different words meant and the different names, you could possible decipher hidden meanings that Tolkien has placed throughout his books! Perty cool, dontcha think? :cool:

[Gwaihir]

Very cool! He must have been a very smart person in order to be a professor of Oxford University. I thought he made 14 languages in all. :o Isn't that amazing?

[HobbitFriend]

yeah! it's mind boggling! i would never even have the patience to create ONE language myself, never mind fourteen! :o That's amazing right there... let alone the fact that he was a professor at Oxford University AND wrote amazing books like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings! :o He's like the English version of Einstein!.... better! haha

[Periantari Andruil]

I know...Tolkien is surely worthy of the mention of being not only a great author, but a great philoLogist as well :)
I think it was mentioned in the biography of Tolkien that he wanted to be known as a philoLogist...he loved so many languages (except French, I heard)... and his writing shows that he was a master of languages.... The fact that he has a whole glossary of Elvish names and roots is an indication of a very learned man...
It impresses me everytime I read LOTR of the names and geographical locations he made up...
While reading Silmarillion, one sees the necessity to keep flipping back to the glossary because of the abundance of names that he has! =)
As a matter a fact, there are Elvish dictionaries that are published based on Tolkien's creation :)
What other fantasy writer places so much influence on a new and invented language? I think this is a distinguishing characteristic that the Professor has that not many authors share, and that is why LOTR is such a classic for many years to come; not only does it have unforgettable characters, but the language in which it was written, and the inventive creations of names makes Middle Earth a special place indeed!

entdraught
hooray for the Professor =)

[HobbitFriend]

yay! entdraught cheers to that! But not French?! :o that's my second language after English! lol Elvish being my third of course :p Actually, i want to learn Elvish... that's pretty cool that someone would actually invent a whole new language like that and have people actually study and learn it! It's really cool :cool:

[Periantari Andruil]

This is recent news:
Tolkien's word, "orc" made the new Oxford Dictionary as meaning "members of an imaginary race of ugly, aggressive human-like creatures."
so yes, Tolkien has indeed influenced present dictionaries to include his words! =)

[HobbitFriend]

yeah! I saw that on the News page! That's so awesome! He really has influenced language, literature, and even our modern way of life! :stomper: :cool:

[Cuiel Rilwen]

Tolkien was indeed a genious..in many ways...and he lives on not only through his stories but also through his languages. I can't remember where I read this, but it was said on some web- page that Quenya is the second most used manmade language in the world after Esperanto. It's imposible for me to explain how much his work means to me, or how much it continues to touch my life. The only way I can honour him is by keeping the language of Quenya alive.

entdraught

[Periantari Andruil]

It's so important to note that Tolkien's made-up Elvish languages of Quenya and Sindarin is one of the most popular fantasy languages... it's a wonder that people learn them while neglecting real languages! lol =) (and look at our Language forum...Wilwarin and Isiltari do a great job teaching and discussing!)

I just want to bring to attention that we see the importance that Tolkien wanted us to know that the stories are told in another language, and he provides linguistic notes in the beginning of The Hobbit to illustrate this. He writes in the beginning of The Hobbit :
"This is a story of long ago. At that time the languages and letters were quite different from ours of today. English is used to represent lanaguages."

His linguistic influences came from his love of languages. He was lucky to have schoolteachers who had a passion for language and encouraged their students.

For Tolkien, philoLogy was also a branch of genealogy -- the Germanic languages and the historical roots of English spoke to his ancestral roots, for his father had Germanic roots.

So these are just some notes about how Tolkien managed to create a world with so many names and two different languages. =)

[Catz]

i dont think that you can underestimate the importance of languages to the LOTR..........mainly because the languages are why the book exists............the whole thing.......the worlds, the races......the story of one hobbit and a golden ring........all of it came from a world created to provide depth and background for the languages, so that they would have developed naturally, as languages do..........the languages are, in a very real sense, the soul of ME
:catz:

[Periantari Andruil]

That was put very nicely, Catz :thumbs: i couldn't agree more... =)
I also would like to not the his works "was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history' for Elvish tongues." This was the main goal of the Silmarillion i think... Since the Professor was a philoLogist and majored, got his degree in that, he obviously wanted to create a world in which his own language (Elvish)shines through....

I will never cease to be amazed at the amount of languages he wrote about and those appendices in the back of ROTK that explains all the intricacies and details about his world =)

[Frodo's Love]

I've found an interesting article on the influence of linguistics on Tolkien, and how readers became inspired to learn Sindarin or Quenya.

A Secret Vice (http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/vice.htm)

[Periantari Andruil]

Thanks for the link, FL! :thumbs: indeed it is very interesting =)

[Eledhwen]

Thanx FL! That's a really interesting article! :thumbs:

When I was at The Gathering last month I went to Prof Michael Drout's session on Tolkien and Beowulf. He gave so many examples of words and meanings from Old English into Tolkien's ME and how Tolkien often played with language. For instance (I hope I have this right), Theoden is an OE word for "king", so he's King "King". I think this is a complete area of study in itself.... ;)