A journey into Tolkienrsquos fascination for words and languages

Federico GobboAmsterdam Milano-Bicocca Torino

〈FGobbouvanl〉

18 jun 2015 ndash A Tolkien event by ACE of Etcetera

1 de 46

Letrsquos start our journey

Tolkienrsquos life in a glance

1892 born in Bloemenfontein South Africa of English parents 1896 his father dies Mother converted to Roman Catholicism 1916 served in infantry on the Somme then invalidated 1918-20 works for the Oxford English Dictionary 1925 Anglo-Saxon Chair at the University of Oxford 1925 edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 1936 British Academy lecture on Beowulf 1937 first edition of The Hobbit 1945 Merton Chair of English Language at the U of Oxford 1954-5 three volumes of The Lord of the Rings 1959 Valedictory Address at the University of Oxford 1973 Tolkien dies3 de 46

Outline

Our question how words and languages influenced Tolkien literary andscholarly work

1 we will see natural languages both modern and ancient2 then we will delve with languages invented by him and Esperanto

The main difference between natural and invented languages lies intheir genesis

while natural languages come to life from orality ie on an existingspeech community

invented languages are planned in a written form generally by asingle man for a specific purpose ndash for communication or art

4 de 46

Tolkien and the fascination ofnatural languages

Tolkienrsquos repertoire

Modern English ndash first story attempt in 1899 Latin and Greek ndash school education in classics Old and Middle English ndash at the University of Oxford Old Norse ndash at the University of Oxford English dialects ndash comparative philological studies at the Universityof Oxford

Welsh and Finnish ndash being lsquobeautifulrsquo with their full-developedmyths

Germanic languages (Old Saxon Old Frisian Old High Germanicand especially Gothic which was especially evocative for him)

6 de 46

The first attempt to write a story

Tolkienrsquos language for literature writing has always been English sincethe start

one could not say ldquoa green great dragonrdquo but had to say ldquoagreat green dragonrdquo I wondered why and still do

Letters p 163 ndash about seven year old

7 de 46

A student poem

From the many-willowrsquod margin of the immemorial ThamesStanding in a vale outcarven in a world-forgotten day

1913 ndash quoted in Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

In his literary production verse will make sense only as part of songs(poetry-in-music) and hence he will revive there obsolete words fromalmost forgotten medieval English writers and Chaucer

8 de 46

The need of the mythical foundation for the people

Kalevala is the Finnish national epic compiled in the 1830s by EliasLoumlnnrot who put together songs and lays from many traditionalsingers Kalevala gave a mythical foundation to the Finns

In the same period Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm built the linguistic(grammar dictionary) and mythological foundation (legends and fairytales) of the Germans

Other people like the Welsh or the Greek had already theirfoundation thanks to their rich tradition

And the English

9 de 46

J R R Tolkien writer and philologist

linguistic and literary studies [ ] can never be enemies exceptby misunderstanding or without the loss of both and to continuein a wider and more fertile field the encouragement ofphilological enthusiasm among the young

Letters p 13 ndash 1925 application for the Oxford Chair

10 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Letrsquos start our journey

Tolkienrsquos life in a glance

1892 born in Bloemenfontein South Africa of English parents 1896 his father dies Mother converted to Roman Catholicism 1916 served in infantry on the Somme then invalidated 1918-20 works for the Oxford English Dictionary 1925 Anglo-Saxon Chair at the University of Oxford 1925 edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 1936 British Academy lecture on Beowulf 1937 first edition of The Hobbit 1945 Merton Chair of English Language at the U of Oxford 1954-5 three volumes of The Lord of the Rings 1959 Valedictory Address at the University of Oxford 1973 Tolkien dies3 de 46

Outline

Our question how words and languages influenced Tolkien literary andscholarly work

1 we will see natural languages both modern and ancient2 then we will delve with languages invented by him and Esperanto

The main difference between natural and invented languages lies intheir genesis

while natural languages come to life from orality ie on an existingspeech community

invented languages are planned in a written form generally by asingle man for a specific purpose ndash for communication or art

