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Like a lot of people I’m a huge fan of Tolkien’s books and Peter Jackson’s films, and I think their huge success is due in part to the mammoth effort that Tolkien put into creating all of the intricacies of Middle Earth lore and languages.
As a linguist I’ve always been impressed by the detail of his Elvish dialects with the beautiful Tengwar alphabet (resembling a mishmash of several Eastern alphabets such as Sanskrit and Georgian with vowel diacritics) and a complete grammar (from what I understand Quenya and Sindarin were heavily influenced by his knowledge of Welsh).
It leads me to ask the question:
Do you think it’s feasible that a purely fictional language like Tolkien Elvish could ever be made to become a spoken, living language?
That is, if a group of people attempted to teach their children Elvish as a native language and to communicate solely in Elvish could it be successful in vitalizing the fictional language?
UPDATE: One of the best books I’ve seen that actually teaches you Elvish (Sindarin) in great detail is A Gateway To Sindarin: A Grammar Of An Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings (David Salo).
Speaking Elvish (or any conlang) from birth: Can a child be taught Elvish?
There’s an interesting example of this being attempted with Klingon.
Did you ever hear about d’Armond Speers, the guy who spoke only Klingon to his son for the first three years of his life to see if he’d acquire it as a first language?
There doesn’t seem to be any published data from the experiment which ultimately ended in failure (the child, Alec, never retained Klingon), though Speers made this remark which would suggest the feasibility of a successful outcome if it was done differently:
Alec very rarely spoke back to me in Klingon, although when he did, his pronunciation was excellent and he never confused English words with Klingon words.
Despite what some would consider to be borderlining child abuse (it’s not the nicest language to listen to!), it was an interesting experiment that I wish had of been documented more thoroughly.
A few adult enthusiasts have also learned Klingon and Elvish to some degree of usability (check out Benny Lewis’ Klingon video or read about David Salo and Tolkien Elvish), however it’s not for the purpose of engaging with a community of real-life speakers but more for fun or interest.
I think the real determining factors in whether or not a fictional or invented language can succeed depend on a genuine need for it (Esperanto was invented and has achieved a degree of success due to a perceived need for a truly international language) or if it’s ideologically motivated (Modern Hebrew, though not fictional or invented per se, had a successful and rapid revival because of its religious significance).
What are your thoughts?
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11 COMMENTS
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Michael s.
Hey, the thought crossed my mine some years ago when I first watched the hobbit and lord of the rings, I was so hooked on the idea of the language that I actually started studying as much of the langauge as I could to learn the language, I myself plan to learn and speak this language in every day use even if others dont, to those interested in learning it and those who aren’t dont give up on your dreams and Hopes guys everything is impossible until you make it possible, once it’s possible make it real.
lillian paulwiks
I love the lord of the rings and the hobbit so much🥰
Taylor
i wish i could have been born and learn elvish and be able to talk in this language and find other people that love Sindarin . I’ve loved writing it too i write in the language every day and i love doing it.
Avon
It would be awesome to have a language that you learned all by yourself and really enjoyed, and without anyone teaching you or you hearing before. :)
Mezzo
Let us make it a thing pleaseee
Ye Elders, let’s make this a thing, an actual language, in this world... please
desirae
I wish elvish language can be used alot. It’s a fun language to learn and speak in everyday life. Alot of people could learn it too.
matthewsmt
Damn, it would be cool to learn a language that no one knows and communicate with a friend in the presence of a teacher.
Thelaretus
Could you write something about Latin?
I’m very passionate about it, and I’m not alone: have a look at this Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/latin/
or at this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGDrlpaImCk
Latin is alive and well, more so than Esperanto. We also have native speakers (https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/1414/does-anyone-learn-latin-as-a-native-language); but although Latin is a de facto universal language, it doesn’t ned fanatical evangelism (although I’m evangelising as well).
Thelaretus
Could you write something about Latin?
I’m very passionate about it, and I’m not alone: have a look at this Reddit or at this video:
Latin is alive and well, more so than Esperanto. We also have native speakers; but although Latin is a de facto universal language, it doesn’t ned fanatical evangelism (although I’m evangelising as well).
Toyah
As a complete layman in regards to the theory of language I cant make an entirely erudite comment on your statement Donovan. But I do wish to state that I believe that cultural and historical factors must play an important role in the translation of an invented language from fictional to actual. I know enough ‘Sci-Fi’ and Tolkien geeks to understand that to a small subset of people fictional languages like Klingon and Elvish are as real to them as English, French or Italian. It is all relative to the eye of the beholder I guess. Whilst that does not, of course, make these languages globally acceptable, I guess the feelings expressed by the people who have taken the time to familiarize themselves with these invented languages should be in no way diminished by the fact the language they are using was artificially constructed rather than grown and altered organically over a process of time and historical influence. Who knows what will happen in the future? Enough gaming slang has become part of the common vernacular that it wouldnt be entirely inconceivable that invented languages like Elvish wont, in some way, influence modern English or other languages. Guess time will tell.
Rebecca
My experience with created languages is that ‘need’ is not enough to create something that is truly a language. But I can’t pinpoint what other elements are required. An international sign system was created for international functions attended by Deaf people and it never has become a language. For one I suppose it had a limited number of users and requirements but I think also because it was purely functional. Language needs to have some sort of cultural heart (for want of a better term) as well. I don’t think that is something that can be manufactured. My other experience was with Signed English - the attempt to make grammatical English appear in sign. This was for educational purposes. It’s also regarded as a system and I think rightly so. Done properly Signed English is very clumsy, painstaking and time consuming. Watching those who use Signed English was always confusing to me and I realised it was because the users had morphed it into another language. They weren’t really signing in English even though it had the appearance of it. Many of those who have continue to sign after leaving school have gone on to learn Auslan - which is a language and have found it liberating. Mostly for its ease of use and communicating. It isn’t bound to an external other structure. Anyway all that to say that in answer to your question, I think a manufactured or constructed language would never truly have all the elements of language unless it persisted through a number of generations and took the course and influence that comes with natural language evolution. I think also it would only persist if there were other requirements such as community, generational sharing, mutual and shared experiences amongst many other things I’m sure I haven’t thought of.