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Glossopoeia, the construction of languages, was Tolkien's hobby for most of his life. [1] [2] At a little over 13, he helped construct a sound substitution cypher known as Nevbosh, [T 1] 'new nonsense', which grew to include some elements of actual invented language. Tolkien stated that this was not his first effort in invented languages.
As Tolkien stated: The invention of languages is the foundation. The 'stories' were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes first and the story follows. [T 1] Tolkien created scripts for his Elvish languages, of which the best known are Sarati, Tengwar, and Cirth.
Quenya (pronounced [ˈkʷwɛɲja]) [T 1] is a constructed language, one of those devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for the Elves in his Middle-earth fiction.. Tolkien began devising the language around 1910, and restructured its grammar several times until it reached its final state.
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).
Tolkien constructed languages for the Elves to sound pleasant, and the Black Speech of the evil land of Mordor to sound harsh; poetry suitable for various peoples of his invented world of Middle-earth; and many place-names, chosen to convey the nature of each region.
Khuzdul (pronounced) is a fictional language created by J. R. R. Tolkien, one of the languages of Middle-earth, specifically the secret and private language of the Dwarves. He based its structure and phonology on Semitic languages, primarily Hebrew, with triconsonantal roots of words. Very little is known of the grammar.
Tolkien wrote that "my 'own language' [Quenya] – or series of invented languages – became heavily Finnicized in phonetic pattern and structure." [T 1] On the inspiration for Quenya, he wrote that: The ingredients in Quenya are various, but worked out into a self-consistent character not precisely like any language that I know.
The folklorist and Tolkien scholar Dimitra Fimi writes that the desire to create a national mythology was not unique to Tolkien. Attempts, sometimes fraudulent, with varying degrees of success, had been made in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Scotland, and Wales in the 18th and 19th centuries. [ 14 ]