4 de 46

Tolkien and the fascination ofnatural languages

Tolkienrsquos repertoire

Modern English ndash first story attempt in 1899 Latin and Greek ndash school education in classics Old and Middle English ndash at the University of Oxford Old Norse ndash at the University of Oxford English dialects ndash comparative philological studies at the Universityof Oxford

Welsh and Finnish ndash being lsquobeautifulrsquo with their full-developedmyths

Germanic languages (Old Saxon Old Frisian Old High Germanicand especially Gothic which was especially evocative for him)

6 de 46

The first attempt to write a story

Tolkienrsquos language for literature writing has always been English sincethe start

one could not say ldquoa green great dragonrdquo but had to say ldquoagreat green dragonrdquo I wondered why and still do

Letters p 163 ndash about seven year old

7 de 46

A student poem

From the many-willowrsquod margin of the immemorial ThamesStanding in a vale outcarven in a world-forgotten day

1913 ndash quoted in Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

In his literary production verse will make sense only as part of songs(poetry-in-music) and hence he will revive there obsolete words fromalmost forgotten medieval English writers and Chaucer

8 de 46

The need of the mythical foundation for the people

Kalevala is the Finnish national epic compiled in the 1830s by EliasLoumlnnrot who put together songs and lays from many traditionalsingers Kalevala gave a mythical foundation to the Finns

In the same period Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm built the linguistic(grammar dictionary) and mythological foundation (legends and fairytales) of the Germans

Other people like the Welsh or the Greek had already theirfoundation thanks to their rich tradition

And the English

9 de 46

J R R Tolkien writer and philologist

linguistic and literary studies [ ] can never be enemies exceptby misunderstanding or without the loss of both and to continuein a wider and more fertile field the encouragement ofphilological enthusiasm among the young

Letters p 13 ndash 1925 application for the Oxford Chair

10 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Tolkienrsquos life in a glance

1892 born in Bloemenfontein South Africa of English parents 1896 his father dies Mother converted to Roman Catholicism 1916 served in infantry on the Somme then invalidated 1918-20 works for the Oxford English Dictionary 1925 Anglo-Saxon Chair at the University of Oxford 1925 edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 1936 British Academy lecture on Beowulf 1937 first edition of The Hobbit 1945 Merton Chair of English Language at the U of Oxford 1954-5 three volumes of The Lord of the Rings 1959 Valedictory Address at the University of Oxford 1973 Tolkien dies3 de 46

Outline

Our question how words and languages influenced Tolkien literary andscholarly work

1 we will see natural languages both modern and ancient2 then we will delve with languages invented by him and Esperanto

The main difference between natural and invented languages lies intheir genesis

while natural languages come to life from orality ie on an existingspeech community

invented languages are planned in a written form generally by asingle man for a specific purpose ndash for communication or art

4 de 46

Tolkien and the fascination ofnatural languages

Tolkienrsquos repertoire

Modern English ndash first story attempt in 1899 Latin and Greek ndash school education in classics Old and Middle English ndash at the University of Oxford Old Norse ndash at the University of Oxford English dialects ndash comparative philological studies at the Universityof Oxford

Welsh and Finnish ndash being lsquobeautifulrsquo with their full-developedmyths

Germanic languages (Old Saxon Old Frisian Old High Germanicand especially Gothic which was especially evocative for him)

6 de 46

The first attempt to write a story

Tolkienrsquos language for literature writing has always been English sincethe start

one could not say ldquoa green great dragonrdquo but had to say ldquoagreat green dragonrdquo I wondered why and still do

Letters p 163 ndash about seven year old

7 de 46

A student poem

From the many-willowrsquod margin of the immemorial ThamesStanding in a vale outcarven in a world-forgotten day

1913 ndash quoted in Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

In his literary production verse will make sense only as part of songs(poetry-in-music) and hence he will revive there obsolete words fromalmost forgotten medieval English writers and Chaucer

8 de 46

The need of the mythical foundation for the people

Kalevala is the Finnish national epic compiled in the 1830s by EliasLoumlnnrot who put together songs and lays from many traditionalsingers Kalevala gave a mythical foundation to the Finns

In the same period Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm built the linguistic(grammar dictionary) and mythological foundation (legends and fairytales) of the Germans

