Volume 15 Number 4 Article 10 Summer 7-15-1989 Quenti Lambardillion Paul Nolan Hyde Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hyde, Paul Nolan (1989) "Quenti Lambardillion," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 15 : No. 4 , Article 10. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol15/iss4/10 This Column is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Considers the declension of nouns in Quenya. This column is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol15/iss4/10 Page 26 SummeR 1989 CPyTHLORe 58 Quenti Lam&aRdillion A Column on OOiddle-eaRth Linguistics Paul Nolan Hyde German tend to be more "synthetic" in their structure; that A Question of CjRammaR: is, units of meaning are more often stuck together to form Declining to AnsuieR large, multi-syllabic words. Unfortunately, as all lexicographers know, 'don't look Mark Twain, apparently sensing this difference be­ into things, unless you are looking for trouble: they nearly tween English and German, produced a somewhat always turn out to be less simple than you thought'. humorous observation about it in his A Tramp Abroad: (Letters, p. 404) These things are not words, they are alphabetical Hardly more apt counsel could be given with regard to processions. And they are not rare: one can open a Ger­ the grammar of the languages of Middle-earth. The native man newspaper anytime and see them marching majes­ tically across the page and if he has any imagination he speaker of English who has not taken the opportunity to can see banners and hear the music too. They impart a acquire a second language is faced with the almost over­ martial thrill to the meanest subject.1 whelming task of learning to deal with Elvish words that seem to defy description, order, and significance. Part of Although Twain is not entirely fair, the observation this is due to the rather extraordinary development of the does have some merit insofar as it illustrates the analyti­ English language itself, which has taken some dreadful cal-synthetic dichotomy between the two languages. turns and frightful bumps linguistically during the past thousand years or so. In addition, J.R.R. Tolkien delighted Ancient Greek has a similar facility for agglutination in the rich grammatical structures which he found during (as this phenomenon is sometimes called), illustrated by his own academic studies of Old English, Welsh, Old Aristophones' Ekklezousai, in which is given a recipe for a Norse, Finnish, and other languages. Some of these struc­ dish which is one word composed of 78 syllables and 171 tures, in whole or in part, found their way into his own letters meaning, approximately invented languages, adapted and fused together as to make a new substance. Tolkien's facility for sensing the a pungent dish of pounded limpet, slices of salt fish and beauty of syntax, phonetics, and grammar in general es­ bits of sharks' head, silphion with sea-crayfish, honey capes most of his fans, to the point, at times, that those of poured over it, thrush, blackbird, ringdove, pigeon, us who heap discussion upon discussion about the gentle roasted cock's head, curlew and dove, hare's flesh nuances of Quenya or the simple Celtic qualities of Sin- dipped in new wine when boiled, and the whole edged with figs. darin become rather odious to those who love Tolkien's capacity to tell a story wonderfully well. To be frank, many It can now easily be seen where most linguists pick up of us who enjoy the linguistic aspects of Tolkien's works their penchant for sadism, and from thence to odiousness. even become odious to each other as we express our What is in Greek a one-word expression, is in English at opinions. Some of us, I fear, simply enjoy being odious. least forty-six words (but with 59 syllables and about 225 Being somewhat of an authority on odiousness, I have letters). Greek is, by definition, more synthetic and less determined to discuss in this issue of Mythlore a linguistic analytical than English, and vice versa. As it turns out, topic which almost every native speaker of English who Quenya is more synthetic as a language than, say, Sin- has learned another language, particularly a non-Romance darin. language, can hardly bear to think of without having a mental tremor of some kind: IE., the declension of common Verbs are more obviously conjugated in synthetic lan­ nouns. guages, while the analytical languages have a tendency toward "helping words", "modals", "verb particles", and Analytic versus Synthetic Languages the like. Adjectives in synthetic languages are often in­ In order to really appreciate what a noun declension is flected depending on how they function in a sentence (or any other kind of declension for that matter), one ought regardless of the word order; analytical languages depend to have at least a passing acquaintance with the two basic more upon the physical location of the adjective (or any extremes of language structure that exist in the Indo- word for that matter) so as to be able to depict subtle european family of languages. English is primarily what nuances. In Spanish, for example, there is a distinct dif­ is called an "analytical" language; that is to say, units of ference in the meaning of a noun preceded by an adjective meaning have a greater tendency to be separate words and the same noun followed by the same adjective. To this rather than compound words cf some sort. Greek and degree and in this sense, Spanish is more of an analytical CPyTHLORe 58 SummcR 1989 Page 27 language than Old English which inflects its adjectives. A indicate a state of more than one. The Quenya word rama noun declension is more likely to be found in a synthetic is frequently glossed as "wing" (LR-282, LT2-335) as is its language. plural ramar, "wings" (R-58, MC-239,1-394). In the essay "A Secret Vice", J.R.R. Tolkien gives a form ramali which By the Numbers2 though it apparently means "wings" is odd in its forma­ In terms of the Elvish language Quenya, understanding tion. The same plural is used in the name Telelli in The Book the nature of the singularity of nouns and the various of Lost Tales to refer to a group of young Elves who dwelt manners in which plurality can be expressed is vital in in Kor to perfect their arts of singing and poetry (LT-267). order to fully grasp how a noun declension functions. In The Lost Road, Telelli is glossed as a "general plural", presumably to distinguish it from a simple plural (LR-391). In English we are generally analytical when we quan­ In the Book of Lost Tales, the prefix li- is glossed as a tify our nouns, although there is some inflection. We can "multiplicative" (LT-269); in The Lost Road the suffix -li is say "I want a bagel", "I want two bagels" (the "-s" is an similarly glossed with the meaning "many". Table 1 sum­ inflection), "I want both bagels" (which is a little different marizes the above discussion. than wanting just two), "I want some bagels" (which most people sense is more than two), "I want many bagels" (a Table 1 number more generous than "some" but less greedy than Number Inflection in Quenya "all"), and "I want all the bagels" (whatever for?). If we Singular Dual Plural Gen. Plural could some how append these little quantifiers to the word rama *ramat ramar ramali "bagel" ("bagelboth", "bagelmany", "bagelall", etc.), we cirya ciriat *ciryar *ciryali would be by so doing creating a synthetic approach to an analytical situation. It would be well to note that the starred words are postu­ lated forms which as yet do not appear in the published Quenya is, in fact, expressly synthetic in this fashion. works, but which undoubtedly could be part of the corpus. J.R.R. Tolkien specifically refers to the function and declen­ sion of Quenya duals (approximating "both") in a letter to Declension and Word Order Richard Jeffery on 17 December 1972. The word ciriat is Analytical languages such as English have a tendency cited as an example of a Quenya dual, meaning "two to rely heavily on word order. For example, there is a ships", the inflection "-t" being related to the Quenya word distinct difference between 'The man wants the bagel" and for the number "two”, atta. In a footnote to the letter, "The bagel wants the man", the relative position of the Tolkien adds: nouns "man" and "bagel" determining which noun is "wanting" and which noun is "wanted". In linguistic terms, Original[ly] the Q.