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Here I list the languages of middle earth. I offer a brief explanation of each language and their native speakers (excluding Elvish which I will give detail in another section). The information I used can mainly be found in the back of The Return of The king, in Appendix E and F.
Westron
Also known as the common speech of middle earth, but it is considered to be primarily the speech of men. Westron is used for all inter-lingual meetings. It was also the public language of the Dwarves and the base language for many Orkish tongues (The Return of The King 405). There are some wild men who do not speak Westron, but many at least speak it in a broken form. Hobbits also speak common. They adopted it about 1000 years before the events of The Lord of The Rings. There is no known language particular to Hobbits (Foster 540). It is clear since most of the races of Middle Earth speak Westron, that it is the language of prestige. It is the language that is used for trade and therefore gained power through its economic use. It also grew as the population of men grew in middle earth
Entish
This language is peculiar to all other languages. Tolkien said the Ents “ ascribed not their own language but the desire for speech. The language that they had made was unlike all others: slow, sonorous, agglomerated, repetitive, indeed longwinded; formed a multiplicity of vowel-shades and distinctions of tone and quantity which even the lore-masters of Eldar had not attempted to represent it in writing” (The Return of The King 409). Ents also speak Elvish and Common.
The Black Speech
“It is said that Orcs had no language of their own, but took what they could of other tongues and perverted it to their own liking; yet that made only brutal jargons, scarcely sufficient even for their own needs, unless it were for curses and abuse” (The Return of The King 409). Many dialects of Orkish were created, and because of that, communication between other tribes was extremely difficult. Due to this breakdown in communication, Orcs learned to speak common. The ancient form of Orkish was forgotten by most after Sauron was overthrown for the first time. For that reason, the Naz-gûl were the only ones who remembered it. Trolls, due to their lack of intelligence, spoke very little. But the little they spoke was inherited from the Orcs and Sauron. For that reason, they speak a broken mix of common and Black speech. (The Return of The King 409)
Dwarvish
The Dwarves held on to their language, allowing few outsiders to hear it spoken. For that reason, it is not well known, and has been learned by very few non- Dwarves. The language has not changed much over their years due to the lack of outside exposure. Most Dwarven names are from mannish languages such as Westron. (The Return of The King 410).
Author Note
Some of you may be asking why I am covering the other languages of middle earth when I am focusing on Elvish. Language is affected by society. Some of these languages were influenced by Elvish and because of that, part of studying Elvish is studying the effect Elvish has had on other languages. In the real world, this would be called language contact. A real life example of language contact would be when European settlers came over to America, and the Native American’s adopted their language.
Westron
Also known as the common speech of middle earth, but it is considered to be primarily the speech of men. Westron is used for all inter-lingual meetings. It was also the public language of the Dwarves and the base language for many Orkish tongues (The Return of The King 405). There are some wild men who do not speak Westron, but many at least speak it in a broken form. Hobbits also speak common. They adopted it about 1000 years before the events of The Lord of The Rings. There is no known language particular to Hobbits (Foster 540). It is clear since most of the races of Middle Earth speak Westron, that it is the language of prestige. It is the language that is used for trade and therefore gained power through its economic use. It also grew as the population of men grew in middle earth
Entish
This language is peculiar to all other languages. Tolkien said the Ents “ ascribed not their own language but the desire for speech. The language that they had made was unlike all others: slow, sonorous, agglomerated, repetitive, indeed longwinded; formed a multiplicity of vowel-shades and distinctions of tone and quantity which even the lore-masters of Eldar had not attempted to represent it in writing” (The Return of The King 409). Ents also speak Elvish and Common.
The Black Speech
“It is said that Orcs had no language of their own, but took what they could of other tongues and perverted it to their own liking; yet that made only brutal jargons, scarcely sufficient even for their own needs, unless it were for curses and abuse” (The Return of The King 409). Many dialects of Orkish were created, and because of that, communication between other tribes was extremely difficult. Due to this breakdown in communication, Orcs learned to speak common. The ancient form of Orkish was forgotten by most after Sauron was overthrown for the first time. For that reason, the Naz-gûl were the only ones who remembered it. Trolls, due to their lack of intelligence, spoke very little. But the little they spoke was inherited from the Orcs and Sauron. For that reason, they speak a broken mix of common and Black speech. (The Return of The King 409)
Dwarvish
The Dwarves held on to their language, allowing few outsiders to hear it spoken. For that reason, it is not well known, and has been learned by very few non- Dwarves. The language has not changed much over their years due to the lack of outside exposure. Most Dwarven names are from mannish languages such as Westron. (The Return of The King 410).
Author Note
Some of you may be asking why I am covering the other languages of middle earth when I am focusing on Elvish. Language is affected by society. Some of these languages were influenced by Elvish and because of that, part of studying Elvish is studying the effect Elvish has had on other languages. In the real world, this would be called language contact. A real life example of language contact would be when European settlers came over to America, and the Native American’s adopted their language.