Latin
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- "I have, for instance, a particular love for the Latin language"
- ― J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 294
Latin is a language belonging to the Italic group of the Indo-European language family. It was spoken in ancient Rome, and, although now considered a dead language, it was the ancestor of the Romance family of languages such as Spanish; in the previous centuries, it has been a prestigious language of scientists and scholars, and the ceremonial language of the Catholic Church.
There have been modern attempts to translate some famous works into Latin, including The Hobbit with the title Hobbitus Ille by Mark Walker.
Tolkien and Latin[edit | edit source]
Tolkien had a great appreciation for Latin. He was taught Latin at a young age by his Mother, Mabel Tolkien. He took great interest in both the sounds and meanings of words. This marked the start of Tolkien's love for linguistics and philology. Tolkien studied Latin at King Edward's School,[1] and would continue studying it the rest of his life.
As a deeply religious person, Latin also held significance to Tolkien due to its use in the Catholic Church. During the period 1962-65 the Catholic Church went through the process of switching from Latin to the local vernacular.[1] This greatly displeased Tolkien.[2] Simon Tolkien J.R.R. Tolkien's grandson wrote the following:
I vividly remember going to church with him in Bournemouth. He was a devout Roman Catholic and it was soon after the Church had changed the liturgy from Latin to English. My Grandfather obviously didn't agree with this and made all the responses very loudly in Latin while the rest of the congregation answered in English. I found the whole experience quite excruciating, but My Grandfather was oblivious. He simply had to do what he believed to be right. [3]
Influence on invented languages[edit | edit source]
Quenya[edit | edit source]
Quenya, the elvish language of the Noldor and Vanyar, is very similar to Latin from both a linguistic perspective and in the way it was used. By the Third Age Quenya had fallen out of vernacular use and was mostly a scholarly pursuit. It was considered prestigious and mostly used ceremonially and in important or old literature and song. It is because of this that Tolkien refers to Quenya as an Elven-Latin.[4][5]
Quenya phonology and spelling are most similar to Latin with Finnish phonological rules.[6] Grammar in Quenya is also based on Latin grammar though to a lesser extent than Finnish. Quenya and Latin are highly inflected languages allowing both to have flexible word order.[note 1]
Nevbosh and Naffarin[edit | edit source]
One of Tolkien's first attempts at creating a language was Nevbosh.[7] Tolkien then went on to create Naffarin in the 1910s, based partially on Nevbosh. These both included aspects of Latin and Spanish.[8][9]
External links[edit | edit source]
- Latin at Wikipedia
- Texts and sound samples at Glǽmscrafu
- The joys of Latin and Christmas feasts: J.R.R. Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham by Mateusz Stróżyński
- Hobbitus-i, an illustrated summary of The Hobbit in Latin by Anthony Gibbins
- "Would Tolkien approve of The Hobbit in Latin?", Critical review of Hobbitus Ille by Robert Ziomkowski.
Notes
- ↑ Although Quenya and Latin both have fairly free word order the most common order in Quenya is subject-verb-object while Latin is most commonly subject-object-verb.
References
- ↑ Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, "II. 1892-1916: Early years"
- ↑ Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, "IV. 1925-1949(i): 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit'"
- ↑ Simon Tolkien, "My Grandfather - JRR Tolkien" dated 18 April 2003, simontolkien.com (accessed 11 January 2024)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, "The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age", "Of the Elves"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 347, (dated 17 December 1972)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, "Pronunciation of Words and Names"
- ↑ Michael D.C. Drout, ed., J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment
- ↑ Michael D.C. Drout, ed., J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, p. 222
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, "A Secret Vice"
