On linguistic changes: have you read Quendi and Eldar, and The Shibboleth of Feanor? Tolkien commented that the Elves delighted in change, including changes in language; they altered their tongues often not because they had to but because they chose to. (Extreme consrrvatism seems to have been a trait of the "fallen" Elves of the later ages, engaged in a sort of cultural taxidermy.)
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.
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