04-10-2002, 09:34 PM
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#19
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Dead Man of Dunharrow
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 651
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From The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F:
Quote:
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Hobbit is an invention. In the Westron the word used, when the people was referred to at all, was banakil 'halfling'. But at this date the folk of the Shire anof Bree used the word kuduk, which was not found elsewhere. Meriadoc, however, actually records that the King of Rohanused the word kūd-dūkan 'hole-dweller'. Since, as has been noted, the Hobbits had at one time spoken a language closely related to that of the Rohirrim, it seems likely that kuduk was a worn-down form of kūd-dūkan. The latter I have translated, for reasons explained, by holbytla; and hobbit provides a word that might well be a worn-down form of holbytla, if that name ever occurred in our own ancient language.
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[ April 10, 2002: Message edited by: Bruce MacCulloch ]
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`A blunderbuss, was it?' said he, scratching his head. `I thought it was horseflies!'
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