An article about Tolkien's languages

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I was passed the article quoted below, and thought that you might all like to read it.

Student researches links between Welsh and Tolkien's Elf language
David Williamson, The Western Mail - The National Newspaper of Wales (published Jan 13th 2003)

Links between Middle Earth and the language and mythology of Wales are now the subject of academic study at Cardiff University.

PhD student Dimitra Dimi, 24, is researching the Welsh influences on the languages which JRR Tolkien created for his characters to speak.

She said, "Tolkien was fascinated by the subject and some of the names are very obviously influenced by it."

"For example Arwen, the Elf princess who marries Aragorn, is very similar to Olwen, the heroine of the Welsh legend of Mabinogion called Culhwch and Olwen."

Tolkien's fascination with Welsh is well-recorded.

As a child, growing up in urban Birmingham, his linguistic imagination was fired by the sight of coal trucks which passed his home on which he read the names of towns such as Nantyglo, Penrhiwceiber and Senghenydd.

He joined other children living on his street in the creation of imaginary languages.

His neighbours had already created "Animalic," to communicate with each other, and Tolkien invented Nevbosh, a "new nonsense."

This childhood fascination never left Tolkien, and he continued to put together "faery languages" for the rest of his life.

In the film version of The Lord of the Rings, Liv Tyler can be heard speaking the Welsh-influenced Elf language of Sindarin.

As a student at Exeter College, Oxford, Tolkien immersed himself in the study of Old English, the Germanic languages, Finnish and Welsh.

This was not his first direct contact with Welsh culture. Father Francis Morgan, a half-Spanish half-Welsh Catholic priest, visited the family regularly and, following the death of his already-widowed mother, took responsibility for the children.

Later, as a professor at Oxford, Tolkien would accomplish ground-breaking studies in the birth of the language of Wales, such as in his essay English and Welsh.

Yet although Tolkien was clearly a brilliant academic, he published infrequently. His passion was in the creation of new languages, often by blending ancient dialects.

Together with his close friend and fellow scholar CS Lewis, the author of the Chronicals of Narnia, Tolkien began writing tales in which the speakers of his imaginary languages engage in struggles inspired by the mythology to which he devoted his studies.

For Tolkien, knowing how his characters would speak was essential to the success of a story. He said "The making of language and mythology are related functions. Your language construction will breed a myth-ology."

Tolkien was astonished by his his books' success, which became a publishing phenomenon when a pirated paperback 1965 version of Lord of the Rings appeared in the United States. He was plagued by Californians who, unaware of the time difference, telephoned him in the middle of the night to ask arcane questions about Hobbit lore.

In trying to interpret the success of his literature, Tolkien attributed the persistence of his readers' fascination to the sense that they are reading takes from a fully-formed world complete with its own languages and myths; a place of inexhaustable mysteries.

He wrote, "Part of the attraction of the L.R. is, I think due to the the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist. To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new attainable vistas are again revealed."

In connecting Norse and Celtic myths, Tolkien returned to the syntax of Welsh to create a vocabulary with which he could fashion truly British legends.

He wrote in English and Welsh, "Welsh is of this soil, this island, the senior language of the men of Britain: and Welsh is beautiful."

However, despite such influences, Welsh-speakers will have difficulty understanding the Elves.

Professor John Hines of Cardiff University said, "I speak Welsh myself, but it all sounds like gibberish to me."

It makes some mistakes with chronology and sacrifices accuracy for simplicity in places, but what a fantastic PhD subject that person has chosen! It's also well worth reading for the fascinating information about Tolkien and his sources; I'm not sure that I like the closing quotation much, though.

[Beren87]

He joined other children living on his street in the creation of imaginary languages.

His neighbours had already created "Animalic," to communicate with each other, and Tolkien invented Nevbosh, a "new nonsense."

Actually that wasn't with the "children on his street", if I'm not mistaken that was with his cousins that he created Animalic. Not much remains of Animalic, but one phrase I remember is "Dog nightingale woodpecker forty". Which means of course, "You are an *** "

Mary and Marjorie Incledon (his cousins) lived in the neighboring village actually, and were only seen by John and his brother in the holiday periods. However the older sister Marjorie lost interested in Animalic early on, and it was only Mary and John who created Nevbosh (or New-nonsense).

They leave out other languages that he also created however. "Naffarin" he created using the spanish of Father Francis as a guide, as he couldn't find a Welsh primer.

However, Naffarin soon fell out of interest for Tolkien because he found Gothic. It was in Gothic that he next based his language around, though his private journals don't tell a lot about what he created. It wasn't a whole new language he was creating in Gothic, but simply adding into it as many many words are missing. Then, however, he moved on to creating a new Germanic language that was "historic but never-recorded".

They leave out another important point, I think, too. That is of Tolkien's invention of not just languages but the alphabets to go along with them. He did this at a very early age, from simply replacing english characters with new ones, to creating alphabets for whole new systems of language.

[ March 20, 2003: Message edited by: Beren87 ]

[The Saucepan Man]

Great article, Squatter, though I agree with you about the closing remark.

Having Welsh roots, I am interested in the idea of the Elvish language being derived from Welsh. One thing that occurred to me while reading the article is that in both Welsh and Elvish "dh" is (I think) pronounced "th". Does anyone know of any other similarities?

He was plagued by Californians who, unaware of the time difference, telephoned him in the middle of the night to ask arcane questions about Hobbit lore.

Were he still alive, he would no doubt be plagued by similar questions from BD'ers. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[SarumanCymraeg]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

Having Welsh roots, I am interested in the idea of the Elvish language being derived from Welsh. One thing that occurred to me while reading the article is that in both Welsh and Elvish "dh" is (I think) pronounced "th". Does anyone know of any other similarities?

The 'dh' in Sindarin Elvish is pronounced as the 'th' in words such as 'then' or 'those'. In Welsh the equivalent is 'dd'. The letter 'ch' also appears in Sindarin, which is pronounced as the 'ch' in a Scottish 'loch' or the composer 'Bach'.

Not many Sindarin words are directly influenced from Welsh, apart from oddities such as 'galad' (light) which derives from 'golau'. Caradhras comes from 'Cader Idris', a mountain in Wales.

However, there is one striking similarity between Welsh and Sindarin and that's the 'goben'. Ever heard people say that Welsh people speak 'poetically' (in Welsh or English)? The 'goben' is the reason why (and you'll notice that it is retained by non-Welsh speakers as well). In Welsh the accent on any word of more than one syllable is in the 'goben', which is the last syllable but one. Tolkien states that this is the case also with Elvish. For example, one would say CARas GalADHon, not CarAS GALadhon (as Haldir said in the FR movie). Galadriel's monologue at the beginning of the films was also slightly incorrect, as it should have been...

I AMar PRESTar Aen
Han MATHon ne nen
Han MATHon ne chae
A han NOSTon ned 'WILith


Hope that's a small help!