Other people like the Welsh or the Greek had already theirfoundation thanks to their rich tradition

And the English

9 de 46

J R R Tolkien writer and philologist

linguistic and literary studies [ ] can never be enemies exceptby misunderstanding or without the loss of both and to continuein a wider and more fertile field the encouragement ofphilological enthusiasm among the young

Letters p 13 ndash 1925 application for the Oxford Chair

10 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Outline

Our question how words and languages influenced Tolkien literary andscholarly work

1 we will see natural languages both modern and ancient2 then we will delve with languages invented by him and Esperanto

The main difference between natural and invented languages lies intheir genesis

while natural languages come to life from orality ie on an existingspeech community

invented languages are planned in a written form generally by asingle man for a specific purpose ndash for communication or art

4 de 46

Tolkien and the fascination ofnatural languages

Tolkienrsquos repertoire

Modern English ndash first story attempt in 1899 Latin and Greek ndash school education in classics Old and Middle English ndash at the University of Oxford Old Norse ndash at the University of Oxford English dialects ndash comparative philological studies at the Universityof Oxford

Welsh and Finnish ndash being lsquobeautifulrsquo with their full-developedmyths

Germanic languages (Old Saxon Old Frisian Old High Germanicand especially Gothic which was especially evocative for him)

6 de 46

The first attempt to write a story

Tolkienrsquos language for literature writing has always been English sincethe start

one could not say ldquoa green great dragonrdquo but had to say ldquoagreat green dragonrdquo I wondered why and still do

Letters p 163 ndash about seven year old

7 de 46

A student poem

From the many-willowrsquod margin of the immemorial ThamesStanding in a vale outcarven in a world-forgotten day

1913 ndash quoted in Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

In his literary production verse will make sense only as part of songs(poetry-in-music) and hence he will revive there obsolete words fromalmost forgotten medieval English writers and Chaucer

8 de 46

The need of the mythical foundation for the people

Kalevala is the Finnish national epic compiled in the 1830s by EliasLoumlnnrot who put together songs and lays from many traditionalsingers Kalevala gave a mythical foundation to the Finns

In the same period Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm built the linguistic(grammar dictionary) and mythological foundation (legends and fairytales) of the Germans

Other people like the Welsh or the Greek had already theirfoundation thanks to their rich tradition

And the English

9 de 46

J R R Tolkien writer and philologist

linguistic and literary studies [ ] can never be enemies exceptby misunderstanding or without the loss of both and to continuein a wider and more fertile field the encouragement ofphilological enthusiasm among the young

Letters p 13 ndash 1925 application for the Oxford Chair

10 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Tolkien and the fascination ofnatural languages

Tolkienrsquos repertoire

Modern English ndash first story attempt in 1899 Latin and Greek ndash school education in classics Old and Middle English ndash at the University of Oxford Old Norse ndash at the University of Oxford English dialects ndash comparative philological studies at the Universityof Oxford

Welsh and Finnish ndash being lsquobeautifulrsquo with their full-developedmyths

Germanic languages (Old Saxon Old Frisian Old High Germanicand especially Gothic which was especially evocative for him)

6 de 46

The first attempt to write a story

Tolkienrsquos language for literature writing has always been English sincethe start

one could not say ldquoa green great dragonrdquo but had to say ldquoagreat green dragonrdquo I wondered why and still do

Letters p 163 ndash about seven year old

7 de 46

A student poem

From the many-willowrsquod margin of the immemorial ThamesStanding in a vale outcarven in a world-forgotten day

1913 ndash quoted in Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

In his literary production verse will make sense only as part of songs(poetry-in-music) and hence he will revive there obsolete words fromalmost forgotten medieval English writers and Chaucer

8 de 46

The need of the mythical foundation for the people

Kalevala is the Finnish national epic compiled in the 1830s by EliasLoumlnnrot who put together songs and lays from many traditionalsingers Kalevala gave a mythical foundation to the Finns

In the same period Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm built the linguistic(grammar dictionary) and mythological foundation (legends and fairytales) of the Germans

Other people like the Welsh or the Greek had already theirfoundation thanks to their rich tradition

