1. Some Notes About Language

1. Some Notes About Language

The importance of language in a literary work is obviously always that of the embodiment of creation, but in Tolkien words are also set within the text as a part of the history of the creatures as well as the conception of the world they live in. Though for some of the early critics, linguistic consideartions provided by Tolkien on that particular concern had to be left aside:

'Tolkien's own off-hand remarks about the importance of philology to the creative conception of the trilogy need not be taken too seriously'.

(Neil D. Isaacs, as quoted by T.A. Shippey in Tolkien: Author of the Century)

This argument is completely out of place, insofar Tolkien had already explained his intentions for the presence of philology in his work, the most important one being the fact that his invented languages were only to be used in his creations. He made clear that he wasn't by any means trying to be a fatuous specialist, pompously displaying his abilities as a linguistic archaeologist, but on the other hand, he also made clear that he knew perfectly what he was doing with language, for he was yet a philologist:

(On the critics)

Many of them seem to show ignorance or disregard of the clues and information which are provided in notes, renderings, and in the Appendices. Also since linguistic invention is, as an art (or passtime) comparatively rare, it is perhaps not surprising that they show little understanding of the process of how a philologist would go about it.

It must be emphasized that this process of invention was/is a private enterprise undertaken to give pleasure to myself by giving expression to my personal linguistic 'aesthetic' or taste and its fluctuations. It was largely antecedent to the composing of legends and 'histories' in which these languages could be 'realized': and the bulk of the nomenclature is constructed from these pre-existing languages, and where the resulting names have analysable meanings (as is usual) these are relevant solely to the fiction with which they are integrated. The 'source', if any, provided solely the sound-sequence (or suggestions for its stimulus) and its purport in the source is totally irrelevant except in case of Earendil*; see below.

Investigators seem commonly to neglect this fundamental point, although sufficient evidence of 'linguistic construction' is provided in the book and in the appendices.

* [Earendil, as Tolkien later explains in the letter, was an actual Anglo-Saxon term, éarendel, the name for the morning-star]

Letters, 380

(About the linguistical coincidence between Moria and 'the land of Moriah' from the story of Abraham)

This leads to the matter of 'external' history: the actual way in which I came to light on or choose certain sequences of sound to use as names, before they were given a place inside the story. I think, as I said, this is unimportant: the labour involved in my setting out what I know and remember of the process, or in the guess-work of others, would be far greater than the worth of the results. The spoken forms would simply be mere audible forms, and when transferred to the prepared linguistic situation in my story would receive meaning and significance according to that situation, and to the nature of the story told. It would be entirely delusory to refer to the sources of the sound-combinations to discover any meanings overt or hidden.

Letters, 383

On the other hand, scholars defending the importance of language in The Lord of the Rings have focused mainly on written materials when tracing sources for Tolkien's literary creativity, and so they have set their trust and hope almost exclusively into recorded language. So concerning English, Tolkien's languages have been measurable only to Anglo-Saxon and its dialects. But the truth is that those inhabitants of present-day England used 'raw' languages before any written record appeared, before Christian poetry and Bede himself. Islanders spoke regional dialects derived from Insular Celtic, whose main branches were Godelic (which includes Scottish and Irish Gaelic) and Brythonic (which includes Welsh) This note on language is important insofar it is similar to the history of the languages of Tolkien's universe and so offers a contextual approach. Middle-Earth's former languages, created by Elves, were Quenya and Sindarin. This is, at first sight, the only relationship between Britain's former languages and those from Tolkien: just a number. But now, if we turn to mythology and culture without abandoning language, we will come across Celtic mythology when dealing with Celtic dialects. According to Celtic mythology, the first inhabitants of Ireland were the people of the goddess Dana, lesser gods who came by boat from the sun. It is a parallel story to that of the Elves, to whom Tolkien also gave the name of Quendi, 'those who speak'. Unfortunately, though a very interesting approach as it concerns History and Mythology, we cannot consider it a direct source, for Tolkien itself rejected the vinculations of his stories and languages with the Celtic world, with the basis of his personal distaste for the language:

I have no liking at all for Gaelic from Old Irish downwards, as a language, but it is of course of great historical and philological interest, and I have at various times studied it.

Letters, 385

Though being philology a lesser element for Isaacs, in at least three speech forms in The Lord of the Rings, things of the world take their names from an unknown, partially invented language (partially meaning that Tolkien experimented with both borrowings and mixtures of Finnish and Anglo-Saxon). So the essence of Middle Earth itself is language: the world exists as far as it can be "named", there are meanings and signifiers, complete signs to idenitfy the environment. In fact it is not that much important whether language is an actual one or not, but that language is what builds up and shapes "reality". There as many languages as visions of the world in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien gives a brief explanation on every one of them in Appendix F on The Lord of the Rings (1101-1106): firstly the Elvish language, Eldarin, and its major branches Quenya (the High-elven Latin turned to ceremonial use) and Sindarin (the lingua franca also known to Dúnedain Men), and the Common Tongue or Common Speech also known as Westron (from the Mannish dialect spoken in Númenór). Then there are Khuzdul (the speech of Dwarves), the Black Speech of Mordor (a perverted blend of Westron and Elvish used by orcs) and the Entish language (exclusively spoken, never recorded in writings).
At this point we should remark that Elves are the race who gave birth to full languages, that is to say, complete regulated codes of speech and writing, whereas the other races seem to only use oral codes without many rules at all, derived from Elvish (knowledge is presumably transmitted orally, so there is no need for writing. There is a proof for this in the songs which appear all along the book to recall ancient wisdom). Even the One Ring, being from Mordor, has Elvish characters written on it. The words Gandalf can't utter are just a translation to the Black Tongue. The most noticeable fact is that any other language different from Elvish is called either speech or tongue indistinctly.