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I would like to begin my discussion of language by talking about the creator himself. J.R.R Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University. He was a philologist, a word that is now referred to as a historical linguist. He would study written historical sources for literary criticism, history, and linguistic purposes. Tolkien loved old languages, and eventually, those languages became a source of inspiration for the creation of Elvish.
Tolkien was a good professor. Students loved his many lectures on Beowulf. “ He would come quietly into the room, fix the audience with his gaze, and suddenly begin to declaim in a resounding voice the opening lines of the poem in the original Anglo-Saxon. It was not so much a recitation as a dramatic performance, an impersonation of an Anglo-Saxon bard in a mead hall.” (Carpenter 137).
Tolkien began his love of language at a very young age. In a letter Tolkien had written in 1955 to W.H Auden, Tolkien stated “ I first tried to write a story when I was about seven. It was about a dragon. I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say ‘a green great dragon’, but had to say ‘a great green dragon’. I wondered why and still do. “ (Letters From J.R.R Tolkien 214).
Tolkien did not originally begin creating Elvish. His first language that he tried to make was called “Gautisk”. He abandoned this language however and began working on what would eventually be Quenya (Adams 97). Finnish and German heavily influenced Tolkien when he created Elvish. He originally stumbled upon the legends of Finnish Kalevala where he fell in love with Finnish lore. Some words in Elvish were almost directly copied from the Finnish lexicon. For example, in Quenya, the word for gold is Kulu. In Finnish, the word for gold is kulta. In Quenya, the word for path was tie. In Finnish, the word tie meant way (Adams 97).
Tolkien was a good professor. Students loved his many lectures on Beowulf. “ He would come quietly into the room, fix the audience with his gaze, and suddenly begin to declaim in a resounding voice the opening lines of the poem in the original Anglo-Saxon. It was not so much a recitation as a dramatic performance, an impersonation of an Anglo-Saxon bard in a mead hall.” (Carpenter 137).
Tolkien began his love of language at a very young age. In a letter Tolkien had written in 1955 to W.H Auden, Tolkien stated “ I first tried to write a story when I was about seven. It was about a dragon. I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say ‘a green great dragon’, but had to say ‘a great green dragon’. I wondered why and still do. “ (Letters From J.R.R Tolkien 214).
Tolkien did not originally begin creating Elvish. His first language that he tried to make was called “Gautisk”. He abandoned this language however and began working on what would eventually be Quenya (Adams 97). Finnish and German heavily influenced Tolkien when he created Elvish. He originally stumbled upon the legends of Finnish Kalevala where he fell in love with Finnish lore. Some words in Elvish were almost directly copied from the Finnish lexicon. For example, in Quenya, the word for gold is Kulu. In Finnish, the word for gold is kulta. In Quenya, the word for path was tie. In Finnish, the word tie meant way (Adams 97).