And the English

9 de 46

J R R Tolkien writer and philologist

linguistic and literary studies [ ] can never be enemies exceptby misunderstanding or without the loss of both and to continuein a wider and more fertile field the encouragement ofphilological enthusiasm among the young

Letters p 13 ndash 1925 application for the Oxford Chair

10 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Tolkienrsquos repertoire

Modern English ndash first story attempt in 1899 Latin and Greek ndash school education in classics Old and Middle English ndash at the University of Oxford Old Norse ndash at the University of Oxford English dialects ndash comparative philological studies at the Universityof Oxford

Welsh and Finnish ndash being lsquobeautifulrsquo with their full-developedmyths

Germanic languages (Old Saxon Old Frisian Old High Germanicand especially Gothic which was especially evocative for him)

6 de 46

The first attempt to write a story

Tolkienrsquos language for literature writing has always been English sincethe start

one could not say ldquoa green great dragonrdquo but had to say ldquoagreat green dragonrdquo I wondered why and still do

Letters p 163 ndash about seven year old

7 de 46

A student poem

From the many-willowrsquod margin of the immemorial ThamesStanding in a vale outcarven in a world-forgotten day

1913 ndash quoted in Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

In his literary production verse will make sense only as part of songs(poetry-in-music) and hence he will revive there obsolete words fromalmost forgotten medieval English writers and Chaucer

8 de 46

The need of the mythical foundation for the people

Kalevala is the Finnish national epic compiled in the 1830s by EliasLoumlnnrot who put together songs and lays from many traditionalsingers Kalevala gave a mythical foundation to the Finns

In the same period Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm built the linguistic(grammar dictionary) and mythological foundation (legends and fairytales) of the Germans

Other people like the Welsh or the Greek had already theirfoundation thanks to their rich tradition

And the English

9 de 46

J R R Tolkien writer and philologist

linguistic and literary studies [ ] can never be enemies exceptby misunderstanding or without the loss of both and to continuein a wider and more fertile field the encouragement ofphilological enthusiasm among the young

Letters p 13 ndash 1925 application for the Oxford Chair

10 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The first attempt to write a story

Tolkienrsquos language for literature writing has always been English sincethe start

one could not say ldquoa green great dragonrdquo but had to say ldquoagreat green dragonrdquo I wondered why and still do

Letters p 163 ndash about seven year old

7 de 46

A student poem

From the many-willowrsquod margin of the immemorial ThamesStanding in a vale outcarven in a world-forgotten day

1913 ndash quoted in Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

In his literary production verse will make sense only as part of songs(poetry-in-music) and hence he will revive there obsolete words fromalmost forgotten medieval English writers and Chaucer

8 de 46

The need of the mythical foundation for the people

Kalevala is the Finnish national epic compiled in the 1830s by EliasLoumlnnrot who put together songs and lays from many traditionalsingers Kalevala gave a mythical foundation to the Finns

In the same period Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm built the linguistic(grammar dictionary) and mythological foundation (legends and fairytales) of the Germans

Other people like the Welsh or the Greek had already theirfoundation thanks to their rich tradition

And the English

9 de 46

J R R Tolkien writer and philologist

linguistic and literary studies [ ] can never be enemies exceptby misunderstanding or without the loss of both and to continuein a wider and more fertile field the encouragement ofphilological enthusiasm among the young

Letters p 13 ndash 1925 application for the Oxford Chair

10 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

A student poem

From the many-willowrsquod margin of the immemorial ThamesStanding in a vale outcarven in a world-forgotten day

1913 ndash quoted in Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

In his literary production verse will make sense only as part of songs(poetry-in-music) and hence he will revive there obsolete words fromalmost forgotten medieval English writers and Chaucer

8 de 46

The need of the mythical foundation for the people

Kalevala is the Finnish national epic compiled in the 1830s by EliasLoumlnnrot who put together songs and lays from many traditionalsingers Kalevala gave a mythical foundation to the Finns

In the same period Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm built the linguistic(grammar dictionary) and mythological foundation (legends and fairytales) of the Germans

Other people like the Welsh or the Greek had already theirfoundation thanks to their rich tradition

