Elvish languages are constructed languages used by Elves in a fantasy setting. The philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien created the first of these languages, including Quenya and Sindarin.
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Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na'vi real languages? - John McWhorter
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The Constructed Languages of JRR Tolkien (Feat. Lindsay Ellis) | It’s Lit
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Andrew Higgins - "Elvish as She is Filmed": Tolkien’s Elvish Languages in the Peter Jackson Films
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To many, one of the coolest things about "Game of Thrones" is that the inhabitants of the Dothraki Sea have their own real language. And Dothraki came hot on the heels of the real language that the Na'vi speak in "Avatar," which, surely, the Na'vi needed when the Klingons in "Star Trek" have had their own whole language since 1979. And let's not forget the Elvish languages in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, especially since that was the official grandfather of the fantasy conlangs. Conlang is short for constructed language. They're more than codes like Pig Latin, and they're not just collections of fabricated slang like the Nadsat lingo that the teen hoodlums in "A Clockwork Orange" speak, where droog from Russian happens to mean friend. What makes conlangs real languages isn't the number of words they have. It helps, of course, to have a lot of words. Dothraki has thousands of words. Na'vi started with 1500 words. Fans on websites have steadily created more. But we can see the difference between vocabulary alone and what makes a real language from a look at how Tolkien put together grand old Elvish, a conlang with several thousands words. After all, you could memorize 5,000 words of Russian and still be barely able to construct a sentence. A four-year-old would talk rings around you. That's because you have to know how to put the words together. That is, a real language has grammar. Elvish does. In English, to make a verb past, you add an "-ed". Wash, washed. In Elvish, wash is allu and washed is allune. Real languages also change over time. There's no such thing as a language that's the same today as it was a thousand years ago. As people speak, they drift into new habits, shed old ones, make mistakes, and get creative. Today, one says, "Give us today our daily bread." In Old English, they said, "Urne gedaeghwamlican hlaf syle us todaeg." Things change in conlangs, too. Tolkien charted out ancient and newer versions of Elvish. When the first Elves awoke at Cuivienen, in their new language, the word for people was kwendi, but in the language of one of the groups that moved away, Teleri, over time, kwendi became pendi, with the k turning into a p. And just like real languages, conlangs like Elvish split off into many. When the Romans transplanted Latin across Europe, French, Spanish, and Italian were born. When groups move to different places, over time their ways of speaking grow apart, just like everything else about them. Thus, Latin's word for hand was manus, but in French, it became main, while in Spain it became mano. Tolkien made sure Elvish did the same kind of thing. While that original word kwendi became pendi among the Teleri, among the Avari, who spread throughout Middle Earth, it became kindi when the w dropped out. The Elvish varieties Tolkien fleshed out the most are Quenya and Sindarin, and their words are different in the same way French and Spanish are. Quenya has suc for drink, Sindarin has sog. And as you know, real languages are messy. That's because they change, and change has a way of working against order, just like in a living room or on a bookshelf. Real languages are never perfectly logical. That's why Tolkien made sure that Elvish had plenty of exceptions. Lots of verbs are conjugated in ways you just have to know. Take even the word know. In the past, it's knew, which isn't explained by any of the rules in English. Oh well. In Elvish, know is ista, but knew is sinte. Oh well. The truth is, though, that Elvish is more a sketch for a real language than a whole one. For Tolkien, Elvish was a hobby rather than an attempt to create something people could actually speak. Much of the Elvish the characters in the "Lord of the Rings" movies speak has been made up since Tolkien by dedicated fans of Elvish based on guesses as to what Tolkien would have constructed. That's the best we can do for Elvish because there are no actual Elves around to speak it for us. But the modern conlangs go further. Dothraki, Na'vi, and Klingon are developed enough that you can actually speak them. Here's a translation of "Hamlet" into Klingon, although performing it would mean getting used to pronouncing k with your uvula, that weird, cartoony thing hanging in the back of your throat. Believe it or not, you actually do that in plenty of languages around the world, like Eskimo ones. Pronouncing Elvish is much easier, though. So, let's take our leave for now from this introduction to conlangs in Elvish and the other three conglangs discussed with a heartfelt quad-conlangual valedictory: "A na marie!" "Hajas!" Na'vi's "Kiyevame!" "Qapla!" and "Goodbye!"
Tolkien's Elvish languages
The philologist and high fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien created many languages for his Elves, leading him to create the mythology of his Middle-earth books, complete with multiple divisions of the Elves, to speak the languages he had constructed. The languages have quickly spread in modern-day use. His interest was primarily philological, and he stated that his stories grew out of his languages.[1] The languages were the first thing Tolkien created for his mythos, starting with what he originally called "Qenya", the first primitive form of Elvish. This was later called Quenya (High-elven) and is one of the two most complete of Tolkien's languages (the other being Sindarin, or Grey-elven). The phonology and grammar of Quenya are influenced by Finnish, while Sindarin is influenced by Welsh.[2]
Internal history of Tolkien's Elvish languages | ||||||
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Primitive Quendian the tongue of all Elves at Cuiviénen | ||||||
Common Eldarin the tongue of the Elves during the March |
Avarin combined languages of the Avari (at least six), some later merged with Nandorin | |||||
Quenya the language of the Ñoldor and the Vanyar |
Common Telerin the early language of all the Lindar | |||||
Quendya also Vanyarin Quenya, daily tongue of the Vanyar |
Exilic Quenya also Ñoldorin Quenya, colloquial speech of the Noldor |
Telerin the language of the Teleri who reached the Undying Lands; a dialect of Quenya |
Sindarin language of the Sindar |
Nandorin languages of the Nandor, some were influenced by Avarin |
Tolkien conceived a family tree of Elvish languages, all descending from a common ancestor called Primitive Quendian. He worked extensively on how the languages diverged from Primitive Quendian over time, in phonology and grammar, in imitation of the development of real language families.[3] In addition to Quenya and Sindarin, he sketched several other Elvish languages in far less detail, such as Telerin, Nandorin, and Avarin.
