Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien

This article is about the constructed languages of J. R. R. Tolkien, which he used in his books about the Middle-earth fictional universe.

History

J. R. R. Tolkien was a philologist, and he was interested in language since he was a child. He invented several languages to use in his Middle-earth writings.

Aside from the external history, most of his languages have also an invented "internal history". This describes how the languages evolved and were spoken inside the fictional story.

Some of Tolkien's languages have a detailed grammar and vocabulary. Other languages are not very detailed, and some have only a few words and names. Quenya and Sindarin are the best- and most-developed languages, while others like Rohirric, Khuzdûl, or Black Speech are simpler.

Tolkien also created the Tengwar, Sarati, and Cirth scripts for his languages.

Elvish languages

The Elvish languages or Eldarin languages are used by Elves in the Middle-earth universe. At times, Elvish languages were the common speech. Later humans also used the Elvish language, especially scientists and the nobility.

The Eldarin languages can be divided into two groups: Quenya and the Telerin languages (which includes Telerin, Nandorin, and Sindarin).

Quenya

Quenya was spoken by the Vanyar and Noldor elves in Valinor. When the Noldor returned to Middle-earth in the First Age, they brought Quenya with them. But the native Sindarin became far more common in everyday speech.

In the Second Age and especially in the Third Age, Quenya in Middle-earth was used more as a scientific and ritual language. Because of this, Tolkien sometimes called Quenya the "Elf-Latin".

Telerin

Telerin was spoken by the Teleri elves. From Telerin developed several new languages and dialects, like Sindarin.

Sindarin

The Sindarin dialect came from Telerin. It was spoken by the Sindar (or Grey Elves) in Middle-earth. It later became the most common elvish language spoken in Middle-earth.

Adûnaic

Adûnaic is the language of the people of Númenor. After the Fall of Númenor, Adûnaic was not often used anymore. Westron developed from Adûnaic and the native languages of the western coastlands of Middle-earth.

Westron

Westron (Westron: Adûni, Sindarin: Annúnaid), or the Common Speech (Westron: Sôval Phârë), is a language of Middle-earth. It comes from Adûnaic and the native languages of Middle-earth.

In the Third Age, Westron is the common language, spoken by most peoples. In the books, the text written in English is meant to be Westron most of the time.

Rohirric

Rohirric (also called Rohirian or Rohanese) is the language of the Rohirrim of Rohan. In the books, Rohirric text and names are always represented by Old English. This is because Rohirric should feel older but similar to the hobbit's Westron, and they are in the books represented by Old English and Modern English.

Khuzdûl

Khuzdûl is the language of the Dwarves. The dwarves keep much of their language and what they do a secret. Because of this, only a few place-names and phrases are known from Khuzdûl. Dwarves have never told other (non-dwarven) people their Khuzdûl names. Instead, they use other names when talking to the other peoples of Middle-earth.

The dwarven "nicknames" that appear in the books are all taken from Norse mythology. Besides the spoken language, called aglab, Khuzdûl had the iglishmek, which was a sign language.

Entish

Entish is the language of the Ents. The language is, like the Ents themselves, very "unhasty": it takes a lot of time to say something. The language uses very long descriptions and many repetitions. Because it is so complicated and takes so much time, nobody but the Ents use or understand this language.

Valarin

Valarin was the language spoken by the Ainur.

Black Speech

Black Speech is the language of Sauron. He created the language and his followers used it.

The inscription on the One Ring was Black Speech, written in Tengwar. Aside from the Ring-inscription, there are several names and words of Black Speech known.

Languages Constructed By J. R. R. Tolkien Media

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  The internal history of Elvish Languages mapped to kindreds and migrations in the Sundering of the Elves. Quenya was the ancient language; Sindarin was initially spoken in Beleriand, and continued to be spoken in Middle-earth in the Third Age. Beneath the name of each language is the word for "Elves" in that language.

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  Etymology of 'Glamdring' in Tolkien's Elvish languages, as described in The Etymologies under "Lam-", "Khoth-", "Glam-", and "Dring-" What was Noldorin at that time later became Sindarin.

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  Aerlinn in Edhil o Imladris (first 3 lines)

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  According to Tom Shippey, Tolkien invented parts of Middle-earth to resolve the linguistic puzzle he had accidentally created by using three different pseudo-translated European languages for those of peoples in his legendarium.

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  The mapping of Old English to Modern English is like the mapping of Rohirric to Westron, and Tolkien uses the two Germanic languages to represent the two Middle-earth languages.

Related pages

• Middle-earth
• Tengwar