And the English

9 de 46

J R R Tolkien writer and philologist

linguistic and literary studies [ ] can never be enemies exceptby misunderstanding or without the loss of both and to continuein a wider and more fertile field the encouragement ofphilological enthusiasm among the young

Letters p 13 ndash 1925 application for the Oxford Chair

10 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The need of the mythical foundation for the people

Kalevala is the Finnish national epic compiled in the 1830s by EliasLoumlnnrot who put together songs and lays from many traditionalsingers Kalevala gave a mythical foundation to the Finns

In the same period Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm built the linguistic(grammar dictionary) and mythological foundation (legends and fairytales) of the Germans

Other people like the Welsh or the Greek had already theirfoundation thanks to their rich tradition

And the English

9 de 46

J R R Tolkien writer and philologist

linguistic and literary studies [ ] can never be enemies exceptby misunderstanding or without the loss of both and to continuein a wider and more fertile field the encouragement ofphilological enthusiasm among the young

Letters p 13 ndash 1925 application for the Oxford Chair

10 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

J R R Tolkien writer and philologist

linguistic and literary studies [ ] can never be enemies exceptby misunderstanding or without the loss of both and to continuein a wider and more fertile field the encouragement ofphilological enthusiasm among the young

Letters p 13 ndash 1925 application for the Oxford Chair

10 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

An literary approach to philologyWords should not be used merely because they are lsquooldrsquo orobsolete The words chosen however remote they may be fromcolloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions must be words thatremain in literary use especially in the use of verse amongeducated people [ ] They must need no gloss [ ] Thedifficulties of translators are not however ended with the choiceof a general style of diction They have still to find word forword [ ] more than just indicating the general scope of theirsense for instance contenting oneself with lsquoshieldrsquo alone torender Old English bord lind rand and scyld The variationthe sound of different words is a feature of the style that shouldto some degree be represented

On translating Beowulf

11 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

A philological erudite but literary oriented

Tolkien was fascinated by the history of words through the centuriesAfter all philology literally means lsquolove of wordsrsquo If the lsquoetymologicalfallacyrsquo (the mistaken belief that the wordrsquos true meaning lies in itsoldest recorded meaning) is anathema for a linguist the aestheticpleasure of etymology is a driving force in Tolkienrsquos work

[The edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] includes ananalysis of the 14th-century dialect in which the poem is writtenthe verse technique the characteristics of characterization andnarrative the historical fictional and mythological sources andthe ideology and customs of the textrsquos contemporary audience

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

12 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Tolkien English lexicographer

By 1918 the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had already 60 yearsThe purpose is to collect all English words with a illustrativequotations ndash a philological work Tolkienrsquos started in 1919 because ofhis strength in Old and Middle English He started from w warmwash wasp water wick (lamp) winter

Almost all OED work was done on small pieces of paperapproximately 6 inches by 4 inchesmdashthe so-called lsquoDictionarysliprsquo

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

13 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos dictionary slip of warm (Gilliver et al 2006)

14 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

From Modern to Middle English

His first book published in 1922 is A Middle English Vocabulary Theinfluence of the work at the OED is evident 43000 words in MiddleEnglish were checked the glossary contains about 4740 entries andnearly 6800 definitions with 1900 cross-references and 236 propernames

It is difficult to imagine how it could have taken less than theequivalent of nine monthsrsquo full-time work

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

15 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Old Norse as source for comparative analysis

Old English (often called lsquoAnglo-Saxonrsquo) represents the root where tofound the myth that is missing for English people The only OldEnglish epic Beowulf deals with monsters elves and orcs TheMiddle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dealing withelves and ettins was almost unnoticed before the critical edition byTolkien and EV Gordon in 1925

In this perspective he also got interested in Old Norse which canguide the analysis of Old English and even Northern dialects ofmodern English

16 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

An example lsquoshieldmaidenrsquo

Morris used shield-may (OED MAY3) in Old Norse the word is skjadmntilder Tolkien prefers shieldmaiden more transparent for the modernreader

[the philological technique is] not simply lifting ancient wordsout of their context but adapting them to the forms that thwywould have had in modern English had they been in continueduse till now

