JRR and Languages

[Saermegil]

Which languages did Tolkien study/speak? I'd appreciate any information regarding this matter. Thank you.

[joxy]

He spoke English (!), and studied its range of ancestor languages.
He was interested in further ranges of languages, including Welsh and Finnish, and may have been able to speak some of them.

[Inderjit S]

Yeah Tolkien comments (on several occasions) on the similarities between Welsh and Sindarin.

Finnish also played a huge part in his creation of the Elven tongues.

He also knew Old English. He used Old English as the basis for some of his names, such as Beorn and the Ents.

[joxy]

Any "similarities" between Welsh and T's invented languages were, of course, due to his "lifting" either the words themselves,
or the more general characteristics of Welsh vocabulary, directly into his languages!
Isn't "huge" for the Finnish contribution a bit of an exaggeration? :confused:
He certainly ought to have "known" Old English - and several other varieties of English; it was a major part of the subject of which he was a professor throughout his adult career....

[Inderjit S]

Isn't "huge" for the Finnish contribution a bit of an exaggeration

Possibly. I don't really analyse by syntax to such a degree that I wonder if this word or that word is a over or under exaggeration or right on the context of my post.

Maybe 'huge' as an exageration. I was trying to show that Finnish played a part in the creation of Tolkien's languages. Maybe I should have just said so, or maybe I should have used another word instead.

[Elhath]

Based on the Letters, The Monsters and the Critics and the biography by Carpenter, I'd say that Tolkien actually studied quite a number of different languages... besides English he could probably speak at least Old English, Latin, Greek and Old Norse (~ Icelandic), and most likely some Welsh and Gothic as well... According to his own words, he never really learned Finnish to a level of fluency, and was later also a bit disappointed in his skills in Spanish according to Carpenter. Most likely he held some knowledge of the (Hamito-)Semitic "branch" besides the Indo-European too.

[Starflower]

well Tolkien never learned Finnish well enough to converse in it , true , but he did base his elvish languages, notably Quenya on Finnish grammar and syntax.
so in that sense Inder is right, Finnish did play a 'huge' part in his mythology

[joxy]

I'd have thought vocabulary, or just the general appearance of words, rather than grammar and syntax, but you could be right.
One man's "huge" could be another man's "moderate". :cool:

[Starflower]

no, not the actual vocabulary . but the appearance of the words and the guide to pronounciation is similar, and the use of letters such as 'k' instead of 'c' and the vowel combination 'ea',these are all examples of the Finnish influence in Quenya. :)