The Family of Languages

Tolkien's Languages

Course 1 · Chapter 2 · The Family of Languages

In Chapter 1 you met two languages, Quenya and Sindarin. This chapter shows how they fit into a larger map: the other Elvish tongues, the language of Men, Dwarves and Orcs, and the way the books present them to the reader. Real language families have a shape, and Tolkien gave his the same shape.

The idea in a box

Tolkien did not invent a bag of unrelated languages. He invented families: languages with a common ancestor that split apart as their speakers moved and separated, just as Latin split into French, Spanish and Italian.

The Elvish Family Tree

In the story, all Elves once spoke one tongue at their awakening. As they set out on a long journey westward, and some stopped or turned back, the language divided. Reading downward in the tree below is reading forward in time.

Primitive Quendian          the tongue of all Elves at their awakening
│
├── Avarin                  the Avari, who never set out on the journey
│
└── Common Eldarin          the tongue of the Elves on the long march
    ├── Quenya              the Vanyar and the Noldor
    ├── Telerin             the Teleri who reached the far west
    ├── Sindarin            the grey-elves of Beleriand
    └── Nandorin            the Nandor, who turned back on the way

The tree is a simplification. The sources list more than a dozen Elvish languages and dialects, and some later merged or borrowed from one another. The point is the pattern: one ancestor, then branches.

Who Spoke What

Group of Elves	Language	Note
Vanyar	Quenya (their daily form, Quendya)	The first of the Elves to reach the West
Noldor	Quenya (in exile, Exilic Quenya)	The learned Elves; their speech drifted apart from the Vanyar's
Teleri	Telerin	Close enough to Quenya to be called a dialect of it
Sindar	Sindarin	Grey-elven; the everyday Elvish of Middle-earth in the Third Age
Nandor	Nandorin	Several related languages
Avari	Avarin	At least six languages; little is known of them

So when the books say an Elf "spoke in the high tongue", they mean Quenya, kept alive for song and ceremony as Latin was in medieval Europe, and when Elves speak among themselves in the wild they speak Sindarin.

Beyond the Elves

Language	Speakers	Status
Westron (the Common Speech)	Nearly all peoples of the west, apart from Elves	The everyday language of the story, shown to the reader as English
Adûnaic	Men of Númenor	Meant as the older source of Westron; only fragments
Khuzdul	Dwarves	Kept secret from outsiders; a handful of words
Black Speech	Orcs, by Sauron's command	Mostly a few words and the verse on the Ring
Valarin	The Valar	Said to be the ancestor of the world's languages; barely any words
Entish	The Ents	Described as long and sonorous; not written down
Rohirric	The people of Rohan	Shown in the book as Old English

The Translation Trick

Tolkien presents The Lord of the Rings as a translation from an old book. The Common Speech is therefore written as English, and the speech of Rohan is written as Old English, so the reader feels the two peoples are related as English speakers are to their own ancestors. The place names of Rohan are Old English words, and the Shire's names are modern English. This device, which Chapter 8 returns to, is why you read most of Middle-earth without ever seeing its real languages.

Watch out: "Elvish" and "the common tongue" are different

When a character speaks in English in the books, the story means Westron. When Elves sing or speak Quenya or Sindarin, the text leaves the words as they are, and that is where the learnable Elvish lives.

Watch out: the tree is the story's, not a perfect fit for the manuscripts

Tolkien changed the history of his Elvish languages many times over his life. The tree above is a safe summary, but a particular name may appear in one period of his writing and be replaced in another.

Common myths

"Quenya and Sindarin are dialects of each other." They are separate languages, related through a distant ancestor.
"All the Elves speak Sindarin." Quenya was kept for ceremony and lore; the Noldor and Sindar used both.
"Dwarvish and Black Speech have full grammars." Only small pieces survive.

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1

Draw the Elvish family tree from memory: the ancestor, the branches and the group of Elves who spoke each. Then say which two branches Chapters 5 and 6 of this course cover.

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Exercise 2

Make a table of the non-Elvish languages in this chapter: who spoke each, and how much of it exists. Then say which one the reader of the books meets most often, and in what disguise.

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Exercise 3

Compare the Elvish language family with a real one (for example Latin and the languages that came from it). Name two things the two have in common and one that Tolkien's family has that a real one does not.

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Chapter 2 Quick Reference

All Elvish descends from Primitive Quendian; the march produced Common Eldarin, which split into Quenya, Telerin, Sindarin and Nandorin
Quenya: Vanyar and Noldor; Telerin: Teleri; Sindarin: Sindar; Nandorin: Nandor; Avarin: Avari
Non-Elvish: Westron, Adûnaic, Khuzdul, Black Speech, Valarin, Entish, Rohirric
Westron is shown as English and Rohirric as Old English: the books are a "translation"
Only Quenya and Sindarin are developed enough to learn; the rest survive in fragments

Coming next

Tolkien's Languages, Chapter 3 turns to sound: how Quenya and Sindarin are pronounced, the real languages behind them, and how to read an Elvish name aloud.