Here's just some more food for thought. This appears in Hammond and Skull's- Lord of the Ring's Companion and is one of Tolkien's letter dated 1968:
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Eldest was the courtesy title of Treebeard as the oldest surviving Ent. The Ents claimed to be the oldest 'speaking people' after the Elves {illegible} until taught the art of speech by the Elves...They were therefore placed after the dwarves in the Old List...since Dwarves had the power of speech from their awaking.
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