Can someone teach me regular elvish?

[de_uda]

I don't know what all these fancy names are, but i just want to learn regular elvish.
Can someone please help?

[Ledreanne313]

Sorry to bust your bubble, but there is no 'regular elvish'. There are two main kinds: Sindarin and Quenya. Sindarin is what they mostly speak in the movie, it's the commonly used lanauge of the elves. Quenya is the formal langauge, used in poety and song. So which one do you want to learn. For I can help with both.

Anne

[Lantarion]

De_uda: first of all, welcome to TTF! :)
And secondly: there is a 'Sticky' thread at the top of this the 'Languages of Middle-earth'- forum, which has directions to excellent sites and palces to learn both Quenya and Sindarin, but apparently mainly the latter. I suggest you check it out. :)

[de_uda]

I think sindarin would be better to learn, but i would like to learn both. Also, why is it a sticky thread?

[Lantarion]

So that it would be the first thread non-Tolkien linguists would see, and it won't 'disappear' as time passes.
Personally I think Quenya is much nicer than Sindarin, but that's just me.. :)

[Ledreanne313]

Quenya is easier to learn, for my opinion. Sindarin seems harder, but thats just me. I personally like Sindarin better, it's more beautiful and flowy. Quenya is nice also. I like all of Tolkien's 14 languages.

Anne

[sepdet]

Unfortunately I don't know the best place to learn Quenya, since I haven't yet, so I just said Ardalambion (figuring it's a good bet). I didn't mean to push one language more than the other.

Maybe someone who's a Quenya enthusiast could add the same thing here for Quenya and PM it to the appropriate mod to be added to the sticky thread. :)

[Ledreanne313]

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I use a book to learn Sindarin, Quenya, and all the other 12 languages.

Anne

[Aulë]

What are the other 12 languages?

[Ledreanne313]

Black speech, common speech (westron), dunlending, hobbit (westron or ancient english), Khuzdul (Dwarvish), Any one of the languages of Men, Numenourean (Andunaic), Orkish, Pre-Numenorean (Gondor before the Nomenoreans), Rohan, Sylvan, and Wose!

Anne

[Lantarion]

And Valinorean, Telerin, Rohirric, etc.! :eek:
Which book did you use? I have a small book by a person called Ruth Noel, called "The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth"; but I hear that it is quite outdated, and somewhat erroneous.

[Aulë]

Hmm, so could you tell me what is 'west' or 'western' in Khuzdul?

[Ledreanne313]

I also have that book. Well, actually, there are many in the 'Langauges of Men' category, and others. Yet the the 14 that I listed are the main categories, which refers to the 14 langauges of Middle-Earth, and yes, there are others, yet they are listed in those catergorys.

Anne