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

17 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The aesthetic pleasure of philology

Being a philologist getting a large part of any aesthetic pleasurethat I am capable of from the form of words (and especiallyfrom the fresh association of word-form with word-sense) I havealways best enjoyed things in a foreign language or one soremote as to feel like it (such as Anglo-Saxon)

Letters p 142 ndash 2 December 1953

18 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

First the languages the story follows

The invention of languages is the foundation The lsquostoriesrsquo weremade rather to provide a world for the languages than thereverse To me a name comes first and the story follows

Letters p 219 ndash 1955 to his American publisher

19 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

New English words by Tolkien

As a novelist Tolkien was inclined to create new words according tohis needs using all his academic knowledge For instance Bilbo iscalled a lsquoburglarrsquo a word formed by lsquoburgulatorrsquo someone who breaksinto mansions (OED) and lsquobourgeoisrsquo someone who lives in one Thisoxymoron is the synthesis of the inner character of Bilbo

In The Lord of the Rings Ringwraith are the shadows who oncepossessed the Ring but what is a lsquowraithrsquo OED says lsquoof obscureoriginrsquo From the Old English lsquowriacuteethanrsquo to writhe you derive lsquowreathrsquoand (something twisted) and lsquowrothrsquo (old word for lsquoangryrsquo) whichdescribed perfectly the nature of Ringwraiths (Shippey 2000)

20 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

How the hobbits came to life

[a candidate] had mercifully left one of the pages with no writingon it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to anexaminer) and I wrote on it lsquoIn a hole in the ground there liveda hobbitrsquo Names always generate a story in my mindEventually I thought Irsquod better found out what hobbits were likeBut thatrsquos only the beginning

Letters p 215 ndash in the 1920s Oxford

21 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The beginning of the hobbits

Shippey (2000) traces the word lsquohobbitrsquo in The Denham Tracts apublication about folklore written by Denham a Workshire tradesmanin the years 1840-50

They are one entry in a list of 197 supernatural creatures as lsquoa classof spiritsrsquo It is evident that Tolkien perhaps had read these tracts butin any case it was not influenced ndash Tolkienrsquos hobbits are not spirits

Tolkien reconstructed (without sources) a plausible Old English wordholbytl from hol (hole) and bytlian (to live in) so lsquohole-liverrsquo

22 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

A composite use of English the clash of style

In The Hobbit the use of English depends on the character and thesituation In the Shire Bilbo shrieks lsquolike the whistle of an enginecoming out of a tunnelrsquo (steam railway tunnels are dated in English in1830) they have a postal service eat potatoes (lsquopicklesrsquo) and smoketobacco (lsquopipeweedrsquo) speaking in plain English while the dragonSmaug speaks old as in the Old Testament

I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep and where arehis sonsrsquo sons that dare approach me [ ] My armour is liketenfold shields my teeth are swords my claws spears the shockof my tail a thunderbolt

23 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The two final speeches of Balin and Bilbo

At the end of The Hobbit the contrast between old and new in theEnglish use cannot be clearer (see Shippey 2000)

[Balin said] lsquoIf ever you visit us again when our hallsare made fair once more then the feast shall indeed be splendidrsquo

lsquoIf ever you are passing my wayrsquo said Bilbo lsquodonrsquot wait toknock Tea is at four but any of you are welcome at any timersquo

24 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The importance of compounds

Tolkien uses a lot of OED compounds such as night-speechriding-pony and invented a lot in his literary works beggar-beardherb-master dragon-guarded elf-friend spell-enslaved lore-masterquiet-footed elven-kin elven-wise ndash see Gilliver et al (2006)

All the while the forest-gloom got heavier and theforest-silence deeper There was no wind that evening to bringeven a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees

The Hobbit ch 6

25 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The name gives the character

Tolkien took many names from Snorri Sturlusonrsquos 13th century guideto Norse mythology Skaldskaparmaacutel (lit skald-ship-treat the Art ofPoetry) For example Gandaacutelfr Fiacuteli Kiacuteli Noacuteri Boumlmbur The maincharacteristic often comes from the very name Gandalf is lsquoan old man with a staffrsquo while the name is lsquostaff-elfrsquoand therefore a wizard

