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#1 |
Wight
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 156
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The Common Tongue and Latin
I am not a student of Latin, but is there any similarity to the "common tongue" used in LOTR and Latin in the medieval west?
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“I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food...I am fond of mushrooms.” -J.R.R Tolkien |
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#2 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,359
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Or maybe more like modern English?
![]() Certainly, it's a language that unites communication of many diverse groups. My question is what kind of people spoke each language. Judging by Gandalf's comments in Rohan, one would expect people even in low ranks to speak Common if their job has any interaction with foreigners. A village with no external trade and no road with travellers nearby might not have Common speech though. How widespread or restricted was Latin in the Middle Ages? Was ot a language of the well educated, or would other classes master it as well?
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#3 |
Wight
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 156
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turns out it is english. This was pointed out on another forum.
http://www.thehalloffire.net/forum/v...php?f=5&t=4109
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“I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food...I am fond of mushrooms.” -J.R.R Tolkien |
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#4 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,033
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If you mean Westron is English, then no . . . but if you mean Tolkien has, in theory, translated Westron with English, then yes!
![]() In any case, we have very few examples of actual Westron. Some linguists will count the somethings that appear in drafts for Appendix F . . . but yet were not ultimately published in Appendix F however, for "whatever reason". Anyway, a few examples from Appendix F. Hobbitish Westron kuduk English (invented English) "Hobbit" Westron banakil "Halfling" And note the similarity between the word for "Halfling" and -- as a certain kuduk was called in Westron -- Banazîr "Half-wise" Or Ban for short, for "Sam" |
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#5 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,359
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I actually did mean English - specifically English in the current time. A language that many people learn as a second language, that aids in communication between people from different places (like the Downs!), that is the go-to for any large scale communication. I would argue that the Common Tongue is the functional equivalent of modern English - not because of anything Tolkien "translated", but because of its usage by the characters.
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#6 | |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,033
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Quote:
And that said, a linguist named Elhath has just added a very interesting post (elsewhere) which looks at a number of actual Westron forms compared to Catalan. And as not-a-linguist, I'll shaddap for now ![]() |
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#7 | |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,506
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Quote:
One doesn't see a literary work of Westron until the Hobbits employed it in writing the Redbook of Westmarch. Previous to that, all the great epics were written in Elvish, with Quenyan perhaps the more direct link to Latin.
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#8 | |
Loremaster of Annúminas
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,307
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Quote:
Define "Middle Ages". In the early centuries practically every place in the West recently ruled by the Roman Empire spoke Latin, except for Britain. Already, though, demotic vulgar Latin differed quite a bit from book-Latin, so that by 618 a synod instructed Gallo-Roman priests to give sermons in "the rustic Roman tongue," which had evolved away from Classical/Church Latin to the point the "Latin-speaking" commoners couldn't understand the latter. Give it another century and a half, the "rustic Roman tongue" would become Old French. Similar processes were happening in Spain, Romania and everywhere else that Latin had bulldozed away the pre-Roman languages. (In Italy, as late as Dante's day they thought they were speaking Latin!) So in that sense, Westron does resemble Latin, especially in its relationship to Adunaic: a worn-down and hybridized form of the former Ruling Empire's language. OTOH, in some ways Latin's role in Middle-earth is taken by Sindarin. Note that in early drafts, Tolkien posited that the Common Speech was of Eldarin derivation, and thus akin to Latin's historical role on both sides. But T may also have been thinking of the actual "lingua Franca" of the Middle Ages, which wasn't actually proper langue d'oil French but rater a Provencal/Catalan creole, spread mostly by sailors.
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#9 |
Wight
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: The best seat in the Golden Perch
Posts: 219
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The "common tongue" is Adűnaic, or more precisely, "Westron" is quite obviously what "Adűnaic" means in Adűnaic, with the element "Adűn" meaning "West". The name "Westron" is just a translation.
It's history and place in the world can therefore be easily deduced: it was brought over from Númenor during the Second Age, and became a "common tongue" in areas under control of the North and South Kingdoms in the early Third Age. A parallel to Latin might be that similar happened to areas in our world under control of the Roman Empire, but Latin obviously more quickly devolved to the Romance Languages, whereas the only observation made about Westron is that some speak in a more archaic manner.
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