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The People of middle Earth
Dialects of the Lembi and other
Dark Elves in Beleriand and eastwards are
named but little attested.Taliska is the usual
language of the Edain in Beleriand in
the First Age, but was superseded by
Noldorin or Quenya among most of them.
Taliska may be Tolkien's own (re-)
formation of Gothic and its use by
the Edain fits with Tolkien's original
conception of the history of Middle-earth,
when the Edain originally spoke a Germanic language. In addition Tolkien developed Mork
and Hvendi. These three Germanic languages aredescribed in historical grammars and wordlists
still unpublished. The last two languages are probably related to Old English and Old
Norse, respectively.
Later, Tolkien developed the idea of Semitic
type languages for some of the Edain in
Beleriand and so Haladin and Malachian are
also attested from the First Age.
Whatever the Edain were speaking,
they may well have shared with the
Dwarves of the time, at least for use as an
"outer" language in the First Age.
Dwarvish of the Petty Dwarves is
slightly attested in Beleriand in
the First Age.
Orkish is attested in Beleriand in the First Age, although most Orcs carry Sindarin names,
at least among the Elves.
Second Age
Qenya of the Second Age was spoken in Tol
Eressea by the returning Noldor and continues
in use. This early form of Quenya (note
spelling difference) is exemplified by the
Lexicons published in the Books of Lost Tales
and in the Qenyaqetsa.
Quenya was used as a high speech of Numenor
in the Second Age and the term Numenorean Quenya
is used to distinguish it from other varieties
of Quenya. Quenya also probably remained in use as
a high speech of Gil-galad and other Noldorin
Elves on the coast of Middle-earth; of Celebrimbor and of the Noldor of Eregion; of Elrond and
his household at Rivendell; and of Galadriel
in Lothlorien.
Gnomish or Goldogrin was spoken in the Second
Age in Tol Eressea by the Noldor returning
there.
From the standpoint of Tolkien's life this
was a very early form of Sindarin; from the phonological perspective, this langauge
is more closely related to the Ilkorin
dialects than to Noldorin or the Sindarin seen
in the Lord of the Rings. It is well attested however,in the Lexicons in the Books of
Lost Tales and in the Lam na-nGoldathon (
the latter out of print)Noldorin was spoken
in the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth.
It was perhaps the usual language of the Noldor
of Eregion, the folk of Elrond's house,
and of the Dunedain both in Numenor before
its fall and in their kingdoms in exile in
the north and south of Middle-earth.
Noldorin was also commonly spoken by
Dwarves in the Second Age, especially in
Moria, and it appears on the original text
of Thror's Map, presumably made at Erebor.
Nandorin is the name of the language spoken
in the Second Age by the Green-elves east of
the Misty Mountains.
Adunaic was spoken in Numenor during the
Second Age, especially among the less educated
or the descendants of certain groups.
It appears to have a number of dialects and variations.
It was introduced back into Middle-earth
before the destruction of Numenor
(though speakers of a related language
had remained in Middle-earth
in the meantime). It is the source of the
many dialects known as Westron and spoken at
Umbar, Tharbad, Gondor and points in between.
The Black Speech was spoken by Sauron and may
have been invented by him.
Third Age.
Quenya of the Third Age was used
as a high speech among Elves along the
western coast and in Rivendell and Lorien, and remained in use among the Dunedain, and among certain educated Hobbits.
Entish Quenya, as it is spoken
in the Third Age,(and presumably long before)
may be considerd a dialect of Quenya,
because it has so many words of Quenya in it.
The Ents also had a language unique
to them--Entish,which no one else could
learn.
Fangorn also knew Westron,and perhaps
Sindarin or Ilkorin.Sindarin continue ,
to be spoken in the Third Age in Middle-earth.
It was the usual speech of the folk of Elrond's house and of the Dunedain in
both Gondor and the north of
Middle-earth and it may be the house
language of Thranduil of Mirkwood.
Silvan Dialects in the Third Age were
spoken by the Elves of Lorien and Mirkwood;
the speech of the Elves of Mirkwood is
called a Woodland dialect.Westron is the
common speech of mortals in the Third Age
and dialects are spoken among the
folk of Gondor, Bree, and other places.
It has a substantial grammar, not yet
published, and a small vocabulary, most of
which has been published. Specific dialects
(usually given in Germanicized form) are:
Rohannish of the Rohirrim (with both a
current and an older form alluded to)
Hobbitish or Soval Phare of the Hobbits,
of both the Shire and the Stoors; and
Dalish represented by the single word Tragu,
the true name of Smaug.
Westron is also the common language of
Dwarves in the Third Age and a particularly
"harsh" dialect was spoken by Orcs when necessary.Here again, the (true) Westron,
(true)Rohannish and (true) Hobbitish
languages replaced the Germanic languages
which Tolkien used for mortals in his original conception of Middle-earth.
This occurred midway through the writing of the Lord of the Rings,
leaving a few anachronisms behind,
such as Orthanc.
Additional languages spoken by mortals
ascribed to the Third Age which are but
poorly attested include:
Pre-Numenorean, which actually predates
the reintroduction of Westron; most
examples are from the area around the
Ered Nimrais;The language of the Dunlendings,
east and south of the Misty Mountains;
The language of the Haradrim, from
far south of Gondor; and Drûg,
which is attested from the First Age as
well as the Third Age generally around the
area of the Ered Nimrais.
As it is also said that there were Drûgs
in Numenor, it may be thought to have been
spoken there as well.Dwarvish, also called Khûzdul, is not easy to date,
but words are known from the First Age
in Beleriand and from the Third Age by
Dwarves of the Longbeards at many locations in Middle-earth. Khûzdul is a private language
and is not thought to be known by anyone other
than Dwarves, except for Gandalf,
and amazingly enough, Galadriel.
