A Reflection of My Efforts
This project was difficult and very stressful for me. At first, I was quite uncertain as to what it was I wanted to do and once I figured it out, I quickly became discouraged at the amount of research I'd have to do by myself on top of other assignments. During my research, I found that there was enough information about the phonetics and phonology of Quenya and Sindarin to narrow down the focus of this project to just that, which helped exponentially. Tolkien wrote one of my favorite books, The Hobbit, so I decided to do Elvish initially because I was fascinated by the language in his other works. I eventually decided to focus specifically on phonology and phonetics because I love sounds and am highly intrigued by the number of sounds the human mouth can make.
As I mentioned before, Tolkien did not intend for his languages to become full-fledged languages, he just created them because he was fascinated by languages and wanted to make his own based on bits and pieces of the many languages he knew, kind of like a pidgin but created by one person instead of a group of people. The fact that other linguists were able to expand upon both languages, creating Neo-Quenyan out of Quenyan and greatly expanding Sindarin for the purpose of the Lord of the Rings movies, is amazing! The linguists who came after Tolkien and refined the two languages have made them into a sort of creole. It makes me excited to think of the sorts of possibilities that could occur if the languages kept being developed by those who are as fascinated with it as Tolkien was with the languages he used to create them.
As I mentioned before, Tolkien did not intend for his languages to become full-fledged languages, he just created them because he was fascinated by languages and wanted to make his own based on bits and pieces of the many languages he knew, kind of like a pidgin but created by one person instead of a group of people. The fact that other linguists were able to expand upon both languages, creating Neo-Quenyan out of Quenyan and greatly expanding Sindarin for the purpose of the Lord of the Rings movies, is amazing! The linguists who came after Tolkien and refined the two languages have made them into a sort of creole. It makes me excited to think of the sorts of possibilities that could occur if the languages kept being developed by those who are as fascinated with it as Tolkien was with the languages he used to create them.
Sources
"Beyond the Movie, Lord of the Rings: Language & Culture." National Geographic. Web. 2 December, 2014. <www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/language.html>
"Celeborn and Galadriel." Photograph. Arwen Undomiel. Web. 10 December, 2014.
Derdzinski, Ryszard. "Summary of the Sindarin Grammar." The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. October, 2003. Web. 9 December, 2014 <http://www.elvish.org/gwaith/sindarin_phonetics.htm#special>
"Elrond." Photograph. The One Ring. Web. 10 December, 2014.
"J.R.R. Tolkien." Photograph. Hollowverse. Web. 10 December, 2014.
"Map of Middle Earth." Poster. Panic Posters. Web. 10 December 2014.
Renk, Thorsten. Pedin Edhellen a Sindarin Course. 21 July, 2010. PDF file.
Renk, Thorsten. Quentin i Lambë Eldaiva a Quenya Course. 7 July, 2005. PDF file.
"Quenya." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 6 December, 2014. Web. 9 December, 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenya>
Salo, David. A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings." Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2004. Print.
"Sindarin." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 30 September, 2014. Web. 9 December, 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindarin>
"Celeborn and Galadriel." Photograph. Arwen Undomiel. Web. 10 December, 2014.
Derdzinski, Ryszard. "Summary of the Sindarin Grammar." The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. October, 2003. Web. 9 December, 2014 <http://www.elvish.org/gwaith/sindarin_phonetics.htm#special>
"Elrond." Photograph. The One Ring. Web. 10 December, 2014.
"J.R.R. Tolkien." Photograph. Hollowverse. Web. 10 December, 2014.
"Map of Middle Earth." Poster. Panic Posters. Web. 10 December 2014.
Renk, Thorsten. Pedin Edhellen a Sindarin Course. 21 July, 2010. PDF file.
Renk, Thorsten. Quentin i Lambë Eldaiva a Quenya Course. 7 July, 2005. PDF file.
"Quenya." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 6 December, 2014. Web. 9 December, 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenya>
Salo, David. A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings." Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2004. Print.
"Sindarin." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 30 September, 2014. Web. 9 December, 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindarin>