The Age of the Ring (Lord of the Rings) Forum
Tolkien only Section => Books - Advanced Reading => Topic started by: DutchECK on January 16, 2005, 09:35:23 PM
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Just a quickie question:
Is there a book on etymology (where words come from ;)) of Middle-Earth? I would love to read that.
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This isn't a recommendation of a single, specific book, but maybe it'll still be of some help. ;)
You can find etymological info peppered here and there in a number of works, but the best source, at least as far as the Elvish tongues are concerned, is probably The Lost Road and Other Writings (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395455197/qid=1105895801/sr=12-1/104-9875732-2103153?v=glance&s=books) (HoMe V), which has a section aptly named The Etymologies.
The entries were taken from Tolkien's own notes, yet they're not absolutely definitive, as JRRT often made changes to them, and not all of the writings were completely legible.
Segueing from that, there are also the Vinyar Tengwar (http://www.elvish.org/VT/) journals, published every now and again by The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship (http://www.elvish.org/). In fact, the last two publications, VT45 and VT46, dealt specifically with The Etymologies mentioned above. The authors further scrutinized Tolkien's papers, and presented additions and corrections to what appears in HoMe V.
For Adûnaic (the language of Númenor), in Sauron Defeated (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0395606497/qid=1105898128/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/104-9875732-2103153) (HoMe IX), there's a section called Lowdham's Report on the Adûnaic Language. It's a fictitious report written by JRRT, but one where he presents a limited, yet still the most thorough and complete, examination of the language.
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I was hoping for a very specific book. I guessthe etymology of LotR is not that interesting ;)
Thanks for answering, I'll be sure to hunt those books down!
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I can't find a specific book dealing with your question DutchECK but there are websites that do so.
This was at the top of the page when I typed in Middle-Earth etymology http://www.nevrast.net/etymology.html
Lessa
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If you buy the Simerillion (SP) I believe it has what your looking for, I'm not entirely sure though... :-\
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Well as far as I know there is no book to show where words come from. All Im sure of is that most words if not all where created by the Elves in the Eldar Days.
So in effect the words come from Elves and Elvish comes from Tolkien. So perhaps the best place to find where words came from in Quendi and other Elvish Languages is by finding a book on Tolkien (If there is any which m sure there is).
I hope this clears it up a bit and if Im totally off subject to what you mean then Oh Well Im human we make mistakes. ;)