Orkish or Debased Black Speech is
attested from the Third Age among several
groups of orcs including those of Moria,
Isengard,and Mordor. It is said to have many
mutually unintellible dialects, although
they are not delineated.Based on this list,
it is still not possible to estimate how
many languages Tolkien invented,
partly because it is difficult to set a standard for how much must be known about a language
before it can be said to be "invented."
Such languages as Dunlending or the language of
the Haradrim probably never consisted of more
than a few words but certainly the
languages Quenya and Sindarin were greatly developed though never in a final form. In addition, based on the same sorts of
techniques which linguists normally
use to study languages, and which
Tolkien used to develop his languages,
it is possible to determine the forms of
unattested words in such languages as
the Telerin of Aman and of the Ilkorin
dialects. One could probably reconstruct
Old Noldorin completely and,for that
matter,Common Elvish.
Of course,it is quite
possible that yet more languages
remain to be discovered in the vast
quantities of Tolkien's unpublishe
linguistic material.
In the meantime, the study and use of
Quenya and Sindarin continues,
in what are thought to be the forms most
in accord with examples given in the Lord
of the Rings.The particular forms of these
languages are referred to as "Classical" or "Modern" Quenya or Sindarin and students of these beautiful languages have made
great progress in determining their grammar and vocabulary.At the present time they
are used for communication in writing,
and we hope to have an opportunity
to learn to speak and understand them
vocally with more practice.
"Ash nazg durbatulûk,
ash nazg gimbatul,
ash nazg thrakatulûk
agh burzum-ishi krimpatul."
meaning:
"One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them.
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them!"
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this is elvish writen words
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pre first age.
Before the First Age
Common Elvish is the name used for the language spoken by the Elves when they first awoke in the Great Lands and before they reached Valinor. It is little attested but much can be inferred about it based on the information given. Proto-Elvish is a name for it as a reconstructed form. Note that Tolkien originally thought of Proto-Elvish as having been taught to the Elves by Orome, and thus a descendant of the language of the Valar; however, he eventually changed his mind about this and we can see that the earliest elvish is not a descendant of Valarin. In addition, a term Proto-Eldarin is sometimes used. This is identical with Proto-Elvish in most contexts, but Proto-Eldarin would exclude the Lemberin or Avarin dialects, about which we have almost no information. The abbreviations for Proto-Elvish and Proto-Eldarin are the same however, and are often confused.
Valarin is the language of the Valar in Valinor. In fact there may have been several forms of Valarin as it seems unlikely that words that are attested from Valarin are identical with the language which Mahal (Aule) taught to the Dwarves.
Eldarin includes several languages spoken by the Elves in Valinor such as Lindarin, Ingwiqendya, and Valinorean Quenya which differ from standard Quenya in some way (although technically the word Eldarin may be applied to any language spoken by the Eldar which would include Noldorin). It is not clear exactly what is meant by these names nor how these languages relate to each other, but there are at least a few words attested for each.
Quenya was spoken by the Elves of Valinor before the 1st Age and it has remained a language of high speech or a book language almost everywhere since then.
Telerin was spoken before the First Age by the Elves of Alqualonde in Valinor, and may continue to be spoken there and at the Grey Havens. I use this name for the Telerin language spoken in Aman, but the word is also applied to the quite different dialects of Beleriand, as these languages were spoken by Teleri elves.
Old Noldorin was presumably spoken before the First Age, either by the Noldor of Valinor, or by the Ilkorin Elves of Beleriand, and it apparently continued in use in Beleriand, at least during the First Age, since a cursive form of the Certhas Daeron was developed for writing it. It may have been spoken by both groups of elves until the Noldor adopted the language of the Vanyar while still in Aman. A distinction should be maintained between Old Noldorin as it is described by Tolkien in the Etymologies and such forms of Old Sindarin as anyone might wish to reconstruct--a necessary product of the study of the phonological history of Sindarin.
First Age
Quenya was spoken in Beleriand in the First Age, and even though banned by Thingol, remained as a house language of the Noldor, and the first language of some of the Edain. The particular form spoken in the First Age is exemplified by the entries in Etymologies.
The Ilkorin Dialects were spoken by the Ilkorin Elves in Beleriand in the First Age and include:
Ilkorin, the blanket name for all these dialects
Doriathrin, specifically that form spoken at Menegroth.
Danian, also called Ossiriandeb, which was spoken by the Green-elves of Ossiriand. (From an historical standpoint this language may have developed into the Nandorin of the Second Age and the Silvan of the Third Age, but there is no support for this phonologically.)
Falathren, spoken by the Elves of the Falas (Coast) at Brithombar, Eglorest and possibly at the mouths of Sirion. (Tolkien seems to have thought of this as the ancestor of the Germanic or Indo-european languages, at least for a time.)
The Noldorin Dialects include several languages which are grouped together but may not be all that closely related. Noldorin was spoken by the Noldor of the First Age in Beleriand and is supposed to be closely related to the Ilkorin dialects. There are five dialects with little information to differentiate them phonologically but they are described:
1) of Mithrim (of Fingolfin's folk)
2) of Nargothrond (of Finrod Felagund's folk)
3) of Gondolin (of Turgon's folk)
4) of the sons of Feanor and their followers
5) mulnoldorin or thrall Gnomish.
See also Gnomish of the Second Age and Sindarin of the Third Age.
Dialects of the Lembi and other Dark Elves in Beleriand and eastwards are named but little attested.
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