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Incidentally, I don't think Tolkien would have called himself a "linguist" . . .
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He called himself so, (a "professional linguist") in letter #188 - though he indeed declined that label in other ocasions.
In Myths transformed, Tolkien confessed that he dislikes the presence of so many talking animals, but admits that they cannot be 'excised' from the story. Interestingly enough, he doesn't attribute them a 'rational soul' (neither did he to Huan, Thorondor (blasphemy!), orcs or trolls).