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Tolkien's Constructed Languages
The English philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien created several constructed languages, mostly related to his fictional world of Middle-earth. Inventing languages, something that he called '' glossopoeia'' (paralleling his idea of ''mythopoeia'' or myth-making), was a lifelong occupation for Tolkien, starting in his teens. Tolkien's glossopoeia has two temporal dimensions: the internal (fictional) timeline of events in Middle-earth described in ''The Silmarillion'' and other writings, and the external timeline of Tolkien's own life during which he often revised and refined his languages and their fictional history. Tolkien scholars have published a substantial volume of Tolkien's linguistic material in the '' History of Middle-earth'' books, and the '' Vinyar Tengwar'' and ''Parma Eldalamberon'' journals. Scholars such as Carl F. Hostetter, David Salo and Elizabeth Solopova have published grammars and studies of the languages. He created a large family of Elvish language ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of literary texts and oral and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist. In older usage, especially British, philology is more general, covering comparative and historical linguistics. Classical philology studies classical languages. Classical philology principally originated from the Library of Pergamum and the Library of Alexandria around the fourth century BC, continued by Greeks and Romans throughout the Roman and Byzantine Empire. It was eventually resumed by European scholars of the Renaissance, where it was soon joined by philologies of other European ( Romance, Germanic, Celtic, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adûnaic
Adûnaic (or Númenórean) ("language of the West") is one of the fictional languages devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for his fantasy works. One of the languages of Arda in Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, Adûnaic was spoken by the Men of Númenor during the Second Age. By the time of the War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age, it had developed into the common speech or Westron. Fictional history Adûnaic was invented by the first Men as they awoke in Hildórien. It was the language of Númenor, and after its destruction in the Akallabêth, the "native speech" of the people of Elendil in the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor in the west of Middle-earth, though they usually spoke the Elvish language Sindarin. By the time of the War of the Ring, it had developed into the common speech or Westron. Tolkien called Adûnaic "the language of the culturally and politically influential Númenóreans." Concept and creation Although Tolkien created very few original wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Auxiliary Language
An international auxiliary language (sometimes acronymized as IAL or contracted as auxlang) is a language meant for communication between people from different nations, who do not share a common first language. An auxiliary language is primarily a foreign language and often a constructed language. The concept is related to but separate from the idea of a ''lingua franca'' (or dominant language) that people must use to communicate. The study of international auxiliary languages is interlinguistics. The term "auxiliary" implies that it is intended to be an additional language for communication between the people of the world, rather than to replace their native languages. Often, the term is used specifically to refer to planned or constructed languages proposed to ease international communication, such as Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua. It usually takes words from widely spoken languages. However, it can also refer to the concept of such a language being determined by international co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artistic Language
An artistic language, or artlang, is a constructed language designed for aesthetic and phonetic pleasure. Constructed languages can be artistic to the extent that artists use it as a source of creativity in art, poetry, calligraphy or as a metaphor to address themes such as cultural diversity and the vulnerability of the individual in a globalizing world. They can also be used to test linguistical theories, such as Linguistic relativity. Unlike engineered languages or auxiliary languages, artistic languages often have irregular grammar systems, much like natural languages. Many are designed within the context of fictional worlds, such as J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Others can represent fictional languages in a world not patently different from the real world, or have no particular fictional background attached. Genres Several different genres of constructed languages are classified as 'artistic'. An artistic language may fall into any one of the following groups, dependi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Secret Vice
"A Secret Vice", also known as "A Hobby for The Home", is a lecture first presented by English philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien in 1931. The lecture concerns Tolkien's relations with and view on constructed languages, in particular on artistic languages. In the talk, Tolkien discusses the human desire to make languages, and his criteria to create a good language – these include phonoaesthetics (the beauty of sounds) and the presence of a mythology to accompany the language. Tolkien's presentation was the first instance of him openly exhibiting his hobby of conlanging, and includes examples of several of his languages. The talk was first published in essay form in 1983, in an anthology of Tolkien's previously unpublished works edited by his son, Christopher. In 2016, an extended edition was published, with material missing from earlier versions, new manuscript material, and a collection of essays concerning Tolkien and constructed languages. This version was edited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tolkien And The Great War
''Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth'' is a 2003 biography by John Garth of the philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien's early life, focusing on his formative military experiences during the First World War. The book was warmly welcomed by Tolkien scholars as filling in an important gap in biographical coverage. Christian scholars too admired the book, though Ralph C. Wood thought that it underplayed the importance of Tolkien's Christianity. A reviewer for the Western Front Association thought the account of Tolkien's military service especially good. The book was called "plodding" by Tolkien's biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, but praised by other commentators. The book won the 2004 Mythopoeic Award for Inklings Studies. It has prompted scholars to examine the influence of the war on Tolkien's writings. Context J. R. R. Tolkien was an English Roman Catholic writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the high fan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Garth (author)
John Garth is a British journalist and author, known especially for writings about J. R. R. Tolkien including his biography ''Tolkien and the Great War'' and a book on the places that inspired Middle-earth, '' The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien''. He won a 2004 Mythopoeic Award for Scholarship for his work on Tolkien. The biography influenced much Tolkien scholarship in the subsequent decades. Biography John Garth read English at St Anne's College, Oxford. He trained as a journalist and worked for 18 years in newspapers including the ''Evening Standard'' in London. He then became a freelance author specialising in J. R. R. Tolkien, while continuing to contribute newspaper articles. Among his works of Tolkien scholarship are two monographs, namely the 2003 '' Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth'' and the 2020 '' The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth''. His many articles and chapters on Tolkien include "A Brief Biography" in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germanic Heroic Age
The Germanic (or "German") Heroic Age, so called in analogy to the Heroic Age of Greek mythology, is the period of early historic or quasi-historic events reflected in Germanic heroic poetry, often expressed in alliterative verse. Periodisation The period corresponds to the Germanic Wars in terms of historiography, and to the Germanic Iron Age in terms of archaeology, spanning the early centuries of the 1st millennium, in particular the 4th and 5th centuries, the period of the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the establishment of stable "barbarian kingdoms" larger than at the tribal level (the kingdoms of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths, the Franks and the Burgundians, and the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain). The Germanic peoples at the time lived mostly in tribal societies. William Paton Ker in ''Epic and Romance'' (1897) takes the "heroic age" as predating the "age of chivalry" with its new literary genre of '' Romance''. Ker would thus extend the Germanic hero ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translations of Beowulf, most often translated works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025 AD. Scholars call the anonymous author the "''Beowulf'' poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 5th and 6th centuries. Beowulf (hero), Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes (Germanic tribe), Danes, whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel for twelve years. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother takes revenge and is in turn defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old English Language
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century, and the first Old English literature dates from the mid-7th century. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, English was replaced for several centuries by Anglo-Norman (a type of French) as the language of the upper classes. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, since during the subsequent period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, developing into what is now known as Middle English in England and Early Scots in Scotland. Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or Ingvaeonic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. As the Germanic settlers became dominant in England, their language re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germanic Languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, English language, English, is also the world's most List of languages by total number of speakers, widely spoken language with an estimated 2 billion speakers. All Germanic languages are derived from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic, spoken in Iron Age Scandinavia, History of Germany#Iron Age, Iron Age Northern Germany and along the North Sea and Baltic coasts. The West Germanic languages include the three most widely spoken Germanic languages: English language, English with around 360–400 million native speakers; German language, German, with over 100 million native speakers; and Dutch language, Dutch, with 24 million native speakers. Other West Germanic languages include Afrikaans, an offshoot of Dutch origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tolkien's Scripts
Tolkien's scripts are the writing systems invented by the Philology, philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien. The best-known are Cirth, Sarati, and Tengwar. Context Being a skilled calligraphy, calligrapher, Tolkien invented scripts as well as languages. Some of his scripts were designed for use with languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien, his constructed languages, others for more practical ends. The ''Privata Kodo Skauta'' (Private Scout Code) from 1909 was designed to be used in his personal diary; it had both an alphabet and some whole-word ideographs. Late in his life, he created a New English Alphabet structured like Tengwar but written in characters resembling those of Latin and Greek. In chronological order, Tolkien's Middle-earth scripts are: # Tengwar of Rúmil or Sarati # Cirth#Gondolinic runes, Gondolinic runes (Runes used in the city of Gondolin) # Valmaric script # Andyoqenya # Qenyatic # Tengwar of Fëanor # The Cirth of Daeron In addition, there are s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