Beorn is a were-bear (man by day bear by night) while in OldEnglish lsquoBjarnirsquo means lsquomanrsquo but is connected to lsquobearrsquo

He extensively use lsquodwarvesrsquo as the plural of lsquodwarfrsquo being the mostantique (and hence authentic) form

26 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Not so many dragons in the literature

Until Tolkien there were only few dragons in the Western literatureknown to him1 Miethgarethsorm lsquoWorm of Middle-earthrsquo who will fight the god Thor

at Ragnaroumlk the Norse Doomsday2 Fafnir killed by the Norse here Sigurd3 the dragon killed by BeowulfThe name lsquoSmaugrsquo comes from the Old English smeag lsquosagaciousrsquoused to describe a lsquowormrsquo (ie a reptile) In Old Norse the equivalentis smeg while smaug is the past tense of smjuacutega lsquoto creep through anopeningrsquo (Letters ndash 20 February 1938)

27 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

ccopy Tolkienrsquos original drawing of Smaug

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Tolkien and the fascination ofinvented languages

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Tolkienrsquos invented languages

Animalic ndash an jargon for encrypting English a play-language Nevbosh ndash nonsense language with peers as a child Qenya lexicon ndash since 1915 the nucleus of the Elvish languagesQuenya and Sindarin worked out through all his life never finished

Black Speech ndash the anti-Elvish amade for enslaving all creaturesstarting from Orcs (who speak a pidgin) will be elaborated mainlyfor Peter Jacksonrsquos movies by David Salo

Khudzul ndash secret language of Dwarves with Semitic influencesapprox 50 words and expressions

Iglishmecirck ndash Dwarvish sign languages unfortunately with very fewnotes to be actually used

30 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The influence of Esperanto on Tolkienrsquos languagesEsperanto was launched in 1887 The British Esperantist Association(BEA) was found in 1904 In Oxford the local club was found in 1930where the 22nd Word Congress was organized (1211 participants from29 different countries)

Personally I am a believer in an lsquoartificialrsquo language at any ratefor Europe a believer that is in its desirability as the one thingantecedently necessary for uniting Europe before it is swallowedby non-Europe [ ] also I particularly like Esperanto which isgood a description of the ideal artificial language [but] myconcern is not with that kind of artificial language at all

from A Secret Vice

31 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The pleasure of inventing languages

[During the war ] I shall never forget a little man revealinghimself by accident as a devotee [of Esperanto] in a moment ofextreme ennui crowded with (mostly) depressed and wetcreatures We were listening to somebody lecturing onmap-reading or camp-hygiene rather we were trying to avoidlistening [He] said suddenly in a dreamy ovice lsquoYes I think Ishall express the accusative case by a prefixrsquo A memorableremark [ ] Just consider the splendour of the words lsquoI shallexpress the accusative casersquo Magnificent

from A Secret Vice

32 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The aftermath of the Second World War

Esperanto was a model in what not to do in inventing languages ndashpractical purpose and structural regularity were not the point ThenTolkien changed his mind on Esperanto

[Esperanto and other International Auxiliary Languages] aredead far deader than ancient unused languages because theirauthors never invented any Esperanto legends

Letters ndash draft to Mr Thompson 14 Jan 1956

33 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Tolkienrsquos languages are not for humans

Tolkien had no interest for extra-diegetic use of Middle-Earthlanguages

In other words he envisaged no fans talking in Sindarin in Tolkenianconventions or similar as in the case of Star Trekrsquos Klingon orDothraki from Games of Thrones

For him inventing languages was a personal private art form That iswhy he published no grammar of any language invented by him

34 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Animalic a secret jargon that asks for better work

I knew two people once ndash two is a rare phenomenon ndash whoconstructed a language called Animalic almost entirely out ofEnglish animal bird and fish names and they conversed in itfluently to the dismay of bystanders I was never fully instructedin it nor a proper Animalic-speaker but I remember out of therag-bag of memory that dog nightingale woodpecker fortymeant lsquoyou are an assrsquo Crude (in some ways) in the extreme

from A Secret Vice

35 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

After Animalic the fragment of Nevbosh

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohocPys go iskili far maino wocPro si go fys do roc deDo cat ym maino bocte