In addition to Tolkien's original lexicon, many fans have contributed words and phrases, attempting to create a language that can be fully used in reality.[4]
Other Elvish languages
Since Tolkien, others have invented Elvish languages in their own fiction. Some have borrowed sounds, forms, and whole words from Tolkien's Elvish languages.[5]
Language | Creator | Setting | Based on | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Ancient Language | Christopher Paolini | The Inheritance Cycle | Old Norse, Tolkien[5] | Used by elves and by the riders and other magic users to cast spells. It was the language of the now extinct Grey Folk. One cannot lie in the Ancient Language and one is bound by what one says in it. |
Ellylon and Hen Llinge (Elder Speech) | Andrzej Sapkowski | The Witcher saga | Welsh, Irish, French and English | [6][7] |
Eltharin | Warhammer Fantasy | Has its own font.[8] Includes Fan-Eltharin, the language of the Wood Elves; Tar-Eltharin, the language of the Sea Elves and High Elves; Druhir, the language of the Dark Elves | ||
Elvish | Gael Baudino | Strands series | Romance languages | [9] |
Elvish | Warcraft universe | Superficially resembles Tolkien's Elvish | Darnassian, Nazja, and Thalassian[10] are considered the modern elvish tongues spoken by the modern Kaldorei, the Naga, and the highborne (respectively), while Elvish itself is an ancient tongue no longer used as a primary language. It is assumed that Elvish is the language from which Darnassian evolved; Darnassian then branched into Nazja, spoken underwater by the Kaldorei that followed Queen Azshara after the sundering, and later on, Thalassian, spoken by the highborne and Blood Elves. | |
Gnommish | Artemis Fowl series | Letter-substitution cipher for English[11] | Sometimes read in a spiral. | |
Ehlnofex | The Elder Scrolls | The Elves, or Mer, use languages derived from ancient Ehlnofex, including Dunmeris, Pyandonean, Orcish (Orsimeris) and Bosmeris.[12] | ||
Shiväisith | David J. Peterson | Thor: The Dark World | Finno-Ugric[13] | The language of the Dark Elves. Written in Todjydheenil runes, based on Nordic runes. |
Övüsi | David J. Peterson | Bright | [14] | |
Hen Llinge (Elder Speech) | David J. Peterson | Netflix's The Witcher | [15] |
References
- ^ Carpenter, Humphrey; Tolkien, Christopher (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. United Kingdom: George Allen & Unwin. Letter No. 165. ISBN 0-04-826005-3.
- ^ From a letter to W. R. Matthews, dated 13–15 June 1964, published in Parma Eldalamberon (17), p. 135.
- ^ J. R. R. Tolkien, "Tengwesta Qenderinwa", Parma Eldalamberon 18, p. 72
- ^ Solopova, Elizabeth (2009). Languages, Myths and History: An Introduction to the Linguistic and Literary Background of J. R. R. Tolkien's Fiction. New York City: North Landing Books. "Invented Languages". ISBN 978-0-9816607-1-4.
- ^ a b "More of the 'Rings' magic". USA Today. 20 January 2004.
- ^ Ruszkowski, Marek (2004). Wielojęzyczność w perspektywie stylistyki i poetyki. Wydawnictwo Akademii Swiętokrzyskiej. p. 98. ISBN 83-7133-232-7.
- ^ "Projekt słownika Starszej Mowy". Archived from the original on 24 March 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
- ^ "Fantasy Fonts: Eltharin". Windswords. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- ^ Barret, David V. (December 1994). "Music and Magic: Interview with Gael Baudino". Interzone Science Fiction and Fantasy. 90: 19–22.
- ^ "Can You Speak Different Languages In Wow? [World of Warcraft]". I Love Languages. Archived from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- ^ Colfer, Eoin (4 October 2004). The Artemis Fowl Files. Artemis Fowl series. Hyperion Books. ISBN 0-786856394. OCLC 55981971.
- ^ "Translation Dictionary". Imperial Library. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
Ehlnofex - the language of the Ehlnofey ... Aldmeri - the language of the Aldmer, the first elves. Most other languages, like Dunmeri and Nedic, stem from here. Very similar to Ehlnofex, but more stable in meaning. ...
- ^ "Counting in Shiväisith". Of Languages and Numbers. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- ^ Peterson, David J. "Övüsi Pronunciation Guide" (PDF). Dedalvs. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- ^ Wahlgren, Yens (2021). The Universal Translator: Everything you need to know about 139 languages that don't really exist. The History Press. p. Pt 65. ISBN 978-0750995924.