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo

from A Secret Vice

36 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The fragment of Nevbosh (with the translation)

Dar fys ma vel gom co palt lsquohoc(There was an old man who said lsquohow)Pys go iskili far maino woc(can I possibly carry my cow)Pro si go fys do roc de(For if I was to ask it)Do cat ym maino bocte(to get in my pocket)

De volt fac soc ma taimful gyroacutecrsquo(it would make such a fearful rowrsquo)

from A Secret Vice

37 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Nevbosh the further stage of invention

[An Animalic speaker] developed an idiom called Nevbosh orthe lsquoNew Nonsensersquo It still made as these play-languages willsome pretence at being a means of limited communication That is where I came in I was a member of theNevbosh-speaking world [ ] In traditional languages inventionis more often seen undeveloped severely limited by the weight oftradition In Nevbosh we see of course no real breaking awayfrom lsquoEnglishrsquo alteration is mainly limited to shifting withina defined series of consonants say for example the dentals d teth thorn ampc Darthere doto catget voltwould

from A Secret Vice

38 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

becomes a contact language

The intricate blending of the native with the laterlearnt is forone thing curious The foreign too shows the same arbitraryalteration within phonetic limitis as the native So roclsquorogorsquo[Latin for] ask golsquoegorsquo [Latin for] I vellsquovieil vieuxrsquo [Frenchfor] old [ ] Blending is seen in voltlsquovolo [Latin] vouloir[French]rsquo + lsquowill wouldrsquo fyslsquofuirsquo [Latin] + lsquowasrsquo was were

from A Secret Vice

39 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Freedom and pleasure in inventing languages

In these invented languages the pleasure is more keen than it canbe even in learning a new language because more personal andfresh more open to experiment of trial and error And it iscapable of developing into an art with refinement of theconstruction of the symbol and with greater nicety in the choiceof the notional-range

from A Secret Vice

40 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The importance of sound in invented languages

[Nevbosh] remained unfreed from the purely communicativeaspect of languagemdashthe one that seems usually supposed to bethe real germ and original impulse of language [ ] but themore individual and personal factormdashpleasure in articulatesound and in the symbolic use of it independent ofcommunication though constantly in fact entangled withitmdashmust not be forgotten for a moment

A Secret Vice

41 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

The Old English word Earendel drives for Elvish

I felt a curious thrill [ ] as if something had stirred in me halfwakened from sleep There was soemthing very remote andstrange and beautiful behind those words if I could grasp it farbeyond ancient English

quoted in Carpenterrsquos Biography

Earendel can denote a star and a mariner in cognate Germaniclanguages so in 1914 Tolkien wrote a poem where the ship ofEarendel went to heaven ndash then it will become the Elvish Eaumlrendil

42 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Philology as reconstruction of worlds

The reconstruction of word-forms goes hand in hand with theimaginative recreation of the lost world in which they aresupposed to have been used [ ] He took the opportunity toapplying [philology] to his private languages the mostsubstantial result being the immensely detailed lsquoEtymologiesrsquo ofthe Elvish tongues [ ] Though everything in them is inventedthey use exactly the same apparatus

Gilliver amp Marshall amp Weiner (2006)

43 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Exercise the fragment of Black Speech

Ash nazg durbatulucirck ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulucirckagh burzum-ishi krimpatul

One ring to rule them all One Ring to find them One Ring tobring them all and in the Darkness bind them

We know that nazg is lsquoringrsquofrom nazgucircl lsquoRingwraithsrsquo

44 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Solution of the exercise

ash one gimb find thrak bring krimp bind -at- infinitive marker -ul- them ucirck all burz dark -um nominalizer (like lsquo-nessrsquo) -ishi locative posposition agh and

45 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46

Thanks for your attention

Questions Comments

If not now send afterwards to

〈FGobbouvanl〉

Download and share this presentation from here

httpfedericogobbonameeo2015php

CCcopy BYcopy $copy Ccopy Federico Gobbo 2015

46 de 46